Ok, It would be nice to have it record in mp3 format, and be able to set the
bit rate of the file, a time stamp and freq stamp would be nice to
have....... And having it put the recordings into folders of your choosing
would be extra nice... The time stamp and freq stamp could be put into the
id3 tags, so there is already a place in the mp3 file to put it...

Having it compile a microsoft database for you would be a bit arduous to
program, but would certainly be a nice feature, hit counters, and of course,
putting the tones info into the mp3 tag would be super, etc. writing such a
program under vb6 , or net if you are into it, would probably involve
writing a series of activeX controls, then using them to control and
3extract the data for these various functions. development will be faster,
and the program will be easier to maintain in the long run, since the
functions will be "encapsulated" in the activeX controls....
For the database and logging functions , a good class module would
undoubtedly do, nothing more will be needed, as we are not looking for
"real-time" display of these functions anyway..

the system clock, of course, can be tapped for the time/date info , and
quite easily.

I wish I had time to write some of this stuff for you, but with all the
projects i currently have on the fire, it's simply too demanding of time and
resources. Maybe when winter sets in again....
"Dave" wrote in message
...
Hello,

I'm in the process of writing a new Windows based audio
recorder and would like to find out how people feel about
some of the features I am thinking of including. If people
who use software VOX recorders could tell me how they feel
about whether some features I am considering adding are
useful, it would help me to make the new software better.

This is an informal survey and I know many people hate
surveys. But if you can help provide some answers to my
questions, I can use this info to make my recorder better. A
competitor can use this info too, to make their product
better. Everybody wins if everyone knows what people expect
to see in a recorder.

I've already published a free VOX recorder for almost 10
years but didn't put many features on it that people have
been asking for since I first wrote it. It was too hard to
modify since it wasn't designed with all the desired
features in mind at the beginning.

-------------------

Here's some of the features I want to add and was wondering
whether these are useful enough for people to want to pay a
small amount for....(if you don't mind helping, I would
really appreciate it).

++++++++ If you could indicate a YES or NO for each feature
I listed that would be a great help.

*** The ability to separate VOX events into separate files
for each event. As well as dividing the files by time-span
or time of day. And of course that requires an
auto-file-naming capability.

*** A Review Button: Pushing a button in order to hear the
last VOX event that was captured. (or the last 30 seconds,
rather). The audio would have to be kept in memory and so it
would have a limited length.

*** A repeating clock/calendar to control automatic starts
and stops like a VCR has.

*** Splitting the stereo content into two mono output files
and allowing a separate VOX setting for each mono output
file.

*** Having the ability to record .wav files with more than 2
stereo channels, (such as 4 channels) I think this might
require MS Direct Show....but am not sure yet.

*** .MP3 file output format....in addition to the native mp3
support MS already has for .WAV files.

*** A spectrum analyzer for viewing on the front panel
during a recording or while monitoring the audio input.

*** A complex looking (busy) style of display with lots of
blinking lights, clocks, meters, log and stats all to make
it look sophisticated like a lot of receiver panels look.

or

*** A simple basic looking display style with nothing but
the very basic controls.

or

*** both types of panel formats with a switch to change
them.

This next question is not an easy one, but I'm wondering how
much people would pay for a recorder that they think is a
very good piece of softwa

*** $5 to $10 USD price range
*** $10 to $20 USD price range
*** $20 to $50 USD price range
*** above $50 USD if it has everything imaginable included.

Not very scientific, I know....

--------------------------

I didn't include a full feature list here because there are
some things that obviously need to be part of a recorder,
like a log file and an auto-start recording control. But
some of the features I listed will take some effort to
produce and I want to avoid wasting a lot of time writing
code that will not be used much.

Feel free to add the features you need to have that I did
not mention, if you think it'll be widely needed by others
too.

And thanks in advance for helping!

Dave
(Author of Scanner Recorder and Scanner Recorder Pro)

On Thu, 4 Aug 2005 19:21:11 -0700, "Zombie Wolf"
wrote:

Ok, It would be nice to have it record in mp3 format, and be able to set the
bit rate of the file, a time stamp and freq stamp would be nice to
have....... And having it put the recordings into folders of your choosing
would be extra nice...

How would the recorder decide what folder to put a file
into? Every recorder already puts files into a folder of the
user's choosing. So you must mean that the program knows how
to decide which folder? Please explain.

Having it compile a microsoft database for you would be a bit arduous to
program, but would certainly be a nice feature

You mean similar to Scancat? Do you mean that you want the
recorder to use the database in a random access way keyed by
the frequency so that statistics can be tallied in the DB
for each freq that was recorded?

putting the tones info into the mp3 tag would be super,

What tones are you talking about? Detecting tones such as
DTMF? Tone detection can be done but it has to be designed
with the types of tone in mind. One frequency tone detection
would not work with DTMF. And how would tone info be stored?
As a frequency?

Thanks for answering. So far, you and only one other person
have provided any help.

People avoid surveys like the plague. But how else can they
get what they want in a new product? If it's already
completed before the ideas come in, then the ideas are less
likely to be added (afterward) unless it happens to be
something easy to retrofit. Some of the things I'm asking
for opinions on are not trivial to add later. That's why I'm
asking people up front before it becomes too late to make
modifications of that caliber.

If more people could help that would be great. Here's a
survey page I just added today.

http://www.davee.com/scanrec/survey/survey-form.html

On Thu, 4 Aug 2005 19:21:11 -0700, "Zombie Wolf" said
in alt.radio.scanner:

Having it compile a microsoft database for you would be a bit arduous to
program

That's one of the trivial programming tasks these days. Designing the
database usually takes longer.

but would certainly be a nice feature, hit counters, and of course,
putting the tones info into the mp3 tag would be super, etc. writing such a
program under vb6 , or net if you are into it

Please, no. Those of us who are forced to use Dot Not have to keep
the latest version loaded. Since MicroThought can't seem to make
their frameworks compatible with each other (I can no longer run
programs written under 1.x), that's just one more reason to listen to
Nancy Regan.