Scott Studios Voice Tracker 32 install question

[ScottS]

I am installing Voice Tracker 32 in my production studio to go with my SS32. After I installed the program, and thought that I had it set up, I tried it and found an error. Here's what happens. Open the program, and find an unrecorded voice track. Select the track and press the down arrow to turn the track red. Press the begin session button, and that's where the problem shows up. It sounds like the last fifteen seconds of the song directly before the voice track starts to play, but after a quick fraction of a second everything stops, and I get the following error: Unable to record. Auto session cancelled. Has anyone seen this before? Please help.

 

[RadioMan203]

Good luck! I've rarely heard anyone speak highly of the Scott Studios stuff. While not having worked with it personally I've chatted with other engineers who have been haunted by them.

I would suggest if you still have a support agreement with them why not just ring them up and ask them what's up? I have no clue how they charge for support, which may be the very reason why you're here, but at least you have that avenue available to you.

Bill

 

[awsherrill]

I installed SS32 at my last job. It has its quirks, just like all the other automation systems I have encountered over the years. Nothing that particularly "haunted" me. It was certainly an improvement over the Dalet system it replaced.

It's been several months since I've done anything with an SS32, but one of my associates is a former Scott installer. He suggests checking your VT configuration and path settings. The VT needs to be set to record voicetrack audio to the local drive. If it is trying to record to a network drive, it will behave as you describe.

If you have a dispatch server, it should be set to play audio off the server.

As I recall, the Voicetracker settings were a bit tricky, and if they weren't correct the VT would not play nice. Your best bet really is to call Dmarc customer support.

 

[Sgeirk]

Their support isn't that expensive. Buy it, use it. They're not the greatest at getting back to their customers. But every problem I've encountered has pretty much been solved.

Scott is not my favorite automation system, but it works.

Your problem could also be soundcard related.

 

[ScottS]

Thanks f or your responses guys. Still having problems though. Unfortunately, we do not have the service agreement. We got it when we first installed the SS32, but we recently cancelled it. Guess we should have gotten the VT32 before we got rid of the service agreement. We got rid of it because we rarely used it, and when we did, response time was not good at all. Also, we are a college radio station, and money is not so easy to come by. Not to mention, that we don't exactly lose revenue during down times.

One of your responses mentioned something about the sound card. It is a ASI6044 purchased from Scott. Since it is working with other Adobe Audition(playing back and recording) I figure that the card must be fine.

I have another related question now. Does the Dispatch program have to run on a dedicated computer. It is currently installed on the main studio SS32 machine.

Thanks again. Any responses are greatly appreciated.

 

[sparks794]

I installed a Scott's system for an AM/FM combo that I used to be at and loved it. Their support was always prompt with me also.

I never had the problem described with my VT in the prod room however it really sounds to me like a setup/pathing problem. If you have access to a good IT guy he could probably troubleshoot the pathing (we had an on site IT guy - didn't know much about radio but I could tell him what I needed and he could figure it out).

As for Dispatch on the same machine as the air studio..........we were told that it would take up too much processing at the same time. I could see that happening to you B/C of how the wet V/T works (depending on what the studio unit is trying to do at the same time). This may also cause you a headache with the WVT in the prod room, espcially since it starts playing the first track before it errors.

Also, if you can get the Dispatch on a different machine it will give you better backup - if the studio unit were to go down you could put the prod room on the air and it would play the current audio from the Dispatch over the Cat 5. (that's how we set it up for both stations).

Good luck - you could also call dmark and see what they would charge for the "one time" problem.

 

[BrokeEngineer]

I have seen problems with the ASI sound cards....hell, 1 of our on air machines refused to load the drivers for a few times to many and Scott says they are aware of this and ASI is aware but nothing is getting done about it. Anyhow, the ASI cards sometimes have great difficulty recording and playing at the same time. In a news prod booth, I had to leave the ASI card in so SS-32 would be happy and I use the on-board card to run muliple Record/Play streams; the ASI card cannot handle this function.

The Dispatch must be on it's on computer. The resourses needed from it will bog down an On air machine. Hope this helps.

 

[ScottS]

PROBLEM SOLVED!!!!

After talking to several folks, I finally found the problem. My problem was the category.lst file. The very limited manual metioned that VT32 had to point to these files, but it didn't mention what needed to be in the file, or that I would have to write it myself.

Thanks again for your help guys. Now I have to get to work on setting up Dispatch onto another computer. Seems odd that Scott Studios would have set it up like they did on the same computer as SS32.