Tips for inserting "Start Recording" and "Stop Recording" cues into MediaShout.
R.Noar
3/31/2008

We use Total Recorder Professional Edition v6.1 .
The Midi2Cmd automation will work with the Standard Edition of Total Recorder as well.
You can download the trial version of Total Recorder at http://www.totalrecorder.com/ and try it out.

The Professional Edition allows you to record in many different formats including PCM (WAV), MP3, etc. 
It also allows you to convert formats - For example, you can record a high quality MP3 in 128 Kb/s, 44100 Hz stereo format 
and then convert it to a voice quality 16Kb/s, 11025Hz mono format to use for web podcasts.

We use the following TotalRecorder settings:
View - Use "Compact View"
Options->Settings:
General - Turn off Sounds assigned to System Events - enable this
Driver - Autoswitch Total Recorder's driver off.... - enable this 
Open/Save - Default Open/SaveAs folder - check "This Folder", and then specify a folder where you want recordings to be saved
File Names - File name generation rules: select "Rules not using file tag"
      Then file names will have the date&time embedded in the file name eg: TR20080331-133258.wav 
Split - Split mode: Auto create a new file.... enable this & set File name generation rule to "Rules not using file tag"

In TotalRecorder, look under the Left & Right bar graph, click on "Recording Source and Parameters"
Then click on "Change" to change the recording format, then select a format:
We use "MP3 Low Quality for Voice" to record sermons that will be posted on a website
"MP3 High Quality" to record music
"CD Quality" to record weddings, memorials, etc to create a .wav file that will be made into a CD.

We do not use "Pause Reduction".

Note that TotalRecorder will startup using whatever recording format was last used.

MIDI2CMD SETUP:
1) Follow the MIDI2CMD setup instructions, and verify that it is working. For example, add a cue that starts "Solitaire" or Notepad and verify they startup when the cue is fired.
2) I recommend that you add MIDI2CMD.vbs to your windows startup - since the recording automation will only work if MIDI2CMD is running.
	To do this, click on Start->Control Panel->Scheduled Tasks->Add A Task, then choose c:\program files\midiox\midi2cmd\midi2cmd.bat, choose to run "When my computer starts up".
3) Go to "My Computer" and navigate to c:\program files\midiox\midi2cmd and then replace the "MIDICMD0.bat" and "MIDICMD1.bat" with the two files of the same name posted here.
4) Create a "Start Recording" Cue by clicking on the properties box for any "Black" cue.
   Under the "Soundtrack" tab,  browse under to find c:\program files\midiox\midi2cmd\cmdcue0.mid . 
   Make sure that "Play" is set to once, not "Loop"!
   Click OK
   Rename the cue to "Start Recording" and save it in Boxer for later use.
5) For the "Stop Recording" cue, do the same as above but use cmdcue1.mid for the soundtrack, and rename the cue "Stop Recording".

You are now done, when you fire the "Start Recording" cue, TotalRecorder will startup minimized and start recording.
When you fire the "Stop Recording" cue, TotalRecorder will save the recording and timestamp the filename in the folder that you specified above.
You can have multiple "Start" and "Stop" recording cues in a script, and each will result in a timestamped recording saved into your specified folder.