If the problem appears through an error message displayed in Total Recorder or its install program:

1. Press the Debug info>> button in the message box.
2. Press the Copy button in the message box. Debug information will be copied to the Clipboard.
3. Insert the information from the Clipboard into your letter to the Technical Support Team (press Ctrl-V).

Due to insufficient information, our support staff will ignore E-mails if they contain single line entries like those below:

"Problems obtaining a registration key"
"Total Recorder does not work"
"Total Recorder does not record"
"How do I use Total Recorder?"

Please note that although our support staff may provide some hints on how to use the software in an efficient way, they will not provide any step-by-step instructions for common tasks. Please refer to the online help for this type of information.

We provide free-of-charge support even for evaluation copies of Total Recorder.

We give consideration to all user's suggestions, some Total Recorder's features were implemented thanks to addresses of our users.

If the program is unregistered:

• A short portion of noise is inserted into recorded sound about every one minute.
• You cannot process more than three files during batch processing (Professional, VideoPro, and Developer Editions).
• When recording video, a mark is added to captured images (VideoPro and Developer Editions).

For personal-use applications, one registered copy of Total Recorder can be used by a single person who uses the software on up to three computers.

For commercial, educational or other non-personal-use applications, one registered copy of Total Recorder must be installed on a single computer, used non-concurrently by multiple people.

Yes, your registration is good for all future versions of the same edition. All versions prior to V3.3 (when different editions were introduced) are considered the Standard Edition.

Occasionally, the format of the registration key changes with a major release of Total Recorder or one of its add-ons. In such cases, all registered users are entitled to a free updated registration key for the same edition (add-on). To obtain a key, you can use our self-service registration key management system.

Registration keys were last changed in the following versions of Total Recorder:

• Standard Edition - Version 6.0
• Professional Edition - Version 6.0
• Developer Edition - Version 6.0
• VideoPro Edition - never changed

Registration keys were last changed in the following versions of Total Recorder's Add-ons:

• Audio Restoration Add-On - Version 1.1 (re-released with Total Recorder Version 7.0)
• Automatic Gain Control and Speech Enhancement Add-On - Version 1.1 (re-released with Total Recorder Version 7.0)

If you register by credit card, it takes only minutes. Your registration code is automatically E-mailed to you as soon as your credit card has been verified.

If you or your ISP is using E-mail filtering software, we cannot guarantee that our E-mail will not be considered spam. To alleviate this problem you can temporarily add websale@highcriteria.com to your trusted list of addresses. If you have not received your key within 15 minutes of your purchase, it is a good idea to check the folder that collects your junk mail.

This is likely caused by a typing error in your E-mail address or possibly due to some technical problems with network communications. E-mail support@highcriteria.com and we will resend the missing information to you. Make sure that your E-mail address is not blocked and can accept E-mail from us.

If you or your ISP is using E-mail filtering software, we cannot guarantee that our E-mail will not be considered spam. To alleviate this problem you can temporarily add websale@highcriteria.com to your trusted list of addresses. If you have not received your key within 15 minutes of your purchase, it is a good idea to check the folder that collects your junk mail.

My credit card is valid and has sufficient credit but your Website keeps declining it. What can I do?

The best way to resolve this is to call your bank. They have records of all your transactions and may be able to quickly determine the reason for failure. You can also try an alternative credit card link.

Note that InternetSecure allows only two purchases with any specific credit card during a given 24-hour period. Please purchase a bundle or use a different credit card if you want to make more than two purchases.

Yes. A newer version will automatically remove an older version, install itself, and then ask you to reboot your computer so that a driver in memory can be changed. If you install a newer version over an already existing install, all your settings (including scheduled jobs) are preserved. 

However, when you install a new version of Total Recorder over some of old versions (version 5.3 and earlier), it will be unregistered. You must enter your new registration key to register your new version. See the question above Is my registration good for all future versions of Total Recorder?

If you need a new registration key for an updated version, you can use the following link:
https://hcserv8.libertyrecording.com/scripts/getkey/restorekey.asp. A new key will be E-mailed to the address that you used for registration.

Please note that two different editions of Total Recorder cannot co-exist on the same PC. If you install one edition of the program over another edition of the same version or an older version, Total Recorder will also be unregistered.

The most likely cause of this error is that the download was not complete even though your web browser thinks it did complete.

Downloading again may not help because the incomplete file is in the browser's cache. You should first clear the cache and then download again. Or, you can download the program from Alternative link which is available for any product on our download page. If clearing the cache and re-downloading does not resolve this problem then it is likely caused by a virus on your computer.

You can always download the latest evaluation version from our web site. We recommend you write down your registration key and keep it in a safe place.

If you have lost your key, use
https://hcserv8.libertyrecording.com/scripts/getkey/restorekey.asp
to obtain a registration key.

This form can be used only if your E-mail address that we have in our database is still valid. If this is not the case, E-mail support@highcriteria.com and provide your registration name, the old address, and the new address, and we will update our records.

Total Recorder's driver provides you with the advantages of recording in software mode.

See What is the difference between the recording source settings "Software" and "Sound Board"?

Recording in Software mode without Total Recorder's driver is not possible. To record in Soundboard mode, there is no requirement for the Total Recorder driver.

Total Recorder has three types of audio drivers:

   - User-mode virtual device driver. This is the same type of driver that has been supplied since the first version of Total Recorder;
   - Kernel-mode virtual device driver, which was added in version 7.0;
   - Kernel-mode filter driver, which was added in version 8.0.

For information about the drivers, refer to the How to choose the most suitable driver tutorial.

Note. By default Total Recorder is installed with its kernel-mode filter driver. And it is not recommended to change these settings without a strong necessity.

To install or uninstall a driver, you must re-install Total Recorder over the installed instance and select the appropriate driver options during installation.

To open the dialog that allows you to select the drivers to be installed, you need to click Advanced button when the installation program prompts you for the installation folder. You must reboot your system after re-installation completes.

Total Recorder's settings and registration information are all preserved.

There is no limit imposed by Total Recorder but a limit can be imposed by the format of the target file. For example, you cannot make a recording to a RIFF WAV or VBR MP3 file greater than 4GB. If you want to make a very long recording, you can try one of the following:

• Use another file format.
• Use the same file format but with less quality.
• Record in split mode (Professional and VideoPro Editions).

Total Recorder can perform recording in two main modes: Software and Sound board.

Software mode allows you to record the following:

• Sound reproduced by another program, including streaming audio.
• Sound reproduced and captured by other programs simultaneously, including Internet telephony programs.

Sound board mode allows you to record the following:

• Sound from a microphone.
• Sound from a line-in. This should be used to record from an LP player, cassette player, or another external device.
• Sound reproduced by another program, including streaming audio, if the sound board has a special loop-back line. Most sound boards have such a line.
• Sound from any other input line of your sound board.

An external program can be recorded in either Software mode or Sound board mode. The advantages of recording in Software mode are:

• There is no need for your sound board to have a special loop-back line.
• While recording an external program in sound board mode, your sound board performs redundant conversions from digital to analog and from analog to digital. This results in a loss of sound quality. While recording an external program in software mode, such conversions do not occur.
• While recording in software mode, the recording starts only when sound is present. This eliminates the need to start recording and playback at the same time.
• Accelerated recording mode can be used.

Recording (digital) sound from Software and (analog) sound from Sound Board are two very different things.

Here is a picture that shows the path of the sound when the recording source is set to Software:

Here is a picture that shows the path of the sound when the recording source is set to Soundboard:

There are three ways of recording audio from Internet with Total Recorder: Software, Soundboard (from a line like StereoMix) and Background recording. The latter is available in Professional and VideoPro Editions only.

The Background recording is a preferred method but not all transmissions are supported for being recorded in this way. For more information and instructions see our tutorial on background recording.

If the transmission doesn't appear to be supported for background recording, then you can reproduce it on your computer and record it in Software recording mode. The instructions are provided in our web tutorial.

Soundboard recording mode should be applied for recording streaming audio only in rare cases when the other two methods are impossible.

See our web tutorial on recording Internet-telephony conversations.

Recording in Software Accelerated Recording mode is only possible if you use either Total Recorder user-mode or kernel-mode virtual device driver. When you use the kernel-mode filter driver, recording in accelerated mode is impossible and Accelerated recording (silent mode) option is not available.

This mode can be useful when you need to convert a sound file from a format that Total Recorder does not support to one that it does support. This is normally done at a fraction of the time required to play the file.

Here is a picture that shows the path of the sound when Accelerated recording mode is selected:

Click here for information on different types of drivers supplied with Total Recorder.

Usually, you need to use CD-quality wav files.

To record in this format: in the Media format dialog, select CD Quality from the Preset drop-down list. The recording format will be set to PCM 44.1 KHz 16bit Stereo.

If you are using software mode, you must also select Convert audio format to the one specified below.

To convert an existing file: open it in Total Recorder and use Save As. Then use Change and select CD Quality from the Preset drop-down list. The recording format will be set to PCM 44.1KHz 16bit Stereo.

Yes, in most cases you can.

There are several ways to play a midi file:

• Some sound cards are capable of midi synthesis through special on-board hardware. And a MIDI-player can play a midi through the sound card capabilities.
• A MIDI-player can play MIDI using software synthesis. The synthesis can be provided by the player themself (probably by a player's plug-in), or by special driver (e.g. Yamaha SXG).

If hardware MIDI synthesis is used, you should record the MIDI in Sound board mode from a loop-back line (like "Stereo Mix", "Wave", etc.).

If software MIDI synthesis is used, you can apply the both: recording in Sound board mode from a loop-back line, and recording in Software mode. In most systems, you can record midi either way.

Total Recorder itself does not produce any such sounds. These beeps are issued by some external software. You should try to identify this software and turn off sound notifications.

For example, Microsoft Outlook can be the source of such beeps. You can turn off sounds in one of the following ways (depending on your version of Microsoft Outlook):

• Go to Tools - Options, Preferences tab. Click the E-mail options... button, click the Advanced E-mail options... button, clear the Play a sound option.
  
• Go to File - Options, Mail tab. In the Message arrival group, clear the Play a sound option.

Go to Options => Settings => Open / Save. Look in the folder assigned to store temporary files. If a temporary file in this folder has a .wav or .mp3 extension, it usually means that it is a proper audio file.

If a temporary file has a ".tmp" extension, it means that you cannot securely extract all recorded audio information from it. This happens because some information is stored in this file and some information is stored in the PC's RAM during the recording process.

However, you can usually recover most of your data which is stored in a .tmp file in PCM format. This file doesn't have a proper header so you can use our free application called TRTmpRecovery (~65 Kb) to add a header. This program allows you to playback any file as a PCM file using different parameters (sample rate, 8/16 bit, mono/stereo), select the most appropriate parameters (if the file actually contains audio data), and add a proper header to this file. Once a header is added, this temporary file becomes a valid .wav file.

High Criteria provides a free command line utility ScrptExec for such cases. The utility is able to execute scripts in own script language. One can create an appropriate script (e.g. script that automatically fills username and password or answers dialog prompts) and include running the utility with a script in a scheduled job. A number of sample scripts are included in the ScrptExec package.

Yes. To record video you need Total Recorder VideoPro Edition installed. For more information, refer to the Getting familiar with video in Total Recorder tutorial.

There are two ways of recording video from Internet with Total Recorder VideoPro Edition: background recording and capturing video from the screen.

The first method is preferred one but not all transmissions are supported for being recorded in this way. For more information and instructions see our tutorial on background video recording.

If the transmission is not supported for background recording, then you can reproduce it on your computer and capture from the screen. The instructions are provided in our web tutorial.

To record video Skype conversations with Total Recorder VideoPro Edition:

1) Set Total Recorder audio recording parameters as described in our web tutorial on recording Internet-telephony conversations.

2) Set Total Recorder video recording parameters as described in our web tutorial on recording video from the Screen.

You need to temporarily turn off hardware acceleration, as described below.

• Close the video playback program to be recorded.
• From Total Recorder's main menu, select Tools -> Turn video acceleration off.
• Launch a video playback program and start playing video. Now video being played should be recorded normally.

This is caused by Xvid's status windows. To fix the issue, turn off displaying the windows
in one of the following ways:

• In the Programs menu, find and launch Xvid - Configure Encoder. The Xvid Configuration dialog will be displayed. On the Encoder tab, click the Other Options... button and clear the Display encoding status option.
• In Total Recorder's Media format dialog, click the Configure button. The Xvid Configuration dialog will be displayed. On the Encoder tab, click the Other Options... button and clear the Display encoding status option.

First you should decide whether you care about natural content boundaries. For example, if you are recording a 1-hour morning news program to listen to later in your car, it is a good idea to split it into smaller pieces (e.g. 5 minutes each). However, you probably don't care about the boundaries. If you were recording a concert, you would probably want to split the recording based on song boundaries and avoid splitting songs in the middle.

In the first case, you can choose a split condition of either every xxx minutes of recording or every xxx megabytes of recording. These two methods are similar and you can use either one.

In the second case, you should choose a split condition of for each software sound stream, when clip info in external player is changed, or if sound level does not exceed xxx % in yyy seconds.

The option for each software sound stream is more precise and more reliable, but it can only be used when all of the following conditions are met:

• you are recording in Software mode
• you are recording a playlist or the broadcast consists of multiple streams
• your player does not play multiple streams as one.

Where possible, you should always use for each software sound stream instead of when clip info in external player is changed or if sound level does not exceed xxx % in yyy seconds.

You can use when clip info in external player is changed only if Total Recorder can extract clip info from your player (i.e. the player appears in the Check state of these external players list).

Using if sound level does not exceed xxx % in yyy seconds is required when you have pauses longer than 0.1 second. Some broadcasts do not have such pauses and cannot be split using this method. Also, a pause in the middle of a song can sometimes trigger a false split. Because such pauses are usually at the beginning of a song, you can sometimes prevent false triggering by setting Do not create files shorter than xxx seconds.

For more information, see the Splitting and Tagging Files tutorial.

Yes, you can. Split your recording using the if sound level does not exceed condition, check the box Do not create files shorter, and specify 1140 seconds (1140 = 19 * 60).

This task does not require that you use the scheduler. Take the following steps to perform such recording:

• Create a playlist of all the songs you want to record in a program that allow to use URLs as playlist items (e.g. in WinAmp, Windows Media Player etc.). Note that Total Recorder does not allow to create such playlists.
• Use split mode with an appropriate Split conditions to separate songs while recording. The playlist should be played backed by a program that is capable to play Internet transmissions (for example WinAmp, Windows Media Player etc.). See also Splitting and Tagging Files tutorial.

Check if your player is included in the Check state of these external players drop-down list of the Split recording conditions dialog. If your player is not listed, Total Recorder does not support the extraction of clip info from it. Either Total Recorder cannot extract such information from this player, or this player is not ranked among the most popular and therefore we haven't included support for it in Total Recorder.

Total Recorder can only retrieve clip information from a player if this information is displayed in the window title of the player (not just in the player's window). The only exception is Windows Media Player, which is included with Windows, and is present on almost all computers. We have developed a special approach for this program.

The following is a list of known players for which the extraction of clip info through Total Recorder is not supported:

• iTunes;
• Rhapsody version prior to 4.0 (standalone application).

• For Rhapsody versions prior to 4.0, clip info can be extracted from Rhapsody ActiveX imbedded into a browser window. Unfortunately, a universal capturing template cannot be provided since the situation depends on your browser. If you use a browser other than Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox, you can try to create the template yourself using our free application named TRExtPlrWizard (see below).
   
• For Rhapsody version 4.x, clip info can be extracted using the special "Total Recorder Now Playing Plug-in for Rhapsody 4.x".
  
  To extract clip info from Rhapsody 4.x in Total Recorder 7.1 and earlier:
  • Exit the Rhapsody program, download the plug-in named TRRhapsodyNowPlaying.dll, and copy this file into the Rhapsody plug-in folder (default is "C:\Program Files\Rhapsody\plugins");
  • Exit Total Recorder, download the updated players.txt file, and replace the existing players.txt file in Total Recorder's installation folder (default is "C:\Program Files\HighCriteria\TotalRecorder").
  • In the Split recording conditions dialog, from the Check state of these external players list, select Rhapsody 4.x.
  
  To extract clip info from Rhapsody 4.x in Total Recorder 8.0 and above:
  • In the Options - Settings - Split dialog, click the Details button in the Plug-in for Rhapsody 4.x group. Click the Install button in the Total Recorder plug-in for Rhapsody 4.x dialog if the plug-in is not installed.
  • In the Split recording conditions dialog, from the Check state of these external players list, select Rhapsody 4.x.

If your player displays clip information in the title of its window, but it is not included in the list of supported players, please forward this information to support@highcriteria.com. Specify the exact name and version of this player, and also the URL from which it can be downloaded (if appropriate).

Alternatively, you can independently enable Total Recorder to extract clip info from your player. For this, you need to download our free application called TRExtPlrWizard (~450Kb).

This program allows you to visually edit a Total Recorder template file for analyzing the player's window titles. It captures titles from the player's window so you only need to indicate which fragments are permanent and which contain actual clip information (title, artist, and so on).

To control the sound level of speech recording during playback and recording, you can use the AGC and Speech Enhancement Add-On for Total Recorder.

Yes, you can use our free Spectrum Analyzer and Graphic Equalizer Add-on. This add-on contains two independent modules: the Spectrum Analyzer and the Graphic Equalizer.

a. In the Control Panel, go to the Sound item.
b. Click on the Recording tab.
c. Right click on the background of the tab and select "Show Disabled Devices".
d. Find the item corresponding to the line to be enabled, right click on it, and select Enable.

In Total Recorder Version 6.0, the accelerated recording mode algorithm was changed. More controls were implemented to avoid the player hanging and to prevent sound distortion. In some cases, the accelerated rate will be decreased to 1 even when recording in accelerated mode could run properly.

To be able to record in accelerated mode in Version 6.0 and later (provided you use the Total Recorder user-mode audio driver), you need to take the following steps:

1. Create a file with Notepad (menu Start-> Programs-> Accessories) and copy the following text into this file:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\HighCriteria\TotalRecorder]
"NoChkAcc"=dword:00000001

2. Save this file with the extension .reg (e.g. TR.reg).
3. Double-click this REG file and answer "Yes" to update the Registry.
4. Restart Windows.

Note: With such changes in the Registry, sound reproduced by some playback programs (e.g. WMP) could be recorded incorrectly in accelerated mode. You should therefore follow the steps above only if a particular application and given type of translation are approved for correct recording. If you experience problems with an application then the output of this application should be recorded only at a speed of 1.

To reverse these changes to the Registry, you need to change value 1 to value 0 either manually in the Registry, or correct the REG file that you made (it should contain 00000000 instead of 00000001) and double-click this REG file once again.

The Total Recorder kernel-mode virtual device audio driver cannot determine whether an application can cope with reproducing sound at an above normal speed and transfer the correct data to the driver. Therefore, the only way to define an optimal speed of acceleration, which would give a satisfactory result for a given computer, soundcard, player, and recording format, is by experimentation. This speed is expected to be lower than the speed if you were using Total Recorder's user-mode audio driver.

When using the Total Recorder kernel-mode filter driver it is not possible to record in accelerated mode at all.

See also Total Recorder Help, Using Total Recorder -> Recording -> Accelerated Recording.

Total Recorder kernel-mode filter driver is not compatible with Windows XP SP1. It can be used only with Windows XP SP2 and higher. Two other Total Recorder drivers (user-mode virtual device driver and kernel-mode virtual device driver) can be installed and used with Windows XP SP1.

To correct the problem you should do the following:

Note, instead of the Total Recorder Help you can use the documentation in pdf format: http://www.totalrecorder.com/download/TotalRecorder.pdf

Total Recorder user-mode virtual device driver is not compatible with Direct Sound. When Total Recorder user-mode virtual device driver is set as a preferred device and your playback program uses Direct Sound, the program may start hang or produce garbled sound.

To eliminate the problem, use another type of Total Recorder driver (menu Options -> Settings, Driver dialog).

Alternatively, you can set up the playback program so that it does not use Direct Sound. Many modern programs can be set up to optionally use Direct Sound. Refer to the program's documentation for more information. The Troubleshooting sections also explain how to deal with specific programs.

Some users have reported incompatibilities between the Total Recorder user-mode virtual device driver and some high-end games that rely heavily on Direct Sound. To eliminate this problem, use solutions described in the Total Recorder and Direct Sound section of this FAQ.

When the Total Recorder user-mode virtual device driver is active then the Adobe software will not start. To resolve the problem, use solutions described in the Total Recorder and Direct Sound section of this FAQ.

See also the Adobe Support Knowledgebase: Troubleshoot installation and startup issues, find Disable emulated audio drivers or universal audio capture and playback utilities.

If you use the Total Recorder user-mode virtual device driver, you can run into compatibility problems with Skype. These problems may appear as sound distortions or repetitions, or Skype may hang up. To resolve these problems, use the Total Recorder kernel-mode driver (available in Total Recorder Version 7.0 and above).

Beginning with Version 7.0, most of Total Recorder's configuration settings are stored in a file in standard XML format. You can export and import these settings. This may be useful, for example, if you plan to reinstall your system and wish to preserve your settings, or if you want your current settings to be used by another user on your computer.

To export your settings:
1. From the Options menu, select -> Export settings...
2. Specify the name of the file to which your current settings will be exported.

To import settings from a file:
1. From the Options menu, select-> Import settings...
2. Specify the name of the file from which the settings will be imported.

Note: Configuration settings and scheduled jobs are stored separately in Total Recorder. To export and import scheduled jobs, use the Scheduler window.

No, we have no plans to develop a Macintosh version.

We know that many our users run Total Recorder successfully under Macintosh on various virtual systems, in particular Parallels Desktop (http://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/), Oracle VirtualBox (http://www.virtualbox.org/).