README
Total Recorder version 3.0.1
Copyright (C) 1998-2001 High Criteria, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
CONTENTS
Overview
- Introduction
- What's new with version 3.0.1?
- What's new with version 3.0?
- What's new with version 2.2?
- What's new with version 2.1?
- What's new with version 2.0?
- System Requirements
- Program Restrictions
Installing and Configuring
- Package Content
- Specific Information for Windows NT
- Specific Information for Windows 2000
- Installation Steps
- Configuring Total Recorder
Registering Total Recorder
Uninstalling Total Recorder
Technical Support
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OVERVIEW
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INTRODUCTION
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Total Recorder is a sound recording and playing program. It records
analog sound digitized by a sound card, as well as sound generated,
or requested, by other computer programs, such as RealPlayer, Windows
Media Player, Quick Time, WinAmp, and many others. Recorded sound is
saved in wave-file format or you can use external programs to save
recorded sound using MP3 format.
For example, you can use Total Recorder to record:
- audio from the Internet, either audio files or live streams
- music from a game program
- a conversation, if you use an Internet telephony program.
Total Recorder uses a virtual sound driver to capture the sound output
from another program. By installing this driver, and setting this
device as the default, different sound reproducing programs send their
output stream to Total Recorder's driver and not to the driver of a
real device. Total Recorder then passes the information to the sound
card driver.
Total Recorder has a built-in scheduler. This allows you to
automatically record a show at a given time for later playback or you
can use the scheduler as an alarm. Note that this latter function does
not require registration.
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WHAT'S NEW WITH VERSION 3.0.1?
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Version 3.0.1 is a maintenance release and does not add any new
features. It fixes the following issues in the version 3.0:
- The compatibility problem between Total Recorder driver and some
Creative drivers for Sound Blaster Live! family of sound cards.
- The compatibility problem with some players, which use very small
buffers (e.g. Ultra Player)
- The problem with international characters in registration names.
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WHAT'S NEW WITH VERSION 3.0?
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Version 3.0 adds many new features, including the following:
- The ability to play and record compressed sound using installed
codecs.
- The ability to use external MP3 modules for recording in MP3 format.
- Compatibility with Windows Millennium Edition.
- A Fast save capability.
- Automatic stop after a specified amount of recording time.
- Interface improvements.
Warning: Version 3.0 uses a new format of the registration key. When
you install this new version, it will be unregistered until you enter
a new registration key.
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WHAT'S NEW WITH VERSION 2.2?
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In addition to maintenance, Version 2.2 adds the following features:
- Support for Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000.
- The ability to resample a recording (i.e. change sound stream
parameters). Resampling can be done either during the recording
process or when you save a recording.
- The maximum recording size is no longer limited to 2GB. It is now
possible to record up to 49 continuous days. However, since an
individual .wav file has a limit of 4GB, a long recording must be
broken into pieces in order for it to be saved.
- A save progress indicator.
- The ability to increase the priority of the Total Recorder program
and provide cleaner recordings.
- The ability to normalize the volume of a recording.
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WHAT'S NEW WITH VERSION 2.1?
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In addition to maintenance, Version 2.1 adds the following features:
- Accelerated recording/converting. This allows you to convert a sound
file to standard wave format without listening to it. This operation
normally takes a fraction of the time it would require to play the
file.
- Markers. These allow you to select and save only part of a recording
or part of an existing wave file.
- The ability to continue recording to the same file after it was
stopped.
- A level indicator reflects the amplitude of a signal during recording
and playback.
- The ability to have more than one open copy of Total Recorder (like
in version 1.0).
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WHAT'S NEW WITH VERSION 2.0?
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Version 2.0 adds many new features, including the following:
- Capturing and recording of sound streams that programs request from a
sound card. This allows full duplex recording of Internet phone conver-
sations when using programs such as NetMeeting and VoxPhone.
- Recording from CD, microphone and other input lines
- Built-in scheduler that allows you to program jobs (record or playback)
to start at a given time, similar to programming a VCR
- Command line parameters that allow you to use an external scheduler
such as Microsoft Task Scheduler to schedule a recording or playback
- Automatic installation and uninstallation of the virtual device driver.
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SYSTEM REQUIREMENT
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To use Total Recorder, you need the following:
- an IBM compatible computer
- a sound card
- Microsoft Windows 95, 98, ME (Millennium Edition), or 2000, or
Windows NT 4.0.
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PROGRAM RESTRICTIONS
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Total Recorder cannot record sound reproduced by DOS programs
executing in DOS sessions).
Total Recorder can record only one output and one input sound stream at
a time. If a sound card allows simultaneous output of several
wave-streams and can mix these streams itself, then Total Recorder can
only record one of these streams.
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INSTALLING AND CONFIGURING
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PACKAGE CONTENT
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Total Recorder is shipped via the Internet, as a self-extracting
(totrec30.exe) or regular (totrec30.zip) archive, and consists of the
files listed below. The following table indicates each file name, a
description, and the environments in which each file is required.
File Description Required on Required on
---- ----------- Windows 95/98/Me Windows 2000/NT 4
TotalRecorder.exe - Total Recorder program Yes Yes
DrvTR95M.drv - device driver Yes No
DrvTRNTM.dll - device driver No Yes
DrvTR95L.dll - device driver library Yes No
DrvTRNTL.dll - device driver library No Yes
DrvTR95.vxd - virtual device driver Yes No
DrvTR95.inf - driver installation file Yes No
OEMSETUP.inf - driver installation file No Yes
TotalRecorder.hlp - help file Yes Yes
TotalRecorder.cnt - help content file Yes Yes
TRInst.exe - install/uninstall program Yes Yes
DrInst.exe - driver install/uninstall Yes No
program
License.txt - license agreement file Yes Yes
Readme.txt - read-me first file Yes Yes
TotalRecorder.doc - documentation Yes Yes
Registration.txt - registration form Yes Yes
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SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR WINDOWS NT
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To install Total Recorder on Windows NT, you need the "Load and Unload
Device Drivers" user right. Normally, only administrative users have
this right.
To use the Total Recorder program, you do not need any special rights.
However, the Total Recorder setup program changes settings only for the
user who installed the program. Any other user must manual set the
Total Recorder driver as a preferred device (see
"Installing/Uninstalling the Total Recorder Driver Manually").
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SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR WINDOWS 2000
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Windows 2000 is a member of the Windows NT product family. All of the
information in the previous section ("Installing Total Recorder in a
Windows NT Environment") applies to Windows 2000.
If you are planning to upgrade your Windows 95/98 system to Windows
2000, you must take the following steps:
1. Before upgrading your Windows environment, uninstall Total Recorder.
2. After the upgrade is complete, reinstall Total Recorder.
3. Re-register Total Recorder. Have you registration information
available.
Note: Total Recorder will not work if you simply upgrade your Windows
environment to Windows 2000 without taking the steps described above.
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INSTALLATION NOTES
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Follow this procedure to install Total Recorder on your PC:
1. Download the self-extracting archive totre301.exe
(http://www.highcriteria.com/download/totre301.exe) and run it.
or
Download the regular ZIP archive totre301.zip
(http://www.highcriteria.com/download/totre301.zip). Unzip it and
run TRInst.exe. Note that you must unzip the entire archive not
just TRInst.exe.
If you have a previous version installed, you are prompted to
uninstall it. Press "OK" to continue with the installation. Press
"Cancel" if you want to exit the installation program without
installing the software.
The installation program creates a directory for Total Recorder,
copies all of the files to that directory, creates a Program Group
called Total Recorder, installs a driver, and sets it as the default
device for both playback and recording.
2. After installing Version 3.0.1 over a previous version you must
restart Windows. Under Windows NT or Windows 2000 you must reboot
your PC, even after the initial installation. In all cases you will
receive a prompt.
Tip:
Create a shortcut to Total Recorder and place it on your desktop. This
gives you single-click access to Total Recorder.
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CONFIGURING TOTAL RECORDER
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The configuration program allows you to set the following:
- suppression of system sounds
- preferred playback and recording devices
- priority of Total Recorder program
- directory for temporary files
- default directory
- actions when a recording is about to be overwritten
- resampling algorithm
- external programs for MP3 encoding
- default format (RIFF-WAVE or MP3) and ID3 tag for MP3 files
- debug mode for driver.
To configure Total Recorder, start the program and select "Options" –
"Settings". You are presented with a property sheet with the tabs:
"System", "Open/save", "Algorithm", "MP3 encoding" and "Debug".
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REGISTERING TOTAL RECORDER
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After installing and verifying the program works properly, you should
obtain a registration key from High Criteria. If the program is
unregistered then your recordings are limited to 40 seconds each and
you can use the scheduler only as an alarm.
Note: You cannot use your Version 1.x or 2.x registration key with
Version 3.0.1. Version 3.0 beta and 3.0 keys are OK with version 3.0.1.
To receive the registration key:
1. For registered users of versions 1.0 or 2.x. All registered users are
entitled to a free registration key. It is sent by E-mail
automatically unless you specified that you do not want to receive
E-mails from High Criteria or you have not provided your E-mail
address. If you are a registered user, want to upgrade, and didn’t
get your registration key for some reason, contact
support@HighCriteria.com
OR
For new users: Follow the instructions given on High Criteria Inc.'s
web site at the following address:
http://www.highcriteria.com/products.htm.
2. Select "Help" from the main menu. Hit "Registration". Type in the
same name you used to obtain the registration key and your
registration key. Note that after registration this menu item is not
accessible.
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UNINSTALLING TOTAL RECORDER
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To uninstall Total Recorder, use "Start", "Settings", "Control Panel",
"Add/Remove Programs". The program remains in memory until you reboot.
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TECHNICAL SUPPORT
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If you experience problems with Total Recorder that you cannot resolve
yourself, visit support area on our Web site:
- http://www.highcriteria.com/faq_tr.htm - Frequently Asked Questions
- http://www.highcriteria.com/support.htm - Support Area
Download Driver Pack
After your driver has been downloaded, follow these simple steps to install it.
Expand the archive file (if the download file is in zip or rar format).
If the expanded file has an .exe extension, double click it and follow the installation instructions.
Otherwise, open Device Manager by right-clicking the Start menu and selecting Device Manager.
Find the device and model you want to update in the device list.
Double-click on it to open the Properties dialog box.
From the Properties dialog box, select the Driver tab.
Click the Update Driver button, then follow the instructions.
Very important: You must reboot your system to ensure that any driver updates have taken effect.
For more help, visit our Driver Support section for step-by-step videos on how to install drivers for every file type.