Support Page Home | User Guide | Version 3.x FAQ
Soundcard Issues
I get an error whenever I try to record.
Verify that your soundcard driver is up to date, that it is a fully DirectSound-compatible, WDM driver, and that you have the most recent version of DirectX installed. Login to VoxPro as the Administrator, go to the Settings/AudioDevices menu, and make sure that no "emulated" devices have been selected when there is a WDM driver available for the same piece of hardware. If you are using digital I/O on the soundcard, you have the added complexity of ensuring dependable sync with a clock source (usually the main studio console), and of selecting the digital input as the recording source (either from VoxPro's Settings/RecordSettings menu, if available, or from the soundcard vendor's device control panel).
VoxPro plays fine until I make a recording. Then it won't play again.
Chances are you have an Echo Mia card installed. Please read the special note on our Soundcards page.
Playback and scrubbing jump around and stutter a lot.
Verify that your soundcard driver is up to date, that it is a fully DirectSound-compatible, WDM driver, and that you have the most recent version of DirectX installed. Login to VoxPro as the Administrator, go to the Settings/AudioDevices menu, and make sure that the "Use legacy wave drivers" option is not checked. (VoxPro can use waveAudio drivers in a pinch, but they generally do not perform as well as current DirectSound drivers.) Ensure that no "emulated" devices have been selected when there is a WDM driver available for the same piece of hardware.
Which driver do I use with this soundcard?
If there is more than one driver available for a particular soundcard, there will usually be one labeled as a WDM driver (Windows Device Manager). Select that one. Drivers labeled "emulated" usually do not work as well, especially for recording.
Why are we getting feedback?
The input to your soundcard is being routed to its output. On some soundcards this is controlled with a "Monitor" slider, which can be turned down. On other cards, there is a "Line-In" or "Wave-In" control that should be muted. These controls are usually found in the Playback section of the Windows mixer interface for the card, but sometimes you have to open the soundcard vendor's proprietary control panel to locate these switches. If you are still getting feedback, check the routing in your studio console.
Some causes of extraneous noise in recordings.
Users will sometimes report noises such as pops, clicks or hums in their recordings. If the noise is always in the same place, it was added during recording. If the noise is intermittent or seems to move from place to place in your file, it is being added during playback.
There are several possible causes for the noise.
- Active cell phone in close proximity VoxPro or audio path.
- An artifact of the driver itself, and is fixed by installing the latest driver from the soundcard manufacturer.
- Proximity to a noisy network interface card (NIC), in which case it might be fixed by moving the card to a slot further away from the NIC.
- Soundcard itself is producing the noise, perhaps because of a failing component. Computers are notoriously noisy environments, and several components are capable of producing transient RF noise that can affect both recording and playback.
Control Panel Issues
VoxPro keeps losing its connection to the control panel or does't see the control panel
First, make sure that the "Use the PC control panel" option has been checked in the Administrator's Settings/ControlPanel menu. Next, make sure you have the latest version of the control panel driver installed (VCP driver versions older than 1.0.2154 are known to exacerbate connectivity issues). Finally, open your system device manager and locate the USB Root Hub (there should be at least one). Right-click on each root hub entry in the list, select "Properties" from the menu, and look to see if there is a power-saving feature implemented on the device. Some USB root hubs automatically power down after a certain number of hours. This feature must be disabled if it is present.
Is a control panel required to run VoxPro?
No, the control panel makes editing faster and easier, but it is completely optional. Also, there is nothing in the control panel that ties it to a particular computer, so you can move the control panel from one VoxPro workstation to another if you need to.
Fast forward and rewind are extremely slow.
VoxPro uses the "control" (Ctrl) key on the keyboard to alter the meaning of the scrub keys. If you use the left and right arrow keys to scrub, the motion is fast, but if you hold down the control key while using the arrow keys, VoxPro scrubs at slow speed. (Hold the shift key down to scrub backwards and forwards at normal speed.) The state of the control and shift keys on the keyboard also affect how the fast-forward/rewind buttons on the VoxPro control panel are interpreted. Sometimes the control key on the keyboard is used for other computer functions, for example to switch computers on a shared monitor, or in the sequence control-alt-delete, which opens the system task manager. In these cases it is possible for VoxPro to receive a message from the operating system that the control key has been pressed, but the message confirming its release is never delivered. The fix in VoxPro is simply to tap the control key once.
What kind of power supply does the serial control panel require?
Any 9V DC, 500mA power supply with a positive tip and negative sleeve will work for the VoxPro serial control panel. Please note that not all "wall warts" are the same — voltage, current and polarity vary widely!
Any issues putting the control panel on an extender?
The serial control panel can be several hundred feet from the computer, as long as the power supply is plugged into the end closest to the control panel. USB extenders cannot be longer than 12 feet without a repeater to amplify the signal. The extender must also supply power to the control panel, since the voltage drop from the computer's USB port over a passive extender is too great.
Control panel pinouts for remote functions and record tally light.
For the RC-500 controller, the pins are assigned as follows:
On the older RC-400 controller (with the shuttle ring surrounding the jog wheel), pins 6 and 7 are also common.
Can I order parts for my control panel?
Yes. A complete parts lists can be found here.
Can I have my control panel repaired?
Yes. JL Cooper Electronics in El Seguno, CA. manufactures and repairs the VoxPro control panel. Each control panel comes with a one year warrenty for parts and repair. If your control panel is older than one year JL Cooper will provide you with an estimate for repair. To have repair work on your control panel requires that you fill out an RMA form and send it to JL Cooper. You can download the form here.
Windows Stuff
Opening the system control panel.
- On Windows 7, Start button > Control Panel
- On Windows 2000 and Windows XP > Settings > Control Panel.
Opening the system device manager.
- On Windows 7, Start button > Control Panel > Device Manager
- On Windows XP, Windows 2000 > My Computer > Properties > Hardware > Device Manager
Looking at audio devices.
- On Windows 7, Start button > Control Panel > Sound
- On Windows XP, double-click the "Sounds and Audio Devices" tool.
- On Windows 2000, double-click the "Sounds and Multimedia" tool. AUDIO TAB. The Sound Playback section contains a list of audio playback devices installed on your computer. Sometimes there is more than one driver available for a given hardware device. The Sound Recording section contains a list of audio recording devices installed on your computer. Like the playback drivers, there are sometimes several drivers available for a given recording device. The Volume button beneath each device opens the generic Windows mixer (sndvol32) on the device, if it supports the Windows mixer interface. The settings on this page are recognized by the operating system but are ignored by VoxPro, which provides its own interface to the system audio devices. HARDWARE TAB. To determine the version of your soundcard driver, select the device in the Devices list, then click the Properties button below. Select the Driver tab to see the version number. This page is also used to update the driver (once you have located and downloaded the current version from the vendor).
What version of DirectX is installed?
Click the Start button. Select "Run" from the Start menu, and type in "dxdiag" This launches the DirectX Diagnostic Utility. (If it doesn't, then you don't have DirectX installed at all!) After dxdiag launches, it performs a system inventory which takes a few seconds. On the very first page (under the "System" tab), the DirectX version is listed. By the way, the latest version of dxdiag displays a "Sound" tab for each audio device it finds on the system. Here you can find out the driver version number and whether it is WDM or emulated, and there is even a button for testing audio playback through the device.
What version of VoxPro is installed?
Click on VoxPro's "Help/About" menu. The full version number is displayed there. Starting with version 3.3, the full version number is also displayed on the main title bar.
What version of the VoxPro control panel driver is installed?
Two drivers are available for the USB control panel. To determine which one you have installed, make sure the control panel is plugged in, then open the system device manager and expand the branch labelled "Universal Serial Bus Controllers". If you see an "FTDI FT8U2XX Device", you have the so-called Direct Driver (D2XX). If you see a device called "USB High Speed Serial Converter", or simply "USB Serial Converter", you have the VCP (Virtual COM Port) driver installed. This driver is actually two drivers that work in tandem -- the other part is in the branch labelled "Ports (COM & LPT)" and appears as the "USB Serial Port". To determine the driver version, right-click on the device, select "Properties" from the popup menu, and then select the Driver tab. The version number is displayed on this page.
If you have the serial version of the control panel, no driver is required. (You know you have a serial control panel if it is plugged into a DB9 connector on the back of the computer and is powered by a 9-volt "wall wart.") Also, no driver is required to use the Classic (Mac) controller, although an inexpensive hardware adapter is necessary.
More information on these drivers is available from FTDI at www.ftdichip.com.
VoxPro Configuration and Usability
How to change the name of a user account.
Exit VoxPro. Using Windows Explorer, browse to the VoxPro PC folder (usually in Program Files on your C drive). Open the VP_Depot folder and locate the folder belonging to the account whose name you wish to change. Rename the folder to the new account name. Restart VoxPro and log in as the Administrator. Go to the Accounts menu and select Delete User. Delete the old account. (No files will be erased because you've renamed the entire folder.) Now select the Add User item in the Accounts menu. Add the new user, using the new name you gave to the account folder. VoxPro PC will perform a quick database rebuild on the contents of that folder. Now you can log in as the new user, and all the old audio files will be present.
How do I re-install VoxPro onto a different drive or partition? (Version 3.3)
You may uninstall and re-install VoxPro on any drive or partition that you wish. The only real issue is what happens to the existing user accounts. If you are leaving all the user accounts where they are, you need only copy the two files VP_Config.vpc and VP_Hotkeys.vpc from the old installation folder to the new. When you start VoxPro in its new location, it will see the user configuration data, which is already correct. If you are moving the user accounts also, then you can copy the VP_Hotkeys.vpc file to the new installation folder, but the VP_Config.vpc file will have to be remade, so don't copy it. When you start VoxPro for the first time in its new location, and there is no configuration file, it will prompt you for a new path to the Administrator's account. Now you can login as the Administrator and add all the other user and team accounts. Pay special attention that the path given for each new account matches the location to which you have reinstalled VoxPro (or moved the VP_Depot folder). If your VoxPro is networked, simply uninstall and re-install. The user configuration files are delivered from the Network Coordinator, so you do not have to copy anything there..
How do I move VoxPro audio files to a different drive or partition?
Make sure VoxPro is not running, then locate the current VP_Depot folder and copy it to its new location on a different disk. (If you are moving only a few selected users, you may move just their individual subfolders from the old location to the new one.) Start up VoxPro again and log in as Administrator. Delete the user accounts which are being moved, then re-create them, pointing to the new location where you have just moved their folders. See User Guide for additional information.
My XP machine is being replaced with a new Windows 7 machine. What do I need to do to move my VoxPro installation to the Win7 machine?
[Following instructions pertain ONLY to users currently running VoxPro version 4.0 or higher.]
First of all, you'll need to install VoxPro version 4.3 on the Win7 machine. Versions prior to 4.3 are not fully compatible with Windows 7. Version 4.3 is a free upgrade for anyone running 4.X, and is available on this website.
VoxPro maintains a list of user accounts in a file called Users_Local.inf. On Windows XP, this file is normally located in C:\Program Files\VoxPro PC (the default VoxPro installation folder). On Windows 7, this file must be located in C:\Users\Public\VoxPro. So the second thing to do is copy your Users_Local.inf from the XP machine to that new location.
The users' audio files are also stored in different locations on the two platforms. On XP, the user accounts (which contain the users' audio) are normally located in C:\Program Files\VoxPro PC\VP_Depot. On Win7, the user accounts are created by default in C:\Users\Public\VoxPro\VP_Depot. So the easiest thing to do is to copy the entire VP_Depot folder into the \Users\Public\VoxPro folder on the Win7 machine. If you want the audio files to live somewhere else (a different drive, for example), then simply copy them there instead. (If you are running multiple VoxPro workstations connected on a network, then you will also need to share the parent folder containing the user accounts to the network, and ensure that all users have read/write access to this folder.)
Now you need to edit the Users_Local.inf file. It is a text file so you can open it with WordPad or NotePad. You see that it simply contains a full path name to each user account. Change the paths so they are correct for your new configuration. We recommend leaving the Administrator and Guest accounts in C:\Users\Public\VoxPro\VP_Depot, even if the paths to other user accounts are in a different location.
Save your changes, start VoxPro, and you should see all of your users listed, and they should all have access to their files.
Note that, in general, users may be moved, deleted and added simply by making the appropriate changes to Users_Local.inf, then restarting VoxPro.