Im not really going to be much help, but I haven't had any trouble with the soundboards, EZ-B or PC, cutting off the ends of files like what you're experiencing. I did have a similar issue when using a Ivona voice where the end of a sentence would be cut off, but Cepstral voices are fine.

Sorry that I haven't got anything to add to help you in regards to the soundboard issue.

@Steve, While poking around in the ARC Preference section I found a Audio Tab. In it you can set the Audio Pre-Buffer size and the Audio Packet size. The little question mark next to each entry says this will prevent skipping but may cause a slight delay in playing the audio. Maybe this setting will help with the problem of our sound files being clipped at the end. Don't really know and I can't test this out right now. My Robot is taken apart right now while I work on my B9 Arm. Maybe if you have time you could play around with this setting to see if it helps.

Look at the top of ARC under the Options tab. You'll see a Preference tab you need to click on. When that box opens up you'll then see an Audio tab. Click on that and a box will finally open that will let you adjust these two setting.

Let me know how this works out for you if you get a chance.

No problem. Thanks Dave. I'll see if I can get some time to play about with it tomorrow. Can't think why Steve N is having problems with the soundboard though. Strange.

I'm having the same issues. Sometime a file being played it will be clipped of just at the end. I've had this issue since I received my 1st V4 EZB and I was one of the first people to get one when they were first released. I've never had the time to play around trying to fixing it. This issue was mentioned on the forum back then and I think DJ said it had something to do with system resources. I think he said he was going to try to work on whatever witchcraft happens in the background of ARC to try to keep this from happening. I'm not sure if he ever got around to it or if this Audio preference setting I mentioned above was his solution.

Hi Dave,

I haven't had much of a chance to play around with the Soundboard yet. Busy keeping the missus happy cleaning out the shed and building new shelves. Did try changing the settings on the "Audio Pre Buffering" though. The default setting is 20,000 bytes and I tried to set it up to half a meg but it wouldn't let me. The highest I could get it was 32,767 bytes. I,ll hopefully have a chance to try it out tomorrow night to see if it helps.

Still been trying to sort out why the sound files played through the EZB are at a lower volume than the files played directly from the CF Sound unit. Haven't had much luck with that yet. stress I will keep plugging away at that when I get a chance in the next few days

Steve

@Steve, as far as your volume issue; Do you have an external volume control attached to your system or are you using the CF unit for main volume control? I have all my sound system devices running through a pot at the robot's front torso knob. This allows me to adjust each device with it's own volume control to get a balance between them. These would be the sound slider on in the ARC Soundboard control, the MS Windows sound mixer controls, the EZB break out sound hack and the CF Sound System on the robot itself. I run this all through the torso know pot. I then can use the pot at the torso knob for volume control over the entire system. I did have one device (a bluetooth receiver) that I couldn't bring the volume up to the level of the other devices and I had to run this through a line leveler to get it balanced (I've since removed that device).

Hope this helps.

I have the un-amplified audio connected to the LINE IN of the CF Sound unit, the LINE OUT to the Input of the external voice amplifier, and the output of the amplifier to the main voice speaker. I have the volume of the CF unit up full and set the volume of the volume of the amplifier to the desired level. If I play a file from the CF unit the sound is at the desired level and if I play a file from the EZB the level is lower. I tried turning down the volume on the CF unit, but the volume of the EZB files went down with it, so still a difference in volume between the two devices. Some files played from the EZB are better, (louder) than others however, strange as they all came from the IB9 software. Some files are taken directly from the IB9 data file, and others have been joined together in Audacity. The joined files are fine played from the CF unit. I still have to figure out if that has anything to do with the volume levels on the files played from the EZB. Doesn't seem to be a pattern to it. I need to spend more time on it, but I'm a bit time poor at the moment.

Anyhow, must head off for work, running late eek

Steve

I'm resurrecting this thread because I've been working on this issue. I've made progress.

Recapped; The main issue is that sound files coming from the EZB (useing the sound breakout mod that taps in the sound system of the EZB before it's on-board amp) and channeled through the CF3 or CF4 sound system are played at a lower volume level then the files the CF plays from it's on board Compact Flash Card. The connection in on the CF system is through it's Aux In sound input port.

OK, with that said; I was having the same issue as Steve a while back and installed a volume booster in line between the EZB and the CF. I also had a bunch of other complicated equipment installed that I decided to take out to make more room for other things and un-complicate things. This was the perfect opportunity to reproduce Steve's issue without the other sound devices in the mix.

After I removed all this crap including the booster I simply ran a 3.5 mm sound cable between the EZB's sound mod port and the CF's Aux In port. When I triggered a sound file in ARC I was able to confirm that like Steve I got a noticeably softer volume level then when I triggered a file played stright from one of the files on the CF's CF card. I also was getting bad sound file clipping.

I then wired in the volume booster from outside the robot and after turning it's adjusting knob up fill was able to have equal volume from files in each location. Also I was now getting full file playback with very quick responce. All seemed well and I was happy.

Conclusion; The issue is with the CF unit's Aux In port not leveling incoming sound signals to it's own playing level. Sources coming into this port need to be leveled somehow. EZB is working as it should and this is an outside issue.

So, that brings us to today and Murphy's Law pops up (If something can go wrong, it will. ). eyeroll After installing the volume booster back into my robot and permanently attaching it to my electrical system a new problem "popped" up. LOL. Now each time a file plays from the EZB through the CF's Aux In port (first using the booster to raise the signal) I get a loud "POP" at the start and end of the file. I'm not really sure why this is happening but is sounds like an electrical issue to me. I'm unsure why I wouldn't have this issue when it was laying outside of the robot but once wired into it I get this popping. All things are equal except I attached power and ground in a different location in the robots electrical system each time and the wiring is now all inside the robot instead of hanging loose on the outside. I'll run a few tests and rewire today and see what happens.

I really don't have a lot of experience and knowledge about sound systems. Has anyone else seen this happen in any other sound installation or setup?

If anyone is curious here's the volume booster I'm using: Technolink TC-780i Mobile iPod / MP3 Input Booster