• From: Melbourne, Australia
  • Registered: 2007-05-16
  • Posts: 495

Topic: DURec files - time and date

A minor inconvenience at best, but I feel it would be useful if the DURec files could be a little more self-documenting.  One improvement could be having at least the usual facility of a creation date and time recorded in UFX DURec files, as with normal operating systems.  This is important if the USB disc has a large number of recordings made on it over a period of time.

I understand that the UFX does not have a real-time clock included to make this possible.  Perhaps it could be possible to be able to feed the UFX with a date (and possibly time) at initiation from the host computer and have this then kept updated, say by a small routine in the DSP.

An alternative may be to at least include the date (computer or 'Swedish' format) in the file name instead of just the UFX prefix.  This and the current 'sequence' number would be a little more informative.

Anyone else find this inconvenient?  Anyone have their own work-around to deal with this?

De gustibus - et sonus - non est disputandum
  • Registered: 2011-10-07
  • Posts: 23

Re: DURec files - time and date

I agree with your suggestion.

It would be good insurance against files overwriting each other when you are managing them.  It's also just good IT practice in such situations to use a name space that generates unique file names.

  • From: Washington DC, USA
  • Registered: 2007-08-06
  • Posts: 442

Re: DURec files - time and date

This is a good idea.

  • Registered: 2011-10-30
  • Posts: 63

Re: DURec files - time and date

Also agree with this one.

But as a scandinavian I am curious: What is the "swedish" format?

5 Reply by MatsHelgesson (edited by MatsHelgesson 2011-12-07 20:50:15)

  • From: Stockholm, Sweden
  • Registered: 2007-10-22
  • Posts: 84

Re: DURec files - time and date

dainbramage wrote:

Also agree with this one.

But as a scandinavian I am curious: What is the "swedish" format?

2011-12-07. (Year-month-day)

Is there even a clock function in the interface? I don't think it'd be possible to time stamp the file in standalone mode if there's not a clock in it. Haven't found a reference to any real time watch or clock battery.

Mats Helgesson
http://www.livingsound.se

MatsHelgesson's Website

  • From: Melbourne, Australia
  • Registered: 2007-05-16
  • Posts: 495

Re: DURec files - time and date

As noted in the original post, there appears to be no clock chip in the UFX.

Without wishing to tell RME designers what to do, one idea may be that the date can be supplied from the host at startup, and memorised along with all the other parameters, and used to form the file name (along with a sequence number as at present).  The stored date could then be updated each time the UFX is connected to the host.

Time as well would also be useful, but the above could be most helpful in managing large numbers of files or in archiving.

De gustibus - et sonus - non est disputandum
  • From: Savannah GA
  • Registered: 2011-11-13
  • Posts: 32

Re: DURec files - time and date

The only way I can see to make the DURec files easy to differentiate is to daily plug the DURec drive into the laptop, and pull the files into a named/marked folder on the HD. Do this every day that you are recording and it should not be a problem keeping things straight. Let it go for several weeks (like I did) and it is no fun to try and bring some order out of the chaos!

Rich Mays
Sonare Recordings
www.sonarerecordings.com

Sonare's Website