Unexpected End Of File

[Jabod]

I've received the message "Unexpected End Of File In File" at the start of side 2 on 2 albums recently when scanning for clicks  and I can find no reason as to why this has happened. Both albums save the tracks as normal and play  back fine so it's hardly a disaster but it would be nice to clean them up properly. It's only 2 out of 122 but they're within 5 sides of each other.

Any advice please Paul?

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

Hi,

Sounds like a damaged file, most likely FLAC.  Can any other programs play it?

Also, what does Windows File Explorer (or the Finder, on the Mac) report the file size to be?

[Jabod]

Hi Paul.

The split tracks all play fine on both VLC and Cyberlink PowerDVD 17. Tested both master files with the same software and, again, both play fine.

However 

File sizes show as:

Etheridge_Melissa~Melissa_Etheridge~side2 - FLAC File - 418,636kb
Etheridge_Melissa~Melissa_Etheridge~side2 - CRD File  - 3kb

Fairport_Convention~Liege_&_Lief~side2     - FLAC File - 372,316kb
Fairport_Convention~Liege_&_Lief~side2     - CRD File  - 3kb


It is extremely obvious that those CRD Files are way smaller than the rest of their counterparts but, just as obviously, that must be due to the "Unexpected End Of File" problem although, just as obviously, as the software "found" an end of file it couldn't go any further. From memory the timing was 0.02 both times when that happened.

For info all of the 122 albums so far have been recorded as FLAC, 96kHz, 2 ch and 24 bit.

I'm rather confused as I would have expected both side 2s to not split the tracks under those circumstances but definitely not the case. Did try changing the track start and end places which I could happily do but no difference when it came to de-clicking.

I haven't tried recording again as I still have 250 albums approx to go (and that's counting double albums and boxed sets as 1 album) and I really don't want to spend a lot of extra time on this exercise, as easy as your software makes it. As it stands I don't expect to complete until around October/November this year 

Cheers

Jabod

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

OK, please email me direct through the contact us page on the main AlpineSoft website.  I'll then arrange for you to upload the files to Dropbox for me to take a look at.

https://www.alpinesoft.co.uk/contact_us.aspx

Also, can you please confirm which version of VinylStudio you're running and on what platform.  It might also be worth trying the latest Beta.  We did fix one FLAC-related bug in that, although your symptoms don't match the issue we fixed:

https://www.alpinesoft.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=2567.0

Thx.

[Jabod]

Hi again Paul.

I think I've discovered the answer. Well, not the answer but the cause of the problem.

I'm one of those people whose mind keeps working away in the background until it's sorted through everything it knows, even if I'd forgotten some thing in my conscious mind. Accordingly I woke up this morning with the "answer".

In both circumstances I aborted the recording very quickly when starting. In the case of the Melissa Etheridge I realised immediately on the "beep" I hadn't turned over the album so promptly clicked on stop. In the case of Fairport Convention I dropped the needle a fraction before the "beep" so, again, I promptly clicked stop.

Now, when I've had to record a side a second time (user error for certain in those cases), the software has always prompted me to that if I continued I'd overwrite what had gone before. in the above two cases that didn't happen That would explain the unexpected end of file message as the original CRD file existed and hadn't been overwritten and (here I'm guessing) that the FLAC file hadn't been created and therefore the software allowed that creation to go ahead second time around.

I'm in the process of re-recording side two of Melissa Etheridge and this time it did prompt about the overwrite (presumably because the FLAC file now existed).

I'll hold off attempting side 2 of Liege & Lief until I've updated the full results of the Melissa Etheridge re-recording here (about 20 minutes away) and you've had a chance to absorb all of this. If you'd still like Liege & Lief uploaded to you then just say and it will be done. Otherwise, if all goes well on the current bit, I'll just redo Liege & Lief and take rather more care starting off a recording in the future 

Jabod

Edited to add that I'm using version V12.5.2

[Jabod]

Update as promised.

Worked perfectly 

Cleanup sailed through and all tracks saved again.

I also noticed that the CRD file doesn't appear to be fully created until the cleanup is run (or when the tracks are saved if no cleanup is done) so I take it that there's a temporary file in existence up until that/those points.

While expecting the CRD file to be larger (3kb/665kb) I was surprised to see that the FLAC file was also larger (418,636kb/427,476kb). Not that it's any sort of problem - just curiosity on my part.

Jabod

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

Hi there,

Thanks very much for the update.  I'm glad it's all working now.

Just FYI, the CRD file is only created when you run a scan.  What you observed must have been one left over from before.