Variable buffer size

[Michelle Ferrill]

Hi all,

I have a simple experiment where I plan to show pictures to participants for 3000 msec followed by a fixation cross for a variable amount of time.  I want to record verbal responses (via SoundIn object or slide sub-object) for the entire duration of the trial (picture + fixation cross).  I am having two issues and was hoping that anyone might be able to provide some insight into how to address either one or both. I am using E-Prime 2.0 2.0.10.356 with E-Studio 2.0.10.252.

1) I would ideally like to have one sound file per trial for responses during the entire duration of the trial - picture presentation and the fixation cross.  Regardless of how I set the properties of the SoundIn object (for example; Buffer Size = 5000 msec, Stop After = "No") the wav file only lasts for 3 seconds, the length of the stimulus slide (e.g. the recording terminates when the experiment advances to the fixation cross slide).  I tried to address this by having the picture and the fixation cross as different slide states for the same "stimulus" slide, but I had the same issue. 

2) Given that there is a way to address #1, I still am limited to a sound file of a fixed length for each trial (dictated by Buffer Size).  It seems that Buffer Size does not accept a variable.  Since my trials are going to be of varying length (picture + fixation cross), should I just set the buffer size to the longest trial?  A potential issue I see with this approach is that the recordings may be overlapping - for instance if a trial is 5000 msec (3000 msec picture + 2000 msec fixation cross) and Buffer Size is set to 15000 msec (longest trial), it would still be recording when the next trial starts 7 seconds in. 

The only solution that I see is creating a different procedure for each trial, which is less than ideal (there are somewhere around 160 trials in the entire experiment).  I am hoping there is an easier way to go about this.

Thank you so much for any help!

Michelle

[Tom M]

Hi Michelle,

I face a variation of your challenge- recording minutes of audio when all efforts to extend recording end too early. Did anyone ever send you a solution? Did you develop one that you'd kindly share? E-Prime (SP1) 2.0.10.353 and E-Studio 2.0.10.248 reveal some frustrating and incomplete examples in the help, under the 'soundcapturebuffer', but all use slight variants of the same limited example. It seems likely that there is still some better and thorough modern documentation for acquiring long-duration sounds out there somewhere- but days of googling have not revealed them to me.  

How can force or trick E-Prime into making an audio recording longer than 60 seconds?

Thanks!

-Tom