What is a SBE?

[Tate]

I got a question about SBEs. Sometimes, when I work on my files, like deleting the ticks and pops at the start of the track (and they have no SBEs to begin with), I then notice with 'shntool' that the WAV file now has a SBE (that infamous -b- appears). So I run shntool fix on the file and the -b- is gone. But, when I look at the WAV closely with Cool Edit, and I zoom in at the end, I can see a little tiny flat line.

When the file has the SBE, I see no flat line at the end. But when I fix it, it appears. I don't understand why? It has happened to me a few times. Anyone know what the problem is?

[bstover]

Originally Posted by Tate

I got a question about SBEs. Sometimes, when I work on my files, like deleting the ticks and pops at the start of the track (and they have no SBEs to begin with), I then notice with 'shntool' that the WAV file now has a SBE (that infamous -b- appears). So I run shntool fix on the file and the -b- is gone. But, when I look at the WAV closely with Cool Edit, and I zoom in at the end, I can see a little tiny flat line.

When the file has the SBE, I see no flat line at the end. But when I fix it, it appears. I don't understand why? It has happened to me a few times. Anyone know what the problem is?

You must be zoomed *way* in. You see the little tiny flat line because shntool has padded the file with a little tiny tad of silence.

[Five]

yes, you've got to fix the entire set at once, so shntool can take a bit of the next track instead of padding with silence (unless, of course, it is the last track in which case it should be padded).

[U2Lynne]

Since this thread has been bumped and it's about SBEs, I'll post here....

I was just looking at a show for sbes and the beginning and end look like this:

    length     expanded size   cdr  WAVE problems filename
     2:00.68       21329148    -b-   --   ---xx   u22001-12-02d1t01.shn
     5:21.65       56777324    ---   --   ---xx   u22001-12-02d1t02.shn
     4:44.45       50203484    ---   --   ---xx   u22001-12-02d1t03.shn
...
     7:28.42       79126028    ---   --   ---xx   u22001-12-02d2t09.shn
     1:06.63       11790620    ---   --   ---xx   u22001-12-02d2t10.shn
     9:26.68      100001804    -b-   --   ---xx   u22001-12-02d2t11.shn
   121:10.32     1282504868 B                     (totals for 23 files, 0.7049 overall compression ratio)

I know an SBE is OK on the last track, but is it OK at the beginning track? And actually, when you see that there is an SBE, how do you know if the problem is at the beginning of the track or at the end of the track?

[ColinM]

I've split a couple dozen shows with Goldwave and they always come out having no SBEs.

I'm make sure to test it before I seed it.

[Five]

Originally Posted by U2Lynne

Since this thread has been bumped and it's about SBEs, I'll post here....

I was just looking at a show for sbes and the beginning and end look like this:

    length     expanded size   cdr  WAVE problems filename
     2:00.68       21329148    -b-   --   ---xx   u22001-12-02d1t01.shn
     5:21.65       56777324    ---   --   ---xx   u22001-12-02d1t02.shn
     4:44.45       50203484    ---   --   ---xx   u22001-12-02d1t03.shn
...
     7:28.42       79126028    ---   --   ---xx   u22001-12-02d2t09.shn
     1:06.63       11790620    ---   --   ---xx   u22001-12-02d2t10.shn
     9:26.68      100001804    -b-   --   ---xx   u22001-12-02d2t11.shn
   121:10.32     1282504868 B                     (totals for 23 files, 0.7049 overall compression ratio)

I know an SBE is OK on the last track, but is it OK at the beginning track? And actually, when you see that there is an SBE, how do you know if the problem is at the beginning of the track or at the end of the track?

well, shntool presumes the problem is at the end of the track but in this case the best thing to do would be to pad the beginning and end of the disc with the correct number of silent samples. If you dump all of these tracks in shntool and tell it to fix the sbes, it will take < 588 samples from track 2 and paste it on the end of track 1, thereby creating a SBE on track 2, so it has to take a bit from track 3 to fix this and so on and so on until the last track which will get padded at the end.

can you run a preview of the shntool fix and post the results?

[U2Lynne]

Thanks for answering, Jamie. But, um, can you run a preview of the shntool fix and post the results. I have no clue what you are talking about here. xACT has these options for shntool: len, info, join, split, cmp, cue and then I can also fix the SBEs. I could do something in terminal mode if I knew what I was doing.

[Five]

that's funny that xact has join split and cue (which TLH doesn't!)

but TLH has fix preview

if you can move the show (on a cdrw or whatever) over to your pc you can open up TLH, select the fix SBEs tab and it is in preview mode by default (drop down menu on the right). it will give a report of what it wants to do and from that output I can give you exact instructions on how to fix the first and last tracks without touching the other 21 tracks (which is preferable!).

[rherron]

To split on sector boundaries in Gold Wave:

1. Insert all of your Cue Points
2. Click “Split File” button in Cue Point dialog box
3. Make sure the button “Use CD compatible wave format and alignment” is checked
4. Split the file

Rob

[ffooky]

Originally Posted by U2Lynne

Thanks for answering, Jamie. But, um, can you run a preview of the shntool fix and post the results. I have no clue what you are talking about here. xACT has these options for shntool: len, info, join, split, cmp, cue and then I can also fix the SBEs. I could do something in terminal mode if I knew what I was doing.

If you want an easy way to run shntool in the terminal without installing binaries, changing your $PATH etc, try this.

Right (cntrl) click on the xACT application and select Show Package Contents. At the next window, double click the Contents folder, next window double click Resources, next window double click Binaries. You should now see a single folder named bin. Open a Terminal window and type:

cd <drag the bin folder here>

(That's, cd-space-drag folder) and hit Enter.

The command prompt should now look something like:

<your computer's name>:/Applications/xACT.app/Contents/Resources/Binaries/bin u2lynne$

You can type:

shnfix -h

Which will show you the options for the fix mode but for this test you probably just need to run:

shnfix -o wav -order -p <select and drag in all the files to be fixed>

You can drag 'em all in at once and edit the order correctly afterwards or just drag them in to the Terminal window one at a time in order before hitting Enter.

ff

[U2Lynne]

Thanks ffooky. I found my way to the bin folder and I was reading on the etree shntool page about what to do, but I never realized I could just drag files in there.

But, I get told:
-bash: shnfix: command not found

And, I tried saying shntool fix -o wav etc and got told shntool: command not found. I've been using xACT just fine though and I know shntool exists and works.

[ffooky]

Hmm...does the command prompt look like I suggested it might ?

If it does, try entering:

ls

You should get a list of all the binaries in that folder, including shntool. If you don't then something has gone amiss on the way. The output you're getting suggests that you are not actually in the right folder but the output from "ls" will tell us where you are.

[U2Lynne]

Oh yeah, it's there, I can see it in the bin folder (both in the finder and by typing ls in the terminal). That's why it's so weird.

Could it be a permissions thing?

[ffooky]

I think you may be right. I just tried the same process in my kid's account on the same machine and got the old "command not found" routine. My account is the Admin's account, is yours ?

[Five]

well from command line on pc I think it would be:

type "cd" (no quotes) then a space

drag and drop the folder that has the files in it, hit enter

shntool fix -o wav -order -p *.shn > shntool_fix_preview.txt

and the .txt file will appear with the info

I think the problem might be in the typing of "shnfix" when it should be "shntool fix"