Fuze + FM and Voice Recording glitches, how do I fix?

A week ago I bought the (new) Sansa Fuze +.  I’ve had a older m240 1GB sansa player that has been a tank, always works great.  I recently bought the Fuze + because they do not sell the Fuze anymore in stores, and I was interested in something with the FM recording feature and more storage.

Come to find out when trying the FM recording feature there is glitches every few second to 30 seconds.  It isn’t just a slight pause it actually leaves a split second of the recording out.  I would like to fix this problem.

I was on the phone with a tech person and they just had me download the 01.30.10a (had 01.27.10a on it) firmware which did not help.  The tech rep told me that they (Sansa) is aware of this problem and they hope to have it fixed.  He couldn’t give a me a real date, he hoped by December, but I won’t hold my breathe.  Also when I asked if they had this feature working in the lab they tested these units in before they went to market, if they worked.  He said yes, but when I asked then why the one I purchased does not, he blamed it on the content I loaded onto the Fuze + possibly making it work this way.

I have unti the end of January to return it if I don’t like it, I bought three, they were on sale.  One of the users of one of the Fuzes will be using the FM recording feature.  I would really like to get the problem fixed by then.  Otherwise I think I might take it back and shop online for an older Fuze model with the wheel controls.

Thanks.

I have reproduced the FM recording glitch as well.  It’s bizarre, isn’t it?  Looks like the elapsed time counter skips with it, I’ll have to try some more.  Other than the drops, sound quality is decent.

The new FM receiver includes RDS data, nice to see the artist / song information when the broadcaster is diligent.  This is the downside of RDS; it’s up to the broadcaster to enter the correct data, so you can get bizarre information on occasion.:smileyvery-happy:

Bob 

I did not notice that the counter skips too.  Yes you are right the sound quailty seems good.  I haven’t played around with it that much yet.  The person I know that has a regular Fuze claimed the recordings are in WMA format.  I always thought WMA was a little better sound quality format than MP3, of course at the trade off of being a larger file and not being recognized by a player that will only play CD and MP3.

@nogard wrote:

I did not notice that the counter skips too.  Yes you are right the sound quailty seems good.  I haven’t played around with it that much yet.  The person I know that has a regular Fuze claimed the recordings are in WMA format.  I always thought WMA was a little better sound quality format than MP3, of course at the trade off of being a larger file and not being recognized by a player that will only play CD and MP3.

Your friend is incorrect, or you misunderstood him. The Fuze records in WAV, not WMA format.

Hi Guys and Gals !!!  :smiley:

 I too have EXACTLY the same prob when recording from the radio. I also bought the sansa fuze plus for the recording ability.

My wife has a philips go gear for half the price and it works when recording radio songs  perfectly!!

I hope SANDISK sort this out very soon or I too will be returning it. :angry:

Point of interest this is why I joined forum to find out if I was alone on this one or not? Evidently not!!:cry:

Thanks guys for listening…SANDISK  Teckkies too…hopefully! …PLEEEASSE!  :mansad:

Ah!..just remembered another point of interest!!!  :wink:

   As an experiment i connected both the mp3 players to my computer ,uploaded a radio  recording from my wifes philips gogear to my computer then connected my sansa fuze+    DRAGGED and dropped from one file to the other and HEY presto perfect recording to listen to on the fuze+ but does somewhat defeat the whole process of buying the fuze+ with radio recording in the first place.:neutral_face:  But it will have to do to get a perfect radio recorded song on the fuze+ for now !!! :dizzy_face:

Wow! Someone was sure having fun with the smiley button.

Pretty cool, huh?  The GoGear is nice, I like the wee one with the controls built into the acrylic cover.  The Fuze+ recording glitch has been noted.  I am confident that the interruptions will be corrected.  This interruption is not isolated to FM recording, I hear the same dropouts on voice recording as well.

Keep an eye out for the next firmware update, there have been a few so far, so rest assured the development team is working on it.  If you record voice , you’ll discover that with headphones connected, the audio is heard during the recording as well.  This is wonderful if you are recording a meeting or lecture, as it’s possible to confirm that the person speaking can be heard OK.  I definitely give the “thumbs up” to live recording feedback.

Bob  :smileyvery-happy:

Thanks Bob for the helpful advice. I will keep my eye on the website for future updates etc   …cheers!.:smiley:

I have done more experimenting, and I also noticed the nice feature of being able to hear the live voice recording through the headphones as the recording is being made.

I have noticed that both FM and Voice recording do have the glitch problem.  The counter does skip, when it does that whole moment of time (a fraction of a second) is not recorded.  It is  a problem no matter what and is not acceptable.  What I did notice is if recording and playing back media with constant sound, like a song off the radio, you can mentally put it together and fill in the blanks.  But as a test I did a voice recording of myself, as if I were a speaker talking and leaving pauses in my speech as most would.  If the glitch happend when I spoke between pausing as I spoke.  Then on playback it was like I said nothing at all.  In this instance mentally it is hard to fill in the blank.

I too figured if I know someone with a regular Fuze that was doing the same FM recording I could have them put it on my or their computer and transfer the file to my Fuze +.

I would sure hope they get this problem fixed soon, or the Fuze plus will go down in history as being great…but…

It still amazes me that they would release somthing to market with this problem and gamble with their reputation.  I"m sure with todays marketing they figure FM recording glitches are minor, unless that is the reason you chose this model.  And if 90% of it works get it out for the Holidays and fix the problems later and offer a firmware update.  This plan works in the long run, but does not look good for the short term.

SanDisk is very unique, in that they are open with getting the kinks out of the new Sansas.  Firmware updates to the Fuze and Clip opened up quite a few new featues.

Note that these features did indeed involve customer feedback here in the Sansa forums.

Based upon what I’ve seen with the Clip, then the Clip+, cool things from the Fuze platform found their way to the new device.  The biggest problem with any device is that once the machine “hits the streets”, your base of users simply explodes.  Everyone uses the machine a little differently, on different computing platforms, and foreseeing what happens in the wild can be a real pickle.

There’s a subtle blend between the engineering of a product, production, then getting that thing out to market.  Lots of steps along the way.  The bottom line is, just when do you ship the little guys out?  The race to get your product ready for the winter season is a huge one, especially with electronics.  Things change very fast indeed.

The Fuze+ is a whole new platform, so I can understand how glitches happen.  Well, from my own personal standpoint, I love to tinker.  Quite often, I build a huge list of findings and ideas, that’s the fun part.

Every time a new firmware is coded, then compiled, we see that in solving one issue, there are often secondary effects.  Ironically, “everything was fine” in another mode, as in radio or file playback, and when trying a listen, we see a glitch in places unexpected.  Getting FLAC to happily coexist earlier this year comes to mind.  My thinning hair progressed nicely during that one.

Processes that happen in the background can rob processor time for example.  Just tweaking a single line of code can make all the difference.  I look forward to the next firmware build.

Bob  :smileyvery-happy:

You bring up a point I did not earlier see.  The fact that Sansa listens to what is said on these forums.  That is great, if their history has shown that, then there is promise for the future.

This is an interesting concept in that sence.  Put something out to market and test it in the field, if this is what they are doing, then I can accept that.  If there is hope to fix the problems based on customer feed back, that is a great way to go about it.  It would be nice if that was stated with the product on paper in the package.  I was one that was not happy with the problems and wanted to do something about it and came across this site.  I’m willing to hang onto my Fuze + and wait for the updates.  I had a older Sansa player in the past and it has worked great.  I bought a Ipod and do not like it for many reasons.

But if they don’t let the customer know how they do things there are people that are apt to buy the product and not realize there is such a thing as a forum like this and uploadable updates.  These type of people are going to purchase the product, not like it, take it back, and then word of mouth advertise that is what junk, when it realy isn’t, it is just in its infancy.

I know what you mean by making just one small change will fix one thing, and screw up another, I also see that in my career field.  Thank you for giving me a different point of view on the matter.

Don’t get me wrong. I completely am in accord with you that this is a great feature. But what good is it if the file is strewn with missing milliseconds of content?

When will the next firmware be released to resolve this issue? Is there a time frame?

I just want to know whether it will be within Best Buy’s 30-day returning period from the date I bought this.

Nevertheless, Sansa’s superior customer support more than makes up for a few incidental technical snafus

I bought the Sansa Fuze + a couple weeks ago, and I "discovered’ the recording skip problem just yesterday. To determine whether it was an anomaly, I googled, “Sansa Fuze Plus recording skip”, and I very quickly found this forum. I’m absolutely stunned that most posters to this thread appear to be so forgiving and willing to bide their time until SanDisk decides that the issue is worth addressing. I, on the other hand, especially after now coming to know that this problem has persisted for so long, am livid! Shame on SanDisk for siphon profits from this clearly defective product. The earliest posts to this thread are many months old. The fact the SanDisk has not corrected this problem with lightning speed (it’s only code guys) speaks volumes about its incompetence. While I have been please with my older Sansa Fuze, I’m utterly disappointed with the new product, and I will be returning it to Best Buy for a refund tomorrow. SanDisk has lost one customer, and I suspect there will be a slow hemorrhaging of customers as word gets out. Shame…

This thread has some good information on it,.  Unfortunately it doesn’t include when the Firmware update will be available.  The last comment was 8+ months ago.  I have a Fuse + and am current on Firmware as of last week.  Is this device still of interest to SanDisk?  If not, I would like to request an RMA for mine before the Warranty runs out.

_ Hi PaulSansa 1    _

_ Not really sure if I can be of help to you but about amonth or a so ago I managed to update my sansa fuse + with an update on the off chance on second attempt of updates from sansa website  if I remember rightly and it solved my personal problems as mentioned 5 months ago back in March. Whether it helps you or not i do not know but the firmware update on my sansa is version 02.37.01F. Hope it may be of some help to you, cheers! _

_ Scratching Head   :smiley: _

This thread is really scaring me.  I bought a Sansa FuzePlus today for its FM record capability.

I purchased it to record lectures and seminar programs up to 3.5 hours in length.

I have a sansa e280 which works ok other than its intermittent FM static.  I heard that the

FuzePlus had a better FM tuner. I dont need glitches every 30 seconds in the recording

because of a bad interrupt service routine.  And I dont want it splitting my recording after

1 hour 59 minutes 59 seconds and resuming in a new file at 2 hours 0 minutes 15 seconds.

Is there a manual file split button I can press between lecturers?

That’s a pretty long recording requirement.  With the latest firmware, the Fuze+ does much better with recording.

At the onset, using the original firmware build, recording had a bizarre skipping issue, with gaps in the recording audio and time.  Remember, the device is designed for convenient recording of a song, in stereo, or voice in monaural (there is only one microphone), for up to two hours per session.

For longer, or more detailed, lecture recording, there are devices more specialized for this task.  On the Sansa, it’s a handy feature, but don’t lose sight of the fact that it isn’t the primary feature of the device.  Recordings are in PCM WAV (uncompressed digital), just like a Compact Disc, very detailed, but also very large files.  A digital audio recorder can compress that audio automatically. on-the-fly, to a smaller format. 

These recorders have tradeoffs of their own, the biggest one is that most are designed for direct, from-the-device, playback, so accessing the recording requires a removable media or USB connection port to transfer from the recorder to your PC.  Though the Fuze+ can record audio from radio or microphone, you need available memory space, and for archiving, there’s a trick, you can use a WAV (PCM) to MP3 encoder on your computer to archive these files.  With the Fuze+, you can store these new files on the microSD card for reference later, an free up the internal memory for later recordings.

If you have used an earlier sansa e200 device, as I like, it has a dedicated one touch Record button , making capture of those fleeting thoughts a snap.  On later sansas, it involves a sequence of taps or (in the case of the Fuze+), taps and sweeps.

I would love to see a specialized SanDisk Sansa device that functions primarily as a recorder, offering noise limiter, digital sound processing, a compressor / limiter, and on-the-device compression to a user selectable codec (mp3 / wav (selectable sample rate) / FLAC or even ogg).  This would be a wonderful machine, adding to SanDisk’s blend of consumer / business / professional level products.  Nothing like it exists in the current market, except one Sony device I’ve seen at around $1000.  Add SanDisk’s reputation and value for the dollar, and I see great potential, but what do I know?

Bob  :smileyvery-happy:

Hi. 

I am a musician and wanting to use the Fuze+ to do some short recordings. I’ve figured out how to do that.

My question is: How can I save the voice recordings as mp3 files as opposed to wav files? I want to be able to share them by email, and possibly burn them onto a CD. I have a PC and although I’ve got itunes on it, I’d like to delete that and simply use the Windows Media Player.

I am brand new to the device, and would appreciate any useful feedback on this subject, for starters…

Thanks, 

Marilyn

You’ll have to use some software to convert the WAV files to MP3 on your PC. Windows Media Player won’t do it, but there are several other alternative programs that will. EAC would probably do it and I know Winamp will if you buy the Gold version ($20). I’m not totally familar with Foobar2000 and Media Monkey, but they will probably do it as well. I’m sure there are others too.

But if you’re going to burn CD’s, it would be best to save an original copy of the WAV files and burn those for the lossless quality. MP3’s would make for a smaller file size for attaching to e-mails, but of course that comes with the ‘lossy’ format so the quality would be less.