What is Auto-Restore and Auto-Replace?

This article is part of the Source-Connect Pro and Pro X 3.9 User Guide

With traditional long-distance recording, whether with Source-Connect, ISDN or any networkbased transmission, the send signal is subject to various issues which may cause dropped packets and therefore ‘glitches’ in your recorded audio. Previously the only method to ensure a fully complete recording was to ensure your connection partner was also recording locally, so you could transfer this audio after your session and manually replace it in your edit. Source-Connect with Q is the only available automated method to ensure that your recordings are perfect every time, with our Auto-Restore functionality.

How does it work? 

First, an overview of how audio is transferred and recorded over packet-based transmission lines.

1. The audio signal is sent through Source-Connect, and is split into packets.
2. These packets are sent sequentially to your connected partner over the internet.
3. If a network error occurs, a packet may not arrive in time.
4. If this occurs you will hear a minor glitch in the received audio signal.
5. The audio file is scanned when recording completes.
6. If any missing packets are detected they are requested from your connected partner, who has stored them during the connection.
7. Your file is restored and is now available for flawless playback.

Source-Connect has built-in error correction modes to try and resolve these dropped packet issues in real time, however under certain circumstances a packet may not be retrieved in time to recover the signal before it is recorded. 

Auto-Restore resolves this problem by working in the background in non-realtime and restoring your recorded audio files.

Auto-Replace 

Auto-Replace works in a similar way, except the packets which are requested from your connected partner are of the original PCM data which was sent into the Source-Connect plug-in, and instead of only requesting those packets which did not arrive in time, all packets are requested. A complete replacement of the decoded AAC audio is then made with the full resolution PCM audio. An important distinction between Replace and Restore, is that Replace operations will take longer to transfer due to PCM being uncompressed data. Generally we would recommend you activate the Replace process once your session is complete.