Audacity Question: Trouble Importing Anything Other Than A Wave File

[launched]

I can import and play .wav files fine, but if I import an .mp3 or a .wma, I only get a 1/4 second "Chirp". I can visually see that it has imported (with the track bars showing the typical audio graphic), but when I click on the play button the time marker whips through the tracks in the blink of an eye.

I have installed the latest version of lame, but that's probably not what it is.


Can anyone think of what this might be?

Thanks,

Mark


 

[Geir]

I think you have to tell audacity where lame is !

[guitarron]

maybe a sampl rate mismatch?

[OsCKilO]

Download a "Lame" file for it......

Computer told me to do it so I did.......


Works fine now!

T(Osckilo)

[launched]

Thanks, guys - I'll try what you have said.

I hate software - The shit should just work, right?? ?? Don't know why we have to jump through hoops all the time...


Thanks!!

Mark

[64Guitars]

I don't think the trouble is with LAME because it's only an encoder and should only affect MP3 exports.

Where did these MP3 files come from? You might want to try some other MP3s from different sources to see if it's just something about the MP3 that Audacity doesn't like (possibly the bit rate).

Open Audacity's Preferences dialog and select the "Audio I/O" page. Note the currently selected Playback Device, then try selecting a different one from the list of available devices (if any). Try playing the MP3 with each playback device and see if there's any difference. If there isn't, put it back to the original setting you found there.

Select the Quality page in Preferences and set the Default Sample Rate to 44100 Hz, and the Default Sample Format to 32-bit float.

Not sure if these ideas will help or not but it's all I can think of at the moment. I'm sure I've seen this behaviour before but I don't remember what caused it. Sorry.

[launched]

Where did these MP3 files come from? You might want to try some other MP3s from different sources to see if it's just something about the MP3 that Audacity doesn't like (possibly the bit rate).

I will try this - now that I think of it, I think the biggest issue is .wma files. I'll dig up some .mp3's and make absolute sure those aren't a problem.

Open Audacity's Preferences dialog and select the "Audio I/O" page. Note the currently selected Playback Device, then try selecting a different one from the list of available devices (if any). Try playing the MP3 with each playback device and see if there's any difference. If there isn't, put it back to the original setting you found there.

Select the Quality page in Preferences and set the Default Sample Rate to 44100 Hz, and the Default Sample Format to 32-bit float.

Not sure if these ideas will help or not but it's all I can think of at the moment. I'm sure I've seen this behaviour before but I don't remember what caused it. Sorry.

Will try this, too - I think I have enough info to keep me busy.

Much appreciated!!

Later,

Mark

[launched]

OK - I figured it out:

It was a coincidence that caused the .mp3 import problem - Just one file was causing this problem - subsequent imports of different files worked fine. There was never a problem with that - I was just lucky enough to try importing the one .mp3 I had that didn't work first.


Audacity does not support the .wma format:

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/faq?s=files&i=wma-proprietary

That's how I rip my CD's, so kind of a bummer.


Thanks for the help and suggestions.

Mark

[64Guitars]

Audacity does not support the .wma format:

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/faq?s=files&i=wma-proprietary

That's only true for the older versions of Audacity. Version 1.3.6 introduced FFmpeg support which includes WMA. See this page:

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/features-1.3-a

As with Audacity's MP3 support, you have to download and install the FFmpeg support separately due to copyright/patents:

http://www.audacityteam.org/manual/index.php?title=FAQ:Installation_and_Plug-Ins#installffmpeg

[64Guitars]

Audacity does not support the .wma format:

That's how I rip my CD's, so kind of a bummer.

You'd be better off ripping straight to WAV format, or using a lossless format such as flac. Unless, of course, you need WMA format for a Zune player or something similar.