This is really more of an audio software question than audio hardware. Unfortunately, unless I miss it, there is no appropriate Discussions area for audio software. I am running Audacity 2.0.5 on my Windows 8.1 desktop. But when I attempted to import a rather large sized audacity file I created a few years ago on an earlier version of Audacity (off an open-reel tape recorded off the air from an 1 1/2 hour classical music concert), the import failed to complete successfully. I have noticed v2.0.5 uses 32-bit float while the earlier version on XP uses 24-bit, but I have 32 GB RAM and 2 TB hard drive on my Wins 8.1. Does it look like I have to spring for a professional version of Audacity to make this project work, i.e. transfer this almost 2.0 GB music file created on my XP computer, which will be upgraded to Windows 7 Professional SP1 shortly. Any insights from forum members who have used Audacity will be most welcome. Thanks in advance.
I don't think there's a professional version of Audacity ... but maybe another audio editing SW could make it work? Could be a problem with Windows and file size limitations, unfortunately. I don't know that much about it, but have run into issues (not audio files into Audacity tho) where the file couldn't be copied or transferred. What file type is the music file? possibly someone with a Mac could read it into their machine/Audacity and resave it or something. I would say (if you get it read into Audacity) 'chop it up' a bit into smaller files and save them separately if possible, like with a few selections/movements in each file. Maybe you or someone else could make a couple or more 'sub files' that would be readable (and more easily manipulated) on your machine. the files I was having problems with were very large digital video files that someone had saved ... this was years ago, so I don't remember if we could (re)save them or not.
BTW, you should be able to change the bit depth and sample rate from within Audacity, altho this would be 'set' automatically by Audacity depending on what the original file(s) were saved as. I wouldn't think that if the files were saved as 24 bit / whatever sample rate (96kHz or whatever) that that would prevent them from being opened on another machine.
All the files I have are of extension .au, i.e. they are all Audacity files. The original digitization was done in 24 bit on Audacity v1.2.6 on my XP computer. The v2.0.5 is now running on my Windows 8.1 at 32 bit float and I am not sure if I can push it down to 24 bit as I have been poking around and have not found an option that can allow me to reduce that bit rate. I think that 32 bit float may be the problem, as those 8 extra bits would need much higher addressability on my computer ...
(You answered while I was composing the following!) Could also be something in your Preferences settings ... I use a 2011 iMac and Audacity ... 2.0.5 as well. I see 'default' settings for I think creating files (I have 16 bit 44.1kHz as 'standard') but I don't think this matters when importing a file (I am pretty sure it changes to reflect whatever the file is saved at, like 24 bit 96000Hz or whatever). Another thing I see is in the 'Import/Export' section, you have options to "Make a copy of uncompressed files ... (safer)" - or "Read uncompressed files directly ... (faster)". Try the setting you aren't using now and see if it helps. I don't know what "Extended Import" means, but there seem to be import filter options here (I don't have anything here, never used it). There's a 'Projects' section ... "Always copy all audio into project (safest)" and "Do not copy any audio" and "Ask user" are the choices. Mine present says "Ask user" altho I don't remember it doing so ...? Try each of these and see what happens. If possible, I'd also make a COPY of the original file just in case ... maybe two! You don't want to corrupt your file while trying various things ...
I would still think Audacity would recognize the 24 bit files as such and simply change accordingly. I wonder if it's an Audacity file structure thing ... I think it's similar between Mac and Windows, but there's an ".aup" file for the overall project, then the data ".au" files are small (~1MB) files stored in folders and subfolders. If the files/folders get moved around or not in the correct 'order' things can go wrong, I think. The largest project I have is a wedding with 1.5 hours of 16/44.1 data (~600MB for the .au files), it just opened 'fine' on my Mac. I'm pretty sure I moved this project from my current built-in HD to my external one where it now resides ... but possibly the Windows version is more sensitive to these kinds of things. (Edit/PS: the project I was talking about above was made on 11-11-11 ... using whatever version of Audacity that was out at that time.)
I did have an earlier project (small, actually, only 22MB in ~20 ".au" files) that was made using Audacity 1.3.12 (beta) ... I get an error upon trying to open this saying "Error Opening Project in bold, then "Error: reference to invalid character number at line 6" in the body of the error message box ... I opened the .aup file in TextEdit to see what version of Audacity was used ... but I don't know enough about things to see what's wrong ... Probably unrelated to your issue though ... Several other projects I have stored on the external HD opened just fine ...
AU files aren't Audacity files, they are actually an old Sun-based audio format. Although Audacity should support opening and saving them, similar to how it supports AIFF / WAV / FLAC etc. Is the file in question close to 2GB in size? I'm wondering if the AU format has a 2GB size limit (I'm guessing here) and perhaps when opening in the newer version of Audacity + a 2GB limit + 32-bit float + making a copy when opening = file limit reached? Again, taking some guesses here but it's where I would likely start.
Long long time ago in a galaxy far away ... there was a 2GB file size limit in a number of OS. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2_GB_limit I sincerely doubt that can be the problem because I think it phased out long before XP, but if you can easily trim it try 1.9G and see if that works. Maybe some artifact of the old file system survived in that version of the application. Frankly, try other suggestions first. Maybe contact your vendor - it seems like just a plain old bug. Note XP is perfectly capable of 32 Float, it is just your Audacity version that did fixed 24. If there is a 32 float version of Audactiy that'll run on XP try convert it there, then bring it forward to 7 SP1. I feel your pain. These XP moves are always PITA no matter the genre of software.
The file size limitation could be on the AU format itself, not the file system. I don't use AU myself, but AIFF / WAV are also fairly old and there can be issues once you go beyond 2GB in size (depends on the application I believe). Fairly easy test @the OP: In Edit / Preferences / Quality, change the default sample rate from 32-bit float to 24-bit. If this is a 2GB threshold because the 32-bit float is adding bytes during import, that should match how things were setup for you previously and perhaps you can get the import working. Probably unrelated but an FYI - Audacity 2.0.6 has been released and the FLAC backend has been upgraded to 1.3.0. One of the things FLAC 1.3.0 added was support beyond 2GB file sizes.
That may be true, but Audacity (in Windows and Mac version) uses the extension ".au" for the ~1MB 'chunks' of data that are part of every 'project'. It's as I explained above ... Maybe it's the same file format, carried over or something? but it is what it is. Every Audacity project uses that file type.
That's what I said, or tried to say, above ... maybe the preferences are set up differently in the Windows version.
Never thought of that, but you're probably right. Assuming that Audacity spawned from a Linux base initially, the developers may have used that format for their temporary files and it's just something that never changed. OP chose to use AU as the file export however, that was what I was focusing on. It's 32-bit float, by default, in at least the 2.x version. I'm not sure what the 1.x version would have defaulted to as it was too long ago for me to remember. I believe 32-bit float is the default on 2.x on MacOS and Linux as well. Actually, it wouldn't have mattered as, during the XP setup, OP likely chose 24-bit when doing the AU export.
I guess I'm confused (or possibly the OP is confused as well?) ... I assumed the .au files were the ~1MB ones in the project folders ... AHHHH, I see now "AU" is an uncompressed file type that one can save as (as you said). Now ... I have no clue what to do! except try different settings/preferences, as we both seem to be suggesting. Good luck!
No worries! I wasn't aware of the AU temporary files until your posts, so we both learned something today.
Have you tried downloading the version of Audacity you created the file with? http://sourceforge.net/projects/audacity/files/audacity/ Try uninstalling the current version, then download the version you used before from the page above. If you can get your file to open, then try saving the file as a FLAC or WAV. Reinstall the current version and import the file. I don't know if it will work, but it's worth a shot.
