Hi steve,
First i made some (more) misinterpretations, iff 8svx is always sequential stereo because it’s an abuse of the “high octave” address in the header to enable stereo for this filetype, i assumed there are two possibilities because audacity loads a stereo 8svx sometimes as stereo sample sometimes as it is as two mono samples one after the other (sequential).
The method to create a stereo sample is quite easy you simply join the two tracks one after the other and write the address where the “left channel” starts to the address for the “high octave” (means for a plugin the two mono samples audacity exports would have to be only joined that’s all what is missing apart from writing the address in the header).
Players and utilities to create stereo 8svx on the Amiga are picky - very picky!
It stays that the output of a utility like “join2stereo” depends on the length of the filename (how stupid) further i found out that a length below 5 is bad and a length above 9 as well as all even counts of characters, why i don’t understand because apart from the length for the header nothing changes for the file and address for the “high octave” is where it should be and points to the same location in the file (same count of bytes from on keyword “DATA”), nonetheless any given player can fail to interpret it proper as well as audacity when re-importing the sample (or importing one you converted using a web service).
No steve i don’t see that there exists an external program for windows to join two mono 8svx to a stereo sample, what is left is to export it as mono samples and join it on the amiga using i.e. “join2stereo” (there are other programs doing the same job) or like i posted already to use a web service to convert them while using latter you won’t have no control over the result and it is as unpredictable as it is when you do it yourself (as predictable as i stated, i know now “7 is ideal” so all my files to convert have a name of seven characters length to be sure the file is interpreted right by all players and even (and most of all) by audacity on which i depend a little (i found out that if audacity loads the stereo sample wrong it is “wrong” for sure, not really and a player like “sound” can correct this when you use the switch “stereo”, however since the least of players have such a switch i make sure that all samples are proper stereo and what is interpreted right by audacity is usually also interpreted right by any amiga software - usually).
In fact there isn’t really a need for an export plugin and i assume it would be as inconsistent as any solution (i wonder how they convert it on this web service) even if i think it wouldn’t be such a big deal (standart hin oder her) to linear join two mono samples and write the address in the header, “join2stereo” does nothing else as this.
That it can fail to be resolved proper i assume is rooted in the abuse of the “high octave” 8svx was never meant to serve for stereo samples it was meant to store instrument samples therefore the “high octave”. I’m not sure but it seems it is rooted in the length of the header and probably it has to have an even count in the end, another difference of converting the same file once named “123456” and once named “1234567” there isn’t.
But why the header size influences the resolving is neither clear, and yet less clear is why audacity is picky the same about this, because no matter how the size of the header is the raw data is the same and of same length.
**IN SHORT
- Export as two mono samples
- Use either a web service or the Amiga and a software like “join2stereo”
-
Sample amount must be an even number for stereo 8svx else the converter strikes** (“mangled .iff file”, iff always expects to have an even filelesize but for mono it won’t play a role, audacity don’t minds at all you have to mind)[/size]- Make sure your files have odd name lengths best 5 - 9, ideal 7 characters long
(i know that it sounds stupid but this i experienced, audacity only interprets them wrong if files had a even name length when joining to stereo and the result of the web service is identical means they share the same issue, to be sure it will be interpreted right by any player on the Amiga use SEVEN CHARACTERS LENGTH this has never failed for me).
Sample sample:
stereo.zip (25.9 KB)
Amiga speaks: “left channel - right channel”, identical source differs only for filename “Stereo” resp. “Stereos”, latter is stereo interpreted first is wrong interpreted.
As one can see if it’s interpreted wrong it appears as stereo sample with a mono signal on both channels, as i said this will happen even when you use a web service it only depends on the length of the filename in this case “stereo” (count 6) or “stereos” (count 7).
I hope this will help users who like to create stereo 8svx samples using audacity and/or amiga software.