Windows 10; Audacity 2.1.3
I am receiving an error message on my Audacity Project. Reference to Invalid Chracter number at line 5. Using Notepad, I can see the ampersands and other improper characters. I have tried taking these out in various ways and saving the changes. After I do, I try to open the file and end with: the project is an Audacity Project file. Use the ‘File > Open’ command to open Audacity Projects.
I used peggo to record a short bit of audio from a youtube video and it appears to us another language, not sure if this is the issue, but it uses lots of foreign chracters.
Here are the unchanged lines 1 through 7:
<?xml version=“1.0” standalone=“no” ?>
<!DOCTYPE project PUBLIC “-//audacityproject-1.3.0//DTD//EN” “<LINK_TEXT text=“http://audacity.sourceforge.net/xml/aud … -1.3.0.dtd”>http://audacity.sourceforge.net/xml/audacityproject-1.3.0.dtd</LINK_TEXT>” >
<project xmlns=“http://audacity.sourceforge.net/xml/” projname=“Unforgiven_data” version=“1.3.0” audacityversion=“2.1.2” sel0=“2297.2750000000” sel1=“2297.2750000000” vpos=“0” h=“1991.2996342093” zoom=“1.8816856768” rate=“44100.0” snapto=“on” selectionformat=“hh:mm:ss + milliseconds” frequencyformat=“Hz” bandwidthformat=“octaves”>
<tags>
<tag name=“TITLE” value=“���������� �������������������� �������� ���������� ������������ ������������ ��������”/>
<tag name=“COMMENTS” value=“Audio of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHh4dsbX1vA recorded by Peggo.tv on 2017-07-07.”/>
</tags>
Also I have this section which looks like it is possibly problematic:
<wavetrack name=“𝐖𝐚ððœð¡ 𝐔𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟐 𝐖𝐚ððœð¡ 𝐌𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐎𝐧𝐥” channel=“0” linked=“1” mute=“0” solo=“0” height=“150” minimized=“1” isSelected=“0” rate=“44100” gain=“0.501187” pan=“0.0”>
<waveclip offset=“688.16571429”>
<sequence maxsamples=“262144” sampleformat=“262159” numsamples=“1629760”>
<waveblock start=“0”>
<simpleblockfile filename=“e00075be.au” len=“260144” min=“-0.783414” max=“0.805201” rms=“0.088962”/>
</waveblock>
<waveblock start=“260144”>
<simpleblockfile filename=“e00077df.au” len=“262144” min=“-0.56765” max=“0.666451” rms=“0.084022”/>
</waveblock>
<waveblock start=“522288”>
<simpleblockfile filename=“e000745b.au” len=“262144” min=“-0.468551” max=“0.520831” rms=“0.048652”/>
</waveblock>
<waveblock start=“784432”>
<simpleblockfile filename=“e0007071.au” len=“262144” min=“-0.665027” max=“0.677325” rms=“0.078625”/>
</waveblock>
<waveblock start=“1046576”>
<simpleblockfile filename=“e0007e8a.au” len=“262144” min=“-0.756329” max=“0.764295” rms=“0.119612”/>
</waveblock>
<waveblock start=“1308720”>
<simpleblockfile filename=“e000704f.au” len=“262144” min=“-0.51744” max=“0.535022” rms=“0.073166”/>
</waveblock>
<waveblock start=“1570864”>
<simpleblockfile filename=“e0007742.au” len=“58896” min=“-0.074149” max=“0.079628” rms=“0.006756”/>
</waveblock>
</sequence>
<envelope numpoints=“0”/>
</waveclip>
</wavetrack>
<wavetrack name=“𝐖𝐚ððœð¡ 𝐔𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟐 𝐖𝐚ððœð¡ 𝐌𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐎𝐧𝐥” channel=“1” linked=“0” mute=“0” solo=“0” height=“150” minimized=“1” isSelected=“0” rate=“44100” gain=“0.501187” pan=“0.0”>
<waveclip offset=“688.16571429”>
<sequence maxsamples=“262144” sampleformat=“262159” numsamples=“1629760”>
<waveblock start=“0”>
<simpleblockfile filename=“e0007831.au” len=“260144” min=“-0.95852” max=“0.971634” rms=“0.093778”/>
</waveblock>
It looks like the data for the project is not corrupted, when I go in to the Aup project data folder the short AU files appear to have the audio still. Is there a way I can repair or atleast recover any of the editing I have already done? [attachment=0]Unforgiven.aup[/attachment]
NotePad++ is much better for this kind of thing. Among other things, it can show line numbers, but more importantly it does not mess up the character encoding, which appears to be the problem with the AUP that you posted below. Get it here: https://notepad-plus-plus.org/
Audacity 2.0.6 is very old. The current version is 2.1.3. Get it here: Audacity ® | Downloads
When manually editing an AUP file you have to be very careful to not break the format. NotePad does not respect the character encoding of the original file, and I think that is the problem with your edited file.
You appear to have worked out the rest, but for the benefit of other readers:
AUP files are a type of XML.
More info about XML here: XML Introduction
and here: XML - Wikipedia
The usual format for XML tags is like this:
<element attribute1="something in quotes" attribute2="....">
</element>
The first XML tag “element” is the opening tag.
<element attribute1="something in quotes" attribute2="....">
Every opening tag has a matching closing tag, which has a forward slash before the name of the tag element:
</element>
So, for example, after removing the junk from this opening tag:
<wavetrack name="𝐖𝐚ððœð¡ 𝐔𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟐 𝐖𝐚ððœð¡ 𝐌𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐎𝐧𝐥" channel="0" linked="1" mute="0" solo="0" height="150" minimized="1" isSelected="0" rate="44100" gain="0.501187" pan="0.0">
becomes:
<wavetrack name="Valid Name" channel="0" linked="1" mute="0" solo="0" height="150" minimized="1" isSelected="0" rate="44100" gain="0.501187" pan="0.0">
I have replace the junk “name” value
"𝐖𝐚ððœð¡ 𝐔𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟐 𝐖𝐚ððœð¡ 𝐌𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐎𝐧𝐥"
with a valid value (which is in double quotes)
"Valid Name"
Thank you, Steve, this was very helpful!
I made the correction to the Tag value in line 5 using Note Pad ++, saved it and was immediately able to open the file. I had done the very same thing with NotePad in multiple attempts and all to no avail.
I did not need to change the wavetrack name character values as of yet and they don’t appear to be causing a problem.
Thank you again for the very good description and well crafted post.