I am a complete newbie to any digital sound editing. I downloaded Audacity 2.0.6 today as a Windows EXE installer.
I need to edit a simple recorded conversation from an Olympus VN 480PC voice recorder, copied to the computer as a WAV file. It’s about 30 minutes long.
I need to cut out several sections of off-topic conversation, then resave (ie Export as) a WAV file which can be played in Windows Media Player.
I am using a late version of Windows Vista (32 bit) and Media Player 11.0.6002.18311
The WAV opens in Audacity without problems and I managed to cut the first unwanted section by selecting it and using Edit / Cut.
I then exported the file as a 16 bit Microsoft WAV
This appears to work, but, when played in media player, the graphic on screen does not show the usual moving indicator bar which shows current position in the file.
The bar appears for a couple of seconds after the file opens, then vanishes.
Any attempt to move to a different point in the file results in play restarting from the beginning.
I had assumed this was due to the cut operation, but I just tried opening the original WAV in Audacity and Exporting straight back to WAV without doing any cutting.
The exact same problem occurs.
Can anyone tell me how to solve this?
You missed the step where you opened the original WAV file in Media Player with no Audacity at all.
Koz
Sorry, I don’t understand.
The original WAV works as expected in WMP.
The problem is only happening after the file has been re-exported from Audacity.
Drag the exported file back into Audacity. Is it only two seconds long? If so you may have a selection in the waveform and only did File > Export Selected Audio… . Just do File > Export Audio… .
Gale
Gale, Thanks for that.
I did use Export Audio and the file is the expected length, but I see where you’re coming from.
But there has been an odd development.
After the first file failed to work properly, I experimented - first using “Selected Audio” which did just what you said, then using variations on export and save commands. All gave the same result.
(The “export selected audio” version is also full length, I suspect because I had nothing selected at that point).
After my second post here, I knocked off for a meal.
Coming back just now, I read your post and double checked the size of the files by simply opening one of the saved WAVs in Media Player.
And it worked properly! 
I can’t see why, as this is one of the versions that emphatically did not work two hours ago.
The PC has not been restarted. The sole Windows update today was for MSE, not media player. So I’m scratching my head now…
However, I will proceed with fingers crossed. Thanks for the suggestion. It’s always good to know there’s help out there, which is far from the case with a lot of software.
I’ll be back for more if it recurs.
The up side of repeated postings is your moderation will go away and your postings will appear immediately.
Koz
So what were you doing before when you did not check the file size?
WMP 11 has a bug that it can’t burn WAV to CD until you put the WAV in its library or in a playlist, because it does not know the file size. This could be something similar - perhaps you need to play the whole file and accept the play bar is not full length or disappears first time?
Gale
Gale- my best guess.
So what were you doing before when you did not check the file size?
Nothing that I can think of. I exported the file and tried to play it in WMP. It played , except for the absence of the progress bar as I described above.
As soon as I realised there was a problem, I stopped WMP and then tried export selection (but with the whole file selected, which was dim. I am new to this.) and I also tried using Save instead of Export, which of course gives an AUP file. I stooged around, repeating my attempt to export. Same result. Those WAV files are all the same size, except the precut original which is naturally a bit larger.
WMP 11 has a bug that it can’t burn WAV to CD until you put the WAV in its library or in a playlist, because it does not know the file size. This could be something similar - perhaps you need to play the whole file and accept the play bar is not full length or disappears first time?
No CD involved, all in memory or on a hard drive. It certainly looks like a WMP issue rather than an Audacity one, and what you say here sounds likely. The file is over 30 minutes and I did not let it play to completion. I will test that with something smaller.
I’m just baffled by why it worked later. That’s very strange. I didn’t save any of the files to a library or playlist- as far as I’m aware. (I’m not actually sure what those are, to be honest, as this is literally the first time I’ve ever used a PC for anything audio related.) If you mean Windows “Libraries”, I never use them for files at all. For music, I still use CDs and vinyl. (OK I’m a Luddite. I use PC’s to edit photos though). It does look like something enabled WMP to “learn” the file length during my time away from the computer.
I must have done something when I went to eat that let Windows add an EOF marker to the files. I wonder if I somehow still had the files open , either in Audacity or another instance of WMP, which I unwittingly closed when I went to eat, letting Windows save them with a file length record that WMP could read?
Must be something of that sort.