Exported .WAV/.OGG not playing

I breifly spoke on this before but didnt quite seem to get an answers I wanted, so heres the part 2 if anyone wants to give me a guide on this.

Me and my friend both tried exporting a 8+ channel wav and both got the same result, a non-playable file, we tried this with .OGG too, same result, so it’s something most likley to do with Audacity or we are doing something wrong, we both used Audacity 2.4.2, any help?
(Advanced mixing options were on)

When you re-open the 8-channel file do you see all 8 channels? If so, the file is fine.

I breifly spoke on this before but didnt quite seem to get an answers I wanted

Hmmm… One of your other posts says 8 channels and below were working…

Do you have a 7.1 channel soundcard? Do you have player software that supports 7.1?


…Personally, I have a Blu-Ray drive and Blu-Ray player software but my home theater system is only 5.1, and I only have a handful of Blu-Ray discs and as far as I know they are 5.1 also.

yeah i tried with a 7.1 soundcard and still didnt work, its something to do with audacity i think, keep in mind too my friend had the same issue cause I wanted to test and see if anyone else had it and it turns out to be an issue for alot of people. If you could help me sort this out that would be perfect, i tried searching about this topic online but not much really came across, thats why i made this account in the first place and i might be the first in the forum to speak on this as well, but I just to find out why this is happening :unamused:

If you could just try to get a song or audio of choice in Audacity and put it in, copy it 8 times (prefrebly a stereo song/audio, so one track is 2 channels, 8x2=16) so you get a 16 channel project, then export it as .WAV or .OGG, leave the settings stock (all channels connected to the blue boxes in straight lines) and after its exported, tell me if it works for you (plays after opening it) just for my clarity thanks


FYI - I didnt mention this at the time but, I did try making a 16ch using AIFF (apple’s format) and for some reason, this did work (file was playable) so its not a problem with my soundcard

I havent tried this on the other file types in the uncompressed formats list but i know
AIFF worked smooth as butter, I think most computers in the modern day should be
able to handle most of the audio out there anyway right?


Heres some reminder info:

*Using V.2.4.2
*Tried this with a 7.1 soundcard, didnt work
*Got a friend to try, didnt work too
*AIFF works fine (file playable after export)
*Using stereo headphones

off topic but just wanted to wish you a nice christmas and thanks alot for the help during these times (:

Help me understand what you are trying to do here. At 7.1 surround sound - Wikipedia
it says, “7.1 surround sound is the common name for an eight-channel surround audio system…”

So why do you need to have 16 channels ? What is your specific hardware setup?

No reason, and in terms of hardware its just headphones and Windows 10, nothing external

So then you only need the 8 channels. :smiley:

of course, thats why i made this topic in the first place

Is the 8-channel not playing at all, or you missing some of the channels?

If it’s not playing at all I’m blaming your player software. If you are missing some channels I’m blaming your drivers or maybe a Windows setting.

No reason, and in terms of hardware its just headphones and Windows 10, nothing external

Headphones are 2-channels!!! A headphone connector has 3 contacts - left, right, and ground, and there are 2 drivers (speakers) and you only have 2 ears!

Normally with headphones (or stereo speakers), surround sound is downmixed by the drivers. If you have a 5.1 or 7.1 soundcard there should be a driver utility so you can set it to for 2-channels (and it should automatically downmix), or there might be an options like [u]Dolby Headphone[/u] or Dolby Atmos for Headphones that can “enhance” the down-mix. Apparently some people get good surround illusion but personally I never hear the sound coming from behind. (And Dolby doesn’t actually claim it can do that.)

In real life or with surround speakers we normally turn our head slightly (sometimes slightly and sometimes subconsciously) to “see” where the sound is coming from. That gives your ears another “reading” and it helps triangulate the direction of the sound. But of course that doesn’t work with headphones because the speakers move when you move your head. The exception is head-tracking headphones which apparently work pretty-well but I’ve never tried them.

BTW - The “point one” LFE channel is left-out of the stereo downmix. The “regular bass” is included in the other 5 or 7 channels.