I’m trying to convert a song to a .wav file, (for use in TF2, via HLDJ) but every time I change the Hz to 11025, it changes the song from what I origionally opened to some kind of background sounding music. Sounds like a clotheswasher with something heavy in it and a wolf howling in the background. It’s starting to get on my nerves, and I don’t have enough experience to know how to fix it (I just downloaded today)
It looks like you are changing that in the drop-down to the left of the track, when you’re actually supposed to change it in the Project Rate at the lower left of the Audacity window. You can change the sample depth at the Export step. Instead of exporting to WAV, export to Other Uncompressed Files.
Koz
I think I would probably export a full quality 44100, 16-bit, Stereo as a backup before I did that. Once you sub-sample, there is increased digital quality damage and it’s permanent.
Koz
If you change the project rate from 44100 Hz to 11025 Hz and export, the speed and pitch would be the same but it would sound “dull”. 44100 Hz can carry all the frequencies humans can hear (up to 22050 Hz), but 11025 Hz can only carry up to 5512.5 Hz. You live with that if you want 11025 Hz.
If your song was 44100 Hz, changing Set Rate in the Track Dropdown Menu to 11025 Hz would make it four times slower and four times lower pitch (as well as losing frequencies above 5512.5 Hz).
Gale
Alright, I messed around some more, and it turns out that the actual song changes. It changes to a track I do not recognize, and it is the same track no matter what song I start out with.
We cannot see your computer, so we cannot follow what you are doing if you don’t give us any information to go on.
You could start by giving us the information from the pink panel at the top of the page. Perhaps you have a bogus version of Audacity. You can download Audacity 2.1.1 from Audacity ® | Downloads.
Use File > Open… to import your song into a new project window. Then you won’t be confused by any other songs that may already be in the window.
According to this HLDJ - Manual - Glossary the “format for
Half-Life 2 (Source) games is wav file in 11025Hz, 16-bit sampling rate, mono-channel”. Be aware that 16-bit is the bit depth or sample format, not the “sampling rate”. 11025 Hz is the sample rate.
So next, do as Koz told you and change project rate bottom left to 11025 Hz.
Does the song say “Stereo” in Audacity to left of the blue waves? If yes, choose Tracks > Stereo Track to Mono to make the song mono.
Then having double-checked that the project rate is 11025 Hz, do File > Export… or similar and choose “WAV (Microsoft) signed 16-bit PCM”.
If you are trying to follow HLDJ - Manual - Tips & Tricks, I suggest you don’t. All those steps using the Track Dropdown Menu are un-necessary in current Audacity 2.1.1.
As I said, exporting a 44100 Hz song as 11025 Hz will make it sound dull. If you don’t accept that, you will have to use some other game that accepts full quality audio.
Gale
11025 Hz will make it sound dull.
That’s the specification for AM radio.
Koz