I’m a total audio noob. I’m trying to edit some video game (Alien Swarm) files but they end up garbled in the game. They sound fine when played back both in Audacity and with Windows Media Player.I assume it’s due to the bit rate. I noticed the original files were in mono (according to the info to the left of the wave pattern) at 11025Hz, and 32-bit float. I’m recording with my Logitech 5000 webcam via USB on my desktop. I first tried to create my own file, but when that didn’t work, I tried just editing the existing file and exporting with a different name (which I rename later after backing up the original so the game recognizes it), keeping the Project Rate (Hz) at 11025 (bottom left), “Actual Rate” of 11025 (bottom right) and “1 (Mono) Recording” in one of the toolbars. The file shows in Windows Explorer as 176kbps, but all the originals are 88kbps so I’m off by a factor of two. There’s not a choice at half of 11025 for Project Rate, so how do I fix this?
I’ve attached the two files: original and edited in case I’m not making sense. Thanks!
Audacity doesn’t have Clip Info, so you can’t use that to get a good idea what the original work was. You can use Media Info to tell you about the original work.
Don’t download the one with the installer.
I think you’re confusing Sample Rate for Data Rate. Sample Rate is the number of times a second an analog sound is chopped up and converted into digits. Audio CD uses 44100 and video uses 48000. Data Rate is the speed that a digital audio signal goes by. Uncompressed audio like WAV files are usually labeled for their sample rate. Compressed files like MP3, the data rate.
Audacity intentionally changes sound to a very high digital quality for editing, and then makes a whole new file on export. You can have different sample rates and data rates for the new show compared with the old one, but if you started with low quality work, you can’t ever improve the sound quality.
If you’re working with odd format sound files, you may need to install FFMpeg for Audacity to understand what to do.
Can we hope that is a typo for “2.1.1”? If not, hurry along to Audacity ® | Downloads and download 2.1.1 from us.
The original file is 88 kbps because it is 8-bit and the file you exported is 176 kbps because the WAV you exported was 16-bit.
To fix it, choose “Other uncompressed files” when you export, click the “Options…” button then choose “WAV (Microsoft)” for “Header” and “Unsigned 8-bit PCM” for “Encoding”. Leave Project Rate at 11025 Hz.
To fix it, choose “Other uncompressed files” when you export, click the “Options…” button then choose “WAV (Microsoft)” for “Header” and “Unsigned 8-bit PCM” for “Encoding”. Leave Project Rate at 11025 Hz.
Gale
Gale,
I don’t think I would’ve ever seen that. I had to re-read your instructions 3 times to make sense of choosing what appears to be the final choice before saving something (Other uncompressed files) and then options. It works! Thanks so much.
In the upcoming 2.1.2 release it should get a little easier to find - you’d still need to realize that you needed the “Other uncompressed files” option - but the options are now integrated on the initial dialog hopefully making them easier to spot.
Now that Leland has removed the “Options” from the export dialog (for the upcoming 2.1.2) these should be more discoverable.
I would be loath to extend the dropdown menu from the “Save as type” to include these more obscure (less frequently used) formats.
The main problem is that the wording “Other uncompressed files” may not be clear enough to encourage users to explore that - so maybe we should think about rewording that for clarity of purpose.
Once you have clicked on that though, the “WAV(Microsoft)” is shown as the default container in the “Header” selection box. It is then a simple matter to explore the “Encoding” dropdown to select the encoding such as U-Law, A-Law and the various forms of ADPCM.
Does anybody have any suitable suggestions for a suitable rewording for “Other uncompressed files” ?
Peter, they are not “obscure”. U-Law and A-Law and ADPCM get asked about regularly on the Forum, especially by people who use Audacity to record messages for telephone systems. I know because of how often I answer those. We need to make it easier to find these formats. I would bet they are much more commonly used than MP2 (which has its own entry).
As you have pointed out yourself, it is ambiguous if *-Law and ADPCM should be described as uncompressed or not. Technically I think they could be so described, but users may not think of them as “uncompressed” because of their small size.
The formats in “Other uncompressed files” are in fact all formats other than AIFF 16-bit, WAV 16-bit and WAV 32-bit float that libsndfile handles. Given FLAC is in “Other uncompressed files” on Linux (as well as having its own entry) it’s hard to see what it could be called. Clearly we cannot call it “Other libsndfile formats” while there are so many important formats inside it.
Therefore it makes sense to me to take out the important formats it contains into the root of the menu, then the ambiguous “Other uncompressed files” moniker does not matter so much. Regrouping formats is the answer.
For example, instead of "Other uncompressed files we could have:
RF/WAVE 64 (for > 4 GB)
WAV/WAVEX *-Law
WAV/WAVEX ADPCM
RAW (headerless)
Other libsndfile formats
Perhaps we can make “libsndfile” a link in the export dialogue, or even have that “Help” button we keep talking about.
RF/WAVE 64 needs to have its own entry because of the problem questions we get “Help! My exported 8 hour WAV file is truncated”.
RAW could be left in “Other” if not deemed important enough.
The suggested items would be most logically placed below WAV 32-bit float, but they could also go below FLAC, or at the bottom. Or the RF/WAVE 64 only could go below WAV 32-bit float and the others farther down.
Yes, “technically” they are “uncompressed” and “lossless” formats (but they are also “low quality” formats).
If you have a u-Law or A-law file, it can be imported into Audacity and re-exported to create an exact copy of the original (may need dither to be turned off).
other uncompressed files
other compressed files
external program
custom FFmpeg Export
This would place (what I am guessing) all the most commonly used export formats clearly visible above the line.
The below the line items would then encourage exploration by users who want any other format.
OK maybe not “obscure” but almost certainly less frequently used or needed by the majority of our users.
I did some research on Forum postings over the past 12 months:
For ADPCM we have 12 threads - but only 2 of those appear to be “I want ADPCM” export but can’t find it.
2)For *-LAW we have 5 threads of which 3 are “Can’t find …”
So not a huge amount really (we get far more posters who get stuck in Pause mode and can’t figure out why effects and commands don’t work - and we’ve yet to fix that …).
I really do think that Leland has improved things a lot in this regard by integrating the options onto the main dialog and removing the “Options” button which many folk obviously failed to spot. Perhaps we should wait until 2.1.2 is out with this new Export interface and see if the situation in this regard improves (or even worsens) …
Perhaps we could provide a bit more information about the “standard” formats, particularly about those that don’t have options. For example: Idea 2:
Perhaps “standard” WAV export could have an option for sample rate - default: Same as project.
If we also have “idea 1”, it could recommend 44100 Hz for widest compatibility.
Searching like that won’t give you the correct result here. I know how many of these I answer and I have seen Steve answer them too. And that is just the Forum, there is feedback@, the -users list, and direct user e-mails/PM’s to me too.
I agree the “Options…” button was part of the problem but clearly what we have now is sub-optimal with a mish-mash of formats within “Other uncompressed files”.
Most of these are “uncompressed” as defined in the Manual (but users may think of them as compressed), then there is at least one compressed/lossy and another compressed/lossless.
I think that has some merit too, though I think WMA ought to be in the uppermost list. There are still many users who don’t explore beyond Windows Media Player.
However if long lists are a problem for users, the above doesn’t address the problem of “Other uncompressed files” (or whatever) being a necessarily ambiguous moniker and it hiding three often needed formats within a complicated list of obscure formats.
Another possible problem with the above is that users wanting AC3 and AMR (and WMA if not in the uppermost list) may look in the convoluted “Custom FFmpeg Export” rather than in “Other compressed files” that would give them a simpler interface.
At the moment I still prefer my idea which makes the uppermost list less generic and contains direct access to items that most users want. The lists are going to be “long” in one of the dropdowns whatever we do.
I think that might be better than the bald “no format specific options” which almost looks like it is “not” recommended. There is a risk of having too long a text.
Depending if we change the uppermost list, the text for 16-bit and 32-bit float WAV could also say where to look for other common WAV encodings.
I’m not sure. Definitely some users don’t “get” that project rate determines the export rate and mess their work up by using Set Rate in the track dropdown. But changing the project rate temporarily is not a big deal as long as you close that project and start over on the next one.
If we were to have an export sample rate control I would expect it to apply to all formats.
We need to make it easier to find these formats. I would bet they are much more commonly used than MP2 (which has its own entry).
