I am using a proprietary codec (ACM file) to convert the audio into various other formats. We’ve been provided the codec, and it installs and appears to allow decoding of the audio (it plays in both Media Player Classic and Windows Media Player), which leads me to believe it is installed system-wide. But Audacity does not appear to be able to see/use the codec. Is there a way to make audacity see the ACM installed on windows and use it? Or can I import ACM files as plugins? This is for work and unfortunately I cannot provide the codec or the company that provides the proprietary audio, just hoping that someone can help me out with possible ways to make use of the codec I’ve been given. Thanks.
Audacity is able to support some proprietary formats via FFmpeg (http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/faq_installation_and_plug_ins.html#ffdown)
If the proprietary format is not supported by FFmpeg, then you will need to convert the files to a supported format (such as WAV) before you can use them in Audacity.
First, thanks for the reply. Unfortunately the conversion is what I’m trying to accomplish. I need it in a non-proprietary format, and was hoping I could use Audacity to accomplish this using the codec provided to me. This particular codec is not part of the ffmpeg library, and I’ve tried programs such as virtualdub and others but none seem to use the installed ACM windows libraries. That’s why I decided to see if anyone out there could help me adjust audacity to accept them/see them.
If your codec is a DirectShow filter, then you should be able to convert the files using Foobar 2000 (a very good free audio player and converter)
Foobar is one I had not yet tried, so I gave it a go and it crashes upon trying to open up the audio file. I followed the installer and double checked, it is indeed installing an ‘Audio Compression Manager’ driver (or ACM file). But maybe I’m not giving enough information, this codec was designed for security, the intent was that only those who needed to hear the audio would have access to the codec, it’s antiquated now and the audio needs to be converted, but it NEEDS to use this ACM codec. LAME uses an ACM codec too, so I thought someone may be familiar with how to integrate it into audacity or help audacity see the ACM codecs installed in windows. Right now I’m using windows media player and recording the playing audio, which is tedious and should be somewhat unnecessary considering other programs see the codec and use it (the open source media player classic sees it fine). I hope this helps in describing what I’m trying to accomplish.
Wow, I have never known Foobar to crash.
How about converting using Windows Media Player? Windows help & learning
dBPowerAmp can decode DirectShow files if you add those additional decoders to it: https://www.dbpoweramp.com/codec-central-directshow.htm.
If it can play those files it can batch-convert them.
Gale