A new issue for me, and odd. I’ve been Importing Zoom wav files for weeks now without a problem. Several days ago I recorded just over 2 hrs. of audio using Zoom’s “Surround” setting. It produces “.wav” files, described as Waveform Audio in a Finder window. But this time around Audacity wouldn’t load any of the 6-7 files. Error message was something about “not recognized” or “invalid”? This file extension and description is exactly the same any of dozens of other files I’ve imported and edited using the Zoom H1 Handy, or lately the H2n model. I first encountered an issue when trying to load the files into an audio file cutter, producing the same error message. I’ve loaded files from the H2n in Stereo mode, Spatial mode, and Mid-Side mode - no problems. Ideas?
The Zoom manual does not seem to specify the “Surround” file format. It may be a 4-channel WAV file, but without the headers that Audacity expects. It seems that other programs (you mention an “audio file cutter”) have a similar issue.
You could try File > Import > Raw Data. After choosing the file to import, click the “Detect” button and see if Audacity can guess what kind of file it is.
I was back here to do a 2nd edit!, when I found your reply. Thanks. First, I should have added that I did install Zoom’s AU and VST plugins for MS (Mid-Side) file handling. I put them in every folder ever named as a possibility for Audacity to find. (only after still having no success importing the files). And yes, I did try Import RAW but with the exact same error message. I did not see the “Detect” option. Lastly, “Surround” is Zoom’s own term used for one of their recording modes. Plus it describes the enjoyment of listening to 4 channel on your home audio system.! Now it is possible … that they didn’t mention at that opportune time whether or not you need special software. And they DO have specialized software for creating 5.1, I believe (and perhaps decoding the 4 chan. Surround??) A mere $750 ! ha
That’s strange! Raw should be able to open ANY file, including a text or image file (although as audio it would be noise/junk).
Maybe try temporarily re-naming it (or renaming a copy) to .RAW.
Importing the raw data should work on any uncompressed as long as you know, or can guess the parameters.
…If you can open/import Mid/Side files there ways to manually add and subtract to get left & right even if you can’t get the plug-ins working.
Zoom’s plug-ins are about post-processing the files, not about importing them.
Yes, I understand that the term “Surround” is Zoom’s term for one of their recording modes. I’ve read the manual online. I can’t find in that manual what the format of a “Surround” file is when transferred to a computer.
There is apparently a new “Spacial” recording format that is “compatible with YouTube
spherical video playback.” It looks like Ambisonic without the up-down information. The update specifically says that the file is a 4-channel WAV (but one channel is empty - the up-down channel).
You might try opening a file in a hex editor or file viewer and examining the header. On Mac that would be HexFiend. I don’t know what you’d use on Windows or Linux. A simple representation the the WAV file header is here.
Understood. However I did hope that ensuring Audacity had in the AU and VST “plug-ins” in place(s) would cure the problem after great frustration. After the failed attempts using ‘import - RAW data’ I did notice the “Detect” button mentioned. Now, it’s taking a really long time to load just like before I ran into this glitch. After all each file is close to 2gb, unless there’s a short term recording period among the batch. Talk about strange (someone did above), each file that I load in this manner displays a flat line!, with the exception of a single scrunched up waveform, I think near the center. I zoom in to find that this little blip is about 34 seconds of time. Not the 50+ minutes that should be produced. Stranger still … the audio is at a very rapid speed, and I can’t slow it down!!? Is that a RAW ‘thing’? Just how long would it actually be in real time? I’ve done a couple new recordings, but this time in the Mid-Side setting. It’s using the Left, right, and center mics located on the back of the recorder. I don’t know why I began this topic talking about the MS mode? It’s the Surround mode that’s giving me the problem. Possibly because I was recalled only the file names with “MS”, when every other file has the “XY” in it’s name. I hope later to check out the recordings I did using the MS mode, and the 3 mics. I’ll update when I can.
Try looking at the file in a file editor. You just want to be able to decipher the header. If you can decipher the header then you could enter that information into the raw import dialog.
I doubt that I’ve found the info that you’re looking for. But here’s the 1st try at it. The names to the left of each string of #'s don’t correlate with things I’ve seen in searches;
SHA1: 98B1D87B70401B0F585B5E6258B715C1113A3AB1
SHA256: C3D17F8476572EA9947BD41245E5B88249CBC17309057FC53A958448D3D2C5BD
MD2: 6E07E9EA64DC935920D8FD697DBE3F02
MD5: 1619D979B9474BB042AB4D537A6E690C
I’ll try another file opener app.
Can’t get the data any other way that I know of. I’ve seen this type of information before, not like what I posted above. But the hexidecimal strings, I think it it, or a non-string/ non-stop grouping of data. But always in dealing with images, pretty sure. In Audacity … and Import RAW Data; some of that info asked for there I can provide, before trying “Detect”. I can note the recording settings on the Zoom for a particular .wav file, or new recording. Like 44.1kHz, bit rate, for those anyway.
Try these in the Import Raw dialog
Encoding: Signed 16-bit PCM
Byte-order: Little-endian
Channels: 4 Channels
Start offset: 44
Amount to import: 100
Sample rate: 44100
Look up the app “Hex Fiend” in the App Store. It’s free. With it you can look at the header of your file.
If you can’t make sense of it post the first 64 bytes here and I’ll give it a try.
Thanks very much. I’ll get that app. I enjoy all sorts of tech stuff, and learning about new things. But I don’t enjoy tech ‘issues’. Ha. Guess it comes in pairs. (the fun and not-so fun) What really irks me is when something’s been working, and then it’s not! I thought I’d already tried the 4 modes and had not problem playing the files. So why now?
Been a bit busy here lately, so little time for my audio glitches. Those real life issues. Helping in grocery shopping, cleaning carpets, trash duties. Those pesky things that get in the way. ha.
Okay, just opened a Zoom MS file using Hex Fiend. It was a WAV file, but I renamed it as .RAW. The same file with it’s original .wav extension produced about 6 billion "0"s. This is the first string in the HF result;
52494646 F8A6A86B 57415645 62657874 5A030000 *minus a bunch of trailing 0’s.
The next row is preceded by the # 48.
In the wiindow to the right of all the digits was a few lines of info.;
"RIFFøkWAVEbextZ¦¨
“ZOOM Handy Recorder H2n2011-01-0119:08:01…”
“A=PCM,F=44100,W=16,M=stereo,T=ZOOM Handy Recorder H2n 4ch SURROUND MS S: +6”
Then some scattered text; "fmt D. PAD jl "
I scrolled down some, but it seemed to go on forever, so quit looking. There are other rows of digits, other than all the 0’s… Need any more?
So that pretty much confirms that you don’t have a “normal” WAV header, and that’s not a surprise since it won’t open in Audacity.
With uncompressed PCM, raw should work if you guess the parameters correctly.
You could try GoldWave. There is a fully-functional free trial and there’s a chance it can understand the file header/format.
Assuming the zeros are audio data, that’s silence and if the file is FULL of zeros that would agree with the flat lines when you opened it as raw data, and that would mean two problems… An unusual format, plus a bad (silent) recording.
…But 16-bits is 2-bytes and with 4-channels that’s 2 x 4 x 44.1K = 353kB per second so looking with a hex editor a couple of seconds of silence could seem to go-on “forever”. On the other hand, you shouldn’t get pure-zeros when you’re recording with microphones.
DVDdoug is right - if the file is nothing but zeros past the header, then you have silence.
Look for “data” in the right-hand panel. The audio data should start 4 bytes past that. Hex fiend will display that in hexadecimal. You can use the Mac Calculator (in Programmer Mode) to convert that to decimal. That is the “Start Offset” in the Import Raw dialog. We can also see that it is signed 16-bit PCM, probably little-endian, 2 channels with a 44100 sample rate. Since it is an M-S file it will be 2 channels.
Try importing with those parameters.
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