After I dragged a MP4 video file into Audacity, an audio version of it was created. Then I chose “export audio file” – or something like that – and chose .wav (Microsoft) as the type of extension/file. But then a warning window popped up and said certain programs might not be able to recognize this format and did I want to go ahead? (Yes.) It appeared to be a .wav file as it was being processed and saved/exported. But once the process was done, there was no visible file extension. And my Windows 7 Media Player didn’t recognize it – though it played it once I said go ahead.
The problem came when I burned it onto a disk. (I had to manually add .wav at the end of the file to be allowed to burn it onto a CD.) But after the CD was burned it didn’t work. My first CD player said it was an unrecognizable disk. And the second CD player just gave a loud buzz.
When I first created an audio file in Audacity it worked like a charm. But during that first time I allowed the default to decide the file type. And I can’t remember what that was! I thought it was .wav because that’s the file extension the audio file had at the end of the process. And I burned it onto a CD and it played just fine in my CD players.
But the next time I converted a video to audio, then exported the audio file, I was curious and looked at the drop-down menu. Big mistake! Then I couldn’t remember what the default was. I manually chose .wav (Microsoft) thinking that must have been the default and got that warning message. I soldiered on – but now I know that the minute I get that warning message things will not go well. The audio file will not have an extension and it won’t work on a CD.
Can someone tell me what the default is? Or what choice might be a better try than .wav (Microsoft)? Or why I get that warning message sometimes, but not other times? (On one occasion today, I didn’t get it – and I had chosen .wav – and the audio file was successful and did have the .wav extension at the end of the process. But most of the time I get that warning window and then I know there’s no hope for a file that has an extension at the end.)
If not, maybe I should uninstall everything and just start over. I looked in the tutorial and it said to use the drop down menu to choose the file type. But that doesn’t solve my problem if I don’t choose the right type – or in the right way. Thanks for any guidance.
You are about to export a WAV file with the name
“Sample.test”.
Normally these files end in “.wav”, and some programs will not
open files with nonstandard extensions.
Are you sure you want to export the file under this name?
If so, then the problem is that you entered a file name that included a “dot”, so Audacity thinks that whatever is after the dot is the file extension that you want to use (even though it is a non-standard file extension.
Best not to us a dot (or any other punctuation characters) in filenames (other than between the file name and the extension), but if you really must do so, ensure that you also add the correct file extension - for example, if I really wanted the filename to be “Sample.test” and it is to be a WAV file, then I could enter Sample.test.wav though better practice to use something like “Sample-test” as the file name.
Safe characters for file names are:
a-z A-Z 0-9 - _ space
Windows likes to hide filename extensions. Do you have your Windows set to show you yours?
If you made a WAV file in Audacity and can’t see the extension, Windows may be hiding it “for your safety and convenience.”
Hidden File Extensions - Windows
– Start > My Computer > Tools > Folder Options > View > [ ] Hide Extensions for Known File Types (deselect)
– Apply (to this folder) or Apply to All Folders
– OK
The audio file will not have an extension and it won’t work on a CD.
Audio CDs don’t have WAV files. That’s why you can’t simply copy the files from an audio CD to your computer… You need to use a “ripping” program.
You can burn a “data disc” which has WAV or MP3 “computer files” on it, and it will play in your computer, but it’s not a proper audio CD and it won’t play on most CD players. Data discs with audio files will often play on a DVD player, but it’s not a standard disc so it depends on the particular DVD player.
If you configure your CD burning software to make an audio CD, your burning software will generally convert your file to the correct format. So, you can usually make an audio CD from MP3 files (although you shouldn’t because MP3 is lossy) or most other audio formats.
Audio CDs are uncompressed PCM at 44.1kHz, 16-bit, stereo. PCM is the same underlying format as “normal” WAV files.
Audio CDs are uncompressed PCM at 44.1kHz, 16-bit, stereo. PCM is the same underlying format as “normal” WAV files.
And it’s fixed. It always works that way, which means they can tell you a show length restriction and not bother with “data rates,” etc.
Audio CDs never go over 99 songs and about 78 minutes. Full Stop… No options. Your CD Authoring Program will tell you if you exceed any of the specifications.
First I got rid of the dots in my MP4 file name. (One or more dots came with the YouTube name and I hadn’t realized that would be a problem.) Voila! No more warning message. And the audio file had a visible .wav extension at the end of the saving process.
(FYI, I checked to make sure that my computer shows all usual file extensions – and it does.)
Then, when it was time to create an audio disc with Windows Media Player I made sure I chose “Audio Disc.” (I have an uneasy feeling I let it default to “Data Disc” last time. And now I understand that a Data Disc with a .wav file will not play audio in a CD player!)
After I burned the audio disc I tried it in both my CD players and it worked fine. So Windows Media Player must have converted the .wav file in some way when I chose “Audio Disc.” What a relief!
(Now, before this thread is closed, may I ask a final question – even though it’s kind of cheating because it’s regarding video conversion? I want to take all those MP4 720p YouTube sleep whisperer videos and put them on DVD’s so I can play them on my TV/DVD player which has a sleep timer – and fall asleep instead of worrying about turning off my computer. But it seems I must convert the MP4 files to .wmv or some other type in order to burn the DVD’s with Windows DVD Maker. I see two video conversion programs I could buy – Wondershare or Apowersoft – but I don’t know which to choose. Meanwhile, I don’t even know if .wmv is the best quality format to choose once I have a video converter program. Does anyone have thoughts or advice to share on all this?)
In any event, I can’t thank you enough for solving my audio conversion problem. Now I can make all the Sleep Whisperer audio discs I want – which is a major victory for health and well-being. Bless you.
Thank you. Can we wait one more day before closing this thread – so I can give you feedback on your suggestion – (even though my video-burning subject is a bit off-topic)?
I’m already grateful for the warning re Wondershare and the tip that it’s best to burn MP4 to DVD directly, since conversion to other formats would cause a loss of quality. And thrilled to know that it is possible to do that. But I’d like to explore the link you gave, follow through and then wrap-up.
In any event, thanks so much for giving guidance on this last issue!
Ok, here’s my follow-up. It appears that InfraRecorder is a legit program and works fine. However, some people got tricked into pressing the wrong download button on the SourceForge site and ended up with an .exe file that contained a virus. So now, even though I clicked on the Downloads link, not the big green Download button, and went to what I believe is the correct download location – google Chrome warned me that there was a safety problem. I would have to override all that in order to download the file. I have decided to err on the side of caution. And tackle this DVD-burning problem later. But thank you – even this taught me something about computers and files.
FYI, when I have time, I’m going to look at the Audacity Tutorial and learn how to cut out the last portion of an audio file. I wish to remove the not-so-soothing sound of popping bubble wrap which comes near the end of a sleep whisperer file. This looks like the right page: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/tutorial_editing_an_existing_file.html
If anyone has a quick tip they’d like to offer re the cutting process, please do. Otherwise, I’ll wait and post later (in a new thread) if I have any problems.
Thank you all again! I’m enjoying my sleep whisperer audio discs every night. (Except for the one with the popping bubble wrap.)
As long as you click the correct link and wait for the download box to pop up, SourceForge should not pose a threat. However you can also obtain InfraRecorder from InfraRecorder download latest version.
Yes that page is OK, though it focuses on Trim, not Cut. At its simplest you just need to drag select the region you don’t want in the blue waves, then press delete on your keyboard.
Thank you! As for Infrarecorder, I got brave and downloaded it from the new link you gave and my computer is still fine. Unfortunately the program would not burn my MP4 file to my blank DVD because I didn’t have something called a VIDEO_TS folder on the blank disc. So I’ll have to do some research on all that. But at least I’m closer to victory.
As for my future Audacity cutting project – I did a trial run on a smaller file and it worked just fine. Clicked inside the blue waves, dragged to the end, and chose Delete. And poof, the last part was gone. Then I went back and figured out how to jump forward when listening to a file – (click on the line at the top of the blue waves) – so I’ll be able to quickly pinpoint where the bubblewrap-popping section begins in the audio file I want to cut later.
Thank you! You saved me from having to read the tutorial.
So we’re good to go now. You can label this thread “solved.” And thanks again.
Thanks. Yes, I misspoke. I didn’t interpret the message correctly. It’s not referring to the state of the blank DVD but to something else:
“Started to write the disc image
Cannot create DVD-Video file system, is the VIDEO_TS folder present?
Failed to create disc image.”
Well, Lord knows what all that means. You’d think an MP4 file would have the traits necessary for a DVD-Video file system. And I have no idea what a VIDEO_TS folder is. So I moved on and downloaded the .exe file for DVDFlick but chickened out when it was time to run it, after all those warnings about a non-published author.
On a happier note, and back to Audacity, I found a YouTube video created by Chris, the fiancee of Ilse the sleep whisperer, showing how to remove the background noise from a sleep whisperer audio file: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9PAh0y4GJo
This is the background noise I mentioned in an earlier thread. It sounds like the mic was turned up too high because the person thought she had to do to that, to make up for the softness of whispering. When I have time, I will follow his instructions and re-do some of my audio CD’s. Then they’ll be even more effective than they are now. So that’s great.
