Can't see opened aup file

[Sweet Witch]

Hey everyone,

When I try to open a saved aup file audacity shows the correct file name in the top of the window but there's nothing below - I can't play it back, nothing. All I see is a blank window. How do I see my file??

Edit: I created two different files the other day (A and B) and one (B) opens fine, the other (A) doesn't. I also exported (A) to mp3. If I open the mp3 version (A1), it's fine, if I open the aup version (A2), there's nothing. So is it that once a file is exported to mp3 it can never be opened as an aup again?? That's not right.

Edit 2: More testing files created and only (B) will open as an aup file, nothing else will.

Thank you.

[kozikowski]

Next time you want to save a sound file of your show, don't use save. Audacity does not Save sound files. Instead, Export As WAV. A WAV file is a single, excellent quality sound file that you can then make into other things and versions like MP3s, or combine with other WAV files into mashups and playlists.

Koz

[Sweet Witch]

I'll do that in the future but it's really strange to me that I could open one aup file but no others. Shouldn't the program be able to open it's own files properly??

[kozikowski]

That usually comes from a misunderstanding of what an AUP file is. It's not sound. It's computer programming that you can open up in NotePad and read. Here's a picture of a simple one...

http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/aup1.jpg

Note down around line 7, there is a listing: aliasfile="/User/koz/Desktop.....

That's the location of the soundfile (piano2.wav) that I was editing. If I move piano2.wav to anywhere else on my computer, the show will crash. Audacity creates folders called _data. If you move one of those the show will crash. Projects are very brittle and you can't move things around or rename anything or delete anything once you create one.

Koz

[Sweet Witch]

Ok, I understand what you've said. I didn't move any files around or delete anything. I just don't understand why I could open one aup file (double click, audacity opened and there was the waveform) but not any others. If all did or didn't, I could understand easier, but to have just one work is strange.

This is to be used for transcription so it can be a very low quality and still serve its purpose, I just need it to work. I've decided that saving as an mp3 will make the most use of the space and still be universally playable. Do you agree? I don't know anything about OGG compression.

[kozikowski]

<<<I've decided that saving as an mp3 >>>

Exporting as an MP3. Audacity does not save sound files.

Do one really short file and make sure it works. You have to take extra steps to get MP3 to work.

My understanding is OGG can give you compression and smaller files without damaging the sound. MP3 and other compression tools all create damage. The more compression, the more damage.

Koz

[steve]

My understanding is OGG can give you compression and smaller files without damaging the sound.

Ogg is a lossy compression format - it produces damage (but not much). File sizes are about 80% smaller than WAV files.
FLAC is lossless - it produces no damage. File sizes are about 50% smaller than WAV files.