Audacity Forum

I am a new user to audacity and when I go to project, import audio, and import the song that I want, when I attempt to play the song, all it does is make a quick almost clank sound and the meters light up green for a split second. I believe that it is trying to play the song in a matter of mili seconds, creating the offending noise. All i want is for the song to play like normal when it is first imported. How do I fix this issue? I have already tried uninstalling and reinstalling audacity, to ensure there were no errors during the download process.

You tried to open a compressed song that Audacity doesn't understand like AAC, MP4, or others like that. You can convert the music file to WAV with Super or Switch.

Koz

Ohhh ok, that makes sense. I appreciate the time you took to respond! What exactly is Super or Switch?

They are software packages that can convert between sound formats. You have to download and install them on your computer just like any other application.

This is where I get fuzzy on you because I'm primarily a Mac person and QuickTime Pro does all that.

The duration of the scream or clank sound as compared to the expected show duration is the amount of audio compression applied to the show. A one minute show that screams by at one second has 60 to 1 compression.

Of course, if you open a compressed MP3 file in Audacity, the show will be of normal duration because Audacity knows how to manage MP3 files.

Koz

Awesome, so if I take music from my itunes (which usually formats the music into .mp4 format I would assume), than convert them to .mp3, it should play normally on audacity? Thats actually really helpful to know about why it plays so quickly. Once again, I appreciate the help! Do you know if Super and Switch are free?

OK, that's different. iTunes files are also protected under the FairPlay Rights Management System. The way around that is to create a playlist from the songs you want to use and burn the playlist to a CD. Then Import the CD back into iTunes with iTunes import conversions set to WAV or MP3.

I personally would not use MP3 or any other compressed audio format for production or experimentation. Almost all compressed audio formats damage the audio and the damage occurs every time you play, record, capture, or convert. So each edit or filter, the sound slides a little closer to the toilet.

WAV works OK.

Koz

italianstallion wrote:Do you know if Super and Switch are free?

SUPER is free, and is available from here: http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html
You may need to search for the download link.

"Switch" is available in both free and paid versions

But Switch, as I'm finding out for my kozco.com entry, will work on both Windows and Mac. Switch will also get you in and out of video formats.

Koz

SUPER is windows only. It supports a vast range of audio and video formats.