Audacity Forum

I copied a track from a CD onto my computer in the WAV format. When I attempt to import that file into Audacitiy as "Import Audio" I receive a error message stating "Audacity did not recognize the type of this file". When I attempt to import the file as "Raw Data" the entire track is nothing but white noise. Any suggestions?

Most people close their eyes really tight about this issue, but the sound on a Music CD is not normal WAV format. It's missing a bunch of header information and other changes. We assume they did this to make the music as small as possible when they designed the format.

So, you need CD Ripper software,or iTunes which can be configured to do the same thing. Windows is hobbled with Windows Media Player which, as far as I know, can't be used to translate into anything other than WMA which is pretty much only recognized by Windows Media Player.

Look at Super or Switch software. Those are file translation utilities for the PC and one of them may be able to do this.

Koz

Or you can use iTune - it runs fine on a PC - and is free to download from the Apple website (you don't need to buy an iPod to get iTunes).

WC

Sorry, It's still not working. I imported a tune from a CD to itunes. When I attempt to import that trac into Audacity as "Import Audio" the 3 minute tune converts to 5 seconds of total music. Once again when I tried importing it as "Raw Data" it transfers as white noise. Any other suggestions?

JDallasjr15 wrote:I imported a tune from a CD to itunes. When I attempt to import that trac into Audacity as "Import Audio" the 3 minute tune converts to 5 seconds of total music.

You have still not converted it to WAV format. iTunes probably defaults to AC3 or some other format, you must ensure that the format is WAV.
I use Foobar2000 for format converting - it's also a terrific free audio player for Windows - it looks pretty basic, but it plays just about every audio format perfectly (which is exactly what I want from an audio player).