Audacity will not open mp3 files...

[sayre]

Hi, I've been using audacity for awhile, but more so now, for some reason, when I try to select a song from my external harddrive, it will not open up in audacity and I get the following:
What I am trying to do is use this file to convert it to a .wav, then import it in to Propellerheads Reason Recycle Program, so that I can slice/chop some of the sound from the file...I get this message a lot, once in a blue moon, a song will open without the error message, but it's rare, does anyone know what is going on here? Thanks in advance.

[kozikowski]

I got a terrifically good idea. The only characters allowed in file and folder names are upper and lower case letters, numbers, dash and underscore.

That's it.

All other characters can lead to unstable results.

Let's see, I think the pound sign (#) means comment, so everything to the right of that vanishes.
The ampersand (&) means User Replaceable Parameter. A favorite one is the date 6/14/09. That's a filename to you, but to OS-X, that's one file and two folders.

Go in and delete the spaces and delete or change all the illegal characters and I bet your songs open up OK.

.../DJ_Krush-Toshinori_Ko-6A4.mp3

That is a "legal" and correct filename on all three types of computer.

Oh, and the date? 20090614.

Koz

[sayre]

well, the funny thing is, is that it only shows the "#" sign and those characters when i try to open it in audacity (only within the error message, is the only time it shows these funny characters), otherwise when i try to play the song in iTunes none of those characters are present and my songs are labeled correctly, so i still do not get why it would do that...take a look here:

http://img522.imageshack.us/i/musicproperlytagged.jpg/

There aren't any funny/illegal characters in my id3 tags, they are all correct (as you can see in the picture)...any other guess as to why it's doing this? Perhaps there is some audacity setting that is doing this?? Maybe I am importing the song wrong? I usually go file>open> then select the song...

[kozikowski]

Most unusual.

Go > Home > Music > iTunes > iTunes Music > [Offending File]

Apple-I Info. Pull the info panel open so it shows you the whole thing. What does that say?

While you're down there, [Offending File] > File > Open With...

Is Audacity in that list and does it work?

Oh, Wait. I missed an important one. Are you Mac/Intel/Leopard? Which Audacity do you have?

Koz

[sayre]

hmm interesting, i went to home>music>iTunes>iTunes Music>... however the Dj Krush wasn't there, but other albums were there that I recently played (from a few weeks ago), I changed the setting in iTunes, maybe a few weeks ago, so that folders/music that i play wouldn't duplicate into the iTunes Music folder because i have an external harddrive (which explains why the dj krush wasn't there), in which i access my music, the music i did see there, i just deleted right now, as that takes up room/duplicates folders that don't need to be there and i didn't realize iTunes did that...still odd, anything else?

I'm not understanding where to go, when you say [offending file]>file>open with...can you be a little more specific, sorry i'm kind of new to the mac environment, where should i be looking, where audacity is? I mean I do have audacity in the applications folder, if that is what you mean?

I have a new '09 iMac running intel with the latest audacity version, 1.2.5 for intel macs. Thanks for helping so far, keep it coming, this is just bizarre.

[kozikowski]

<<<I have a new '09 iMac running intel with the latest audacity version, 1.2.5 for intel macs. Thanks for helping so far, keep it coming, this is just bizarre.>>>

Close. OS-X 10.5? Leopard?

Apple > About This Mac

Koz

[kozikowski]

<<<sorry i'm kind of new to the mac environment>>>

I'm not sorry. That's good to know because I can tailor my answers so I don't lose you. Trust me, most Mac users do not need to get this deep into their machine.

Koz

[sayre]

mac osx 10.5.7...any clues as to what is going on?

[kozikowski]

Intel Macs are forced to use 1.2.5 instead of 1.2.6 and Intel Macs using Leopard are forced to use 1.3.7.

Leopard pretty much killed off Audacity 1.2 for us. There are known issues, no patches, no fixes, and no prospect for getting any.

1.2 Projects will open up in 1.3.7, and you can have both versions on your machine as long as you only open one at a time. Have you hit the bug where filename keystrokes activate the shortcuts? That's a fun one.

Koz

[sayre]

hey well what do you know, i had the wrong version, i figured since it said 'beta' that it wasn't stable, but it works! dzieki a lot kozikowski, mission accomplished