Audacity Forum

Hopefully this is an easy inquiry, I’m using a ThinkPad with XP and trying to import voice tracks from an Olympus digital recorder model #WS-321M. I get an error importing saying that it can’t open do to patent restrictions. Any suggestions on how to convert to a supported format?

The desperation method is a cable between the headphone out of the recorder and the Line-In of your computer. If you have no Line-In, you have no desperation method. The Mic-In on laptops doesn't work all that well.

Investigate 'Super' or 'Switch'. Two downloaded sound conversion programs.

What did Olympus say when you asked them?

Koz

kozikowski wrote: If you have no Line-In, you have no desperation method.

Except by adding a suitable external USB (or possibly Firewire) soundcard between the headphone out and your PC.

WC

I tried to open a music file and recieved the message that "Audacity can not open this type of file due to patent restrictions. You need to convert it to a supported audio format."
I am a beginner at this and I do not know how to convert this file to a supported audio format. Can anyone please help me. Thanks!!

mikmarjas wrote:I tried to open a music file and recieved the message that "Audacity can not open this type of file due to patent restrictions. You need to convert it to a supported audio format."
I am a beginner at this and I do not know how to convert this file to a supported audio format. Can anyone please help me. Thanks!!

What version of Audacity are you using (Help menu > About Audacity) and what operating system are you using?
What is the file type that you are trying to open? (you can usually find that out by right clicking on the file and selecting "Properties" - you may need to look in "Advanced Properties").

The Audacity Version that I am using is Audacity 1.2.6,
Windows 7, and the file that I want to open is .wma

I would appreciate it if you could help me. Thanks for your time.

I use "SUPER" by erightsoft (it's free) to convert wma files to WAV.
I can't guarantee that it works in Windows 7, but it works in Vista so it probably will.

Note that it does not work for DRM protected files. DRM is designed to stop you making copies.

I would strongly recommend that you upgrade to Audacity 1.3.9 (or later, if available - there is a new version due out on Dec 1st)
and read this: http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 12&t=16871

I googled Super and when I downloaded what I thought was Super it downloaded a program called "AVS Video Converter". I don't see anything anywhere that says Super on the program. Is this the same thing that you are talking about? Where did you download your Super version from?
Thanks again.

No, that is a different program.

Downloading SUPER is a bit of a link jungle - you have to go from one download link to the next and eventually you get it. It's a pain in the neck, but it's worth the trouble - believe it or not there are even some tutorials on Google for how to download SUPER.

This is the web site - now you just have to hunt down the right links http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html

After much seaching I finally found Super! I downloaded it and will now try to convert my file.
Thanks for your insight!