Export to WAV Libsndfile error [SOLVED]

[Gale Andrews]

Had exact same error on 1.3.13-beta.

Couldnt save to existing file to same or any other filename as WAV format, MP3 etc was fine.

Used the "Getting The Job Out In Time" approach to copy audio data to new track in new project and it saved correctly.

Was there any absolute silence in the project (for example if you inserted silence in front of a song), or was there any white space between audio clips?

Was a partial or zero bytes WAV exported?


Gale

[jrssystemsnet]

It sure would be nice to have a broken project to test! Obviously, something is going wrong, but without some way of reproducing the problem, it is next to impossible to pin it down. If you still have the broken Project (and the time/desire) I would like a chance to inspect it.

Edgar, I have a broken project for you that fits the descriptions above - bonus points; it's a very small file (single loop of an old rotary ringer) and it's Creative Commons licensed, so I can put the .aup and data up for you to inspect. (FWIW, copying and pasting the tracks in their entirety into a new project was a successful workaround for me, so I "got the project out".)

http://www.jrssystems.net/20069__FreqMa ... _8_70_.aup
http://www.jrssystems.net/20069__FreqMa ... 8_70__data
http://www.jrssystems.net/20069__FreqMa ... _8_70_.ogg

[Gale Andrews]

It sure would be nice to have a broken project to test! Obviously, something is going wrong, but without some way of reproducing the problem, it is next to impossible to pin it down. If you still have the broken Project (and the time/desire) I would like a chance to inspect it.

Edgar, I have a broken project for you that fits the descriptions above - bonus points; it's a very small file (single loop of an old rotary ringer) and it's Creative Commons licensed, so I can put the .aup and data up for you to inspect. (FWIW, copying and pasting the tracks in their entirety into a new project was a successful workaround for me, so I "got the project out".)

http://www.jrssystems.net/20069__FreqMa ... _8_70_.aup
http://www.jrssystems.net/20069__FreqMa ... 8_70__data
http://www.jrssystems.net/20069__FreqMa ... _8_70_.ogg

Thanks for the files. I actually don't get an error writing to WAV in 1.3.14 alpha after importing that ogg file. Can you confirm the version of Audacity you are using (Help > About Audacity) and the version of Windows, also the project rate and the type of WAV you are exporting to?

We do actually have one repeatable scenario (any MP3 written by "YouTubeDownloader"), and the cause in that case seems to be the metadata in the MP3 file. See:
http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 10#p151246

The reason copy/paste to a new track would fix it is that the metadata does not get copied into the new project. I was about to write a bug report for this - 1.3.13 has this issue, but 1.3.12 seems not to have the issue.

If your problem is in the project itself we would need the _data folder so we can open the .aup (your link for the _data folder just goes to the .ogg file). You can't send a folder over the internet; you would have to put the .aup and _data folder in a zip file, then post the link to the zip.

Thanks


Gale

[jrssystemsnet]

Gale, the only thing in the _data folder is the .ogg file. When I saved as compressed project, I got the .aup, the __data folder, and an .ogg in the data folder.

If you'd like an uncompressed save, I do have that as well (which includes several .au files in its _data folder) - I'll zip it right now and make it available for you:

http://www.jrssystems.net/audacity_broken_20069.zip

I actually recreated this from scratch:
* opened the original .wav (a capture of a mechanical telephone ringer, from http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=20069 ) in Audacity
* highlighted the first of several "rings" in the file from beginning of that ring to the last moment before the second "ring" began
* used the Zero Crossings tool, then Trim
* save the project
* attempt to export as 16-bit PCM wav - then got the "disk full" error with random garbage in it as described in this thread.

Then I made sure that the project would capture the error for you:

* closed and reopened Audacity
* opened the project saved above
* attempt to export as 16-bit PCM wav - got same "disk full" error, with different random garbage in it

As to version - wups, sorry; I didn't realize this was the Windows-specific subforum! I got here from googling for the error message I had; you may be interested to know for sure that it's not a platform-specific bug - I'm using 1.3.13-beta (Unicode) on Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty) Linux; this is the version that's currently in the Natty repositories. So this should probably get cross-posted (or just plained moved) upstream from this subforum into a cross-platform area, since we've got reports now of people having the issue on Windows and Linux.

[jrssystemsnet]

I went ahead and crossposted to the Linux forum as well, since there doesn't seem to be a platform-agnostic forum. http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... =60424&e=0

[steve]

I went ahead and crossposted to the Linux forum as well

Not really necessary as the same people generally see posts in all forums, though it's useful to know that this is not a platform specific issue.

[steve]

Opening your project in Audacity 1.3.14 alpha on Ubuntu 10.10
Audacity reports 6 orphaned block files.
I do not get any error when exporting as a WAV file.

I have tried to reproduce the steps to create the file from the FreeSound sample and I do not get any errors.

My version of libsndfile is 1.0.21-2ununtu0.10.10.1
My Audacity 1.3.14 build is compiled with libsamplerate.

[jrssystemsnet]

OK, that should rule out a problem in libsndfile itself then: my version is newer than yours.

[email protected]:~$ dpkg -s libsndfile1 | grep Version
Version: 1.0.23-1ubuntu0.1

We also already seem to know from the Windows users' reports that 1.2.x was not affected - so I guess the bug cropped up in 1.3.13 and is accidentally fixed again in 1.3.14?

It would be really nice to isolate it and fix it, though, given that running alpha isn't supported from repos and for that matter doesn't sound like a great idea to somebody who Just Wants To Use It, Already.

[Gale Andrews]

Hi jrssystemsnet ,

Sorry for the confusion about the compressed project, but yes a standard project with .au files in the _data folder is almost always what we need.

Did you package the project before closing it? This would explain the orphaned blockfiles (which Audacity would otherwise delete on closing the project). However we have an occasional problem with unexplained orphaned blockfiles which we are very keen to replicate and fix, so if you get orphans when you re-open that project yourself, please let us know. Generally (unless you have a bug that disappears after closing a project) it's better to package the project after closing it.

I can't reproduce your issue with that WAV from freesound on Windows in 1.3.13 or 1.3.14 alpha (both of which use libsndfile 1.0.24), and I am also on Ubuntu 10.10 so there is no point me duplicating Steve's test. I would not yet rule out the possibility of your still getting this issue in 1.3.14 alpha with 1.0.23 or greater.

There are several things you can test to narrow down the possibilities.

1) Build libsndfile 1.0.23 and use sndfile-convert at the command line to convert the freesound WAV file.

2) Get the 1.3.14 alpha ("1.3.13+svn") PPA package from http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Night ... x_.2F_Unix . If you are concerned about shared folders then you can uninstall the 1.3.13 package and reinstall it later.

The common feature so far in this bug and another one http://bugzilla.audacityteam.org/show_bug.cgi?id=448 that leads to corrupted WAVs is the "Software" tag in the originally imported file. So it nothing else could you try importing the freesound file into a clean project, File > Open Metadata Editor. click in "Sound Forge 4.0" (the value for "Software"), press "Remove", click OK, then Export.

Of course if you can say 1.3.14 does not have this issue for you then that's it, we wouldn't change anything.


Gale

[jrssystemsnet]

Did you package the project before closing it?

I'm sorry Gale; I don't have any idea what that means. I followed the steps I posted, exactly as I posted them - if you can explain what you mean by "packaging before closing", maybe I can answer?

If I wasn't clear, I actually recreated the problem from scratch when you told me you wanted the uncompressed project - I'd already deleted the original project, so I recreated everything ALL the way from scratch, including downloading the file and editing it as described.

I can try messing around with it some more if you're interested in some help narrowing it down further, just not tonight - I snuck away from a wife in the TV room and she'll be very annoyed if I don't reappear soon.