My file doesn't export as a WAV fully.

I have a six-hour (or so) show/project on Audacity. When I try to export it as a WAV file (both 16-bit and 32-bit), it only exports (or saves) 39 minutes, 23 seconds of it. Please advise.

I’m no expert, but my immediate inclination would be to -

A: export to a different location, either in terms of folder, or physical drive
B: export to a different file type

and see if this changes the behaviour, and this might help narrow down the cause…

From Wikipedia,

The WAV format is limited to files that are less than 4 GiB, because of its use of a 32-bit unsigned integer to record the file size header. Although this is equivalent to about 6.8 hours of CD-quality audio (44.1 kHz, 16-bit stereo), it is sometimes necessary to exceed this limit, especially when greater sampling rates, bit resolutions or channel count are required.

it only exports (or saves) 39 minutes, 23 seconds of it.

When a WAV file runs out of juice, the counting system starts over. Can you tell if you got 39 minutes at the end or the first 39 minutes. My guess is the end.

What’s the show? Can I listen to it?

Koz

It would be interesting to know the resultant file size, see if that corresponds to the limit posted above …

Thanks for responding. I tried exporting as a WAV in a physical drive and directly to the C drive on the computer and it’s always the same - 39 minutes or so. It exports as an OGG.

Thank you for responding. That’s great info and perhaps the reason why I’m having problems.

Thank you, Koz. It’s the first 39 minutes.

Thank you. Well, this is interesting. It ranges: one is 4.6 GB, the other 9.3 GB.

I believe WAV is the only format with an “artificial” limit. If you can use FLAC in your situation that’s a better option. As you may know it’s lossless compression so as a bonus your files will be almost half the size. There are some more “exotic” WAV variations such as WAV64 or RF64 that can hold more audio, but they are not widely supported.

And as a practical matter… Nobody is going to listen to a 6-hour file without a break so it’s probably OK to make “chapters”. :wink:

BTW - If you are going to publish or distribute as WAV, it’s the “worst” format for tags/metadata. Tagging for WAV is not well-standardized or well-supported.

Thank you, DougDVD. Some helpful advice here.