Cannot import files on windows 7 computer

[lexiconluther]

i just got a new desktop with windows 7, i've been using audacity for years with my old laptop, which has XP. i tried to import a song from a cd, just to make sure i still know what i'm doing, and apparantly i don't have a clue.

i did the whole [file>import>audio] and audacity brought me to the CD that i ripped to my computer. i clicked a song from the cd and i got this : "Audacity attempted to use Ffmpeg to import an audio file, but the libraries were not found. To use Ffmpeg import, go to prefrences > Libraries to download or locate the Ffmpeg libraries."

followed by this "Audacity recognixed the type of the file “(file name of .wma file’). Importers supposedly supporting such files are: Ffmpeg compatible files, but none of them understood this file format."

in the jump from XP to windows 7, and the old audacity to the new version, i'm lost on how i can add a simple track to audacity.

thanks in advance for my (i'm sure easy to fix) problem.

[lexiconluther]

i just downloaded a program to turn the wma files into mp3's, now they work.

[kozikowski]

In 1.3.11? Tracks > Add New > Stereo Track. That was much harder to do in earlier versions.

Koz

[kozikowski]

<<<i just downloaded a program to turn the wma files into mp3's, now they work.>>>

A quality note. Audio compressors almost without exception cause damage. That's how they work. They throw away pieces you're not likely to miss (done properly).

The problem is when you serially compress. Somebody sang a song. Windows Media converted it into WMA format and compressed it in H.264. You ripped it out of Windows Media and converted it to MPEG1 Layer 3 (MP3). Audacity is going to open it up and convert it to its own high quality internal WAV (PCM) format and then reconvert to MP3 again. If you put it on you iPod, Apple is going to decompress the MP3 and reconvert it to Apple AAC format.

I'd be surprised if there was any music left at the end of that.

Koz

[Irish]

If you are using Windows Media Player to rip your CDs, there are two options which will let you import the files into Audacity without converting to mp3, which causes compression damage:

1. WMP 11 will allow you to rip to a WAV file, which you can import directly into Audacity.
2. WMP 10 will not support WAV, but will allow you to rip to a WMA file. If you download and install the ffmpeg encoder, you can import the WMA into Audacity.

See here
http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.ph ... tallffmpeg
for downloading ffmpeg

PO'L