Converting from G.729 to regular ADPCM

[john3voltas]

Greetings.
I'm using Audicity 2.1.3 on a laptop running Windows 7.
Also, I have downloaded the FFmpeg 2.2.2 library and configured Audacity to use it.
I'd like to convert some G.729 files to ADPCM and do some editing on them but apparently Audacity is unable to load the audio file.
Am I doing something wrong?
Is this even possible using Audacity? Taking into account that Audacity is using FFmpeg libraries in order to load the audio files, I would expect this to be possible.
Cheers

Code: Select all

15:36:28: Audacity 2.1.3
15:36:28: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries...
15:36:28: mLibAVFormatPath ('D:\users\blablah\downloads\ffmpeg_audacity\avformat-55.dll') is not empty. Loading from it.
15:36:28: Looking up PATH environment variable...
15:36:28: PATH = 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\iCLS Client\;C:\Program Files\Intel\iCLS Client\;C:\Program Files\Broadcom\Broadcom 802.11;;C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath;C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem;C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Autodesk Shared\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Roxio Shared\DLLShared\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Roxio Shared\10.0\DLLShared\;C:\Program Files\WIDCOMM\Bluetooth Software\;C:\Program Files\WIDCOMM\Bluetooth Software\syswow64;;C:\Program Files\Intel\Intel(R) Management Engine Components\DAL;C:\Program Files\Intel\Intel(R) Management Engine Components\IPT;C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Intel(R) Management Engine Components\DAL;C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Intel(R) Management Engine Components\IPT;C:\Program Files (x86)\WinSCP\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Avaya\Playback\'
15:36:28: Checking that 'D:\users\blablah\downloads\ffmpeg_audacity' is in PATH...
15:36:28: Warning: FFmpeg directory 'D:\users\blablah\downloads\ffmpeg_audacity' is not in PATH.
15:36:28: Temporarily prepending ';D:\users\blablah\downloads\ffmpeg_audacity' to PATH...
15:36:28: Checking for monolithic avformat from 'D:\users\blablah\downloads\ffmpeg_audacity\avformat-55.dll'.
15:36:28: Error: Couldn't find symbol 'avutil_version' in a dynamic library (error 127: the specified procedure could not be found.)
15:36:28: Error: Couldn't find symbol 'avcodec_version' in a dynamic library (error 127: the specified procedure could not be found.)
15:36:28: avformat not monolithic
15:36:28: Loading avutil from 'avutil-52.dll'.
15:36:28: Loading avcodec from 'avcodec-55.dll'.
15:36:28: Loading avformat from 'D:\users\blablah\downloads\ffmpeg_audacity\avformat-55.dll'.
15:36:28: Returning PATH to previous setting...
15:36:28: Actual avutil path D:\users\blablah\downloads\ffmpeg_audacity\avutil-52.dll
15:36:28: Actual avcodec path D:\users\blablah\downloads\ffmpeg_audacity\avcodec-55.dll
15:36:28: Actual avformat path D:\users\blablah\downloads\ffmpeg_audacity\avformat-55.dll
15:36:28: Importing symbols...
15:36:28: All symbols loaded successfully. Initializing the library.
15:36:28: Retrieving FFmpeg library version numbers:
15:36:28:    AVCodec version 0x373466 - 55.52.102 (built against 0x373466 - 55.52.102)
15:36:28:    AVFormat version 0x372164 - 55.33.100 (built against 0x372164 - 55.33.100)
15:36:28:    AVUtil version 0x344264 - 52.66.100 (built against 0x344264 - 52.66.100)
15:36:28: FFmpeg libraries loaded successfully.
15:36:38: File name is C:\Users\blablah\Downloads\80088.wav
15:36:38: Mime type is *
15:36:38: Opening with libav
15:36:38: Error: FFmpeg: avformat_find_stream_info() failed for file C:\Users\blablah\Downloads\80088.wav
15:36:38: Opening with libsndfile
15:36:38: Opening with liboggvorbis
15:36:38: Opening with libflac
15:36:38: Opening with libmad
15:36:38: Open(C:\Users\blablah\Downloads\80088.wav) succeeded
15:36:38: Opening with lof
15:36:38: Error: Importer::Import: Opening failed.

[steve]

Are you sure that they are valid g729 files? How do you know?

[john3voltas]

Errrr...I'm not 100% sure they're valid. In fact, all I know is that Audacity couldn't do anything with them.
Then I loaded them on a website called http://audio.online-convert.com/convert-to-wav and it worked perfectly.
Apart from that, MediaInfo says it's G.729.

Code: Select all

Complete name                            : C:\Users\blablah\Downloads\80088.wav
Format                                   : Wave
File size                                : 654 KiB
Duration                                 : 11 min 10 s
Overall bit rate                         : 8 001 b/s

Audio
Format                                   : G.729a
Codec ID                                 : 83
Codec ID/Hint                            : AT&T
Duration                                 : 11 min 10 s
Bit rate                                 : 8 000 b/s
Channel(s)                               : 1 channel
Sampling rate                            : 8 000 Hz
Bit depth                                : 1 bit
Stream size                              : 654 KiB (100%)

[steve]

Do you have a small sample file that we could test?
I tried a g729 on my machine and Audacity imported it fine, but I'm on Linux (so a different FFmpeg build) and I'm not 100% sure that it was g729a.
I would have expected g729 import to work.

[john3voltas]

Hi steve,
First of all, thank you very much for your support.
You see, this audio file is a corporate call recording and the company says I am not allowed to disclose this to the general public.
But since you've been so helpful this far, I think you might not mind if I gave you the recording as long as you agree not to publish it here/elsewhere.
Is that ok with you? I will start uploading the recording to a google drive and will have a link ready in case you agree.
Thanks in advance.
Cheers

[steve]

Yes I can agree to that.

[Gale Andrews]

Do you have a small sample file that we could test?
I tried a g729 on my machine and Audacity imported it fine, but I'm on Linux (so a different FFmpeg build) and I'm not 100% sure that it was g729a.
I would have expected g729 import to work.

FFmpeg 2.2.2 on Windows can import G.729 files, but john3voltas has G.729 wrapped in a WAV container, which FFmpeg might not like. I don't think there is a Microsoft standard for doing that as there is with for example G.723.

A real G.729 file would have .g729 or some non-WAV extension and MediaInfo would not be able to give information about it. I have an official G.729 decoder and encoder so I can verify that FFmpeg does import a "real" G.729 file.

According to http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/do ... html#g_723:

G.729 is a high complexity algorithm, and G.729A (also known as G.729 Annex-A) is a medium complexity variant of G.729 with slightly lower voice quality. All platforms that support G.729 also support G.729A.

I don't really "expect" FFmpeg will be able to open G.729 wrapped in WAV, but Steve can try it.


Gale

[john3voltas]

Hmmm, how can I PM you a link to the google drive file? I can't find a PM button around here...

[Gale Andrews]

Hmmm, how can I PM you a link to the google drive file? I can't find a PM button around here...

Try it now. Do you see a PM button under Steve's name? But as per my previous post you don't have standard G.729 files and I somewhat doubt FFmpeg will open G.729 wrapped in WAV.


Gale

[steve]

That file opens fine on my machine.
I can't test on Windows right now, but will probably be able to do so tomorrow, so I'll get back to you when I've tried that.