Convert all soundbites in project to WAV?

[bongo_john_uk]

I've got some old projects where most of the material was recording as SDII files.

I need to update these projects so ALL media is now WAV.

EDIT: To be more specific - I need to interleave them as well. At the moment they seem to all be split into mono channels.

What is the easiest way to do that?

[mikehalloran]

Easiest way? It depends.

If the files are in an old DP project, Bounce to Disk should work — best to read the documentation on all of your options.

TwistedWave and DSP-Q are both good for batch file conversion. The user guides for both for both are online.
https://twistedwave.com/doc/index.html
http://www.dsp-quattro.com/FreeDownload ... Manual.pdf

QuickTime 7.6.6 can only convert one file at a time, even the Pro version, if I remember correctly. Free but probably not the easiest way.

[Phil O]

Can't you just select them all in the soundbite window and use "convert audio file" in the mini menu? (I haven't tried this.)

Phil

[bongo_john_uk]

Way too much to do with bouncing.

It looks like there is a convert audio option in the mini menu in the corner of the sound bites window.

The pop up that provides, seems to imply that it can de-interleave and convert all files. I am hoping that it will also replace all references to those sound bites, not just convert them. Any idea?

After doing the conversion I need to export, so the references must be to the de-interleaved converted WAVs.

As this seems quite destructive, I think I'll copy the project folder somewhere else to test before I wreck anything!

[stubbsonic]

Pick a project, make a copy of the whole thing-- then do a test with the whole copy to see if
it will keep all the files in their proper track position.

You could also do the thing where you record an instance of silence and put it at the beginning of any track that doesn't start at the beginning of the song, then merge audio on all tracks so that every audio file starts at zero and goes until the song is over.

[bongo_john_uk]

You could also do the thing where you record an instance of silence and put it at the beginning of any track that doesn't start at the beginning of the song, then merge audio on all tracks so that every audio file starts at zero and goes until the song is over.

I don't want to render stems. I want project to be same, just all the media transcoded under the hood. I may need to change edits later so don't want them bounced. I want them as they are, just relinked to new media.

On the stems topic.. I also needed that but for a different purpose than this one. To render stems it seems that starting from the beginning of the project and freezing tracks is the simplest way. Then export the freeze files.

[mikehalloran]

As this seems quite destructive!

It shouldn't be.

I think I'll copy the project folder somewhere else to test before I wreck anything

Absolutely!

[bongo_john_uk]

Oh damn. I tried selecting all sound bites and converting them. But...

I get "The operation cannot be completed because an error occurred: Internal Error: Parameter error (-50)"

What the hell does that even mean?

EDIT 1: Now DP has crashed too

After force quitting - It looks like it has converted about 20 files correctly, but turned the rest into corrupt audio files of 993 bytes. Then crashed DP.

EDIT 2: I tried reopening the project to see how it was and it complains about one missing file. My guess is that is the file it crashed on, so didn't relink it.

EDIT 3: Oh the horror. After copying the project folder, it still seems to refer back to media in the project folder I copied, not the local audio files folder. Ouch. So maybe it can damage a copied project? I seem to have lost at least one file somehow when opening the original project I copied. Luckily it seems to be a file I didn't use in the final edit.

EDIT 4: I managed to track down a back up of the missing file. Turns out it is a .mg file from 2005. What is a .mg audio file anyway?

[mikehalloran]

If you Google it, you'll get lots of answers including

The MG file extension is associated with the audio file format called EarAche used on Amiga computers developed by Commodore in 1980's.

But this is what you want.

In DP when you use "merge audio file" (same as consolidate in PT) it'll create a new file with .mg at the end but It's still an AIF file .

viewtopic.php?t=36337&p=298735

[bongo_john_uk]

If you Google it, you'll get lots of answers including

The MG file extension is associated with the audio file format called EarAche used on Amiga computers developed by Commodore in 1980's.

But this is what you want.

In DP when you use "merge audio file" (same as consolidate in PT) it'll create a new file with .mg at the end but It's still an AIF file .

viewtopic.php?t=36337&p=298735

Yes. Googling just turned up nonsense about earache that didn't make sense for this project.

The .mg files were created by DP. It seems that about 30 of the files are .mg.

In the inspector it says they are actually SDII files.

I still have DP crashing and giving that error though when I try to convert them in soundbites window. I've tried all the different options now. Really frustrating.

Is there another way to convert the media and relink them after in DP?

[bongo_john_uk]

Now trying to select smaller batches of soundbites in the hope can sort out which is triggering the crash. There's thousands though. Going to take ages as have to restart every time.

I suppose this really belongs in the troubleshooting forum now.

[mhschmieder]

I'm going through a similar process right now, but with the added confusion that a lot of my legacy "projects" are just digital conversions and uploads of two-track cassette "masters" from the 80's and 90's where the original multi-tracks were long lost, but where bad super-panning choices were made, meaning that I kind of am forced to audition each one to decide whether I'm better off keeping as "mono" L and R tracks or interleaving into merged stereo tracks in WAV.

It's a double-edged sword, as I may have more hope of resurrecting these projects for overdubs and replacements as well as surgical removal of "weak" instruments from the poorly or overly-panned masters.

I do, however, still have a few dozen actual multi-track projects in SDII format, and encountered some of the same error messages but had an intuition about the real source (vs. the red herring) and got it solved. Still debating whether to take a batch approach to the remaining projects or not, but certainly would save the SDII copies first "just in case".

It definitely seems wise to get SDII material into interleaved BWAV format sooner than later. Not a true archival format, and standards are still emerging for that but seem to require off-loading your data to other sources and locations (a good idea, really -- especially in earthquake country -- but too expensive for most home studios to contemplate), but BWAV will likely still be a recoverable format in most application contexts for most of our lifetimes.

[bongo_john_uk]

I've now spent an hour doing batches of 20-30 items at a time. Then save.

No crash yet.

I have a really nasty feeling that it maybe something as simple as the size of the batch causing that parameter error/crash.

I can't remember exactly but I am sure I have now past files that previously crashed when in a larger batch.

This is going to be really tedious. There are thousands of recorded soundbites in every project. Eek!

[mhschmieder]

Yikes, and I thought I had a large archive of legacy projects (over 600)!

Are all of your soundbites consolidated and zeroed? I know this makes the files larger, but the trip-ups might have less to do with size per se than being overburdened with calculations while trying to rectify time stamps and correlations of multiple sound bites per track.

[bongo_john_uk]

I seem to have tracked down what is going on.

Some backing vocals recorded 16th August 2009 seem to be causing problems for DP.

It is not only a problem with converting the files. With some of the files from that day's session, even if just select some of them in the soundbites window, DP hangs for a second and doesn't respond. It doesn't crash. But when I try to convert one of those files, I get the -50 error and no crash, or if I select more than one file then I get the -50 error then a crash.

So the crash is DP trying to do more files after the first popup.

I might have to rerecord the backing vocals. I actually thought they could be better at the time anyway.

So hopefully this won't happen with other projects when I try to batch convert those.