.m4a audio files when did DP become able to import?

[ed belknap]

iow, presuming that Digital Performer is even now able to import and use .m4a audio files with the same ease it handles .wav or .aif files (is it?) with which version/rev did Digital Performer gain that ability?

I'm of course being somewhat coy; what I really want to know is, can I import .m4a files into the ridiculously antiquated version of DP which I'm running ...which, since I haven't run it in over a year I can't even remember what version/rev it is! Probably 4.5x [edit: It's 4.61]

I know, I should just fire up the old Mac and try it, but I figured someone here might know whether that'll be a fruitless effort and spare me the time.

Thanks.

[David Polich]

DP has been able to import m4a audio since
DP7, I think (could be wrong on that). A number
of years, at any rate.

[mikehalloran]

.mp4 includes more than one file type. It can be mp4a Apple Lossless (16–24 bit), mp4r Ringtone, mp4b AudioBook. Plain mp4 is Apple's version of .mp3 with compression rates from 128k–320k.

There's no way I would use it in DP without converting to .wav first. This can be done in iTunes, DSP-Q or other apps. I use TwistedWave which can batch convert a few hours of mp4a files in a minute or two and sort it into folders if I want.

[bayswater]

There's no way I would use it in DP without converting to .wav first. This can be done in iTunes, DSP-Q or other apps.

Please explain. Doesn't DP convert a m4a file to whatever format your project uses, probably .wav, anyway? Why would you convert it before using it in DP? And I don't think you can't actually use m4a as the file format in a project.

[mikehalloran]

There's no way I would use it in DP without converting to .wav first. This can be done in iTunes, DSP-Q or other apps.

Please explain. Doesn't DP convert a m4a file to whatever format your project uses, probably .wav, anyway? Why would you convert it before using it in DP? And I don't think you can't actually use m4a as the file format in a project.

Time is the main reason. Even with my iMP, DP takes awhile to do the conversion. Doing it beforehand is faster. Conversely, I never, ever let DP convert to mp3 or mp4. The last time I did that on a project, it took nearly an hour vs 4 minutes in TwistedWave (this was on my 2010 iMac) — ok, it was a 3 hours of audio but lesson learned.

The other is that DP is very sensitive to file types being imported—a corrupted Audio file header can completely screw up a project in ways I hope that no one else experiences. Last time that happened to me, APFS Snapshots was the only thing that saved me from having to do an 8 hour Time Machine restore (turned out the files were aiff-c recorded direct to a CD Recorder) but I was already 4 hours into it before I figured out the problem.

Most of the work I do involves files that I do not generate. Doing the conversion and rewriting the headers TwistedWave is very fast and eliminates all that as an issue ... which brings me back to Time.

[bayswater]

There's no way I would use it in DP without converting to .wav first. This can be done in iTunes, DSP-Q or other apps.

Please explain. Doesn't DP convert a m4a file to whatever format your project uses, probably .wav, anyway? Why would you convert it before using it in DP?

Time is the main reason. Even with my iMP, DP takes awhile to do the conversion. Doing it beforehand is faster. Conversely, I never, ever let DP convert to mp3 or mp4. The last time I did that on a project, it took nearly an hour vs 4 minutes in TwistedWave (this was on my 2010 iMac) — ok, it was a 3 hours of audio but lesson learned.

Something is not working right then. I was surprised by your answer so I just opened up an empty DP project on my 2011 MBP. I dragged a m4a file (3:29 mins long) from the iTunes lib into the Tracks window. It imported in a second, two seconds at the most, to a 44.1/24 55M Wav file. Then I exported the soundbite to a 256K MP3 using LAME. That took 40 seconds. Longer than I expected but not excessive. Then an export from wav to m4a. That took about 5 seconds.

Doing the same with DSP-Q V 5 took about 3 seconds to import the same m4a, maybe 20 seconds to export an MP3 (faster than DP) and about the same 5 seconds to export an m4a. Looks lot me like both DP and DSP are passing m4a exports off to the OS X audio routines.

I do use DSP-Q to export to MP3, not to save time, but mainly because I usually drag every mix or export from DP, Logic or Mixbus into DSP-Q to look over the wave, look at peaks, and do any final tweaks. But otherwise I don't see any reason not to use DP for m4a files, in or out, and for MP3 the difference is not significant unless you are dealing with dozens of files hours long.

[mikehalloran]

3:24 minute songs are not my normal gig. Sometimes they are but that's rare.

[bayswater]

3:24 minute songs are not my normal gig. Sometimes they are but that's rare.

My point was it took no longer to read into DP than any other audio file.

[Prime Mover]

.mp4 includes more than one file type. It can be mp4a Apple Lossless (16–24 bit), mp4r Ringtone, mp4b AudioBook. Plain mp4 is Apple's version of .mp3 with compression rates from 128k–320k.

Mike, I hate to say but this is incorrect, though I can understand the confusion. The ".mp#" monicker is exceedingly confusing. MPEG1 was container format for audio/video. "MP3" is shorthand for "Layer 3" the most widely-used audio codec for the MPEG1 container. Then came MPEG2, which is a new container version, but targeted specifically at the pro video world. Their next container version jumped a number (since MP3 was already known world-wide) and was called MPEG4. This time, they named the default lossy audio codec AAC.

So, in short:

- MP3 is a codec. If you say MP3, you know you're getting an MPEG1 container file with the Layer3 audio compression. Files with the ".mp3" extension are audio only.

- MP4 is a CONTAINER. Files with that extension likely have video (but not necessarily). Audio-only files typically use the extension ".m4a" or ".aac". However, all three of these files are the exact same format and can contain the same data, they're just used as markers.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

And then there's this...

https://videoconverter.iskysoft.us