Topic: PCM & IEEE Formats? Need help!

[willyjbrown]

Everything I tape on my iRiver h120 turns out to be PCM format when I record in .wav, which I don't really know much about but it works so I don't worry. I noticed last night that when I recorded some stuff with my band on to my laptop with Adobe Audition 2.0, the .wav files were IEEE format (again, not sure what it means) and they would not open in CD Wave when I went to split the files because of that. Anybody know how to change it, get around it, or fix it? Nothing is wrong with any of the files, I just want to split these recordings from last night into different files.

Thanks in advance!

[Brian Skalinder]

You probably recorded in AA at 32-bit floating point.  CD-Wave cannot handle 32bfp.  Try dithering down to your target format (I assume 16-bit).  You may also want to check the file's sample rate to ensure it's your target sample rate.  If not, you'll want to resample first, then dither.

[willyjbrown]

So how exactly should I go about doing this? I'm cautious to experiment without knowing what I'm doing because all of my band's demo material is on my laptop and I don't want to mess it up.

[Brian Skalinder]

So how exactly should I go about doing this? I'm cautious to experiment without knowing what I'm doing because all of my band's demo material is on my laptop and I don't want to mess it up.

Back up your files so they're safe, and give it a go.  AA/CEP has an excellent help file.  If you need to resample, do that first - something like Edit | Convert Sample Type in AA/CEP, select your sample rate, set the Pre/Post filter to a high value, and leave the resolution at 32bfp.  Then dither using the same command - Edit | Convert Sample Type - but select the same sample rate as the file, select 16-bit resolution, and choose dither options (default dither depth, triangular dither type, and no noise shaping should work fine).  Finally, Save As.

[willyjbrown]

Thanks for the advice! I was recording at 44100Hz Stereo 32-bit, so I simply changed to 16-bit and went with the default dither depth (1 bit), triangular dither type, and no nose shaping and they seemed to be fine because they opened in CD Wave. Thanks again!