Topic: iRiver h120 recorded files in "PCM 256kbps 8000Hz Stereo"

[612]

Last night I was taping and when I looked down I noticed a flashing "warning 200000" where the time would be on the h120. I saw that it was recording in ".wav" and the file was gaining in size so I let it run.

I am familiar with the "chipmunk" .wav header issue and have had to fix that by saving files at 44.1 but I think this is something different...

I can't even describe what the file sounds like and haven't looked at the waveform yet. I usually try to make sure the h120 is plugged in but power everything else up before turning it on. I may have messed up my order last night causing this file that was recorded in "PCM 256kbps 8000Hz Stereo?"

I wanted to make sure I got a good AUD of the headliner so I swapped h120s for the one that had recorded board of the opener. The h120 that was being "weird" as a digi-in aud recorder made a line-in sbd of the headliner no problem and thankfully my other h120 made a good aud of the headliner.

Sooooo 3 of the 4 recordings are fine.

Would anyone happen to know if these "PCM 256kbps 8000Hz Stereo" files are fixable? Seems to be both a sample rate and maybe a pitch issue? I'll have to open the file up after work....something's telling me it may be lost.

Thanks for any insights!

[BayTaynt3d]

Where are you seeing this "PCM 256kbps 8000Hz Stereo" listed? Sounds like a mix of MP3 and WAV, doesn't seem possible. Either that or it is 256K 8kHz MP3. If that's what it is, it'll never sound good sorry to say. But maybe this is something else. It's the PCM that's throwing me off.

[612]

I was also extremely confused by mp3 "lingo" being thrown in there. That is what foobar2000 read the file as this morning before I headed out the door. I am very anxious to get home and open it up in sound forge to see what properties it shows. Thanks for posting.

[612]

The opener got saved at: 8,000kHz 16 bit Stereo
The headliner got saved at: 64,000kHz 16 bit Stereo (different h120)

Just did a: select all > copy > opened new 44.1kHz 16 bit Stereo .wav > paste

I don't like doing that because I have read that this can introduce pitch problems? I'll have to look at some of the older threads that explain what order to power things up...I thought I had it down there for a while but then I go and screw up 2 sets on 2 different machines.

[bugg100]

Yeah, this happened to me the other day, I thought it was the old optical trick (turn on h1x0 last for proper wav header).  Maybe your file is just "confused" about it's true sample rate.  i just reset in the file properties, no resample needed, instant change... in Wavelab 5.

Somewhere here is a free(?) wav header repair utility.

Joe

[612]

Thanks Joe. +ts fellas

[bugg100]

So your problem is solved?

[612]

Yep, I was able to recover both sets by pasting them into a new file in Sound Forge with the proper 44.1k WAV Header.

I did want to look into more proper methods of doing this because I don't think SF is the best thing to be using for this purpose...

[bugg100]

Out of curiosity, what was your signal chain where you had the problem?

[612]

I was running:

UA-5 (optical-out) @ 44.1kHz > h120 (digital-in, PCM)

Please let me know if you have any other questions of if this isn't what you mean by signal chain. I'm sure it had something to do with not powering up the h120 last...the 44.1k optical signal got all messed up when it hit the h120.

I've experienced WAVs being written/recorded at 64k (chipmunks) by accident before but the 8k file was new to me. Slooooows the recording waaaaay down and instead of sounding like the recording on steriods I'm not really sure what it sounds like. On this night I was talented enough to record one of each.

[sunjan]

I'm sure it had something to do with not powering up the h120 last.

UA-5 (optical-out) @ 44.1kHz > h120 (digital-in, PCM)

I've experienced WAVs being written/recorded at 64k (chipmunks) by accident before but the 8k file was new to me. Slooooows the recording waaaaay down and instead of sounding like the recording on steriods I'm not really sure what it sounds like.

Both (chipmunks and sloths!) has happened to me in the past, running exactly the same rig. I never figured out what caused it, but this sounds like the most plausible explanation.

[612]

chipmunks and sloths! I love it...well not when they show up on my recordings.

I just wanted to link to this thread incase anyone else makes it to the bottom of this one. It really helped me look into the quality of Sample Rate Converters and to move away from using SF:

http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,97139.0.html