Topic: Strange File Format or broken recording?

[Katsu999]

Hi Folks

My First Post!

Just finished a short tour doing sound for a solo artist, and on one of the gigs the recording was 'out of my hands'.

What I have been given is a .AIFF file recorded on a Mac using Bias Peak Pro.

When I open it (on a PC) in Wavelab, or Nuendo, or Audacity (or any other PC Editing prog) it claims to be a Stereo 32-bit 44.1KHz file, of 2GB in size (correct), and the programs seem happy to open it and display the waveform - which doesn't look healthy, more like a wall up to 90% with peaks ontop - which is also what it sounds like - it is 90% static roar, with a topping of 10% music.

I think before it was copied (...for me...) I briefly saw a waveform onscreen that looked healthy (I do a lot of editing and recording...), though I didn't get to HEAR the file on the Mac, so I do have some hope there is real sound in there somewhere!

It almost seems as if the lowest 90% of the bits have 'shifted' to nonsense somehow, leaving just the top 10% bits playing music (in a volume sense - I'm no programmer!) ... and don't know enough about bit-ordering in files to be sure of that either.

However, another option is that their USB soundcard/Mac was faulty, and it did indeed record a static roar          


Thanks in advance!