WAV files prodcued by a particular software open with heavy distortion

[Jack Wallstreet]

WAV files originating from a particular software play in DC 10.5.1 with heavy distortion. They play fine in other software and open and play and edit okay in other brand editing software. I suspect there is some aspect of the wav file that DC 10 can't handle (or I have a bad setting) but other software can. Is there a setting to address this. I have attached an image of one of the files. I am also happy to send a sample actual file (too big to attach).

[Craig Maier]

What are the characteristics of the file? (bit depth and sampling frequency). I have never encountered such a thing before. Maybe send me a snippet of the file so we can look it over. Send it to my personal email dctools@aol.com

Try to keep it to around 10 seconds worth of the file.

Craig

[Craig Maier]

Hi Jack,

I did not receive the snippet; that sometimes happens via my personal email acct. If you can send it again, this time copy both my personal email (dctools@aol.com) and also my company email (craig@diamondcut.com). Then, we will analyze the file snippet and determine what went wrong.

Thanks,

Craig

[Jack Wallstreet]

Thanks. Attached is a snippet. The file can be played and converted by Sound Forge Audio Studio and by windows media player, but not by DC 10 and is converted to silence by LAME (using CDex). Please note that I changed the extension from wav to zip to allow an upload and I had to reduce the time to 1/2 second to allow an upload.

[Craig Maier]

Hi - my Win10 system can not unzip this file. Also, my system does not know how to handle the file when I give it .wav as the extension. Maybe it is something else - - - maybe a compressed file like .mp3 or .wma or something else? Please send me a snippet to my email accounts. Even if I could open this file, 0.5 seconds does not give me much to analyze.

Thanks,

Craig

[Jack Wallstreet]

Sorry, I don't know your email address. Tried to send you a private message, but this system says you have exceeded your private message quota (and it doesn't allow much in the way of attachment size either.

[Craig Maier]

Send it to dctools@aol.com and also copy me at my corporate email which is craig@diamondcut.com. Try to keep it under 10 MBytes.

Craig

[Craig Maier]

We hate to leave a thread un-resolved, but we never received samples of the file in question. We will still review them if we receive them. Otherwise, there is not much we can do.

Thanks,

Craig

[dbanani]

Hi Craig
I changed the file extension to .wav and was able to play the file with both windows media player and TotalCommander. Distortion appears to be there. Also, my version of DC Forensics10 would open the file and allow editing but not playback. I receive an error from DC Forensics10 when I press the play arrow:

"DirectSound Error: Unknown error number"

Using a different music conversion software, I received an error that the file is NOT PCM audio. This leads me to believe that it is possibly bitstream, either Dolby digital or DTS:X.

Found this note in a quick search on google:

"The Dolby Atmos and DTS:X surround sound formats are only available from a Blu-ray Disc player via the Bitstream setting option. There are no Blu-ray Disc players that can decode these formats internally to PCM and pass that on to a home theater receiver"

My guess is that the file was recorded as bitstream from from a blue-ray player in surround sound without using any decoder. Playback on a PCM stereo system such as DC Forensics10 results in the distortion. Software which includes an encoder would be able to play the file without distortion. I do not have the equipment or software to confirm this guess.
D

[Craig Maier]

Thanks for the insight, dbanani. Indeed, Diamond Cut's native format involves linear pcm audio; other formats are always converted to pcm in order to be manipulated by the program. The Diamond Cut software does not support Dolby digital or DTS-X encoded audio streams and can not convert them.

Thanks,

Craig

[Craig Maier]

Jack sent the file to my email and I opened it in DCArt10.51 and get the following error:

Direct Sound Error - Unknown Error Number.

Craig

[Craig Maier]

Here is what Rick said about it:

Craig

It looks like there is no problem with the file or with DCart, its just that this file is a 32 bit floating point file. So it opens OK, but the sound card can't play it directly which is why we get that error, but I imagine that some sound cards may attempt to play it which is why it would sound distorted. We don't perform on the fly translations to play such a file through soundcards that do not support 32 bit, so that is why we get the direct sound error. However, converting it to a 24 bit file first allows it to play ok in DCArt10.5x.

Craig

[Craig Maier]

My observation - - - why is anybody recording in 32 bit? That represents 192 dB of dynamic range. If you run through the noise floor equations, audio system can yield at max around 90 dB of dynamic range (the range from the noise floor to the loudest passage). 16 bits yields 96 dB, which is greater than any sound system can deliver to the listener. As an aside, CD audio is 16 bit.

Craig

[Jack Wallstreet]

Saving it from 32 bit floating to 24 bit worked as you said it would. Thank you for taking the time to research this. I was frustrating. Thank you again!!!

[Craig Maier]

Glad to hear that it worked out ok.

Craig