I've recorded a podcast, but can't open the .wav file. Help!
September 9, 2010 12:01 PM Subscribe
I recorded a podcast today on an Edirol R-09 hard-disc recorder, but once I've extracted the file to my hard drive, I can't open the file. It's not the kind of recording I can replicate, and I'm in trouble. Can I rescue the data?
It's a 55-minute, 824MB .wav file, recorded at a sampling rate of 44.100kHz. I've tried opening it in iTunes, Audacity, VLC, Switch and Quicktime, but none work. The only programme that throws up an actual error message is Quicktime, which reports ""OSStatus error -208". I imagine the file is corrupt in some way, but I've tried running DiskWarrior on the SD card and get the message "directory cannot be rebuilt, the file system is unsupported".
There are five other .wav files on the SD card, and all play OK. If I try and play the file on the Edirol itself, I get the message "improper song". When monitoring the recording as it was made, it sounded fine, and I'm assuming that the audio data is on the file, judging by the overall filesize.
This is a process I've done lots of times before without any issues, and I'm at a complete loss as to what to do next.
Any suggestions? Advice will be very gratefully received. Thanks.
It's a 55-minute, 824MB .wav file, recorded at a sampling rate of 44.100kHz. I've tried opening it in iTunes, Audacity, VLC, Switch and Quicktime, but none work. The only programme that throws up an actual error message is Quicktime, which reports ""OSStatus error -208". I imagine the file is corrupt in some way, but I've tried running DiskWarrior on the SD card and get the message "directory cannot be rebuilt, the file system is unsupported".
There are five other .wav files on the SD card, and all play OK. If I try and play the file on the Edirol itself, I get the message "improper song". When monitoring the recording as it was made, it sounded fine, and I'm assuming that the audio data is on the file, judging by the overall filesize.
This is a process I've done lots of times before without any issues, and I'm at a complete loss as to what to do next.
Any suggestions? Advice will be very gratefully received. Thanks.
I'm reaching here, but one thing to try is (after you've made a backup copy of the file!) opening both the bad recording and a known-good recording in a hex editor. It might be that some of the header bytes in the file are just mangled. If you posted hex dumps of the first few bytes of both files, someone familiar with the WAV format might be able to tell you what to change to fix the corruption.
It's a long shot, but without it there's not a lot of information to go on.
posted by Kadin2048 at 12:11 PM on September 9, 2010
It's a long shot, but without it there's not a lot of information to go on.
posted by Kadin2048 at 12:11 PM on September 9, 2010
Virtualdub has helped me access files when I'd given them up for dead and quicktime threw up that error.
posted by dance at 12:24 PM on September 9, 2010
posted by dance at 12:24 PM on September 9, 2010
Response by poster: Thanks Mwongozi. The original file and part.wav are here.
posted by Cobbler at 12:33 PM on September 9, 2010
posted by Cobbler at 12:33 PM on September 9, 2010
Best answer: In Audacity, go to File->Import->Raw Data, select the .wav file, and use the settings: Signed 24 bit PCM, Big-endian, 2 Channels (Stereo). This should rescue your data. It worked for me at least for part.wav.
posted by zsazsa at 12:49 PM on September 9, 2010
posted by zsazsa at 12:49 PM on September 9, 2010
Cobbler, the -208 error you got from QuickTime is a Mac OS badFileFormat error.
I've examined the header of the R09_0006.wav file you posted, and it is definitely not a valid WAVE file, all of the WAVE identifiers are missing from the start of the file. It's likely that the start of the file was somehow damaged (bad sector on your SD card, overwritten by other audio, etc.) The audio might still be recoverable if the sound data samples are still intact. Can you also post a small .wav file recorded by your Edirol R-09 hard-disc recorder with the exact same settings as your corrupt .wav file? That way I can try reconstructing a valid WAVE header for the R09_0006.wav file.
posted by RichardP at 12:53 PM on September 9, 2010
I've examined the header of the R09_0006.wav file you posted, and it is definitely not a valid WAVE file, all of the WAVE identifiers are missing from the start of the file. It's likely that the start of the file was somehow damaged (bad sector on your SD card, overwritten by other audio, etc.) The audio might still be recoverable if the sound data samples are still intact. Can you also post a small .wav file recorded by your Edirol R-09 hard-disc recorder with the exact same settings as your corrupt .wav file? That way I can try reconstructing a valid WAVE header for the R09_0006.wav file.
posted by RichardP at 12:53 PM on September 9, 2010
Response by poster: Looks like zsazsa has solved it - I've got the audio into Audacity.
Thanks for your help everyone, you're all legends.
posted by Cobbler at 1:05 PM on September 9, 2010
Thanks for your help everyone, you're all legends.
posted by Cobbler at 1:05 PM on September 9, 2010
By trial and error I found the proper WAVE settings, but I see that zsazsa beat me to it. I have a "fixed" WAVE file I can upload if you still need it.
posted by RichardP at 1:05 PM on September 9, 2010
posted by RichardP at 1:05 PM on September 9, 2010
Response by poster: Thanks RichardP, but all is good at my end now. Cheers.
posted by Cobbler at 1:17 PM on September 9, 2010
posted by Cobbler at 1:17 PM on September 9, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
dd if=yourfile.wav of=part.wav bs=1024 count=1024
And then upload "part.wav" somewhere we can get it? (Or, if you don't have anywhere else, email it to me and I'll make it available.)
posted by Mwongozi at 12:07 PM on September 9, 2010