CSG and .wav files

[DBenkert]

Hi,

I am not really expecting anyone to know the answer to this, but I thought I would give it a shot because I am at a loss.

I use CSG to save CUE and .wav files for most of our projects. We are using a CD Duplicator software package to create .img files (I think they might be proprietary format) to store on a network and duplicate from the files.

Here's the issue - when I use CSG to create either a full .wav or individaul files that are defined by the markers, the software will not accept the .wav's as audio files. When I do a straight Build Mix out of SAW, it works fine. What I have been doing is just highlighting each "track" section and building a mix out, but this is more time consuming.

Does anyone have any idea if there is a setting in CSG that I am missing that might cause something like this to happen or does it save some sort of "flag" that might be throwing off the software?

Thanks for any help!

[Naturally Digital]

Hi,

I am not really expecting anyone to know the answer to this, but I thought I would give it a shot because I am at a loss.

I use CSG to save CUE and .wav files for most of our projects. We are using a CD Duplicator software package to create .img files (I think they might be proprietary format) to store on a network and duplicate from the files.

Here's the issue - when I use CSG to create either a full .wav or individaul files that are defined by the markers, the software will not accept the .wav's as audio files. When I do a straight Build Mix out of SAW, it works fine. What I have been doing is just highlighting each "track" section and building a mix out, but this is more time consuming.

Does anyone have any idea if there is a setting in CSG that I am missing that might cause something like this to happen or does it save some sort of "flag" that might be throwing off the software?

Thanks for any help!David, what is the duplication software you're using?

[DBenkert]

Oh, sorry about that - it is called MF Digital Scribe PC Client

[Bob L]

When using the BuildMix to FX modules... samplerate conversion is not available... so the wav files will be set to the current MT samplerate...

Make sure your MT session is not set to 48K, or the burning software may not like the resulting files.

Of course you can set the MT of a 48k session to 44.1 and build the mix to FX modules, but you will be adding multiple rate conversion artifacts to the result.

I would build mixes first in SAWStudio using the High Quality rate conversion options to get all project mix files at 44.1 16 bit... then lay them out in a fresh session to build the CD images from CSG.

Bob L

[DBenkert]

It looks like everything is set to 44.1 and 16 bit for when I do either a straight buildmix or one to fx.

[Bob L]

No reason why the files would not open then... make sure there is not some compatibility setting in CSG for the files it is creating... obviously... the normal buildmix are my file creations... the Buid To FX are created by CSG.

Bob L

[SoundSuite]

...on a wild guess...

I cant find anywhere yet that says your duplicator accepts cue and wavs to turn into an audio cd...
It appears to just duplicate what you give it, so if my guess is correct, its making data duplicates, not audio (dupes have cue and wavs and dont play in cd player)

CSG generates cue and wav files, these files are then used for burning audio cds in many apps including Exact Audio Copy (http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/) and Nero (http://www.nero.com), etc .

These wavs with a cue are not a playable audio cd when burnt directly to a cdr.
The wavs are computer audio files, and the cue file is like the roadmap file, per se. It tells the burning software what and where all the goodies are and the software makes all these files into 1 audio cd master.

Then take that master cd you just made, put it in your duplicator and let it do it's image storage to replicate.
(or burn it to an img file and transfer across the network to the dupe storage drive, I assume)

[DBenkert]

Thanks guys so far - it is helping understand overall things better for sure.

Jon,

The duplicator does not accept CUE's and wav's. The way we are using it is it uses .img files created from the .wav files I get out of SAW using the PC software for the duplicator.

After I have created the .wav files (either through straight build mix or buildmix to fx), I load the Duplicator PC software, add the files to be added to the "image" and then create the image.

When I do a straight build mix to .wav, it works fine. When using CSG, I get an error when I try to add the .wav to the pc software to create an image file. It says cannot convert to audio.

Based on my understanding of what you said about the CUE and WAV files, I tried creating a CD from the .wav file that was created with CSG (bypassing the CUE file) and it created an audio CD fine. I just loaded up Nero, selected Audio CD, selected the .wav file created from CSG, and burned the cd and it worked fine.

It does seem like the .wav file format is a little different between a straight Build Mix and Build Mix to FX. I understand from what Bob said that the straight Build Mix is his baby and the FX one is CSG. I am just trying to figure out what might make it appear to not be audio to this duplicator PC software.

[SoundSuite]

http://forums.clanmist.com/images/smilies/shrug03.gif

interesting, for sure... it's gotta be something simple.

[Bob L]

Can you open the bad wav files into the SAWStudio SoundFile View... if so... what does the titlebar say for the rate and format?

Bob L

[DBenkert]

Yeah, I think it's got to be something simple too :-)

Bob, I opened the "bad" file in SoundFile view and it shows 44100 Hz 16 Bit Stereo.

Is there some form of tool I could see all the other file information with (if there is any?) I was just thinking if I could compare everything between a straight Build Mix and FX version, it would be interesting to see if anything is different.

Thanks again for all the input and ideas!

[UpTilDawn]

...
Is there some form of tool I could see all the other file information with (if there is any?) I was just thinking if I could compare everything between a straight Build Mix and FX version, it would be interesting to see if anything is different...



Would the info that you get with something like dBpowerAmp be what you need? In case you don't know, dBpowerAmp (http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm) is freeware audio converter. It greatly expands the information about a file in the Windows pop-up and properties.

DanT

[DBenkert]

Dan,

Yes, I use that all the time and did look at the info and saw nothing different between the "good" and "bad" files. However, I did use the converter and converted the "bad" .wav to new .wav file to a different directory and that new file worked.

Hmmm, strange.

[UpTilDawn]

Glad it worked out.
Seems strange to me as I have also copied and used the individual wavs created with CSG within other apps with no problem.

DanT

[DBenkert]

Yeah, I know. It works great in everything else I use it in. I live by this thing man (CSG)!

I am glad this workaround worked. It would still be nice to have it work directly because sometimes my file conversion times are pretty slow and it just adds another step.

Ah well, gotta do what I gotta do.

Thanks again!

[Naturally Digital]

This is weird. I'm curious to see if Jon has any comments...

Are you using the latest version?

Also, based on your explanation of how you're using this, I don't suppose you'd be better off using his Batch File Generator would you?

[DBenkert]

I thought I was using the latest version, but I wasn't. I was using 1.9 and just updated to 1.9c and that still didn't "fix" it.

Like I said, it works with everything else, it just seems like this Duplicators PC software is too picky.

[UpTilDawn]

I haven't been able to find anything in CSG or the wav files, themselves, that I can think of that would cause this problem. I found that I have also been using v. 1.9....... no problems.

When you copy the files to the network, does Windows change the file properties.... read only, archive, etc? Could this be causing your software to reject the files?

I'm guessing completely.. :confused:

DanT

[DBenkert]

I have actually been doing everything locally and not even using the network. I am just mixing down to my local SATA drive and then trying to create the image using the Duplicators PC software. After this step, I upload to an FTP server and some folks in Grand Rapids (I am in Chicago area), download it and set up the duplication part.