Anyone familiar with WavePad audio editing software?

silverweb

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Sun Jun-29-08 11:36 PM
Original message

Anyone familiar with WavePad audio editing software?

I posted this a few days ago in the Computer Help forum, but didn't get much in the way of nibbles. Hopefully, wider exposure of the problem here in GD will get some results.

A good friend of mine, who is not a DU member, bought RecordPad and WavePad. She and her husband are having problems with it, but the vendor has not been responding to requests for help.

Details of the problem, as received from the husband, are:

The audio files are recorded 44.100kHz in RecordPad and sound fine when played in either RecordPad or WavePad before any editing has occured.

When the file has been edited and saved in WavePad, a distortion quality is added to the file.

It seems that after any editing in WavePad, the file is saved with formatting values, selected in WavePad, that introduce the distortion. The values displayed on the WavePad file format form are format: PCM, Attributes: 44.100kHz, 8 Bit, Mono, 43 kb/sec.

If the file is saved in either RecordPad or WavePad before any editing, it is just closed with no attributes changed.

When we first started working with WavePad, it saved files after editing just fine, but after about a week the distortion occured and we don't know enough about audio to determine what went wrong.

Any ideas?

If you are willing to communicate directly with him to help resolve this problem, please PM me and, per his request, I'll give you his email address. I also stand ready to act as go-between, even if it is less efficient.

Thanks in advance.

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KharmaTrain

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Sun Jun-29-08 11:45 PM
Response to Original message

1. Sounds Like You Need To Set To 16 bit

One thing I'm immediately noticing is that you should be saving at 16 bit not 8...most editing programs operate at that rate. 8 is good for streaming or when you need to compress the audio...and even then I'd lower the baud rate from 44.1 to 22 before I'd drop it to 8 bits.

I prefer to use an old but steady program...Cool Edit Pro...everything you need in a recording program and saves in all formats.

Good luck with your problem

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silverweb

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Mon Jun-30-08 12:12 AM
Response to Reply #1

3. Information relayed.

Thanks! :hi:

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KharmaTrain

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Mon Jun-30-08 12:13 AM
Response to Reply #3

5. Good Luck

Audio likes to be very consitant...mess with the rates and strange things can happen. Make sure the programs are compatible with each other and hopefully you should be ok.

Keep me posted...

Cheers...

:hi:

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silverweb

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Mon Jun-30-08 12:33 AM
Response to Reply #5

6. It's all Greek to me....

I'm just hoping my friend's husband understands it.

I'll be sure to post back once I hear from them. :)

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silverweb

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Tue Jul-01-08 02:40 PM
Response to Reply #1

11. KharmaTrain, you win the prize!

They changed the settings to make sure files get saved at 16 bit and the problem was solved.

Thank you so much -- from my friends and from this DUer who knows DUers always come through!

:loveya:

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tomreedtoon

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Sun Jun-29-08 11:51 PM
Response to Original message

2. I recommend Goldwave or Audacity.

Edited on Sun Jun-29-08 11:55 PM by tomreedtoon

It's pretty much the Swiss army knife of audio editing software. I use it to edit stutters and pauses out of podcast audio. It only goes up to stereo audio, and to save as an MP3 you need to download the (free) LAME encoder and leave the encoder in the Goldwave program folder. But it does a great job.

http://www.goldwave.com/

If you want something free, you might want to try Audacity. It's not as easy to use, but it IS a multi-track audio editor. If you want to add music or sound effects on other channels, it will do the job. It's available for Windows and Macintosh, or if you have absolutely no sense, for Linux.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/

On edit: Oh! Forgot the price for Goldwave. It's $45.

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silverweb

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Mon Jun-30-08 12:13 AM
Response to Reply #2

4. Thank you!

:hi:

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ngant17

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Mon Jun-30-08 04:56 AM
Response to Original message

7. using 'on-board sound' or sound card?

I had a computer with recording audio problems until I quit using the on-board sound and installed an aftermarket sound card. Problem went away.

Do you have a hardware problem or software problem? It's hard to tell sometimes. I wouldn't blame the software until you've tried a freeware/shareware audio editor like CoolEdit/Audacity and see if the same problem resurfaces. If it does, it's possibly hardware or a something related to parameters/settings in the computer BIOS motherboard.

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silverweb

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Mon Jun-30-08 02:10 PM
Response to Reply #7

9. I don't know what they're using.

But I've emailed them this thread to monitor and try the suggestions posted.

Thanks! :hi:

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Fumesucker

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Mon Jun-30-08 06:10 AM
Response to Original message

8. Wavosaur is another freeware audio editing option..

As powerful as Audacity but a somewhat different feature set.

http://www.wavosaur.com/

And then there is Reaper, which is donationware I think but a very powerful multitrack editor with strong noise removal capabilities.

http://www.cockos.com/reaper/download.php

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silverweb

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Mon Jun-30-08 02:11 PM
Response to Reply #8

10. Thank you!

DUers always come through with helpful suggestions. :hi:

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Morning Dew

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Tue Jul-01-08 02:43 PM
Response to Original message

12. looks like your problem got solved - YAY !

I love wavePad - never have any problem with it - the NCH programs are pretty reliable for me.

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silverweb

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Tue Jul-01-08 03:40 PM
Response to Reply #12

13. Yup, and DU has two new fans.

Maybe even new members at some point.

Thanks for your input! :hi:

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