Calling all computer music veterans ... HELP!

[woodman]

I need some tips, guidance, advice, whatever. I have 4 different software programs (CoolEditPro 2.1, AcidPro 4.0, PowerTracks 9, and Band-in-a-Box 2004). I'd like to be able to move files (projects) freely between them, but each program refuses to import files whose suffix they don't like. Is there any "workaround" to solve this, short of making 3 or 4 versions of each project that will be acceptable to whichever program I want to use?

Anybody?

Many thanks

[manning1]

normally - each manufacturer has its own format for saving whole songs
- meaning audio and midi files. to transfer midi files you use the *.mid convention and for audio files you use *.wav convention.

[woodman]

Thanks, manning for your very prompt reply to my plea. Sorry it's taken me a couple of days to acknowledge your attempt to help me on this. I was hoping to get a response from you 'cause I've been very impressed with your helpful advice to others on this board. But your reply here didn't quite give me the help I was seeking, unfortunately. My confusion lies in the fact that there are multiple variations of both midi and .wav type files, and it seems that my software programs are discriminating in which ones they'll accept and which ones they won't.

Please elaborate on this topic when and if you have the time. I'll appreciate it no end.

Many thanks,

woodman

[manning1]

woodman. i'll try and elucidate if you tell me the problems your getting.
you should read the help that came with each program you own. these help files will tell you which types of files can be saved in each program.
for example - for midi - the use of the word STANDARD is important.
any program that uses midi should allow you to save in STANDARD MIDI FORMAT. with wave the same. save as a STANDARD MONO OR STEREO WAVE FILE. please note you might get problems if your sound card
is 16 bit and your trying to load a 24 bit sound file that someone gave you eg...if your collabbing with someone else on a music project.
would help to know what sound card you use.

[lpdeluxe]

Cool Edit Pro will allow the use of a wide variety of file types, BTW.

[woodman]

Originally Posted by manning1

woodman. i'll try and elucidate if you tell me the problems your getting.
you should read the help that came with each program you own. these help files will tell you which types of files can be saved in each program.
for example - for midi - the use of the word STANDARD is important.
any program that uses midi should allow you to save in STANDARD MIDI FORMAT. with wave the same. save as a STANDARD MONO OR STEREO WAVE FILE. please note you might get problems if your sound card
is 16 bit and your trying to load a 24 bit sound file that someone gave you eg...if your collabbing with someone else on a music project.
would help to know what sound card you use.

The sound card is a Yamaha YMF-series with XG wavetable ... I'm not sure of the exact model#.

When you say: STANDARD MIDI FORMAT, do you mean .smf? Or, .mid? Same with wave files ... just what do you "save as"? Or, is there some sort of file conversion that needs to be employed?

In AcidPro 4.0, I've tried importing a file with the extension .wav and got a popup window with an error message stating that "an error occurred while opening one or more files" and below that: "the file format plugin for the specified format was not properly initialized" Confused the hell outta me. I cannot find anything in the manual relating to any such parameter.

These issues are all related to MY system only. I'm not involved with any computer music collaboration with anyone else, nor do I expect to be. I have my hands totally full trying to climb the learning curve with the 4 programs I have. I appreciate your expertise and guidance in helping this poor old fart overcome his semi-illiterate computer skills. I need all of the help I can get.

woodman

[manning1]

woodman. for interchange between programs use *.mid and *.wav
corresponding to midi and audio files.
your yamaha sound card is only 16 bit. if you try and import 24 bit files it wont work. its only a suspicion , but maybe you were trying to import an unsupported format in acid pro. for example a 8 bit file perhaps ?
what you need to get hold of for these situations is i believe somewhere on the net or at hitsquad.com is a little utility that reads audio file headers and reports their format - OR cool probably will do that for you.
next time you get this situation in acid try importing the audio file into cool and it should tell you both the sampling rate and bit depth.
if you want to record at 24 bit then you will need to get another sound card
capable of 24 bit. do you have any info on the file that acid rejected ?
one thing you can do for me is find the rejected file by using windows search ,
hold the mouse over it and RIGHT CLICK using the mouse and up will come a little windows dialogue ...then select PROPERTIES....and a dialogue will display. tell me the info displayed in the dialog as well as the file extension.

[rapedbyape]

Cool Edit can save various types of wav file, so I would have thought you need to make sure each program supports the type of wav file you're saving in. Cool Edit supports:

A-mu-Law Wave
ACM Waveform
DVI/ICM ADPCM
Microsoft ADPCM
Windows PCM

That's wav files, although for MIDI files I'm not sure. I get a lot of problems trying to open wave files that I've saved in Cool Edit. I normally just try saving the file I want to open as each different kind of wav file until I find one that will open in the program I want.

[manning1]

ape. for STANDARD wave interchange with other programs ,
save your wave files in cool as WINDOWS PCM.peace.