A Problem With WAV Files ...

[qburns]

Having a bit of a mini-disaster here ... perhaps someone can help -->

Though I use Macs for everything else, I record my mixdowns into a PC as I really like to edit and master in Sound Forge. I then burn a CD-ROM of the master WAVs and copy/archive them on a hard drive hooked up to my main Mac.

Today I needed to access a master WAV file and discovered it would not open in Peak, Quattro, or even, when transfered back to the PC, in Sound Forge. Stranger still, the file plays just fine in Audion (a simple audio player utility). Quattro is the only program that gives information in its error message which states: "RIFF Chunk Not Found".

My PC, as it is a bit aged, has been slowly breaking down. The most recent problem is that the disk drive won't correctly write disks. As these problem files were transfered to the Mac via CD-ROM burn right before the burning problem showed itself I am thinking they were corrupted in this process. (Other WAV files on the hard drive open fine, so I doubt it's hard drive corruption)

So - I guess my predictable question is: any thoughts or ideas on how to salvage these WAV files? Since they play fine in Audion I have hope that there is a way.

A friend suggested letting them play in Audion while capturing the audio in a disk bounce using Audio Hijack ... this would work I believe but wondering if a simpler suggestion might exist.

I'm on a Mac G4 Powerbook running 10.4.5 ...

Thanks in advance.

[Mark Alan Miller]

Check to make sure that the 'write-protect' or 'copy-protect' or 'read-only' flag is not set on the file...? It gets set to 'on' when buring files on a PC to CD or DVD from what I've experienced, and stays that way when copied back to a hard drive. Many editors will complain when they see this flag turned on, as it tells them they cannot work on the file directly or something...

[sonikbliss]

Download soundhack and change the header info if nothing else works.

[cvanwinkle]

You should be able to rectify the file from within Audition. Which version of Audition are you using?

[qburns]

It's Audion, not Audition. I'm not sure what Audition is. Audion, as far as I know, will only save files as MP3.

I've gone ahead and played the file in Audion while saving it as an AIFF via disk bounce from Audio Hijack. It seems to have saved the file without any degradation ... thanks for all the advice everyone.

[philbo]

If all else fails, try this:

Connect line out to line in.
Play back the file with Audion while recording the line in with another program.
________
Creampie Tube

[Rigsby]

If iTunes plays it, use the convert function to convert to wav, i've done this when i've had aifs that have not translated well from pc to mac.