Subject:Some MP3s won't load correctly
Posted by: Frettchen
Date:5/1/2005 3:43:31 PM
I ripped some Audio CDs with WinAmp as 192kbit/s, joint stereo. Acid5 shows some (but only a few) of them as VBR recorded and only replays about 3 seconds of the file (same holds true for SoundForge8). When I look at the file properties of these files i always get: 00:00:03,004, VBR; 44.100 Hz; Stereo, MPEG Layer-3. I checked the files with several other programs (CubaseSX3, Musicmatch, WindowsMediaPlayer10) and each of them displays correct bitrate (192kbit/s) and length of file (which is always more than 3 minutes). Also replay works fine. Has anybody seen this problem and can give me reliable workaround? |
Subject:RE: Some MP3s won't load correctly
Reply by: JohnnyRoy
Date:5/1/2005 5:21:09 PM
Are they VBR? If so, try recording them as CBR and see if that helps. ~jr |
Subject:RE: Some MP3s won't load correctly
Reply by: Frettchen
Date:5/2/2005 10:05:07 AM
No they are definitely not VBR. I checked this with various other programs. And if they would be VBR they should also load correctly i assume. |
Subject:RE: Some MP3s won't load correctly
Reply by: JohnnyRoy
Date:5/2/2005 11:31:01 AM
Yes, VBR would work as well, sometimes CBR works better in some applications. I don’t use WinAmp so I couldn’t duplicate this entirely but I just ripped a song from CD using Sound Forge 8, encoded it both as a CBR and VBR MP3, dropped them both into ACID Pro 5.0a and they played fine. My guess is that there is something non-standard about the way the WinAmp encoder created the MP3 files that is causing it not to work in Sony products (since both ACID and Sound Forge are affected). Of course, the other explanation is that there is a problem with the Sony encoder. You would need to get Peter to look at this to tell which it is. Try ripping and encoding to MP3 in Sound Forge 8 and it will probably work. Also I would bet that if you rip and encode them with MusicMatch it would work too. I use MusicMatch all the time. ~jr |
Subject:RE: Some MP3s won't load correctly
Reply by: Frettchen
Date:5/2/2005 4:34:12 PM
Checked ripping the CD with MusicMatch - worked. Hmm, removed the ID3v2 header of the old (non-working) file with a hex-editor. Everything works fine then. (Problem seems to be the meta-information.) Digged my harddisk and found a directory with a (now) false identified track and a lengthy accompanying *.sfk file, so i guess the file worked fine with an older versions of ACID/SoundForge. I would bet the problem is a software defect introduced in the current ACID/Soundforge version. Er |
Subject:RE: Some MP3s won't load correctly
Reply by: ForumAdmin
Date:5/2/2005 10:14:30 PM
Frettchen, We are aware of this issue with certain MP3 VBR files and here are a couple of possible workarounds: 1. Download and install the Vegas 6.0 trial, you don't actually need to run it. It includes an updated MP3 plug-in which should fix this bug (ACID 5 uses this same MP3 plug-in). You'll need to delete the companion .sfk files before loading the MP3 files to ensure that the audio waveform is drawn correctly. or, 2. In ACID Pro 5.0a, set the internal preference "Scan entire MP3 file to determine size" to TRUE. This pref was not available in ACID Pro 5.0 so you'll need to install the 5.0a update. If you aren't familiar or comfortable changing an internal pref, do #1 instead. Important: Please note enabling this pref WILL affect performance when your project contains MP3 files because it will scan the entire file to accurately determine the length of VBR files. We recommend that you enable this pref only long enough to render the problem file(s) to a different format, such as WAV PCM. Load each MP3 into an empty ACID project and render as WAV. When you are done saving the MP3 files as WAV, reset the pref to FALSE. You should restart ACID after changing the pref and you'll also need to delete the corresponding .sfk files before loading the MP3 files into ACID for the waveform to be drawn properly. Then in your ACID project use the WAV files you created instead of the MP3 files. |
Subject:RE: Some MP3s won't load correctly
Reply by: Frettchen
Date:5/3/2005 1:17:12 AM
Only to clarify things: I'm not talking about VBR files which are not playing correctly. My problem is that certain 192kbit/s (CBR), Joint Stereo MP3s show up as VBR and won't load correctly. As the problem disappers when i manually remove the ID3v2 Header, i guess that ACID/Soundforge does not detect the start of the MP3 data frame correctly. These files work pretty well in all other audio applications i own and these applications are showing the correct encoding properties for the files. Nevertheless i will try your suggestions and see if it solves my problem. |
Subject:RE: Some MP3s won't load correctly
Reply by: Frettchen
Date:5/4/2005 11:23:23 AM
Just to close this thread. The suggestion by ForumAdmin works perfectly. " 1. Download and install the Vegas 6.0 trial, you don't actually need to run it. It includes an updated MP3 plug-in which should fix this bug (ACID 5 uses this same MP3 plug-in). ..." You can even uninstall the trial version immediately to regain some disk space. Thanks for the help, Er |