Large Audio Files

dvogel wrote on 8/24/2005, 8:58 PM
Vegas will not open WAV or AIFF files that are larger than approximately 2 GB long. I've been told that Windows does not support WAV files this large. Certainly Windows Media Player won't play them. But Sony's SonicStage music library and player can create WAV files this large and the Audacity audio editing program can read them so I'm not certain what "illegal" means in this situation.

In any case, Vegas (and other Sony products like Sound Forge) should support files this size. Is this the right place to request this feature in future versions?

Good luck.

Dennis

Comments

GenJerDan wrote on 8/25/2005, 5:06 AM
I might have just dreamed it, but I think it will open them if they're saved as Wav64

Now, getting them into that format will probably require SoundForge, so that might not be of much help.

If you do a search in these forums for Wav64, you'll probably find more/better info.

Dan
dvogel wrote on 8/25/2005, 8:33 PM
Yes, I'm aware Vegas supports WAV64 files. But I'm asking that it directly support WAV files that are larger than 2 GB. I should not have to run another application to convert WAV to WAV64 when Vegas could just as easily open the WAV files. Other apps do it so Vegas should, too.

Dennis
Chienworks wrote on 8/26/2005, 9:06 AM
The WAV file format does not support anything above 2GB. If you have a file that looks like .wav and is over 2GB then it's not really a true .wav file; it's something weird and non-standard.

In stead of asking why Vegas doesn't open these files, you should be asking why other applications create them. Those other applications really ought to be producing multiple 2GB files instead of a single larger file.
James Young wrote on 8/26/2005, 12:55 PM
What happens when you record, in Vegas, more then 2GB worth of audio data to a wave file? Does it stop or something? I'm curious, because it seems like 2GB would happen more often now that sample rates are so high and mighty. Don't they have shit as high as 32-bit/320khz nowadays? Oh, I'm talking about consumer audio cards, not, for example, crank-shaft balancing machines!

James Young wrote on 8/26/2005, 12:58 PM
Another easy thing someone with time can test out, is creating a 2GB file from vegas, but either looping something or stringing together some junk. I'm just curious what the limits are and how Vegas deals, not starting an arguement (except maybe with myself!)
James Young wrote on 8/26/2005, 1:12 PM
OK, I tried creating a 2GB+ wav file from Vegas. I took a song, looped it 7 times, exported it as 24-bit/192kHz, the file reached 2,146,036 KB (or 1.99GB as the file properties shows) then an error occured and told me that that size is not supported. Good.

The file won't open or import or anything. I'm going crazy here, I want to creat very large standard-wav files!!!
randygo wrote on 8/26/2005, 3:05 PM

>I want to creat very large standard-wav files!!!

Impossible. As has been said, the WAV standard only allows up to 2GB,
due to the number of bits allocated in the header for the length.
You can thank Microsoft for that.

Here is more info on the WAV format:

http://ccrma.stanford.edu/courses/422/projects/WaveFormat

You can google for more info on WAV.

If you want large WAVs, you have no choice but to use a *non-standard* format.

Randy
James Young wrote on 8/26/2005, 4:22 PM
Randy, I was joking, I don't fucking care.
dvogel wrote on 8/27/2005, 8:42 PM
This would be all fine except Windows lets applications create wav files greater than 2 GB. And the ones I have are intact. All the audio is in them. So I don't understand the concept of an OS standard that the OS itself does not obey! I will read the wav format material you linked to because I am curious how a non standard file can be created by an application using OS calls and other applications can read. Wouldn't you agree that what is standard or not is quite muddy?

Good luck.

Dennis


dvogel wrote on 8/27/2005, 8:45 PM
"In stead of asking why Vegas doesn't open these files, you should be asking why other applications create them. Those other applications really ought to be producing multiple 2GB files instead of a single larger file."

Well, the application that is doing it is creating the large wav files is a Sony application! Not from the Sonic Foundry lineage but Sony all the same. I find it quite ironic that the application and the OS can create these "nonstandard" files and other applications can read them but not Vegas.

Good luck.

Dennis


RobA wrote on 12/12/2005, 2:31 PM
I'm also suffering from this problem... I have large (up to 4Gb) mono WAVs recorded on a Mackie hard drive recorder that I want to edit in Sound Forge. At the moment I have to open them in Audacity and edit down to <2Gb to do so...

Is there not a utility that would convert a large WAV into a WAV64? I've read elsewhere that it's just a question of changing the header, which surely can't be that hard? There's obviously a need for such a utility amongst Sony users, so what's the chances of seeing one?
Geoff_Wood wrote on 12/12/2005, 3:30 PM
You could try simply changing the suffix to W64 - the only difference is evidently in the size of some descriptor table (or something like that) in the file header.

Vegas does have the option in Preferences | General to "Render large WAV files as W64" .

Given that the said table in a WAV file is not big enough to describe a WAV file as being great that 2GB, then I can't imagine what applications are able to fudge to create one !

geoff
pwppch wrote on 12/12/2005, 9:48 PM
What Mackie recorder did you use to create these files?

Peter
RobA wrote on 12/13/2005, 12:04 PM
An SDR24/96
kbruff wrote on 12/13/2005, 3:30 PM
Could you dump sections at a time and insert markers where need be so that you can manage them as files, etc.

I work with files over 2GB all the time, and hence I use the w64 format, eventually breaking them down into more manageable smaller files.

Thanks,
Kevin
RobA wrote on 12/17/2005, 12:07 PM
I have found the answer! The Awave Audio convertor:

http://www.fmjsoft.com/aamain.shtml

Amongst a multitude of standards, it will convert long WAVs to W64s.
ForumAdmin wrote on 1/30/2008, 11:36 AM
The Vegas 8.0b update supports large Wave files (2 - 4 GB).

Renders are limited to 2 GB by default but you can always open large Wave files. You'll need to check the General pref "Allow Wave renders up to 4 GB" if you want to render to Wave files that will be greater than 2 GB.