Vegas audio won't open in Audio Studio

megabit wrote on 6/23/2009, 1:22 AM

So I've chosen Soundforge Audio Studio as my freebie while upgrading to Vegas Pro 9... So far, I'm deeply disappointed:

- 1,001 Sound Effects (whatever they're worh) are NOT contained
- the Vocal Eraser plug-in is just a gimmick
- most importantly, I cannot open my Vegas audio tracks in it: it says about "Unsupported Format (32-bit)", even though my clips contain 16-bit audio (I tried EX mxf and HDV).

Re: the last point above, is it possible that something is misconfigured? The error only occurs when I try to open from within Vegas; stand-alone audio files open OK (even my 24bit, 48KHz ones). Any help comments appreciated before I file a support ticket...

Piotr

Comments

megabit wrote on 6/23/2009, 3:23 AM

Further on my problems with opening audio for editing (I never used this functionality before, so please forgive my ignorance)...

Did some more testing, comparing V8/V9 in combinations with Audio Studio and fully-blown SoudForge trial. No conclusive results; one thing I noticed is that some clip formats (if they do open at all), appear in Audio Studio along with their video track - so maybe it's the EX video (and not audio) that Audio Studio is complaining about?

As to Sund Forge trial, it's very inconsistent - sometimes it will fail as well; most times it will open just the audio track (as I would expect), but it also happened to open both audio and video...

Could someone explain it to me how it should work? TIA!

Piotr

blink3times wrote on 6/23/2009, 3:49 AM

I run Adobe Audition and I have NEVER had any luck with "open in audio editor". AA opens but there is never anything on the time line. However, "open copy in audio editor" works every time. AA opens with the file in question and is saved to the proper location then appears back on the vegas time line when all is finisehd.

megabit wrote on 6/23/2009, 4:09 AM

I'm trying both methods ("copy" is non-destructive to the original audio, creating another take of it) - but the results are similar...

I am strongly suspecting Audio Studio is trying to open both audio and video, and it fails with HDV or mxf video (DV it opens just fine).

Interestingly, when it fails to open an mxf clip, a new take does appear in Vegas timeline (of course non-edited), and its properties read 32bit (IEEE float) ! Of course the original audio properties are 48 KHz, 16bit, uncompressed... Go figure!

blink3times wrote on 6/23/2009, 4:39 AM

"and its properties read 32bit (IEEE float) "

I get the same unless I ACTIVELY change the save setting (however the editing DOES show up in the take). A bit strange I might add since I have Adobe set up for a default save of 16bit. Vegas must be changing the default.

megabit wrote on 6/23/2009, 5:23 AM

Update:

- SoundForge trial won't open mxf or hdv, as the trial has mpeg disabled
- Audio Studio will open HDV (but not a copy of)
- Audio Studio will NOT open MXF (neither original, nor a copy).

Looks like the mxf format is unsupported... I ungrouped audio from a clip and made a copy of it in Vegas; this will NOT open in Audio Studio either!

Bummer...

blink3times wrote on 6/23/2009, 5:33 AM

Sounds like audio studio is a bit of a cheapy.... Try audacity (free for the download and quite good) and see what it'll do for ya.

SCS PBC wrote on 6/23/2009, 6:33 AM

From the Sound Forge Audio Studio 9 product page:

Supported Formats

Hope this helps.

megabit wrote on 6/23/2009, 6:40 AM

Hope this helps.

Well, not really.
MXF files are MPEG-2 really, arent they? The difference being their audio is uncompressed.

So where is it said I cannot open their audio in Audio Studio?

Should I have known about this limitation, I'd never have chosen this software when upgrading to Vegas 9!

megabit wrote on 6/24/2009, 1:47 AM

OK, so I got this answer from SCS Support:

"Sound Forge Audio Studio cannot natively open MXF files, it is not supported. If you are using the Open in External Audio Editor option in the Vegas software, the file will be rendered out as a 32-bit wav file to allow for more bit-depth headroom when processing the file in an external application. Unfortunately, Sound Forge Audio Studio does not have the ability to work with 32-bit wav files. You will need to render the file out of Vegas as a 16-bit wav file in order to perform edits in Sound Forge Audio Studio"

So unfortunately, Sound Forge Audio Studio is a "cheapee" not wort much for those using MXF format. The only thing that bites me is:

- why is MXF treated differently than, say HDV's m2t? It's possible to open the HDV audio for editing in Audio Studio (where it appears as 16 bit -depth file). I understand that for serious editing, increasing the headroom is essential - but Audio Studio is NOT for serious editing, so it'd be quite enough if the MXF audio was rendered out as 24 bit, which Audio Studio could swallow.

Piotr