Subject:Batch normalize creates empty files...?!

Posted by: iain_m

Date:7/6/2012 5:16:22 PM

Hi all

I've recently been experiencing a scary problem with the batch processor in SF Pro 10.0d.

My workflow is opening around fifteen 24-bit 44.1khz audio files (mostly mono, some stereo), then running the batch processor on these open files, with one process (normalize to -6dB), and set to replace the original files on save.

The batch process appears to complete successfully, but some of the audio files (e.g. 5 out of 18) will be replaced entirely with silence.

There is no error message and no apparent consistency to which kinds of files are affected in this way. It is very concerning.

Unfortunately I have not been able to identify steps to reproduce this problem.

Has anyone else encountered this?

Subject:RE: Batch normalize creates empty files...?!

Reply by: ChristoC

Date:7/6/2012 5:35:58 PM

> ....set to replace the original files on save.
Scary indeed!
I would not recommend that setting.

Subject:RE: Batch normalize creates empty files...?!

Reply by: iain_m

Date:7/6/2012 6:52:58 PM

Point taken!

I haven't seen this happen before the 10.0d update, so previously had not worried about overwriting the originals... :-s

Subject:RE: Batch normalize creates empty files...?!

Reply by: iain_m

Date:7/18/2012 6:06:46 PM

Update: the cause of this *may* have been having Pro Tools open and idle with its workspace browser pointing to the same directory as the files being processed in Sound Forge.

I.e. some kind of conflict between the two programs trying to access the files simultaneously.

But I'm not 100% sure that this was the reason.

Subject:RE: Batch normalize creates empty files...?!

Reply by: iain_m

Date:9/13/2012 8:03:08 AM

This happened again today to some 44kHz/24-bit files when I did NOT have the same files open in any other application.

WHAT THE HECK???!!!

Most of the files are now simply silence.

Thanks, Sony.

*Update:*
I uninstalled SF10.0d and reinstalled 10.0c.
The issue happens there too.
It's not specific to volume normalisation, and it doesn't happen consistently.
When it does happen, it seems to be because the files being batch processed are already open in SF itself. (Which is obviously crazy because SF automatically adds open files to the batch processing list.)

Be VERY careful. There is no error message: your files simply become silence.

Subject:RE: Batch normalize creates empty files...?!

Reply by: roblesinge

Date:9/13/2012 8:42:13 AM

This has happened to me in the past, and not just with SF 10. Hopefully you've stopped overwriting original files when doing batch processing of any kind. That is never a good idea.

Rob.

Subject:RE: Batch normalize creates empty files...?!

Reply by: iain_m

Date:9/14/2012 5:59:23 AM

I'm currently looking for a batch process that will overwrite Sound Forge with an audio editor which doesn't delete my material... o_o

But yes, I won't be overwriting originals again. SF should simply not give the option to do that, if it isn't reliable.

By the way - did you experience the problem with other versions of Sound Forge, or are you referring to third party programs?

Subject:RE: Batch normalize creates empty files...?!

Reply by: roblesinge

Date:9/14/2012 7:29:19 AM

I've seen it in previous versions of SF. It seems to be completely random, or at least, I've never been able to tie it to anything. It's very rare in my experience though.

Rob

Subject:RE: Batch normalize creates empty files...?!

Reply by: iain_m

Date:9/16/2012 5:42:20 PM

Did you ever report it to support?

Subject:RE: Batch normalize creates empty files...?!

Reply by: roblesinge

Date:9/17/2012 7:25:22 AM

No, I did not. It's so random and rare that I figured it was something wrong with the files themselves that caused the batch converter to glitch. I can't remember the last time it happened to me though.

Rob.

Subject:RE: Batch normalize creates empty files...?!

Reply by: iain_m

Date:2/21/2013 10:36:28 AM

This happened again today. Here's what I did:

- Loaded seventeen 24-bit, stereo 44.1kHz wave files into Sound Forge.

- Opened the batch processor, to which the currently open wave files were automatically added.

- Added the normalise process to the batch processor, set to -6dB.

- Configured the save options in the batch processor to overwrite the existing files, staying with the same format and names.

- Ran the batch processor.

Result: six of the processed files are now COMPLETELY SILENT, with ALL THEIR AUDIO CONTENT ERASED WITHOUT WARNING.

I then tried EXACTLY the same steps with more files, and could not reproduce the issue.

I can't be bothered to do unpaid work reporting this to technical support, because it will take months to get even an acknowledgement, and then join the list of bugs that haven't been fixed for years.

Since Sony representatives do visit the forums, I will leave it to them to look into this.

All I can really say at this point is that the bug is totally unacceptable in professional audio software, and when a new version of Sound Forge is released, I will look for a fix for this bug in the release notes. No fix = no upgrade sale from me.

Subject:RE: Batch normalize creates empty files...?!

Reply by: roblesinge

Date:2/21/2013 12:00:46 PM

As I mentioned, I've had this issue. Recently my company embarked on a huge conversion project that will involve using the Batch Converter a lot. I wrote a quick script that will check a folder of files for silent files. It then copies those silent files into a subfolder it creates. I'll paste it in below if you're interested. It's an extra step that should not be necessary, but it might save you some time if you're doing a lot of files at once, and don't have the time to go through and check them all individually.

Rob.

using System;

using System.IO;

using System.Windows.Forms;

using SoundForge;

using System.Collections;

using System.Collections.Generic;



public class EntryPoint

{

    public void Begin(IScriptableApp app)

    {

        string strFolder;



        strFolder = SfHelpers.ChooseDirectory("Choose the folder you want to check.", @"S:\");

        string[] audioFiles = Directory.GetFiles(strFolder, "*.wav");

        string outFolder = Path.Combine(strFolder, "silenceFiles");



        foreach (string x in audioFiles)

        {

            ISfFileHost chkFile = app.OpenFile(x, true, true);

            chkFile.UpdateStatistics(new SfAudioSelection(0, chkFile.Length));

            SfAudioStatistics stats = chkFile.GetStatistics(0);



            if (stats.RMSLevel == 0)

            {

                if (!Directory.Exists(outFolder))

                {

                    Directory.CreateDirectory(outFolder);

                }



                string temp = Path.GetFileName(x);

                File.Copy(x, Path.Combine(outFolder, temp));

            }



            chkFile.Close(CloseOptions.DiscardChanges);

        }





    }



    public void FromSoundForge(IScriptableApp app)

    {

        ForgeApp = app; //execution begins here

        app.SetStatusText(String.Format("Script '{0}' is running.", Script.Name));

        Begin(app);

        app.SetStatusText(String.Format("Script '{0}' is done.", Script.Name));

    }

    public static IScriptableApp ForgeApp = null;

    public static void DPF(string sz) { ForgeApp.OutputText(sz); }

    public static void DPF(string fmt, params object[] args) { ForgeApp.OutputText(String.Format(fmt, args)); }

} //EntryPoint

Subject:RE: Batch normalize creates empty files...?!

Reply by: iain_m

Date:2/22/2013 7:47:47 AM

Thank you very much - that's extremely helpful. :-)

I should add that in light of our earlier conversation, I wasn't working with critical files on this occasion (thank goodness) - just testing out a new workflow.

My advice to others would be to never allow the batch processor to overwrite originals, and if for some reason that's unavoidable, never add the files to the batch processor by opening them in Sound Forge first - even though Sound Forge encourages that workflow by automatically adding opened files to the batch processor. That seems to be especially perilous.

Thanks again for the script.