james.james7@ntlworld.com

I have recorded some music in surround sound using MaxMSP on an Apple Mac. I am converting the program I am running to PC format. I have converted the surround sound aiff file to a wave file in order for the PC to understand it. To do this I simply re-recorded the aiff from an sfplay~ object into an sfrecord~ object. The resulting file works fine on the Apple Mac but the PC doesn't recognise it. The PC does recognise a stereo version but not the surround sound version. Why doesn't the PC recognise the wave file? ...what can I do to overcome this problem?

Furthermore, the PC has recognised a brief surround sound test file (wave) I created whereby I recorded four separate distinguishable sounds into the four respective channels using four separate sfplay~ objects into one sfrecord~ object. For some strange reason the Pc recognised this file and played it back as expected in surround sound. The assumption I draw from this is that sfrecord~ seems capable of saving a surround sound file in wave format but only if the channels are recorded from separate sfplay objects. For some reason sfrecord~ does not like converting an existing surround sound file from aiff to wave. Do you know why this might be? 

Would the problem lie inside the sfrecord~ object?

I'd appreciate it if anybody can solve this problem as it's quite urgent that I can convert from aiff to wave in order for a PC to play the file back in surround sound.

I have recorded some music in surround sound using MaxMSP on an Apple Mac.  I am converting the program I am running to PC format.  I have converted the surround sound aiff file to a wave file in order for the PC to understand it.  To do this I simply re-recorded the aiff from an sfplay~ object into an sfrecord~ object.  The resulting file works fine on the Apple Mac but the PC doesn't recognise it.  The PC does recognise a stereo version but not the surround sound version.  Why doesn't the PC recognise the wave file?  ...what can I do to overcome this problem?

 Furthermore, the PC has recognised a brief surround sound test file (wave) I created whereby I recorded four separate distinguishable sounds into the four respective channels using four separate sfplay~ objects into one sfrecord~ object.  For some strange reason the Pc recognised this file and played it back as expected in surround sound.  The assumption I draw from this is that sfrecord~ seems capable of saving a surround sound file in wave format but only if the channels are recorded from separate sfplay objects.  For some reason sfrecord~ does not like converting an existing surround sound file from aiff to wave.  Do you know why this might be? 
Would the problem lie inside the sfrecord~ object?

I'd appreciate it if anybody can solve this problem as it's quite urgent that I can convert from aiff to wave in order for a PC to play the file back in surround sound.  

aiff-to-wave-file-conversion-problem

I' m not sure if windows supports multichannel .wav files (I'm on a 

mac). But if yes, as I suppose, you could use SoundHack (free) to 

converting aiff multichannel to wav multich directly on the Mac and 

> I have recorded some music in surround sound using MaxMSP on an 

> Apple Mac. I am converting the program I am running to PC format. 

> I have converted the surround sound aiff file to a wave file in 

> order for the PC to understand it. To do this I simply re-recorded 

> the aiff from an sfplay~ object into an sfrecord~ object. The 

> resulting file works fine on the Apple Mac but the PC doesn't 

> recognise it. The PC does recognise a stereo version but not the 

> surround sound version. Why doesn't the PC recognise the wave 

> file? ...what can I do to overcome this problem?

> Furthermore, the PC has recognised a brief surround sound test 

> file (wave) I created whereby I recorded four separate 

> distinguishable sounds into the four respective channels using four 

> separate sfplay~ objects into one sfrecord~ object. For some 

> strange reason the Pc recognised this file and played it back as 

> expected in surround sound. The assumption I draw from this is 

> that sfrecord~ seems capable of saving a surround sound file in 

> wave format but only if the channels are recorded from separate 

> sfplay objects. For some reason sfrecord~ does not like converting 

> an existing surround sound file from aiff to wave. Do you know why 

> Would the problem lie inside the sfrecord~ object?

> I'd appreciate it if anybody can solve this problem as it's quite 

> urgent that I can convert from aiff to wave in order for a PC to 

I' m not sure if windows supports multichannel .wav files (I'm on a  
mac). But if yes, as I suppose, you could use SoundHack (free) to  
converting aiff multichannel to wav multich directly on the Mac and  
after read the files on pc.
ciao,
ric

>
> I have recorded some music in surround sound using MaxMSP on an  
> Apple Mac.  I am converting the program I am running to PC format.   
> I have converted the surround sound aiff file to a wave file in  
> order for the PC to understand it.  To do this I simply re-recorded  
> the aiff from an sfplay~ object into an sfrecord~ object.  The  
> resulting file works fine on the Apple Mac but the PC doesn't  
> recognise it.  The PC does recognise a stereo version but not the  
> surround sound version.  Why doesn't the PC recognise the wave  
> file?  ...what can I do to overcome this problem?
>
>  Furthermore, the PC has recognised a brief surround sound test  
> file (wave) I created whereby I recorded four separate  
> distinguishable sounds into the four respective channels using four  
> separate sfplay~ objects into one sfrecord~ object.  For some  
> strange reason the Pc recognised this file and played it back as  
> expected in surround sound.  The assumption I draw from this is  
> that sfrecord~ seems capable of saving a surround sound file in  
> wave format but only if the channels are recorded from separate  
> sfplay objects.  For some reason sfrecord~ does not like converting  
> an existing surround sound file from aiff to wave.  Do you know why  
> this might be?
> Would the problem lie inside the sfrecord~ object?
>
> I'd appreciate it if anybody can solve this problem as it's quite  
> urgent that I can convert from aiff to wave in order for a PC to  
> play the file back in surround sound.
>
> Thanks.
>


Windows does support surround sound and indeed it has worked when I recorded a wave file using a sfrecord~ object from four separate sfplay~ objects. Problem is when I try to record an existing surround aiff file and play it from a single sfplay~ object. It's bizarre ..there must be a reason.

Thanks for your reply ..I'll try that.
Windows does support surround sound and indeed it has worked when I recorded a wave file using a sfrecord~ object from four separate sfplay~ objects.  Problem is when I try to record an existing surround aiff file and play it from a single sfplay~ object. It's bizarre ..there must be a reason.


Have you specified the argument in sfrecord~ (sfrecord~ 6) and 

> Windows does support surround sound and indeed it has worked when I 

> recorded a wave file using a sfrecord~ object from four separate 

> sfplay~ objects. Problem is when I try to record an existing 

> surround aiff file and play it from a single sfplay~ object. It's 

Have you specified the argument in sfrecord~ (sfrecord~ 6) and  
perhaps buffer size?

>
> Thanks for your reply ..I'll try that.
> Windows does support surround sound and indeed it has worked when I  
> recorded a wave file using a sfrecord~ object from four separate  
> sfplay~ objects.  Problem is when I try to record an existing  
> surround aiff file and play it from a single sfplay~ object. It's  
> bizarre ..there must be a reason.


> I' m not sure if windows supports multichannel .wav files

The first time I heard about the need of multichannel wav files was a 

bit more than a year ago maybe on the sursound list. Though the 

multichannel aiff exists for decades, the PC oriented nerds there just 

defined a "new" .wav standard to carry ambisonic sound files. The number 

of applications which support that format is naturally small.

I don't know the current state though, have no time to follow all 

It is well possible, that the multichannel .wav is fine but the programs 

riccardo dapelo schrieb:
>
> I' m not sure if windows supports multichannel .wav files

The first time I heard about the need of multichannel wav files was a 
bit more than a year ago maybe on the sursound list. Though the 
multichannel aiff exists for decades, the PC oriented nerds there just 
defined a "new" .wav standard to carry ambisonic sound files. The number 
of applications which support that format is naturally small.
I don't know the current state though, have no time to follow all 
subscribed lists...

It is well possible, that the multichannel .wav is fine but the programs 
just don't know it...

-- 
Stefan Tiedje------------x-------
--_____-----------|--------------
--(_|_ ----|-----|-----()-------
-- _|_)----|-----()--------------
----------()--------www.ccmix.com


Yes I have specified the number of channels. I'll look into buffer size but the file does contain the music as it plays back fine using sfplay~ (with six channels). SO the info is there, it's just nothing else recognises it whether it be on Mac or PC. Furthermore, even MaxMSP on Windows doesn't recognise even though MaxMSP on Mac does. I would hazard a guess the problem lies with MaxMSP itself.

Any further thoughts are welcome ..thanks.

Yes I have specified the number of channels.  I'll look into buffer size but the file does contain the music as it plays back fine using sfplay~ (with six channels).  SO the info is there, it's just nothing else recognises it whether it be on Mac or PC.  Furthermore, even MaxMSP on Windows doesn't recognise even though MaxMSP on Mac does.  I would hazard a guess the problem lies with MaxMSP itself.

Any further thoughts are welcome ..thanks.


I regularly use Audition, Logic or Matlab to create and read multichannel wave files and never had any problem... until I tried to read with one of these softwares a file that had been first created in MAX/MSP.

On the other hand, a file created by any of the softwares above work on all others... My guess would be that the multichannel wave format used by MAX/MSP is not the same as in all the others... It's a pity because Matlab does not read AIFF so I have to convert my files and it can take quite a lot of time if you have many files to process... :-(

https://cycling74.com/forums/sfrecord-with-four-channels

the .wav format is not bad documented: see for example:

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

if I make a 8 channel wave-file with sfrecord~ (on mac max5.1.9) it makes me a header that starts like: FORM~@.AIFFCOMMW�@��SSND~���R�e�a�����?

can only be opened by some programs like audacity(which can then not save multichannel files) and ReZound under Linux. dint try to tinker with the header yet.

would be a bug-fix ticket to the developpers, shouldn't be to difficult ...

see this post too: https://cycling74.com/forums/sfrecord-with-four-channels

the .wav format is not bad documented: see for example:
https://ccrma.stanford.edu/courses/422/projects/WaveFormat/

can only be opened by some programs like audacity(which can then not save multichannel files) and ReZound under Linux. dint try to tinker with the header yet. 

would be a bug-fix ticket to the developpers, shouldn't be to difficult ...


Aiff to Wave file conversion problem