Sound Files Won't Play

Roy Thomson · Post by **Roy Thomson** » 8 Jun 2000 7:39 am

I have a friend to whom I sent sound files.

He was able to load them to disc but when he tries to play them they go through the loading process but no player appears.

Can anyone offer some help on this?

Thank You.

Roy T.

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 8 Jun 2000 1:30 pm

He has to have a player that will play the type of file you sent him. Also the player has to be "associated" with that type of file in order to just click on the file and have it play.

Al Marcus · Post by **Al Marcus** » 8 Jun 2000 6:59 pm

How do we do that Jack? I have a lot of songs from that fake book from Mike Ihde and they won't play. They refer me to RealNetworks and I can't get anything out of them. I wish they would standardize these players so a computer dummy like me can use them. They can easily write a program so you just push a button and the computer does all the steps for you. The run programs should be tied right in with the files...al

Ken Lang · Post by **Ken Lang** » 8 Jun 2000 7:32 pm

Al. I have the same problem with files that won't play from Mike. Many do, but there are some that do not. I suspect because they are biab files, the cause is not having the style down loaded that they are done in. Mike, having originally purchased the fakebooks, would have all the necessary files included.
I don't know this as fact. It's just what I suspect.
Ken

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 9 Jun 2000 3:08 am

The basic thing with having a player for a certain file. Some types of files, such as a .wav file is a basic windows file and windows 95/98 come with a wav file player so that type is normally not a problem. Other types such as MP3 (MPEG 3 files) RA (real audio), etc require an additional program (or programs) that will play these types of files. Microsoft's media player (available as a free download from Gatesland) is one that will play many formats. The RealAudio player will also play a lot of formats but I have a problem with realaudio as it tries to "take over" the PC and installs a lot of crap that is not necessary or in many cases not wanted. WinAmp is a free and popular MP3 player and can be downloaded from most of the software download sites.

Although a separate issue, the "players" will not "record" and if you want to record audio files to your PC you will need a separate program to do that. Windows has a basic wav recorder program but there are better programs out there for that. I use GoldWave (a shareware program) for wav recording and for modifying (it will pitch shift an entire file plus or minus about 12 cents) which includes EQ and parametric EQ, echo, etc. There are others, this is just the one I settled on (primarily for the price $60 Canadian less than $40 US) and the fact it would pitch shift an entire file as I had some that were not in standard and I was able to get them into standard tuning (without speeding up or slowing down).

As far as "associating" a file type with a program, windows has a file that contains the information on file associations and generally the basic windows installation will associate many types and then as you add programs that program will associate it's type of files automatically so there's no manual intervention. However, you can manually do it but unless you really know what your doing it's one of those areas to avoid. Associations are with everything, e.g. if you have "readme.txt" for example windows already has the .txt file associated with the notepad and you don't have to start notepad first and then open the file you can just doubleclick on the .txt file and it will open notepad and display the file.

Proprietary or program specific files, such as the Band In A Box files require the BIAB program to play those. They are not compatible with other players. Also, BIAB has "styles" files that are assoicated with songs and if a song was originally associated with a certain style (rhythm) then you have to have that file or the song will not play properly.<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Jack Stoner on 09 June 2000 at 04:09 AM.]</p></FONT>

Roy Thomson · Post by **Roy Thomson** » 9 Jun 2000 5:10 am

Thank you Jack,Great Job! Also to others who
provided input here. Much appreciated.

Roy T.

Bill Nauman · Post by **Bill Nauman** » 9 Jun 2000 6:57 am

As far a Realplayer audio files...if you have saved them...they dont come up on the player by themselves.. you open Real player,click on file in upper left hand corner ...click on open...search for the file and click on it...the OK and it should play ...its just a different way to access them...they are ram files hope this helps ..Bill in Vegas

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Bill Crook · Post by **Bill Crook** » 11 Jun 2000 5:46 am

I thought that all them "Fake Book" songs were in "Midi" format. If this is true, then you will need "Midi" player software loaded on youe computer. (Windows has a midi player, but it ain't too good tho.)

Ken Lang · Post by **Ken Lang** » 11 Jun 2000 1:00 pm

The fake books are in biab format. Once loaded, it takes only a mouse click to export to midi, but if you can't load them.....