Copyright: Copyright¸ 1997 Glowing Coast Technology
Citation: Copyright¸ 1997 Glowing Coast Technology


Audio File Converter

The Audio File Converter is a simple tool which lets you transform audio files in to, another format, be it through a change in sampling rate, resolution or number of channels.

Conversion from other common file formats to the Microsoft *.wav format are also provided.

Please read Conversion from other formats.

Anti-aliasing and filtering are provided to try and minimise any unwanted conversion artefacts.

Introduction.

Getting started

File Menu Commands

Options Menu Commands

Conversion from other formats


Getting started

The Audio File Converter can transform any PCM encoded *.wav file to another format, be it through a change in sampling rate, resolution or number of channels.

The first thing to do is Open a *.wav file from menu File|Open.

The screen is split in to two halves.

The file's properties are indicated in the upper half of the screen.

Sampling Rate, Channels, Resolution, File Size and File Length.

The lower half of the screen contains 12 buttons, each representing a different; Sampling Rate, Channels, Resolution combination, with the resultant (fully converted) file size indicated beside it. The button with the blue text indicates the present or nearest option.

Clicking one of these buttons will perform the file conversion and start playing the file. Converted files will have the file size text greyed.

The filtering applied will be dependant on the settings in the Options menu.

If  Test File is checked a partial conversion will be performed, the length of the test file is defined by Set Test Time.

Once your happy with the conversion deselect Test File and do the conversion again, thus generating the complete converted file.

Anti-aliasing and filtering are provided to try and minimise any unwanted conversion artefacts.

File Menu Commands

Options Menu Commands


File Menu Commands

Open....

Opens an existing file.

The file's properties are indicated in the upper half of the screen.

Save As...

Saves the file to a new or existing filename.

Exit.

Closes the track you have been working with and quits the Audio Wave Converter.

Options Menu Commands


Options Menu Commands

Anti-Aliasing.

Filtering only performed on file where a change in frequency takes place. Default On.

This filter should always be enabled, as it removes all frequencies above the Nyquist rate which cause distortion when down converting.

Noise Reduction.

Additional filtering performed after conversion. Default None.

Use this filter when the required output can not be achieved with the Anti-Aliasing filter alone.

Increasing amounts of filtering can be applied from None, Normal, Soft, Softer.

The Soft and Softer settings are overkill but on occasions can be useful.

Test File.

Create a Test File, otherwise create a full file.  Default Test File.

Set the Test Time.

Defines the length of the Test file.

File Menu Commands


Conversion from other formats

A limited amount of support is provided for conversion of non-Microsoft file formats.

If possible the file will be converted and stored in your TEMP directory.

Formats supported.

AIFF:	Conversion from uncompressed PCM format only.

AU:	Conversion from uLaw and PCM formats only.

(uLaw is common in this format hence the support).

IFF:	Conversion from uncompressed PCM format only.

VOC:	Conversion from uncompressed PCM only.

WAV:	Only standard uncompressed PCM supported.

Limitations of Conversion.

Some of these formats allow fragmented data, I don't.

The header is read and the format of the 1st sound block is assumed for all the data in the file.

If the data was fragmented glitches may appear in the data where the subsequent headers are, these can be removed later with a waveform editor. If data of different formats was stored in the file (a very stupid thing to do), then the output file although playable will probably sound a mess.