Problems opening WAVE files in PMX

[Jim Stemke]

Unable to open WAVE files in Pyramix 9.1 with HAPI. What is the correct procedure for opening these files into Pyramix files? Tried opening WAVE files, but media manger says is can not open. Would appreciate some step- by-step assistance. Many thanks----Jim

[fl]

WAV files should open automatically, unless they are damaged in some way (which is the usual cause of the message you're receiving). It should not matter whether the files are mono or interleaved multi-track. It could make a difference if the sample rate is not one of the "standard" rates (44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, etc.) - is this a possibility? (For example, I've seen Pyramix balk at opening 32 kHz. sample rate files.)

Do you have access to some other WAV files, from a different project or provider, that you can use to check your system? It's a remote possibility that Pyramix was not installed correctly, but that re-running the installer once again, this time in "Repair" mode, could fix things. Without more information, it's hard to make other suggestions. Can you make one of your troublesome files publicly available, so that others can try them on their systems?

[Jim Stemke]

Was finally able to open one track of a 20 track 24/96 file from a sound device, but not the entire file as a group. Need to open a new project file in pryamix so I can view and adjust each track separately. This is the first time I've ever had to deal with an outside file (other than pyramix), so this process is new to me. Certainly appreciate your time and assistance!

[fl]

You might find that a couple of free utilities could streamline the task you're facing:

1. Sound Devices' own "Wave Agent" - http://www.sounddevices.com/products/ac ... wave-agent
2. In case the header information in your WAVs is damaged, Rail Jon Rogut's "Header Investigator" - http://www.railjonrogut.com/HeaderInvestigator.htm

[DJS]

Hi Jim,

I do this frequently. PMX will only open a WAV and create mono tracks for every track in your multi-track WAV. This is usually not what is wanted.

Here are the steps.

1. Start a new project in PMX and in media manager, mount the folder that contains your WAVs.
2. Open the mixer, configure and set up and add all the channels to correspond to what is expected from the WAV file, so 20 channels, slide the stereo, mono and MS tracks around as required so they match exactly in order with what is expected from the WAV file.
3. In the mixer go back to Mix and then you should see an empty timeline with all the lanes ready to receive the audio as well as the mixer tracks in the correct order.
4. Click on the top timeline lane header (Ch1) at the left to select it and make it active. It greys slightly in colour.
5. Go back to the Media Management tab and select all the WAVs you wish to load, right click the multi-selection and choose Place.
6. Then choose Append to cursor, sort by Name on selected track. This is why it is important to select the first track in the timeline, so that PMX does not create mono tracks automatically that might not map nicely to your channel layout in the file.

And you should see all 20 lanes populated.

There may be a better way, but I haven't discovered it and this works well for me. I always have stereo mono and MS tracks in strange and inconsistent channel layouts from other recorders so its important to setup PMX to receive these correctly first.

I think you may be able to open a multichannel WAV, have PMX create all mono lanes, then reconfigure those in the mixer later, but I find this illogical and prefer to setup the mixer and timeline first.

Regards

[charlienyc]

3. In the mixer go back to Mix and then you should see an empty timeline with all the lanes ready to receive the audio as well as the mixer tracks in the correct order.

(I thought I'd jump in and mention) The only way this will work as intended is if you have "Synchronize Tracks and Strips" turned on in the Tracks menu.

cheers,
-c

[DJS]

3. In the mixer go back to Mix and then you should see an empty timeline with all the lanes ready to receive the audio as well as the mixer tracks in the correct order.

(I thought I'd jump in and mention) The only way this will work as intended is if you have "Synchronize Tracks and Strips" turned on in the Tracks menu.

cheers,
-c

Apologies, yes this setting is essential. Does anyone ever not have this setting on ?

[fl]

Having that set can often make the process of adding clips to existing tracks cumbersome, as new Tracks and Strips will be created at a time when you'd rather they weren't. At those times, it's useful to be able to turn the synchronization off, but usually it's only for a short time.

Another situation where it gets in the way is when you convert a recording session, to a Source-Destination editing project, where you just want to be able to duplicate the Track Group holding your recordings, to create a new Destination Track Group, with the tracks routed to the same Strips in the mixer, relying on "Auto Solo" to determine what actually gets passed through to the mixer. In that situation, I don't want more Strips created, which would make the mixer needlessly more complex, as well as eating up more screen space.

[DJS]

Another situation where it gets in the way is when you convert a recording session, to a Source-Destination editing project, where you just want to be able to duplicate the Track Group holding your recordings, to create a new Destination Track Group, with the tracks routed to the same Strips in the mixer, relying on "Auto Solo" to determine what actually gets passed through to the mixer. In that situation, I don't want more Strips created, which would make the mixer needlessly more complex, as well as eating up more screen space.

I do this all the time too, and have never observed this. I have sync set and always just duplicate the source group to a destination group and no more tracks or lanes are created. Not sure I understand this issue.

[Jim Stemke]

Many thanks to David and Frank for your time and assistance with my project. After a few bumpy starts, I was finally able to load in wave files into a pyramix project, and work on my project. Thanks so much to you both! Jim Stemke