Re: [ARSCLIST] 2GB limit for audio file formats

["Mew, Peter" <Peter.Mew@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi

There is no inherent limit to file size in any of the audio file formats,
the limit you are seeing is that of the file system on the computer you are
using.
Make sure the disc(s) you are recording onto is/are formatted as HFS+ not
HFS.
Likewise on a PC make sure your disc is formatted as NTFS not FAT32 or you
will encounter the same problem
It is just possible you are using a very old version of Peak that has this
limit built in, (I am not familiar with Peak version numbering) but I would
not expect this to be the case for late versions of the software.

HTH

-pm

-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Alec McLane
Sent: Fri 24 Jun 2005 17:33
To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ARSCLIST] 2GB limit for audio file formats


We are recording (mostly) analog tapes to disk at a sampling rate of 88.2KHz
and 24-bit resolution, using Peak 4.0 on a G5 running OS 10.3.5. While the
files are for archival purposes, to make listening copies of these
recordings we bump them down to 44.1KHz to burn to CD. For the archival
files, however, we are encountering the 2GB limit for 32-bit audio file
formats, which at that resolution only allows around 65-70 min. of music.
I'm told this is a limit built into the standards for most audio files -
WAV, AIFF, Sound Designer, etc., established by Microsoft, Apple, and
Digidesign, respectively.

While this is enough to record, say, one side of a cassette tape, it may not
be enough for a 10" reel at 3 3/4 ips, nor is it enough for those few
occasions when we record from 95- or 125-min DATs. The virtue of Peak 4.0 is
that it allows burning a "playlist" to CD from regions defined within a
single file, and doesn't require the saving of smaller files in order to
make a CD from the recording. But it has the disadvantage of just stopping
the recording at the 2GB limit, without at least opening up a new file to
continue, so many recordings get truncated and we have to figure out where
it stopped and begin a new file manually.

In addition to the recording problem, the idea of storing a complete tape,
or at least a side of a tape, as a single file in archival-quality format on
a server is appealing, just for its simplicity. So even recording separate
files and then merging them within Peak just to burn a CD is still not an
ideal solution, although for the time being it seems the only one.

Has anyone else found solutions to this problem with other software?

Alec McLane


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alec McLane
Scores & Recordings/
  World Music Archives       Phone: (860) 685-3899
Olin Library                       Fax: (860) 685-2661
Wesleyan University          mailto:amclane@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Middletown, CT  06459       http://www.wesleyan.edu/libr/srhome/srdir.htm

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