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Topic: wav converted song are shorter in duration? (Read 5858 times) previous topic - next topic
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wav converted song are shorter in duration?

Hi All,

I'm new to this forum. But it looked there is ton of knowledge of all members dumped in here.
Here is my question. I converted a mp3 song of 30minute duration to wav format. Song was converted to wav, but the duration of the song was 5.4min instead of 30minutes. Size of wav song was 10 times more than mp3 ( as expected). Why is the duration chopped out?? I tried using vlc player / avs converter - still the same issue. Am i doing anything wrong? Pls help me..

thanks
good_life

wav converted song are shorter in duration?

Reply #1 –
You're doing it wrong, but without a lot more information its hard to say whats wrong.

wav converted song are shorter in duration?

Reply #2 –
Most likely whatever software you are using to read the duration of the song is doing it incorrectly. This can happen with vbr-encoded files. The wav file should always read the correct duration.

When you play the files do they both play for the same length of time?

wav converted song are shorter in duration?

Reply #3 –
Yes both mp3 and wav converted songs seem to play file. Mp3 song plays for 30minutes and wav song play for 5 odd minutes. The start and end of the both the songs lyrics..both are SAME. I think a bunch of lines got chopped off in the middle and then wav file got created.
I used vlc player for converting and I used 'Uncompressed Interger' and chose 512 bitrates in the options.
I also noticed this issue is happening with 2 of mp3 files. The third file which is 21min duration is converting perfectly fine with same settings. I'm not sure what is  going on..? Pls help..Does VBR cause the issue? How do I know if the source song is has VBR?

wav converted song are shorter in duration?

Reply #4 –
I don't know what's going wrong, but VLC and AVS converter might both be using the same Windows-supplied decoder.  And, there's probably something "funny" about these MP3s.  Where did the MP3s come from?

You might have to keep trying different software 'till you find something that works.  A couple of other programs you can try:
XRECODE[/color] (The link is to the older FREE version.)
Audacity[/color] (Audacity is an audio editor, but you can  use it to open the file and save in a different format.)

As a last resort, you can play the MP3 file and record it at the same time.  (i.e You can record with  Audacity.)  But, this is a digital-to-analog-to-digital recording and can potentially degrade audio quality.

Quote
Does VBR cause the issue? How do I know if the source song is has VBR?
  VBR shouldn't "cause" this problem but it makes it "harder" for software to determine the length of a song.  Some strange things can also happen if two or more MP3 (with different bitrates) are spliced together without re-encoding.   

There's probably a better way, but I use Winamp and it shows the current bitrate...  If it changes during a song I know it's VBR.

wav converted song are shorter in duration?

Reply #5 –
You could just decode the file with LAME, which should automatically decode to PCM/WAV, no fancy audio editors needed. If that doesn't work, SoX is probably the most sane solution on Win/Linux, or foobar2000 on Win/wine. Foobar can also check your files for broken headers.
It's only audiophile if it's inconvenient.

wav converted song are shorter in duration?

Reply #6 –
thank u DVDDoug!
Here is what is happening.
Like u said, the duration of this song ( "santana-yaleo.mp3") is not displayed correctly.
It shows it as 30.54minutes duration though the song actually plays for 5 odd minutes. I checked in VLC player, WMP and Audacity - all these 3 players.
After 5 odd minutes and there is no sound though progress bar keeps moving for 1 minute or so (in WMP).
Effectively, song is of 5.47minutes. Its a VBR song as well, I see the bitrate varying all through the song was playing. So when converting this song to WAV, it is showing the right duration then I guess.

What is wrong with this song "santana-yaleo.mp3", im still not sure. Can I attach this song here?

-good_life

wav converted song are shorter in duration?

Reply #7 –
ok, let me try LAME. I've never done decoding and looking at  the headers. Let me try and see. Thank u!

wav converted song are shorter in duration?

Reply #8 –
Quote
Like u said, the duration of this song ( "santana-yaleo.mp3") is not displayed correctly.
It shows it as 30.54minutes duration though the song actually plays for 5 odd minutes. I checked in VLC player, WMP and Audacity - all these 3 players.
    Ha!    So, it's not really a 30 minute song and it doesn't play 30 minutes, it just displays 30 minutes.  (BTW - I have that Santana CD.)

There are a couple of tools that might be able to "repair" the MP3 (or you can re-encode it, but there is a potential for quality loss).  But, if your goal is to make a WAV file, I guess there's no problem!


Quote
Can I attach this song here?
No! Uploading songs to the Internet is a copyright violation!  You can upload 30 sec. samples
here[/color], but in this case a 30 sec. sample wouldn't help.





wav converted song are shorter in duration?

Reply #9 –
My whole intention was to get a "long duration song" in wav/wma/m4a format.
This was the only song (santana) I have, but it was in mp3. So I started to convert to other formats..and this was the story.
Where do I get long duration songs. Can I append 2 songs..How do we do this..? thanks again!

wav converted song are shorter in duration?

Reply #10 –
Quote
Can I append 2 songs..How do we do this..?
Sure!  Any audio editor can do that.  Audacity[/color] is FREE!.  I use mostly GoldWave[/u] ($50 USD). 

With an audio editor, you can hard-splice two songs together, crossfade from one song to the next, mix/overlap the end of one song with the beginning of another, loop/repeat* parts of a song, or the whole song, etc.  It takes a bit of practice to learn to use an audio editor, but once you learn it, things like this get fairly easy.  (But, audio editing can be time-consuming...  It takes a lot of listening/auditioning and some trial-and-error.)

You can also use an audio editor to slow-down (or speed-up) the tempo of a song with, or without, changing the pitch.  Of course, if you push it too far...  like trying to double the playing-time of a song, it will sound ridiculous. 

Quote
Where do I get long duration songs.
  Ummm... the same place you get short songs...  iTunes, Amazon.com, Rhapsody, Napster, CD Universe, Wal-Mart...

A few songs come to mind...
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, Iron Butterfly, ~17 minutes (1968)
I Heard It Through The Grapevine, Creedence Clearwater Revival, ~11 minutes (1970)
Stairway To Heaven, Led Zeppelin, ~8 minutes (1971)
Alice's Restaurant, Arlo Guthrie, ~15 minutes (1967)
Disco Inferno, The Trammps ~ 11 minutes (1977)
Beethoven's 5th Symphony ~33 minutes (1808)
Beethoven's 9th Symphony ~74 minutes (1824)

* Sony Acid ($65 - $300 USD) and FL Studio[/color]  ($49 - 400) are intended for editing/creating music with loops.  (I've never used them.)

Here is a Looping Tutorial using GoldWave.  (The same concepts should work with any audio editor.)