So last week, I spent virtually every waking moment recording a new SSG song with Audacity....
Drums, Piano, two separate vocal tracks, guitar....everything sounded fine, had to keep using the time-shift button to get the tracks in line....then I added bass....sounded fine playing back in Audacity, so I used the "Save As" option....so I didn't lose all my work. Then I exported the entire project as MP3.....
This is what i wrote in hear here....
"So I closed the MP3 and soundclick, went to the back-up file....there are two files,one labelled "Audacity Project File", the other with a .aup suffix....the computer won't let me open either of them, all I get is the following error message:
Can't open file CDocuments and SettingsVicDesktopBlindmantake6!_datab00248au (error2:the systemcannot find the file specified)
When I clicked on the link for details, that line was repeated about 15 times, with variations on the number....b00196, b00205 etc...."
Since then, I've removed Audacity from the computer completely, down-loaded it again, got the prompt to open aup files with Lame MP3 encoder....but I still can't open any file I've saved, keep getting the same error prompt....I don't know what I've done, but everything I record seems to save ok - until I look at the desktop icon, it's not the normal Audacity icon....headphones with a yellow-and-red flash....it comes up as a text document, like notepad, with a big red "A" on it and lines of blue text....
What have I done? How do I get it back to normal?
:D :D :D
Vic
"Sometimes the beauty of music can help us all find strength to deal with all the curves life can throw us." (D. Hodge.)
I have no idea what you might have changed, but I can tell you the way Audacity saves its projects...
Those files are the actual sound data that's recorded. If you save the song somewhere and call it 'flibble', you'll get a file called 'flibble.aup' in whatever directory you saved it to. You'll also get a subdirectory called 'flibble_data' which will contain loads of these files, they're the tracks split up into chunks.
If you take one of the filenames and run a search for it on your machine, you might turn it up. It's saying 'cannot find' rather than 'cannot open', so if the programmers have any sense that means the file is missing and not just corrupt. If a search doesn't turn it up, check the recycle bin too...
Good luck!
If it's a PC you might want to run the Disk Check utility - My Computer / right click disk icon / Properties / Tools tab / Error Check. It'll say (in XP) that you have to run it the next time the computer starts. Select that and restart. When it's completely rebooted, see if the icons have returned to normal.
It might not be that the files are corrupted but that a part of disk got 'confused.' When it shows a blank text icon that means the file type has become disassociated from the program that's supposed to run it.
Hopefully that'll work.
You might also want to run the Disk Defragmenter, located on that same Tools menu.
If it's a Mac, restart, and when you hear the 'chime' hold all the following keys down at once: Alt, Cmd, P, and R. You'll hear it chime again; let it chime 2 more times and then release the keys and let it boot up normally.
If the icons haven't changed back, run Disk Utility and select Fix Permissions.
And then it might not be that anything is corrupt or out of place. On a PC with Windows, there might've been a hotfix or patch that ran without your knowing it. If the other things didn't fix it, you could backtrack and uninstall that latest patch.
Good luck!
You might also want to run the Disk Defragmenter, located on that same Tools menu.
I'm dubious that defragging is really worth bothering with any more. Way back when disks were slower it made very good sense, but they're so quick now I can't see it making much difference. Purely from my own experience it doesn't seem to.
Yes, normally when I run the defrag on the PCs at work, the prerun test usually says that there's no need to run it. If nobody's in the office yet and there's time, I'll just run it anyhow. If people are coming in, I just ignore it.
Very rarely I still find a disk that needs it for some reason. You're most likely right though, I think those are older PCs.
For the Macs Disk Warrior seems to straighten a lot of things up but I run that just to keep things smooth. I find more error hits with the Permissions check though.
I'm still thinking about Vic's computer problems; when documents default to the text-document icon, it means that the program is either not installed or removed. As soon as you reinstall it though, the icons are 'supposed' to link up to the app that it goes with. And since he said he reinstalled Audacity, that's the puzzler. I was thinking something wrong with the OS would do it because that would be responsible for file-association.
Well. the icon's still the same as a text document icon when I save an Audacity....I've re-re-reinstalled it....it's recording fine, saving OK, but when I open the icon it says "(filename).aup is not a valid Win32 application" - I have to right-click, and when I get a menu up, open it with Audacity.....
I'll play around with it in the AM, see what happens....
:D :D :D
Vic
"Sometimes the beauty of music can help us all find strength to deal with all the curves life can throw us." (D. Hodge.)
When you right click it and select which app to open it, there's a little checkbox that says something like "always use to open this type of document?" select that and then open. It might keep the file-association for the next time you open an audacity file.
