Soundtrack pro can't show waveform

I am about to post a possible solution to fix a file, but not what caused it to begin with. What I have found recently saved about 2 hours of audio for me.

If you get the beachball during a record, by what could be the screen saver kicking in or the disk drive going to sleep (all of which should be disabled to start with), then you might get a file which shows size and a good time of creation, but it won't play or show a waveform. In fact even Audacity won't touch it. Here's how to recover the data. Hopefully you know your settings you were using, aka 48khz, 44.1 etc. For the sake of this post, I used 24bit 44.1khz AIFF sample rescue information. Bear with me.

First locate your bad file in the soundtrak pro recordings folder. Duplicate it. Note its size. Take the copy and get it to the desktop. Do not muck with the original.

Download the 0xED (thats the name) hex editing app. You can also have a dupe file of a working file from an earlier session. Your going to want to copy it as well and put it on your desktop. You'll need the header info from it.

Open your known good file wih 0xED. Highlight and copy from the beginning of that file address 0000000 thru 0000FF7 with a contrl C on the keyboard.

Open your bad file copy. They can both be opened at the same time. Highlight those same addresses and contrl V that data into your bad file. Pay close attention thats all you changed. Nothing should have shifted anywhere else. If you screwed up, cntrl Z out of that and try it again until it looks like a clean paste. Yes the data is going to be different in your paste operation as thats why your file is hosed to begin with. Hopefully you just now patched your file. SAVE the potential repaired file using the save icon in 0xED. Open our repaired file

with Audacity, or SoundTrak Pro. You should have a workable file now. If not, go back and try again as perhaps you messed something up or didnt save the repair properly. Its crucial you use data from a good file of the same settings to fix the bad one. If your not sure of the settings you used, try a couple possibilities. Most people use the same settings with only a few variations so your choices should be few hopefully. NOTE: To test your file, close out all instances of the bad file in Sountrak Pro or your new file won't chck out if it is indeed fixed. DO a fresh load of your new file into a freshly started Sountrak Pro or Audacity.

What else have I used? I used SoundHack a few times. Its a bit strange and clunky. The results are hard to nail down. I ended up with a file that played like MickeyMouse but I was able to use Audacity to cut the speed down by 50% and save the audio.

The problems I encountered to get me to this point were as described in the beginning of this write up. I had the beachball. One time Sountrak just quit without warning. Again, the data was there but just wasnt closed out properly.

I hope this saves someone from a disaster. It saved me. I never gave up.

cheers

Johnny

P.S. Here's the data for an AIFF 44.1k 24 bit good file if it can be of use. You'd want to place it right over your bad file in 0xED. No guarantees. Make sure your muckng with a copy and NOT your original file......

464F524D0A90582741494646434F4D4D000000120001000000000018400EAC44000000000000464C 4C5200000FC200000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 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Message was edited by: johnnyU by all means drop me a line if this helps anyone. I'd love to know.