[comp.sys.amiga] concatenating IFF sound files

dansu@volcano.berkeley.edu (Dan Su) (07/30/90)

Is there a way to concatenate two IFF sound files?  What about concatenating
one IFF sound file and one raw (headerless) sound file?  Furthermore, is 
there a limit as to how large an IFF sound file can be?  

I'm trying to see if I can digitize an entire song (let's say 5 minutes)
at a decent sampling rate.  However, this would result in a file several
megs long...

I know this isn't really practical but I was just wondering if it could be
done.

-Dan Su
dansu@volcano.berkeley.edu

adam@cbmcats.UUCP (Adam Keith Levin) (07/31/90)

In article <1990Jul30.074810.10791@agate.berkeley.edu> dansu@volcano.berkeley.edu (Dan Su) writes:
>
>Is there a way to concatenate two IFF sound files?  What about concatenating
>one IFF sound file and one raw (headerless) sound file?  Furthermore, is 
>there a limit as to how large an IFF sound file can be?  

You can't simply join the two files with something like the AmigaDOS "Join"
command.  You could write (or buy) a program to read in two IFF 8SVX
(eight-bit sampled sound) files, combine them and write out one file.
Combining one IFF and one "raw" file wouldn't work.  There is a limit
to the size, but it is pretty large: the largest number representable by
32 bits!

>
>I'm trying to see if I can digitize an entire song (let's say 5 minutes)
>at a decent sampling rate.  However, this would result in a file several
>megs long...
>
>I know this isn't really practical but I was just wondering if it could be
>done.

It can and it has.  I used PerfectSound to digitize over three and a half
minutes of music at something like a 16 KHz sampling rate.  Dan Baker
of CATS had written a program that would spool the file off of disk and
play it in real time.  Great fun, but (as you say) not practical unless
one has disk space to burn!

>
>-Dan Su
>dansu@volcano.berkeley.edu

Adam Keith Levin  --  CATS     Commodore Applications and Technical Support
1200 Wilson Drive / West Chester, PA  19380                  (215) 431-9180
BIX: aklevin             UUCP: ...{amiga|rutgers|uunet}!cbmvax!cbmcats!adam

JKT100@psuvm.psu.edu (JKT) (08/04/90)

In article <1990Jul30.074810.10791@agate.berkeley.edu>,
dansu@volcano.berkeley.edu (Dan Su) says:
>
>Is there a way to concatenate two IFF sound files?

Yes, the PerfectSound 3.0 software will easily allow you to cut
and paste sounds together.  I've done this often with it.  Works well.

>What about concatenating
>one IFF sound file and one raw (headerless) sound file?

Also possible.  PerfectSound can load a headerless file and let you
play it at various rates until you find the proper playback speed.
You then set the speed of the sample to that value and resave it.
Voila!  Your raw file is now in IFF format.  If your two sounds
play at different rates, you can use PerfectSound to "resample"
the slower one at the faster one's speed.  It won't sound better
of course, but it will even up the speeds.  Then you append one
file to the other and you're done.

>Furthermore, is there a limit as to how large an IFF sound file can be?
>I'm trying to see if I can digitize an entire song (let's say 5 minutes)
>at a decent sampling rate.  However, this would result in a file several
>megs long...

I have digitized an entire song...  "Twist and Shout"  It's one HECK
of a blow-away to people I show my Amiga off to, to have it all play
in the background while I show them other stuff!  The file size was
only limited by my RAM while I sampled.  I have 3 megs, and
PerfectSound was able to use 1.7m of it (it won't touch Chip RAM
apparently).  To get the whole 2.5 minutes in that space, I sampled
at 10500  samples/sec., which sounds a bit fuzzy at times, but
is acceptable for the particular song, and still sounds good.
To save on hard drive space, I crunched it down to 2 floppies with
a hard drive backup program, and unpack it whenever I have advance
warning of visitors.   :-)

>I know this isn't really practical but I was just wondering if it
>could be done.
>
>-Dan Su
>dansu@volcano.berkeley.edu

Of course it's not practical.... But it sure is fun!!!!   ;-)

                                                            Kurt
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