MP3 ID tag info prevents wave form generation?

[Noelb]

This is a really weird one. I have a couple new songs this year - purchased from Amazon.com. At first, I could not get these new songs to generate a wave form in the LOR sequence editor. I finally tracked it down to the tag info on the MP3. If I open the file and delete the tag info - the wave form works fine. So far, I cannot figure out which part of the tag info is causing the problem though.

All of my older songs have tag info - so that in and of itself is not the problem. Anyone else having weird issues with Amazon downloads? Is there a log or something that gets created with the wave form? I really like keeping the tag info - it would be great if I could figure out if it is a specific field that is messing up.

Anyone ever seen anything similar? Not sure where to start with this one, and I don't know much about tagging....just like the info to be kept with the song for future reference.

Thanks,

Noel

[bob]

I don't think tag info is the culprit - as you note, you have songs that have tag info, which don't have this problem.

Does an error message occur? If so, what does it say, word for word?

It may be, as you suspect, something related to Amazon - perhaps we can't handle the way that they encode the file, for some reason. Has anyone else successfully used an Amazon download?

One thing, though:

I really like keeping the tag info - it would be great if I could figure out if it is a specific field that is messing up.

In the worst case, you can do the following:

(1) Save a copy of the unmodified Amazon file. For example, if the original file is called "Song.mp3", save a copy to "Song-original.mp3".

(2) Get rid of tags from Song.mp3.

(3) Make a sequence based on Song.mp3, and display the wave form.

Now, once the waveform has displayed, LOR has figured out everything it needs to figure out from the file, for the waveform, the Beat Wizard, and the VU Wizard. So, shut down LOR, and then:

(4) Rename Song.mp3 to "Song-no-tags.mp3".

(5) Rename Song-original.mp3 to "Song.mp3".

And then you can use the original mp3 file, with tags, from then on, and be able to see its waveform and so forth.

[Don]

bob wrote:

It may be, as you suspect, something related to Amazon - perhaps we can't handle the way that they encode the file, for some reason. Has anyone else successfully used an Amazon download?

Bob,

I tried it out earlier this morning and was able to take an Amazon down (TSO, Night Enchanted) and view the wave form with no error messages.

[Noelb]

Hi Bob,

Actually, that is exactly what I have been doing so far - just hate all the extra steps if I can figure it out. The error is something along the lines of "wave form cannot be initiallized". I will get the exact wording tonight when I get home.

I definitely think it is something with Amazon. I have been using ID3tag to remove the tags on those and then the files work. Files I had previously and that were tagged in Windows Media Player never have the problem. So I have a sneaky suspicion that it is something Amazon did. I noticed that Amazon even has a "Amazon.com" tag on the file as well. If I delete "all tags" it works - have not had a chance to delete one field at a time - but wondering if I delete the Amazon.com it might do the trick. It is surely a specific field that might not be up to RFC standards anyway. (I am guessing here of course).

[Noelb]

Don wrote:

Bob,

I tried it out earlier this morning and was able to take an Amazon down (TSO, Night Enchanted) and view the wave form with no error messages.

version 2.8.12?

[Don]

The machine I tried it on is running 2.8.10. (Though I see nothing in the Bug Fix section that talks about anything that would have been 'fixed' in the upgrade.)

[Noelb]

Don wrote:

The machine I tried it on is running 2.8.10. (Though I see nothing in the Bug Fix section that talks about anything that would have been 'fixed' in the upgrade.)

Sorry - I thought I was on 2.8.12, but when I got home and checked it, I am actually still on the 2.8.10 release. Thanks though.

Noel

[Noelb]

bob wrote:

It may be, as you suspect, something related to Amazon - perhaps we can't handle the way that they encode the file, for some reason. Has anyone else successfully used an Amazon download?

I found it. It took quite a while to run through....I deleted each tag field one by one....then loading the file in a new sequence in LOR, then starting the wave file conversion, then erroring out....I did this for the v1 info, then the v2 info. Wow, there went an hour. But I found success!

In the v2 ID tag info, Amazon has a picture tag on these particular files (album cover art). If I delete the pointer to the album art - the file loads and converts fine. This makes sense why I never saw this issue before....although I normally keep artist, album, year, etc info - I rarely care about the album cover picture. So 99.99% of my files would never have this. Not sure why Amazon suddenly included it on these downloads.

By the way, the exact error was: "Audio analysis error: Can't init conversion"

So if anyone ever comes across this - just open the file in your tag editor (I use ID3-TagIt , free version) and delete the pic info under the v2 tag editor.



Thanks for everyone's help,

Noel

[bob]

Oh, wow. Image data. This is an old bug, that as far as I knew stopped happening sometime in 2008. You're not using a very old version of our software, are you?

Otherwise, could you please try the following:

(1) Use Windows Explorer to go to the directory that contains your LOR program files (which is typically, but not always, C:Program FilesLight-O-Rama).

(2) In that directory, there should be a file called "AudioConv.ocx" (although it may show up as just "AudioConv"). Right-click on it, and select "Properties" from the popup menu that should open.

(3) Go to the "Details" tab, and tell me what it lists for "File version", "Product version", and "Size".

[Noelb]

Interesting.....I am running 2.8.10 LORSequenceEditor.exe shows version 2.8.0.10, date of 8/24/2010.

AudioConv.ocx however shows file version 2.1.0.0, 224kb, date of 7/8/2009

Should this file have been updated with the upgrade install? I have been thru several upgrades - I usually try to remain current with what is offered on the website.

Thanks.

[bob]

Noelb wrote:

Interesting.....I am running 2.8.10 LORSequenceEditor.exe shows version 2.8.0.10, date of 8/24/2010.

AudioConv.ocx however shows file version 2.1.0.0, 224kb, date of 7/8/2009

Should this file have been updated with the upgrade install? I have been thru several upgrades - I usually try to remain current with what is offered on the website.

Thanks.

2.1.0.0 is the correct file version for that file.

Could you please try the following:

(1) Close all running programs, especially LOR programs, especially especially the Sequence Editor.

(2) Open up a command prompt, and if you're on an operating system where it matters, make sure to run it as administrator. That is, instead of just double clicking on a command prompt icon, right click on it, and select "Run as Administrator" from the popup menu that should open.

(3) In that command prompt, type the following two lines:

cd "c:program fileslight-o-rama"
regsvr32 AudioConv.ocx

Please note the following things about those lines:

(1) I'm guessing that your LOR program files are in C:Program FilesLight-O-Rama. If they're not, please use whatever directory is appropriate instead

(2) There's a space on the first line immediately after

cd

(3) There's a space on the second line immediately after

regsvr32

(4) There are no other spaces anywhere else, except perhaps in the directory name (for example, between

program

and

files

in the first line)

(5) The slashes in the first line are backslashes (""), not forward slashes ("/")

(6) There's a period on the second line between

AudioConv

and

ocx

After typing those two lines, I expect that a message window will pop up, saying something like "RegisterDLLServer in AudioConv.ocx succeeded". I'm not sure if that's the exact phraseology, but it should definitely say something about success. If it does not say (in some way) that it succeeded, please let me know.

Then, try the Sequence Editor again, on one of the problematic files, and please let me know if this resolved the situation or not. Thanks.

[Noelb]

This appears to have fixed it. Thanks!



(Awesome support too - but no one here is surprised )