Help! Pro tools can't import Aiff

[nishant]

I can't import any aiff in pro tools.it works fine otherwise and i've everything setup.it works in other softwares
its the pro tools educational version.
Anyone faced similar problem?

[juice]

I've never owned pro tools but I have heard of such a thing with files named being too long. Are you on a MAC by chance?

[nishant]

Yes. macbook pro 17
and yeah, sometimes i too feel its not worth a purchase

[Gerk]

if you can't import AIFF into protools it's having some serious issues as AIFF is a native format for OSX.  Can you open the same AIFF files in quicktime player?  If not the AIFF files themselves may have problems, or they may not actually be AIFF files.

Did they come from another mac user?

Mark

[nishant]

the files that eugene posted.they worked fine in quicktime but i could not import into pro tools and i had to convert them to wav

[Gerk]

That's really odd, if they worked in quicktime they should have imported into protools ok.  ProTools is not my favorite DAW for the mac platform ... not by a longshot.  I guess as long as you could convert them it's not a huge deal but the fact that protools couldn't import something that was readable by quicktime is pretty lame!

Mark

[meekofnature]

[nishant]

yea
pro tools isn't my fav either but audio editing is somewhat easy and i'm inclined towards bomb factory plugins .but thats me.
i feel its pretty lame converting the files on pc,saving them to pen drive and then importing pro tools

and these files are those from Soldiers Letters song in project studio a section of this forum.but i've tried other files too -same result

[Letizia]

they're 32 bit 48hHz aif files.... if that matters.  guessing that pro tools educational version is limited in some way.

[Gerk]

Ahh it's probably that they are 48khz .. I don't think PT will import 48khz files into a 44.1khz project.  That explains it.

Incidentally, why 48hkz?  44.1hkz is much better suited to use for audio destined for CD or standard web/computer play.  48Khz is specifically for use in video soundtracks (DV/DVD) as it is the native format, where 44.1 is native for most other audio sources.

I know it seems like 48khz will be better han 44.1hkz (more samples per second), but in the end you actually lose potential fidelity because it has to be down sampled to 44.1khz (which doesn't divide nicely from 48khz and introduces the need for the audio engine to
"guess" at some audio frames -- in other words do dithering ... which in turn means it can mangle the actual audio!).  In the same vein 88.2Khz is a better choice for higher fidelity recording than 96khz as it down samples evenly (without interpolation or dithering).

Not saying using 48khz is wrong or anything, but just to let you know it introduces much more potential to mangle your audio than using 44.1khz

in the end it's probably splitting hairs (we geeks are all the same) but it can make a big difference for some types of material ... especially when you get into related harmonics and the like ...

Mark

[NickT]

You are a Geek! 

[Gerk]

Ya well, someone has to be, might as well be me.  This is something I did a lot of research into and a lot of reading about in the not so distant past so it's always nice to share the geekdom with those that don't enjoy being a geek as much as I do

Mark

[groverk]

Thanks for taking that geek bullet for all us non geeks Mark

[Gerk]

Bullet for you .. mission for me!  I love learning about stuff like this so it's not a bullet here

Mark

[nishant]

thanks for your advice 
i think i probably need to create a backup and reinstall everything 

Pro tools Academic differs from LE/M-powered in its interface,no music production/DV toolkit , lack of control surfaces (lan based) and i think some AVID hardware.rest is the same
and it used to import these files as i've used it always as a secondary DAW with Logic doing the job

Oh and 48khz- It has better depth and quality when you record something at that resolution.And if you downsample to 44khz,you either need a sound card with its Converters capable of lossless interpolation or its done via external decoder or create a master on ADAT to prevent any losses.or you will be splitting hairs llike Gerk said 

and Marc,its PT Academic 7.4 on Leopard