Wav not being read by pc

[kinglouis]

Hi all,

My library has been bought by a company that has removed all their Macs and replaced them with pcs.

I was under the impression that Wav files were universally readable. Having just finished a project in Logic on a Mac, I bounced it at 48k to Wav, compressed the album (it was about 550mb) and wetransfered it.

He could open the files, error 0x80070057 “the parameter is incorrect”. Not sure how to upload a photo but I will if I can.

Long story short, I dropboxed, sent individually, nothing. I was with a friend who I forwarded the download links to - he opened them fine on his Mac but got the same message on his PC.

All latest Logic and OS on my Mac. Any ideas what the issue is and how I can bounce readable files for my library?

Many thanks!

Alex

[kinglouis]

He could open the files, error 0x80070057 “the parameter is incorrect”. Not sure how to upload a photo but I will if I can.

Sorry that should read ‘he *couldn’t* open the files’

[Mike Stranks]

Without going into the detail of your specific problem I've just Googled "error 0x80070057"... There's shed-loads of stuff there about the whys and wherefores...

But a just a passing thought... it's not a formatting (FAT32, NTFS etc) issue is it?

[BJG145]

Sounds like it may be some random file corruption problem on that specific file, rather than a more general Mac/PC compatibility issue. Have you tried simply creating/saving the dodgy file again...?

[kinglouis]

I wondered if it was a corrupt file - but the wavs played fine on my Mac, fine on my friend’s Mac, and eventually my publisher used a Mac to download my transfers and they worked fine.

The only time they didn’t work were when downloaded on pcs.

This isn’t a pc bashing post at all - I just was wondering if this is a common issue and if there’s another way of exporting/compressing/file type I should look at.

[Agharta]

What software were you using on the Windows PC?
WAV files can contain extended data and not just the basic 44 byte or so header, so if the Mac was writing extended data and the software you were using is basic and only expects a 44 byte header there will be issues of some sort.

[pk.roberts]

Just to be clear, when you say you bounced it down to a WAV and then compressed it, what did that process involve?

[Hugh Robjohns]

You beat me too it PK -- it sounds to me like the OP used some mac-based data compression program (a 'zip' equivalent of some sort) which other Macs understand natively, but which Windows doesn't.

This isn't an inherent problem -- people transfer WAV files between Mac and PC platforms everyday without issue... so it's something either in the way the OP is bouncing the original files, or packaging them in the transfer.

I would start by checking the bounce format selection. Historically, back in the days of Motorola CPUs, Macs packaged WAV files with a reversed byte order. That's no longer necessary in the Intel era, but Mac OS's still understand that Apple mode while PCs don't. So make sure the bounce setup isn't creating a non-standard WAV format.

Secondly, try sending a known-good Wav file through the transport medium without compression, just to make sure it isn't getting mangled via that process...

H

[kinglouis]

Just to be clear, when you say you bounced it down to a WAV and then compressed it, what did that process involve?

Sorry, that was unclear.

I had 25 tracks or so, created in Logic. They were bounced at 48k / 24 Bit. They were put into a file, sized at 658 mb. I right-click compressed the file on the desktop to create a zip file.

To check that the problem wasn't caused by the compressing into a zip, I also uploaded an uncompressed file to dropbox, which also had the same problem on my library's pc.

I think we can rule out the compressing if we tried both compressed and uncompressed files.

So it sounds like it is the bounce format selection -

Destination: PCM
File Format: Wave
Resolution: 24 Bit
Sample Rate: 48000
File Type: Interleaved

[muzines]

I'm sure the files are fine.

What application is he trying to open them with on the PC?
What happens when you try to open them on the PC with a different application?

[Hugh Robjohns]

Are these standard stereo WAV files, or multichannel things?

[kinglouis]

Standard stereo

[Drew Stephenson]

Any chance of a dropbox link for one of us to try on a pc?

[kinglouis]

Good idea! I've PM'd you the link. Happy to send it to others, please pm me for wetransfer link.

[Drew Stephenson]

PM'd you, but for anyone else reading along:
"Interestingly, when I try and extract the files I get that error message, but if I just instruct it to skip all it then completes the extraction and allows me to play the files.
I'm on windows 10 and just using the default Groove player."

[BJG145]

After some more Googling around 0x80070057, I'm wondering if there might be illegal characters in the name of the archive or the files it contains, possibly something that Macs accept in filenames but PCs don't (perhaps \ / : * ? < > ").

Is there anything unusual in the filenames, and can you suppress the error by unzipping the archive with something like 7Zip using a rename option as discussed in relation to this error here...?

[kinglouis]

Thats's nice idea - I find the Mac file names quite restrictive so, having checked, there's no punctuation or anything that may make Mac, PC or unzipping have a tricky time I THINK but you never know! Thank you, I'll keep my eye out for that, not something I'd thought of.

[BJG145]

OK! I'm curious about the comment that:

Interestingly, when I try and extract the files I get that error message, but if I just instruct it to skip all it then completes the extraction

...when you extract the files and "skip all" in this way, are there any missing?

[kinglouis]

Its possible BD wouldn't know if there are any missing - I'll send you a full listing of the files!

Thanks for this gents, I appreciate the time spent on this.

[Drew Stephenson]

This ^^^

I'd need a full file list to compare to.

[Guest]

Just upload your file again. Maybe this time on a Google Drive folder & see if the same same issue occurs or not. Hopefully the issue won't be there.

[Eddy Deegan]

Do any of the filenames have a double quote ( " ) in them? Windows doesn't like this, but Macs don't have a problem with it. If there are any, and you replace them with single quotes on the Mac before creating the ZIP file then this could well solve the problem. I believe 7-Zip has a rename function you can use to handle this as well (though it's been a while since I used it).

Failing that, it may be down to filesystem metadata. When you transfer files between Mac and Windows, the file on disk may end up with no valid owner. In such cases, sometimes resetting the security permissions can resolve the issue.

Right click the file, select 'Properties', then access the 'Security' tab. Hit the 'Edit' button and use the resulting dialogue box to make sure that the file permissions are sensible. If in doubt then go for 'Everyone, Full Access'. No guarantees this will work but it does solve quite a few filesystem related issues, so it's worth a go.

Also, there are limits on filename lengths. A good rule of thumb is to ensure that all files in the archive have a path + filename of less than 256 characters in total.

[Eddy Deegan]

Do any of the filenames have a double quote ( " ) in them? Windows doesn't like this, but Macs don't have a problem with it.

Also possibly related