Subject:.PCA Files

Posted by: GenJerDan

Date:12/24/2005 6:33:22 AM

Is there a utility somewhere to convert Perfect Clarity files to .wav?

Yes, I can do it in Sound Forge...but SF is on my other machine and it's busy at the moment. :-)

Dan

Subject:RE: .PCA Files

Reply by: musicvid10

Date:12/24/2005 8:05:05 AM

.pca is a proprietary codec originally developed by Sonic Foundry. As far as I know there are no third-party apps that will decode the files.

Subject:RE: .PCA Files

Reply by: GenJerDan

Date:12/24/2005 10:20:19 AM

Ah, well.

Listening to them, they're full of clicks and pops and other nasties, anyway.

But the noises are perfectly clear, so I guess mission accomplished.

Subject:RE: .PCA Files

Reply by: Geoff_Wood

Date:12/26/2005 6:33:21 PM

Unfortunately SF does not clean clicks and pops out of crappy source files when converting to PCA and vice-versa. Equally it does not insert them. Maybe apart from you SF machine being 'busy', something is broken in it ...

geoff

Subject:RE: .PCA Files

Reply by: GenJerDan

Date:12/27/2005 1:03:10 AM

Possibly. Or it just can't do it. I get pops at loop points and such, like it just can't keep up with the sound. 1010LT card on a 3 GHz P4 machine with a gig of ram.

Subject:RE: .PCA Files

Reply by: Geoff_Wood

Date:12/28/2005 1:47:08 PM

Are the loop points all at zero crossings ? If not (or faded to zero) you will get clicks and pops in ANY editor.

SF has been a preeminent audio editor for years. It wouldn't be if everybody had this problem.

geoff

Subject:RE: .PCA Files

Reply by: GenJerDan

Date:12/29/2005 5:09:02 AM

Didn't look yet. I just recently re-found them (a bunch of files which came with some earlier incarnation of SF) and ran through a few looking for some sfx for a film I'm doing.

But even doing things like adding a snip of silence (or just turning the amplitude all the way off) makes a pop at each end of the silence.

Seems like it's the soundcard not being able to handle fast transitions without hiccuping.

Subject:RE: .PCA Files

Reply by: musicvid10

Date:12/29/2005 9:24:48 PM

**But even doing things like adding a snip of silence (or just turning the amplitude all the way off) makes a pop at each end of the silence.**

Did you not understand Goeff_Wood's excellent response to your question?
A "zero crossing" is the point where the waveform crosses the X axis, thus having no amplitude. It is absolutely necessary to make your cuts PRECISELY at a zero-crossing, otherwise you will experience pops and clicks in the output, your case being no exception whatsoever. You can do this manually or automatically in Sound Forge.
Please look at this knowledgebase article, enable "Auto Zero Snapping" in your Sound Forge options, and please be so kind as to report back to us whether or not this cured your problem.

Subject:RE: .PCA Files

Reply by: GenJerDan

Date:12/31/2005 11:30:48 AM

It's not doing it now. Like I said, I think it was the computer not being able to keep up.

But after a repair (bad sectors...grrrrr....) and defrag of the drive, it's not doing it anymore.