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Participant
March 17, 2025
Answered

Urgent - Audition reads wrong length when importing multitrack AIFF

  • March 17, 2025
  • 1 reply
  • 211 views

Hi all,

I'm an infrequent user of Audition, but I have a 28GB multitrack Mac AIFF file that I'm trying to import. If I start a new multitrack project and drag it into the Audition timeline, it imports all tracks (28 of 'em) in the correct order, but it only imports 10:44 of the file. It should be a little over 2 hours. The MediaInfo app tells me the file is "Duration: 2 h 15 min" which sounds right.

What can I do to import this file into Audition correctly?

 

Thanks for any advice!

 

Audition 25.0.0.47 running in macOS Sonoma 14.7.2 on MacBook Pro with Apple M3 Max

Correct answer Chuck Weger2

Thanks @rosita_9807 for your prompt reply. It turns out that the problem was actually that AIFF files as well as WAV files have a length field in their headers which is only 32 bits, which limits their filesizes to a max of around 4GB. Apparently the software I was using blithely kept writing audio data without worrying about the header length field. So with 24 tracks of 24-bit 48KHz audio, it ran out of space pretty quickly.

 

The correct solution (for me, anyway) was to use a format that supports a 64-bit length field, like RF64 (essentially a WAV file with 64-bit length field) or a CAF file (Apple's extended-length version of AIFF). I used CAF, and things worked great. Audition imports CAF files, and so I now can happly record 2-1/2 hours of 48K 24bit audio from my mixer.

1 reply

Participant
March 18, 2025

Hello!

If Audition imports only part of your 28GB AIFF file, check the file integrity, try splitting it into smaller segments, or convert it to a compatible format like WAV. Ensure Audition is updated, and check Preferences > Media & Disk Cache for sufficient space. 

Chuck Weger2AuthorCorrect answer
Participant
March 18, 2025

Thanks @rosita_9807 for your prompt reply. It turns out that the problem was actually that AIFF files as well as WAV files have a length field in their headers which is only 32 bits, which limits their filesizes to a max of around 4GB. Apparently the software I was using blithely kept writing audio data without worrying about the header length field. So with 24 tracks of 24-bit 48KHz audio, it ran out of space pretty quickly.

 

The correct solution (for me, anyway) was to use a format that supports a 64-bit length field, like RF64 (essentially a WAV file with 64-bit length field) or a CAF file (Apple's extended-length version of AIFF). I used CAF, and things worked great. Audition imports CAF files, and so I now can happly record 2-1/2 hours of 48K 24bit audio from my mixer.

Participant
March 20, 2025

Glad you solution was useful to you!

Best Regards,

Rosita

TxTag