Supported Audio File Formats

 
 
 

The following sound file formats are supported:

Note
  • QuickTime support on Windows requires that QuickTime is installed.

  • QuickTime support on Linux requires OpenQuicktime.

You can only use sound files that have the same sampling rate. If you have already added a sound file sampled at one rate, you cannot add files that were sampled at other rates.

Notes on Audio Compression Methods

Audio files can be formatted in particular ways. WAV files allow for different compression methods to be used within them: for example, MPEG-3 compression does not mean MPEG-3 audio files.

Softimage supports WAV files that use MPEG-3 compression, but it does not support MPEG-3 (MP3) audio files. As well, Softimage does not support MPEG-1 compression or audio files having more than two channels or high-sample resolutions. This is because they use a different format than standard WAV compression methods and need to be treated specially.

Normally, WAV files use Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) as the compression scheme, but there are a variety of schemes that can be used. If you look at the File > Properties dialog box of the Windows' Sound Recorder application, you can see the different conversion schemes that can be used.

Additionally, an audio file that uses an irregular sample rate may fail play. Usual sample rates are 8 kHz, 11.025 kHz, 12 kHz, 16 kHz, 22.050 kHz, 24 kHz, 32 kHz, 44.1 kHz and 48 kHz. In the event of an unsupported sample rate, an error message appears.