Plug-in for extraction from an .asf file?

[musikone]

I am using WavePad Masters (licensed) version 3.03, which cannot load (i.e., extract) an audio file within an .asf (advanced streaming format) "container": a Microsoft file type that may carry one of a variety of file formats. Is there a plug-in for WavePad which can be used for this purpose? If so, how can it be obtained?

 

Musikone

[Guest nchto]

The format is likely streamed to you as you need it (and can only be done through a media player). You might have some luck using Switch, otherwise you will need SoundTap to save the streaming audio.

[musikone]

The format is likely streamed to you as you need it (and can only be done through a media player). You might have some luck using Switch, otherwise you will need SoundTap to save the streaming audio.

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This is not correct.

 

The radio station KPBS-FM in San Diego, California provides _two different internet streams_ of classical music. One of these streams is as you suggest it is, and is accessed from their website via a "listening" server which connects through Windows Media Player. However, this is _not_ the stream to which I am referring in my question here.

 

The second stream can be accessed by a _different_ URL at the website and can be downloaded to my hard drive as a file which has the .asf extension. I have software called "Replay A/V" which can record one stream to a hard drive, while simultaneously "tuning" to the other stream, which is then accessed via Windows Media Player. Believe it or not! I am recording the stream to my hard drive, while very rarely tuning into the stream through Windows Media Player. I have scheduled the recording stream in one hour increments, which gives me .asf files of about 56 megabytes, a highly compressed .wma file "contained" within the .asf file structure.

 

When I first recorded the .asf files to my hard drive (back in February of this year), I was able to load them into WavePad, edit them, and then save them as mp3 (I used the VBR mp3 from 128k to 256k). This produced an excellent audio quality, identical when starting with the top-quality .wma file, editing it with WavePad, and then saving it as a VBR mp3 described above. I was also able to convert the .asf file to an mp3 file using Switch, which was of course to be expected.

 

But then, very strangely, a couple of months later, the _very same .asf file_ that I had been able to successfully edit with WavePad (or convert with Switch) could no longer be loaded using WavePad or converted with Switch!! I had no idea why I could now not reclaim my recorded .asf files (a whole bunch of them that I was continuously recording with Replay A/V). This was of course very alarming, since they contained a compressed archive of "broadcast" (via a recordable stream) classical music. At that time, I posted this message asking about a plug-in to enable processing the .asf file containing audio content (remember, an asf file is a specialized "container" file which can hold either audio or video content).

 

As expected, no readers of this forum could answer this question; this is sophisticated stuff. Then, very recently, lo and behold, I searched out this .asf file business on the internet and found that this particular format had been dropped, in favor of .wma for audio and .wmv for video. Even so, radio station KPBS-FM here in San Diego is still using it, as though nothing had ever changed! I still get it in one hour segments (which I have chosen to do this way) nine hours per day, when they broadcast classical music.

 

In my research, I also found that Microsoft had been working for some considerable period of time on Windows Media Audio Pro 10, which has still yet to be formally released (or so I understand). Well anyway, I managed to download this "new" (and quite different) Windows Media Audio via a piece of software which I purchased called "dBpowerAMP", which I knew nothing about. This software is a "gateway," as it were, to Windows Media Audio 10, which contains several pieces that I do not understand. I downloaded this genuine Microsoft software (for free), which dBpowerAMP claimed would decode .asf files. Bingo! After I had downloaded this Microsoft upgrade to Windows Media Audio, those recalcitrant .asf files that I could decode with WavePad back in February suddenly were decodable once again--as before! Pure magic, which I do not understand.

 

In short, I am now back in business again, both with WavePad and with Switch, with .asf files streamed from station KPBS-FM in San Diego, California. So this is a tale of Black Magic and Witchcraft which has left me speechless and befuddled. But all's well that ends well, since I can do a bang-up editing job on these .asf (audio) files using WavePad. Which is what your company is all about--isn't it?

 

Incidentally, although I have purchased a Golden Records license from you and was using that software to record via my sound card with input from my FM tuner (rather than from the internet stream which is being sent out simultaneously), I am no longer recording from the FM tuner. It is much more convenient to pick up the .asf stream which is being directly sent to my hard drive--no sound card to go through, no volume levels to be adusted, no limit upon time duration, no muss, no fuss.

 

However, in recording the internet stream directly to my hard drive, I am giving up one prime feature of recording the output of my FM tuner, which I miss. The output of the FM tuner when fed into Golden Records comes out as an uncompressed .wav format, which is the highest possible sound quality. By contrast, the .asf file, while of excellent audio quality, is still highly compressed. When it is edited with WavePad, it is first decoded (with DirectX). Then when it is saved as mp3, once again some quality is lost. So there is indeed a good argument for recording directly from an FM tuner, editing the .wav format from Golden Records, and then saving the result (if desired) as mp3.

 

End of story--almost.

 

Thank you for your comment, although it missed the mark. You now have much more of the story, which is not at all what you thought it was. Some day, I suppose that the entire story will surface, when those who know it speak up and let the rest of us in on it.....

 

 

Musikone