Supported File Formats¶
Acoustica reads and writes the audio file formats listed below. They are all available wherever a file format can be chosen: when opening or inserting a file, in Save As..., in Saving Regions to Files and as the target format of the Batch Processor.
Most formats offer settings of their own — a resolution, an encoding bit rate. Click the Options... button next to the file format list in the save dialog to reach them.
| Format | File extensions | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Wave Audio | .wav, .bwf |
The default format. Carries Broadcast Wave and Cart metadata (see File Properties and Metadata) |
| Wave64 Audio | .w64 |
A Wave variant without the 4 GB size limit, for very long recordings |
| Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF) | .aiff, .aif, .aifc |
|
| FLAC Audio | .flac |
Lossless compression |
| MPEG Layer 3 Audio | .mp3, .mp2, .mpg, .mpeg |
Lossy compression |
| Ogg Vorbis Audio | .ogg |
Lossy compression |
| Opus Audio | .opus |
Lossy compression |
| MPEG-4 Audio (AAC) | .m4a, .mp4, .aac |
Lossy compression |
| Windows Media Audio | .wma, .wmv |
Windows only |
On Windows, Acoustica can additionally read the audio track out of .mov and .m4v files, which is a convenient way to caption or repair the sound of a video clip without leaving the application.
Acoustica also reads audio directly from audio CDs — see Importing Audio Tracks from CDs.
Resolution and the Internal Format¶
Whatever the resolution of the file you open, Acoustica processes audio internally in 32 bit floating point (see Quantization). The resolution only becomes relevant again when you save: choose the target resolution in the file format options, and use Dither when you reduce it.
Acoustica's Own File Types¶
Besides audio files, Acoustica reads and writes a few file types of its own:
| File type | Extension | Written by |
|---|---|---|
| Multitrack Session File | .session |
File > Save in a multitrack session — see Saving, Loading and Exporting |
| CD Project File | .cdp |
File > Save in a CD project — see Creating Audio CDs |
| Acoustica Workspace File | .awf |
File > Save Workspace... — see Saving and Loading Workspace Files |
| Acoustica Layout File | .acl |
View > Save Layout to File... — see Loading and Saving Custom Layouts |
| Processing Chain File | .chain |
The preset bar of the Processing Chain — see The Processing Chain |
| Caption file | .captions |
Saved automatically alongside an audio file that contains captions — see Caption Editing |
| Acoustica Selection File | .acsel |
File > Export > Export Selection File... — see Exporting Selection Files |
| Acoustica Processor State File | .acstate |
Written next to an exported audit trail |
All of these except the caption file can be opened directly with Open... from the File menu.