Wav file distortion in Ableton- help!

Hi all,

Trying to mix the 4 tracks in Ableton, but the imported wav files are super loud all really distorted.

Anyone else had this issue with importing wav files from OP1F to Ableton?

I’ve searched and can see that Ableton sometimes has an issue with wav files, but hoped this would be resolved by now…. Anyone got a fix?

Thanks in advance!

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Weirdly, the mix down is fine, but the individual tracks are so distorted.

Talking to myself here a bit, but thought I’d share an update in case anyone else is interested.

I ‘think’ the issue is the quality of the wav file. It seems the exported track wav file is too much for Ableton, and the db value needs to be reduced.

I only found this out as I imported the OP1F wav files into GarageBand to test, and it seems GB auto reduces the wave file to 24db. This 24db file works fine in Ableton.

I wish there was an option to choose the quality of the wav file export… it’s an annoying extra step to get the files into Ableton.

Anyway - if anyone has any advice, I’d love to hear it.

In Ableton preferences can you set the bit depth of your audio interface to 24 bit before you import?

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Hi, I’ll have a look @darwiniandude. Thanks.

you ever find a fix for this?? i’m having the same issue :confused:

i tried this, still came out very distorted for me

Ableton support page: Supported Audio File Formats

“In order to convert or split unsupported audio files, we recommend to use Audacity which is a free and easy to use.”

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that’s a bummer, makes for a tedious extra step when you’re trying to bounce tapes between the field and ableton :confused: hopefully ableton is able to read 32 bit PCM someday. Anyone know of any DAWs that can read those files natively besides audacity? Logic? Protools? FL?

Wow, I didn’t know this was an issue and I very nearly dropped $700 earlier today on Ableton!! Has anyone tried with reaper?

Also, I’m sure I’m not the best scripter on this forum, but audacity allows you to create scripts to utilize its functions. If Ableton refuses to support this, I’ll check out the documentation to see if we can’t just drag and drop the files onto a python or bash script to do it quickly versus having to open up Audacity and do it all manually

a quick export script with drag/drop would be amazingggggggg @everyone someone plz make this lol

I’ve done several things like this before, I just glanced at the documentation and it seems straightforward. Fair warning, I prefer bash so in two months when I finally get around to it, if you’re a Windows user you’ll have to install Ubuntu for Windows or something if that’s still a thing.

Audacity runs in Windows, why would you need to install Ubuntu for?

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Lmaoooooo good point

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Hi, sorry for delay in getting back to you. I did sort it in a round a bit way… I imported the tracks in garage band, exported, then imported into Ableton. Basically, it did the same thing as being suggested with Audacity.

I need to try again, this time reducing the bit rate as suggested. There must be a simple solution within Ableton for this!!

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Hi! Did you manage to do it directly within Ableton with the correct settings? If it does not work, I will simply record the output from OP1f to ableton through audio usb track by track using mute function

Ran into this same issue my self. I imported into logic which automatically created copy of the files at 24bit in the folder.
These 24 bit files worked perfectly in Ableton.
That’s my work around atm but hopefully Ableton will catch up to the rest of the world with 32Bit soon. in the meantime perhaps TE could help us out with a 24bit export option?

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Found in Ableton Live website:

In general, Live supports audio files with 1 or 2 channels, with a resolution of 8, 16, 24 or 32-bit and any sample frequency up to 192kHz.

I don’t see why 32 bits file would be a problem then. Will try it out today

Edit: yes very distorted indeed. I don’t understand why

Someone needs to contact Ableton support regarding this.