asleep at the switch
so i open my shiny new sound effects library from xxxxxxxxxxxxx.com (name withheld until i get this whole mess sorted out), all excited to install it and get to work…but the blush came off that rose a-mighty quick. two words: “fucking quality control”.
first of all, last time i ordered this exact same library, it came on audio CDs. swell, no problem. i ripped ‘em, the metadata was preserved, and i was up and running in no time. but this go-round, what had been ~50 audio CDs is now 10 data DVDs. well…DVD-Rs. well…DVD-Rs still in their “maxell” jewel boxes with their “maxell” jewel tray liners. ooooooookay…i guess we’re taking some cost-cutting measures over at xxxxxxxxxxxxx.com, fine, no problem, it doesn’t really matter. let’s just get the data off these suckers and onto my rig.
the data won’t come off those suckers and onto my rig. not without a fight anyway. in the end it takes countless attemps that hang my machine, dozens of reboots, and the use of four different PCs with four different DVD drives to successfully go “ctrl-c” and “ctrl-v” for the whole mess. but at least i’ve got all the data now.
i don’t have all the data now. thanks to completely assinine filenaming, it’s hard to even tell what i’m looking at. but a subset of files that contain strings like “~1.wav” appended to the ends of those assinine names catches my attention, and i soon realize that a) they’re redundant clones of existing sounds, and b) during the DVD creation process, the generation of those clones OVERWROTE OTHER VALID FILES. in short, i’m missing files. how many? which ones? ya got me. well, maybe i can at least work with what i’ve got.
in the course of working with what i’ve got, i find that about 1 out of every 100 sounds has been converted to mono, without any apparent logic, rhyme, or reason. not because the original source material was mono or any clever thing like that. just…because…i don’t know why.
now i’ve got to get on the horn and see if somebody over there will kindly just send me the audio CDs that this stuff shipped on years ago. so much for “progress”.
