Best way to convert Sound Designer II files to wav?

[johnnyv]

Anyone know a good way? I've got sizable amount of Sound Designer II files to convert to wav.

What is the best way here in 2016?

Thanks in advance...

[albee1952]

Easiest is to open the sessions on an older system, then go File>Save Copy> and convert to wave(and Enforce PC/Mac Compatibility). I keep an old G4/Mbox for just that purpose

[Sardi]

Well, you don't say if you're on a Mac or PC, so kinda hard to suggest appropriate software.

I'll assume you're on Mac, as I don't believe Windows versions of Pro Tools ever used the SDII format. With that in mind, grab a copy of Max.

http://sbooth.org/Max/#download

It's free and converts from virtually any format to another.

Make sure you download the latest unstable build (which is very stable) as you may have issues with the stable version and current versions of Mac OS. I've run it on 10.5 all the way up to 10.11 with no issues.

[midnightrambler]

As an aside, this has got to be one of the worst things about making music in the 21st century. I know 'twas ever thus (the number of actually useable 2" tape machines are presumably decreasing by the year, for instance), but who really knows whether we'll be able to read any of our current state-of-the-art files in 20 years' time, when e.g. WAVS have been rendered obsolete by some other slightly different but superficially better format.

[albee1952]

Using a file converter is fine if each track is a single file and all start together. Sadly, most sessions end up with tons of clips(regions) and gaps and getting all the converted files to land in their proper place on the timeline can be a real crapshoot. Opening on an older Mac system eliminates lots of hair pulling.

[Sardi]

I hear ya Albee.

Unfortunately the OP is pretty vague on details. He may just need to convert a bunch of samples or he may need multi tracks or ??.

Asking for help with computers etc. really requires some basic info of your setup and what you're trying to achieve.


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[Bob Olhsson]

If the SD2 file has ever been on an FTP server or a non-mac drive, the files will have been corrupted. Recent mac drives could also be a problem.

[Top Jimmy]

Originally Posted by Bob Olhsson

If the SD2 file has ever been on an FTP server or a non-mac drive, the files will have been corrupted. Recent mac drives could also be a problem.

Corrupted or just missing the resource forks?

Rail's Sd2wav converter works great as long as a person knows the sampling rate and bit depth. Haven't seen him around here in a while.

http://www.railjonrogut.com/sdTwoWav.htm

[Stephen Bond]

This whole situation is farcical! Digidesign advised us to record our sessions with SD2 files rather than choosing the WAV option and then they drop support after all these years Now we are left scrambling looking for workarounds and solutions

Avid should at least support the importing of old SD2 Sessions and upgrading to the new standard natively, even if they don't want to continue with the option of saving as SD2.

Stephen

[Bob Olhsson]

Originally Posted by Top Jimmy

Corrupted or just missing the resource forks?

Rail's Sd2wav converter works great as long as a person knows the sampling rate and bit depth. Haven't seen him around here in a while.

http://www.railjonrogut.com/sdTwoWav.htm

Missing the resource forks due to corruption. You can take care of sample rate and bit depth but not the location encoding.

Avid defaulted to BWAV many years ago and Apple started warning of resource forks going away back when system 8 was released!