[linux-audio-user] determining filetype of unknownaudio files?

[Erik Steffl]

Matt Price wrote:
> Hi folks,
>         
> I just discovered two very ancient audio files on my computer.  I am
> pretty sure they contain some interesting archival material in which I
> am very interested ... but I can't get them to play.  The problem is
> that I don't know what format they're in -- I created them a number of
> years ago on a mac, and I no longer remember how -- maybe using
> protools?  or maybe someone else made them for me in some other
> format?  Anyway, when I copied them over to linux (eons ago!) I must
> have lost the resouce forks, and there are no standard .xxx file codes
> on the file names.  I tried just loading the files in xmms and
> audacity, but neither recognizes them (well, audacity sees one of the
> two files as a very short burst of static, but the other it can't
> recognize.  I also tried:
> 
> cat Audio1-01 > /dev/dsp, which of course gave an incoherent squeal.
> 
> nevertheless I'm pretty confident they really are audio files.  
> 
> soooo... what tools would you suggest I use to determine the file's
> origins and type?  

   did you try the obvious 'file Audio1-01'. It might know something 
about the file.

	erik