I'm guessing some on this thread don't specialize in urban music, which is squashed like crazy and often played on ipods, phones, etc. I always test how mixes sound as mp3s. What's the point of being the end-all, when the listener is going to hear it as an mp3 on their end anyway? I'm not saying source with mp3, but one should be aware of how their music is going to sound, even at 128kbps.

I remember a friend getting on me about importing a mp3-based sample, saying it should be WAV. It was funny because I bitcrushed the sample to 8 bit anyway, so WAVs aren't always essential.

I use MP3's as scratch tracks... there are many valid reasons for using an MP3 file in a session. There is no valid reason for a piece of software that claims to have the function to not have it or have buggy implimentation.

I have the same issue the OP does, though I have never figured out why. I have some MP3's that were included in indie games, some from CD's and some from online stores but I could never find a link as to why some of them work and some don't. I get the same error message on my pc - windows 7 64 bit (32 bit Sonar), 8 gig of DDR3 ram, Intel I7, 3 hard drives etc.. certainly not out of memory!

The same files import fine in Pro Tools/Reaper/Cubase. Most of my music collection is tagged though some things haven't been and still have the same issue.

daveny5


Why is anyone serious about audio using MP3s as the source? MP3s are ok if you need to distribute over the web, but they are definitely NOT the end game.

I don't think the OP is claiming they are the end game but let's be realistic here, just about everybody that isn't some sort of audiophile, is listening to them. I can imagine the furore on here if Sonar couldn't import mp3s and the answer was "if you're serious about audio you don't need to".

I use them because that is what I get given by 99% of clients that are after demos when I ask them for a version of the song they want to record. I use it as a scratch track for working out tempo, intro, verse, & chorus lengths etc.

That's also why I think it must be an issue fairly unique to the OPs system, because despite all the various sources of mp3s I get, I've never seen this problem.

Thanks for the good ideas and feedback above.  I have 12GB RAM.  I don't believe this is about DRM.  I've never seen any evidence or had any DRM problems with Amazon MP3s, looking at file tags does not show DRM protrection, and I understand Amazon MP3's are supposed to be DRM-free.
 
My opinion is that since the MP3's work flawlessly in other programs, and can be opened by other editors, tag programs, etc. ... then they should also work in Sonar, without requiring the user to do any conversions or data stripping.
 
Obviously others have had this problem, but I did expect to see even more users having it.  So there may be something in certain configs that Sonar is not handling very well.
 
I still believe it's a Sonar problem.  It could be many things.  One idea is memory handling which throws an invalid out of memory error.

Thanks for the good ideas and feedback above.  I have 12GB RAM.  I don't believe this is about DRM.  I've never seen any evidence or had any DRM problems with Amazon MP3s, looking at file tags does not show DRM protrection, and I understand Amazon MP3's are supposed to be DRM-free.
 
My opinion is that since the MP3's work flawlessly in other programs, and can be opened by other editors, tag programs, etc. ... then they should also work in Sonar, without requiring the user to do any conversions or data stripping.
 
Obviously others have had this problem, but I did expect to see even more users having it.  So there may be something in certain configs that Sonar is not handling very well.
 
I still believe it's a Sonar problem.  It could be many things.  One idea is memory handling which throws an invalid out of memory error.

I feel silly for doing this, but can I bump my own suggestion?

Does the file have an embedded image?

I've run into issues where mp3 files with embedded images over a certain file size will causes this error when importing.

You can always extract the image from the file in a third-party utility. I'm sure there are many different 3rd party tools for this out there, but I've done this before myself with a free utility called Mp3tag that allows you to change the metadata associated with an mp3 file. You can find this at http://www.mp3tag.de/en/

Try saving the file without any embedded images and see if you can import it into SONAR.

If that resolves the issue for you, you're confirming something I've reported internally before. If it doesn't resolve the issue, maybe the others are on to something. Let us know :)
Best regards,

Ryan Munnis [Cakewalk
]

I feel silly for doing this, but can I bump my own suggestion?

Does the file have an embedded image?

I've run into issues where mp3 files with embedded images over a certain file size will causes this error when importing.

You can always extract the image from the file in a third-party utility. I'm sure there are many different 3rd party tools for this out there, but I've done this before myself with a free utility called Mp3tag that allows you to change the metadata associated with an mp3 file. You can find this at http://www.mp3tag.de/en/

Try saving the file without any embedded images and see if you can import it into SONAR.

If that resolves the issue for you, you're confirming something I've reported internally before. If it doesn't resolve the issue, maybe the others are on to something. Let us know :)
Best regards,

Ryan,
 
Thank you for the bump.  I tried your suggestion and it worked. Removing the image allowed the mp3 to import without a problem.  But I also confirmed that other mp3s import fine even with the embedded cover art image.  I don't know if the image is a symptom or a cause, but I hope this gives Cakewalk a lead to pursue.  Perhaps some images are stored in a format that is not Sonar compatible?  Perhaps some images are larger and put the file over an internal memory limit?  Thank you for jumping into this thread.

daveny5


Why is anyone serious about audio using MP3s as the source? MP3s are ok if you need to distribute over the web, but they are definitely NOT the end game.

Actually it is the end game.  Like it or not the world wide media of choice is MP3.

We use the MP3 decoding that is built into Windows. It is the Windows decoder that is throwing that error not SONAR. In the future we may consider an alternate mp3 decoder but in the near term there isn't a lot we can do to solve that.
For MP3 encoding on the other hand we use LAME (which requires a licence fee)

.