how to convert or edit a sound recording made by the Reality or u370

The Reality/u370 lets you make a personal sound recording

Menu > Media Center > Music & Tones > My Sounds : Record New


That recording is saved by the phone as a qcp file. Using the tools (below) to convert or edit it will be a two step process. At least some of the other Verizon non-smartphones use that qcp format too for personal sound recordings; so these instructions ought to turn out to be applicable to those recordings.


http://www.qualcomm.com/products_services/mobile_content_services/voice/purevoice.html


An application called "Purevoice" made by Qualcomm can not only play qcp files, but it can convert a qcp file to a wav file; curiously, PureVoice seems to be the only application capable of doing this.

Once it's a wav file, (1) it's playable by mainstream media players such as VLC and Media Player Classic (2) it's convertable to many other audio formats (3) now it's in an audio format that can be edited by an audio editing program. See the third post for suggestions for programs that can convert and edit audio.

That Qualcomm link has two different PureVoice applications relevant to us -- "PureVoice" and "PureVoice Converter". My instructions (below) are for "PureVoice"; I used PureVoice v2.4.0 for Windows 2000/XP/Vista. I haven't tried yet "PureVoice Converter" ** (see footnote below)

If you press Alt + Shift + C, PureVoice will convert the .qcp file to a wav file; however, Alt + Shift + C won't convert the qcp file if PureVoice is in the middle of playing back the qcp file. After pressing Alt+Shift+C, PureVoice will flicker for a second; even though it seems like PureVoice sat there and didn't do anything, it converted the file and is waiting for the next action from you. Now, select 'File' and 'Save As'. PureVoice will show you that it's ready to save the converted voice recording file as a wav file

PureVoice can also convert a wav file to a qcp file by using the same Alt+Shift+C combination. But I haven't spent any time experimenting with that.


** According to the available readme file, "PureVoice Converter" offers a feature that perhaps "PureVoice" does not offer:

Usage: PVConv [-h] [-v] [-r <rateset>] infile [outfile]

-r : Select rate set:
vfr = variable rate, full rate max (default)
vhr = variable rate, half rate max
ffr = fixed full rate
fhr = fixed half rate

After you're done converting QCP -> WAV,

... here are some programs that can edit WAV or some other audio format:

- Audacity

- Mobile Media Converter (link) *

- Pazera Free Audio Extractor (link) *


* Audacity is a very robust program, but these two other programs have an advantage for editing -- the interface is very self-explanatory and both of these make it very simple and effortless to trim away any part of the sound file. Pazera Free Audio Extractor, in addition, offers the option to raise or lower the volume of the (trimmed) sound file



... here are some programs that can convert WAV to one of a number of different formats:

- Audacity
It appears that the only format that you can export WAV to is MP3


- dbpoweramp
(link): list of supported codecs


- fre:enc
(link): "It currently converts between MP3, MP4/M4A, WMA, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, AAC, WAV and Bonk formats."


- iTunes
(link): iTunes supports AAC, Apple Lossless, MP3, AIFF, and WAV files


- MediaMonkey
(link): Convert audio files from almost any audio format and preserve tag information**, using the MP3 converter, AAC/M4A converter, OGG converter, WMA converter, WAV converter and FLAC converters


- Mobile Media Converter
Can interconvert among these audio formats:
mp3, wma, wav, ogg vorbis**, m4r*

* m4r is the extension for ringtones for the Apple iPhone. Just change the extension to .m4a to make the file a playable iTunes audio file

**  length of audio file converted to ogg vorbis seems to be wrong


- Pazera Free Audio Extractor
Can interconvert among these audio formats:
mp3, wma, flac, wav, ogg flac, ogg vorbis, ac3, aac not but m4a