From: Emilress Andric
The program I used to make it was Adobe Soundbooth C3, and edit it into the required seconds to upload using Sound Recorder, a default program on windows.
Before I answer your actual question, let me just say I find it puzzling that you'd use Sound Recorder in addition to Soundbooth. Soundbooth should be able to do everything you need all by itself. Sound Recorder is the audio equivalent of Notepad or MS Paint. It's not something you want to use if you have ANYTHING better, which you do. If I were you, I'd use Soundbooth from start to finish.
Anyway, on to your question...
From: Emilress Andric
It seems every time I go to upload my sound pieces, it gives me an error saying::: "File does not appear to be a PCM wave file".... what in the world?
PCM stand for pulse code modulation. It's one of many types of encoding for digital audio. In order for SL to use WAV files, they must incorporate PCM encoding.
WAV itself is just a file extension. It doesn't mean much on its own. Heck, you could put a .wav extension on the end of a text file if you wanted to, but that wouldn't make the file playable as audio. The PCM part is what's most important. Without that, SL won't know what to do with data in the file.
Think of encodings in audio files sort of like color spaces in image files. If you try to upload a grayscale TGA image to SL, for example, the upload will fail, even though the file has the right extension on the end. The extension all by itself doesn't do a whole lot. SL requires that all images be in RGB or RGBA color space first; the file extension is secondary.
Similarly, SL requires first and foremost that all audio clips use PCM encoding. The file extension is just one more thing. Also, it requires that all clips use 48.1 kHz sampling, and that they have a bit depth of 16 (mono or stereo).
From the error message, it sounds like the PCM part is what you messed up on, but getting any of the variables wrong will cause the upload to fail.
Since Sound Recorder is what you're using, here's how to set it properly:
1. Open any WAV file, and then go File -> Properties. The Properties dialog will open.
2. In the Properties dialog, you'll see a section at the bottom called Format Conversion. Where it says "Choose from:" select "All formats", and the press the Convert Now... button. The Sound Selection dialog will open.
3. In the Sound Selection dialog, where it says "Name", click the dropdown box and choose CD Quality. Notice the format automatically changes to PCM, and the attributes automatically change to 44.1 kHz sampling, 16 bit, stereo*. Click OK to close the Sound Selection dialog, and then OK again to close the Properties dialog. Sound Recorder is now set up for proper recording and playback with the right settings.
4. Go File -> Save as... Notice underneath the white File Name and Save As Type fileds, there's a gray Format field. Next to the word Format, it should say "PCM 44.100 kHz, 16 Bit, Stereo". If it says anything other than that, click the Change button, and set it to CD Quality. Make this check every single time you save a file.
*Note: If you want to save files in mono instead of stereo, go right ahead. It will make the files smaller, so they'll load faster for people in SL. Just be sure to keep all the other settings the same. It's crucial that everything be PCM, 44.1 kHz, 16 Bit.