# Calculating total time of audio files - need help fast! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 20, 2009, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calculating-total-time-of-audio-files-need-help-fast/486774 "2009-02-20T21:31:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calculating-total-time-of-audio-files-need-help-fast/486774/1 "2009-02-20T21:31:29Z")
Hey folks, I’m dealing with a work project where I’m looking at approximately 950 audio files (.aiff and .wav, to be precise). I’m trying to see if there’s an application out there that would allow me to quickly find out the total time of all the combined audio. I tried to calculate based on the file sizes, but not all of the recordings are at the same quality, so that kind of generalization had to get tossed. Any thoughts? Much appreciated! ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calculating-total-time-of-audio-files-need-help-fast/486774/2 "2009-02-20T21:37:12Z")
Should have added that I’m running Windows XP. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calculating-total-time-of-audio-files-need-help-fast/486774/3 "2009-02-20T21:51:28Z")
Windows Media Player will do this. Just load all of your files into a single playlist, and you’ll get your total. Robin ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calculating-total-time-of-audio-files-need-help-fast/486774/4 "2009-02-20T22:03:53Z")
Thank you. Windows Media Player tells me the total number of files, but isn’t calculating the actual time total for whatever reason. Even when I put it in the burn list, it isn’t showing the total time. ---
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calculating-total-time-of-audio-files-need-help-fast/486774/5 "2009-02-20T22:05:09Z")
Winamp will do this for sure. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calculating-total-time-of-audio-files-need-help-fast/486774/6 "2009-02-20T22:08:56Z")
> [@](#): > > [http://www.sonicspot.com/guide/wavefiles.html](http://www.sonicspot.com/guide/wavefiles.html) > > Wave files use the standard RIFF structure which groups the files contents (sample format, digital audio samples, etc.) into separate chunks, each containing it’s own header and data bytes. > > The format chunk contains information about how the waveform data is stored and should be played back including the type of compression used, number of channels, sample rate, bits per sample and other attributes. > > The Wave Data Chunk contains the digital audio sample data which can be decoded using the format and compression method specified in the Wave Format Chunk. So, a program can read the length in bytes of the data chunk and calculate the duration by using the information contained in the format chunk (channels, smaples.second, etc.) ---
**Author:** ![Cagey\_Drifter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@Cagey\_Drifter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cagey_Drifter)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calculating-total-time-of-audio-files-need-help-fast/486774/7 "2009-02-20T22:41:25Z")
> [@Wallenstein](#): > > Winamp will do this for sure. Agreed-- though I’m not sure it handles aiff files. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calculating-total-time-of-audio-files-need-help-fast/486774/8 "2009-02-20T23:41:02Z")
Thank you all. WinAmp did the trick, although it had to be coaxed a bit (yes, it does handle AIFF files, incidentally). It wouldn’t do anything but estimate the totals until I actually scrolled through the entire list of files in the playlist (took a while to figure this out), but it eventually filled in the length for each track. I appreciate everyone’s help! ---
**Author:** ![eldowan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@eldowan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eldowan)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calculating-total-time-of-audio-files-need-help-fast/486774/9 "2009-02-21T00:01:16Z")
> [@Asimovian](#): > > Thank you all. > > WinAmp did the trick, although it had to be coaxed a bit (yes, it does handle AIFF files, incidentally). It wouldn’t do anything but estimate the totals until I actually scrolled through the entire list of files in the playlist (took a while to figure this out), but it eventually filled in the length for each track. > > I appreciate everyone’s help! not sure if this is applicable any more, but when I used to use winamp (now amarok, available on windows) there was a setting somewhere that would read the audio tags/length without having to scroll. The scroll requirement was to keep the smoothness up without taxing the system when there is no _need_ to. If this is an ongoing project, or a recurring one, this may help you in the future. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calculating-total-time-of-audio-files-need-help-fast/486774/10 "2009-02-21T11:50:26Z")
FYI, if you select multiple files in Windows and look at their properties, the total length is shown under the Details tab. Probably easier than fiddling with third-party software. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calculating-total-time-of-audio-files-need-help-fast/486774/11 "2009-02-21T21:41:35Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > FYI, if you select multiple files in Windows and look at their properties, the total length is shown under the Details tab. Probably easier than fiddling with third-party software. That was actually the first thing I tried, and it didn’t work for whatever reason. It may be that because the audio files were being pulled off of a DVD and I was using a somewhat slow laptop, I simply didn’t give Windows enough time to calculate everything. I left the properties up for several minutes, but without any success.