i Mike, I’m converting some old ADAT 8 track tapes to PC wav files and they were on the ADAT at a 48khz sample rate. I accidently copied them to the PC at 44.1khz and now they play slower than normal.
I tried converting the sample rate in Audition, but they still play at the slower speed at 48khz after the conversion.
Is there a way to get them back to the proper playback speed? Of course I erased the ADAT tapes after I copied them thinking everything was fine.
I would try making some copies importing them into a 48k session (not the originals just to be safe), you would normally get a warning like 'these files are not the correct sample rate and may play back at the wrong speed" depending on the DAW you use…
It might import them and then play them at the correct speed inside the session, at which point you could bounce them to whatever format / sample rate you require.
Let us know of that works please 
and good luck
It sounds like the change in sample rate has caused the playback speed issue. One option you can try is to convert the files back to 48kHz sample rate and see if that restores the proper playback speed. You can also try adjusting the pitch and speed settings in Audition to see if that helps. However, keep in mind that altering the pitch and speed settings may affect the overall sound quality of the files.
Hi, Isabel and Karl have the right idea here. When being presented with this problem to solve from other audio producers I have found this method usually gives the required results.
Make a copy of all the files that are at the wrong sample rate. This is your back-up just in case anything goes wrong with the converting process and the files somehow get damaged.
Boot your DAW, once it’s ready to go and without any audio files placed in the edit area or multitrack view, change the sample rate to 44.1 (if it’s not already) in the Adjust Sample Rate window NOT the Convert Sample type. All we are doing is changing the sample rate of your soundcard and DAW.
Then load a couple of your 44.1kHz audio files you have copied to test the conversion.
Once you have your test files in your DAW, then change the sample rate to 48000 (48kHz) using the Adjust Sample Rate window again.
Ignore any warnings about sample rate conflicts and don’t allow your DAW to change the files in any way to compensate. Just play back the files at the new sample rate.
If all has gone well you should hear the files back at their correct pitch and speed. Then you can render out the files at 48kHz and that deals with your problem.
Repeat the process for the remaining files. You might need to do this in small batches as lots of files could cause problems on some versions of Audition in the past…
Ian T.