A Tip With Cool Edit On .PK Files

Bobby Johnson · Post by **Bobby Johnson** » 2 Oct 2007 6:04 pm

Hi Guys,
I had a good friend E-mail me tonight from the forum about what a PK file is. So for some of you that might not know i thought i'd pass it on.
.PK file meaning Peak File this is a extention file cool edit creates when you save a track or song as a wave file. It stores the audio data for the wave.

When you load a wave file Cool Edit will refer to the PK file for the data it needs to load. With out the pk file it will load much much slower. But if you try to open the pk file it will load a screech sound when you try to play it. It's just a data file.
so always load the wave file that was saved, not the PK file.

Hope this will help others that may have had this same problem as well.

Thanks Bobby

Gary Ball · Post by **Gary Ball** » 2 Oct 2007 7:26 pm

Hey Bobby when I pass on my Wave file to the Cool Edit program, which works fine, then go back to my original file, its been converted to that PK thing. In other words its useless from then on.

Guess I don't understand how to convert a pk file to a something Cool Edit accepts.

Bobby Johnson · Post by **Bobby Johnson** » 2 Oct 2007 7:56 pm

Hi Gary,
When you save a song or track as a wave file,do a Save As the window will pop up. Click on the drop down and click PCM(*.wav) then name the track and save it to the folder where you want it to go.In that file will be 2 Files 1 will be the wave the other will be the PK file. If your not sure which is the wave highlight the icon right click it go to properties and it will say either wav file or pk file. then just load the wave.

If you have any other problems call me 321-383-0915 anytime

Thanks Bobby

winston · Post by **winston** » 3 Oct 2007 6:24 am

Another way to tell the difference in a pk or wave is to associate wav with win media player. The icons will look different. With CEP you should open the session icon and you will not have the pk trying to open. Winston May

Jay Fagerlie · Post by **Jay Fagerlie** » 4 Oct 2007 5:25 am

Hey Guys,
The .pk file in CEP is the data used to draw the picture of the waveform. CEP saves it as an extra file so loading wav files will be faster.
Just ignore it, it's a small file, but it does make things load quicker.
Jay

Russ Wever · Post by **Russ Wever** » 6 Oct 2007 1:08 pm

Every time you open a file, Cool Edit (or Adobe Audition) displays the waveform derived from the file's audio data.

This operation can slow the opening of files (especially in multitrack mode which may contain many audio files).

Instead of having to 're-draw' the waveform data each time the file is loaded, Cool Edit (or Adobe Audition) saves the waveform image(s) in a separate file called the Peak file (*.pk).

Once an audio file's waveform data is read, and the waveform image is created, Cool Edit (or Adobe Audition) saves the Peak file in the same folder as the sound-file (so that the next time you open the file, it'll open quicker).

The Peak files can be deleted at any time and will not affect the content of the audio file(s).

You can change Adobe Audition or Cool Edit so that it doesn't save Peak files.

To change Cool Edit (or Adobe Audition) so that they doesn't save Peak files:

In Cool Edit Pro 1.X and Cool Edit 2000: Choose Options > Settings > System, and deselect 'Save Peak Cache Files' then select OK.

In Audition 1.x and Cool Edit Pro 2.x: Choose Options > Settings > Display, and deselect 'Save Peak Cache Files' then select OK.

In Audition 2.0: Choose Edit > Preferences > Display, and deselect 'Save Peak Cache Files' then select OK.

Gary Ball · Post by **Gary Ball** » 7 Oct 2007 5:54 pm

Not that it matters, but why would you want to save a pk file in the first place?

Thanks for the tip Russ. My pk's are gone!

Russ Wever · Post by **Russ Wever** » 7 Oct 2007 11:50 pm

why would you want to save a pk file in the first place?

So that when you re-open (after initially saving it) a wave file, or moreso, when you re-open a multitrack session (which would have multiple wave files) the process will not take as long as if there were no pk files.

In other words, they will save you a little time.

In the case of on ongoing multitrack project during which you would close the program and 'save' your work between sessions, it's well to use the pk file during the course of the project.

Once the multitracking process is finished, delete the pk files if you wish, as they serve no further purpose.

~Russ