# Psychopy can't find sounds, i've tried everything

**URL:** <https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/psychopy-cant-find-sounds-ive-tried-everything/9024>\
**Category:** Builder\
**Tags:** sound\
**Created:** [September 11, 2019, 6:19pm UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/psychopy-cant-find-sounds-ive-tried-everything/9024 "2019-09-11T18:19:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![norajml](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/858c86/32.png) [@norajml](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/norajml)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 6:19pm UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/psychopy-cant-find-sounds-ive-tried-everything/9024/1 "2019-09-11T18:19:15Z")

</div>

Hi ! If someone can help me i’d greatly appreciate it!! So it’s my first time using Psychopy, i’m trying to set up a speech shadowing task, participants have to listen to sounds and then repeat them. I’m using Win10, the brand new Psychopy version and the 3.2 python version. And for the life of me, i don’t know why my sound files can’t be found. I have

- been careful to use the exact same writing and caps or no caps
- put the loop on “set every repeat”
- stored my sound files in the same file as the psychopy exp
- match the writing in conditionfile and i have no errors in the sounds names.  
And i get this error:

#### Running: C:\Users\ACE\Desktop\Speechprod\_exp\Speechprod\_exp\_lastrun.py

pygame 1.9.4  
Hello from the pygame community. [https://www.pygame.org/contribute.html](https://www.pygame.org/contribute.html)  
3.4531 WARNING User requested fullscreen with size [1024 768], but screen is actually [1366, 768]. Using actual size  
Traceback (most recent call last):  
File “C:\Users\ACE\Desktop\Speechprod\_exp\Speechprod\_exp\_lastrun.py”, line 234, in   
sound\_trial.setSound(sounds)  
File “C:\Program Files (x86)\PsychoPy3\lib\site-packages\psychopy\sound\backend\_sounddevice.py”, line 361, in setSound  
\_SoundBase.setSound(self, value, secs, octave, hamming, log)  
File “C:\Program Files (x86)\PsychoPy3\lib\site-packages\psychopy\sound\_base.py”, line 193, in setSound  
raise ValueError(msg + value)  
ValueError: setSound: could not find a sound file named permanent

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Michael](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.psychopy.org/michael/32/16_2.png) [@Michael](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/Michael)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2019, 2:51am UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/psychopy-cant-find-sounds-ive-tried-everything/9024/2 "2019-09-12T02:51:16Z")

</div>

You don’t actually show us _how you are specifying the sound file name._

But if you are providing the literal string `permanent`, where is its file extension? Or if `permanent` is a variable from your conditions file, then you need to prefix it like this: `$permanent` so it _doesn’t_ get interpreted as a literal value.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![norajml](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/858c86/32.png) [@norajml](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/norajml)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2019, 2:04pm UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/psychopy-cant-find-sounds-ive-tried-everything/9024/3 "2019-09-12T14:04:50Z")

</div>

Hey, thank you for taking the time to help me !  
In my conditions file my variable is called “sounds” and i had already prefixed it as follows: $sounds  
so it doesnt recognize my files. and “permanent” is the first auditory stimulus in my sounds file!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jon](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.psychopy.org/jon/32/22_2.png) [@jon](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/jon)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2019, 2:19pm UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/psychopy-cant-find-sounds-ive-tried-everything/9024/4 "2019-09-12T14:19:13Z")

</div>

Is the file really called just “permanent” or is it really “permanent.wav” or “permanent.mp3” or similar? Most files have an extension (but windows hides them)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![norajml](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/858c86/32.png) [@norajml](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/norajml)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2019, 2:30pm UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/psychopy-cant-find-sounds-ive-tried-everything/9024/5 "2019-09-12T14:30:56Z")

</div>

permanent.wav. I have 20 wav audio files in my “sounds” file!