What I described above can be done with sweep 0.9.3-3 as well; only GLib error message is different, very probably because of the version:
sh-3.2$ sweep GLib-ERROR **: /build/buildd-glib2.0_2.24.2-1-i386-AScyie/glib2.0-2.24.2/glib/gmem.c:157: failed to allocate 725668232 bytes aborting... Aborted sh-3.2$ --- I was running Debian 5.0.7 (lenny) with Linux Kernel 2.6.26-2-686. Versions of the packages were: sh-3.2$ dpkg -l | egrep 'sweep|libasound2|libatk1.0-0| libc6|libcairo2|libglib2.0-0|libgtk2.0-0|libmad0|libogg0|libpango1.00|libsamplerate0| libsndfile1libspeex1|libvorbis0a|libvorbisenc2|libvorbisfile3' ii libasound2 1.0.16-2 ALSA library ii libasound2-dev 1.0.16-2 ALSA library development files ii libatk1.0-0 1.22.0-1 The ATK accessibility toolkit ii libc6 2.11.2-7 Embedded GNU C Library: Shared libraries ii libc6-dev 2.11.2-7 Embedded GNU C Library: Development Librarie ii libc6-i686 2.11.2-7 Embedded GNU C Library: Shared libraries [i6 ii libcairo2 1.6.4-7 The Cairo 2D vector graphics library ii libglib2.0-0 2.24.2-1 The GLib library of C routines ii libgtk2.0-0 2.12.12-1~lenny2 The GTK+ graphical user interface library ii libmad0 0.15.1b-4 MPEG audio decoder library ii libogg0 1.1.3-4 Ogg Bitstream Library ii libsamplerate0 0.1.4-1 audio rate conversion library ii libvorbis0a 1.2.0.dfsg-3.1+lenny1 The Vorbis General Audio Compression Codec ii libvorbisenc2 1.2.0.dfsg-3.1+lenny1 The Vorbis General Audio Compression Codec ii libvorbisfile3 1.2.0.dfsg-3.1+lenny1 The Vorbis General Audio Compression Codec ii sweep 0.9.3-3 Audio editor and live playback tool --- Aras Ergus