Topic: So, I taped a show -- now what? Basic 10-step instructions for newbies

[antsyashley]

From a newbie to a newbie:

I did the research to find a way to edit my shows and upload to the Live Music Archive (LMA). I never found a comprehensive instruction on this site, so I decided to make one for others in the same situation. If this thread proves useful, I think it would make a great sticky! For all those experts, feel free to edit my work and add any tips you think would be helpful.

Enjoy!

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Ten simple steps for post-production after recording a live show:

1. Open file in FREE sound editing program Audacity. Get it here: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/. Feel free to pay for a different program and figure that one out.

2. Normalize, amplify, or make any other edits to recording. Save work often. See http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php?title=Audacity_Wiki_Home_Page for tips.

3. Split into tracks. See same audacity wiki link above for tips.

4. “Export multiple” as flac files. When doing so, the files can be tagged with artist and show info.

5. Rename flac files according to LMA naming standards (found here: http://wiki.etree.org/index.php?page=NamingStandards).

6. Create a .txt file using a template from the archive (for example: http://www.archive.org/download/jjgam2009-01-29.BR.flac16/jjgam2009-01-29.BR.flac16.txt), and an .ffp file using the “Create Checksum” function with FREE program Trader’s Little Helper (download here: http://tlh.easytree.org/).

7. Begin upload process to LMA (if the band allows it). See http://ia351407.us.archive.org/0/items/uploaded/Tyler-Uploading_to_LMA_2007-08-06_final.pdf?cnt=0 for instructions. Or post on http://bt.etree.org if you intend to seed it. Instructions are on the site, and they seem quite simple compared to LMA.

8.  If LMA: Use ftp program for uploading flac, txt, and ffp files (ie SmartFTP, Filezilla, or FireFTP). You must copy and paste the FTP window (provided by LMA) in Internet Explorer before opening the FTP program.

9. Wait a while and refresh your LMA page to see results.

10. Share the music!

[dorrcoq]

I would suggest using CD Wave rather than Audacity to split tracks.  It's much simpler and no chance of SBE's.

[skotdee]

I second the CD Wave Notion, check it out Ash. And kudos again, great job on the instructions, you're a damn fast learner...

[greenone]

I suggest staying with Audacity only because it's cross-platform. And if you're on a Mac, use xACT (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/14246) in place of Trader's Little Helper in step 6. In step 8, FileZilla is also cross-platform, or you can use Cyberduck.

Nicely done, Ashley! And if anyone who reads this runs into LMA uploading problems, drop me a PM and I'll be glad to help out.

[Ziggz]

I would suggest using CD Wave rather than Audacity to split tracks.  It's much simpler and no chance of SBE's.

Indeed! I tested the split feature in Audacity last night and all tracks had SBEs.

[antsyashley]

Thanks for the feedback. Great tips so far. Hey, so, what are SBEs??

I'll try CD wave for my next recording and see how that goes. I'm hoping to tape at Papa Mali's 2nd Annual Supernatural Ball at Tipitina's in NOLA next week. Skotdee, it's good to be on a thread with ya, brutha!

[dorrcoq]

Hey, so, what are SBEs??

Sector Boundary Errors.  Those little micro-gaps that cause a "click" (not always audible) between tracks when the tracks aren't split on the boundaries.   If you don't know about them, your Mofro shows probably have them, unfortunately.  Very easy to fix with Trader's Little Helper or shntool, though.

[TheBang]

I saw somewhere that you can make Audacity cut on sector boundaries with the following settings:

View|Set Selection Format|cdda min:sec:frames 75fps
Edit|Snap-To|Snap On

Edit:  I guess these work for Audacity 1.2.  I'm not sure where they've moved the options in 1.3.

[Ziggz]

Yep, that worked! Although it doesn't seem to keep those settings after closing Audacity... which means I'd forget to change them next time round 
I'm using 1.2.6.

Even with CDWave, usually the last track has a SBE at the end of it- which I gather is nothing to be bothered about?

[dorrcoq]

Even with CDWave, usually the last track has a SBE at the end of it- which I gather is nothing to be bothered about?

Depends how anal you are!     I always cut the last fraction of a second to avoid it.

[Chuck]

Yep, that worked! Although it doesn't seem to keep those settings after closing Audacity... which means I'd forget to change them next time round 
I'm using 1.2.6.

Even with CDWave, usually the last track has a SBE at the end of it- which I gather is nothing to be bothered about?

With CDWav move the cursor 1 click to the right for the beginning of the file and 1 click to the left at the end of the file and make cuts there. That way you will always have files cut on sector boundries. If you don't do this, you will likely start and end the file in the middle of a sector boundry.

[Scooter123]

I'll copy the file off the card and on to the computer and I use Gold Wave to clean up the large file, boost the volume close to 0db, compress handclaps significantly, boost speach, and split tracks.  My file naming protocol is personal to my mask I use on my juke box, a typical file would be Grateful Dead - 01 Friend of the Devil.flac.  Embedding the song title onto the file makes it easier for others to organize the music. 

That process may take 2-3 hours per show.  The Wave Editor takes 20 minutes to run boosts and compression for a 90 min show.  Splitting Tracks on Gold Wave, once the splits are named with the song title, is about 30 seconds, and the file names are automatically named with your mask. 

[SpokenMagicSpells]

My 2 cents: it's better write a cuesheet file, load it on a player that support this kind of file (foobar2000) and them split the tracks.

[rhinowing]

Even with CDWave, usually the last track has a SBE at the end of it- which I gather is nothing to be bothered about?

Depends how anal you are!     I always cut the last fraction of a second to avoid it.

I just use the "pad" option when I encode in TLH