Topic: Audacity question

[DaveH]

I recently have been using Audacity to transfer some shows from tape and mini disc, but I can not figure out how to track them individually without having a click between tracks. Any suggestions, I'm a bit new to this and a lot of it seems confusing.

[rjp]

If you're editing out pauses between tracks, you either need to add fade-outs and fade-ins between tracks, or you need to crossfade the tracks. Otherwise, you'll run into clicks and/or sudden changes in background noise.

For a fade-out, select the region you want to fade, and apply the "Fade out" effect; then fade in the next track the same way.

Crossfades in Audacity are a PITA, but they can be worth the effort. My technique is to do all other processing first (EQ/normalization/audience noise limiting/spot noise filtering), and then drop labels where I want tracks to start and end. I then create a second stereo track, and use Split Cut to cut out alternating sections of music, pasting them into the second track in their original position on the timeline.

Then, I use the Time Shift tool to overlap the tracks I want to crossfade, and use the Cross Fade In/Cross Fade Out effects (these are in the plugin pack, not installed by default) to do the crossfades. As with standard fades, you select the region you want to fade out or in, and apply the crossfade in or out effect.

Then I kill the extra labels. I set Audacity to snap to CD frame boundaries (preventing sector boundary errors when burning to CD) and drop new labels where I want the tracks to be split.

A side note: snapping to CD frame boundaries should only be used when you're dividing tracks to be exported. Otherwise, some editing operations might leave less-than-one-frame chunks of audio where you don't want them.

[dorrcoq]

Far easier to export as one large file and split tracks with CD Wave Editor

[vanark]

Far easier to export as one large file and split tracks with CD Wave Editor

[jibooer]

splitting tracks on this otherwise useful program is weak...i usually do the tracking as the final stage with cdwav...much easier

[GroundHog420]

That's an interesting method of tracking in Audacity.
I like the program, but in some ways, I find maneuvering it a bit clunky.
I ended up just doing my tracking "ghetto-style" - selecting the amount of data I wanted for each track, then saving that as a new track.
At the end of the whole process, using Traders Little Helper to check/repair/align any sector boundary errors - this step seemed to be what insured I would have no clicks between tracks.
A bit convoluted of a process, yes, but at the time, it was the best I came up with.
Then again, I've been doing the majority of my audio processing in SoundForge, and my initial tracking in CDWav.
I would rather work on the Mac, but I guess I've gotten used to the apps I've worked with on the PC, and haven't really gotten in the groove of Audacity yet.

If you're editing out pauses between tracks, you either need to add fade-outs and fade-ins between tracks, or you need to crossfade the tracks. Otherwise, you'll run into clicks and/or sudden changes in background noise. < - snip - >

[darby]

you get what you pay for with Audacity

if you want to do your editing on a Mac
I would suggest using Amadeus Pro or Sound Studio
both apps give you the ability to cut your WAV files into tracks
and you can also FLAC them all in 1 step
without selecting and exporting each track individually like Audacity

[Roving Sign]

In the Linux version of Audacity you can export directly to FLAC - which is pretty cool...

My question is: does the use of FLAC as the export mode negate the possibilty of SBEs when using Audacity for tracking?

[GroundHog420]

Yeah, I did notice that on a Mac, I could choose my format, bitrate, etc, for exporting, but I had the same question you just asked.
I should just go do a test, and see what happens.

In the Linux version of Audacity you can export directly to FLAC - which is pretty cool...

My question is: does the use of FLAC as the export mode negate the possibilty of SBEs when using Audacity for tracking?

[darby]

In the Linux version of Audacity you can export directly to FLAC - which is pretty cool...
My question is: does the use of FLAC as the export mode negate the possibilty of SBEs when using Audacity for tracking?

I doubt it, depending on how you set your snap to (or not)
I don't think it will align on SBs automatically
I never do 16/44 with Amadeus Pro, and have very little experience with Sound Studio
but you still have to set your snap to in order to avoid SBEs

you can export directly to FLAC on a Mac with Audacity
but you still have to select and export each track individually

[willndmb]

without selecting and exporting each track individually like Audacity

you can do every track at once with audaicty

[rjp]

you can export directly to FLAC on a Mac with Audacity
but you still have to select and export each track individually

No, you can export all at once. That's what the "Export Multiple" function does. My approach is to leave a one-second "leader" before my first track label, and I use the desired base file names (i.e. without the extension) as the label text for each track. I can then use Export Multiple to export all tracks, automatically naming them with the labels. Audacity will export directly to FLAC as well.

Note: I use Audacity 1.3.7, not the "stable" version.

[willndmb]

you can export directly to FLAC on a Mac with Audacity
but you still have to select and export each track individually

Note: I use Audacity 1.3.7, not the "stable" version.

oh ok i was going to say where the hell is the flac feature, but i use the stable version