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Gear / Technical Help => Post-Processing, Computer / Streaming / Internet Devices & Related Activity => Topic started by: Nick Graham on June 24, 2006, 08:01:49 PM

Title: Audacity and/or Spark XL Help Needed...
Post by: Nick Graham on June 24, 2006, 08:01:49 PM
So, after taping a show last night, I figured I'd give both of these programs a chance, see which one I like better, and stick with whichever one won out. However, I've ran into major problems on both....

Audacity - I tracked the show by setting labels at the start of each track point, then chose "Export Multiple" to save the individual tracks. The problem is this - the tracks it saves are 16 bit (the show was recorded in 24)! No matter what setting I change, it always exports as 16 bit. Am I missing something here?

Spark - When using the batch converter to dither from 24 to 16 bit (I already have the show split and named in 24 bit), is there a way to specify the output file's name? My files which were named "theloft2006-06-23.mk4.d1t01", etc. came out as "theloft2006#5"...only #5 was actually d1t01, #3 was d2t04....absolutely random naming scheme.

Any ideas from the mac audio gurus?

Title: Re: Audacity and/or Spark XL Help Needed...
Post by: scb on June 25, 2006, 12:44:39 AM
maybe spark doesn't like the periods?
Title: Re: Audacity and/or Spark XL Help Needed...
Post by: Brian Skalinder on June 25, 2006, 01:34:25 AM
Audacity - I tracked the show by setting labels at the start of each track point, then chose "Export Multiple" to save the individual tracks. The problem is this - the tracks it saves are 16 bit (the show was recorded in 24)! No matter what setting I change, it always exports as 16 bit. Am I missing something here?

What settings did you change in Audacity?  Try Edit | Preferences | File Formats | Uncompressed Export Format.  Just tested this on my Win2K PC and it worked fine - exported the proper bit-depth and sample rate to all the multiple WAV files.  FWIW, to change the bit-depth and / or sample rate of the Project or of the WAV you're exporting, do the following:

Editing Bit-Depth

Bit-Depth Changes and Dithering

Sample Rate Changes

Title: Re: Audacity and/or Spark XL Help Needed...
Post by: Nick Graham on June 25, 2006, 12:20:05 PM
maybe spark doesn't like the periods?

Not sure, but I'm gonna experiment with different naming techniques and see what happens. FWIW, last night I didn't rename the files after splitting the tracks - so they were all named marker 1, marker 2, etc. I dithered using those names, and the output stayed the same namewise....so you're probably onto something. If nothing else, leaving the files named that way at least makes the 16 bit output files identifiable without listening to each one.

+T


What settings did you change in Audacity?  Try Edit | Preferences | File Formats | Uncompressed Export Format.  Just tested this on my Win2K PC and it worked fine - exported the proper bit-depth and sample rate to all the multiple WAV files. 

HUGE +T

Worked perfectly. Kind of a strange workaround...it'd be nice if the output files defaulted to whatever the original bit depth/sample rate was, but no big deal.

Thanks a ton!
Title: Re: Audacity and/or Spark XL Help Needed...
Post by: scb on June 25, 2006, 12:33:57 PM
maybe spark doesn't like the periods?

Not sure, but I'm gonna experiment with different naming techniques and see what happens. FWIW, last night I didn't rename the files after splitting the tracks - so they were all named marker 1, marker 2, etc. I dithered using those names, and the output stayed the same namewise....so you're probably onto something. If nothing else, leaving the files named that way at least makes the 16 bit output files identifiable without listening to each one.

+T

i always leave them as spark has them, except i put in a leading zero on the  single digit tracks to make them Marker 01, Marker 02, etc insted of Marker 1, Marker 2
Title: Re: Audacity and/or Spark XL Help Needed...
Post by: MattD on June 25, 2006, 06:57:42 PM
i always leave them as spark has them, except i put in a leading zero on the  single digit tracks to make them Marker 01, Marker 02, etc insted of Marker 1, Marker 2

I know nothing about this, but would that operation be AppleScriptable?