Topic: join files in samplitude v8 pro

[panther65]

Brian and Gordon, you are treasures among us here. You have been so helpful not just for me here in this thread, but many other times.
Yes, the snap-to button has worked for me. Now, I will fool around with my edits etc. I really don't do any heavy editing, but for this recent Derek Trucks show I wanted to make the vocals and mid/highs come alive a bit more, so I boosted by 7db at 5khz and it made the recording come alive. I like the mixer module in Samp. Also will use the de-hisser feature as some board patches have a bit of residual hiss occasionally.  Also, looking for the best way to take out a hum that you sometimes hear either from the board or most times from the equipment on stage. Thanks again!

[live2496]

Great! I'm glad we could help you get started.

Now that you are using objects, you can eq in each object or in the mixer section. And your changes are virtual. They just apply to realtime playback or bounces. So you can leave your original tracks as is if you want to.

[panther65]

OK, so I can now join the files using snap-to. I loaded my 24 bit files via VIP and they are joined. I placed a track marker by hitting "t" before each song. So I now have tracked out the file. I bounced the file, but it created just another file. How do I get individual tracks outputted for flacing, or burning to cd in wav format?
Also, please clarify what to do with a 24 bit file that is over 2gb? I see that it made a 1.9 gb file and another W01 file. How do I work with these files?

[live2496]

Samplitude will burn a CD straight from the VIP. If you want to create 16-bit files to share your recordings you have two ways that I can think of to do that.

1) make a CD with Samplitude and then use ExactAudioCopy to extract the tracks from the CD. When making a CD you don't have to worry about managing sector boundaries. The software handles it.

or 2) mark the range of each object and bounce each one to a 16-bit file.

What to do with the 24-bit files? You don't really have to do anything with them. Your project will read them to produce any other files that you require.

Regarding files: When you import audio into Samplitude it creates a graphics file (.H0), and also an hard disc project (.HDP) file for each audio file that you read in. This is true if it's just a file you open for destructive processing, or using the virtual project. The HDP files were a carryover from the original implementation of Samplitude. The VIP was added later as a way to manage multiple HDP files that were related in a project, with each HDP file becoming an object. So, the VIP manages multiple HDP files which in turn manage the .WAV files. This is how they get around the 2gb file limit in windows audio files. The .HDP structure does that.

[panther65]

OK, I think I have the 16 bit part down alright. But when I import 2 or more 24/96 files into samp and then track, edit, etc. and bounce it gives me a W01 file in addition to the 1.9gb wave file. I know Brian addressed that but I didn't quite understand. How do I make 24 bit flacs from the wav file and the W01 file?

[Brian Skalinder]

OK, I think I have the 16 bit part down alright. But when I import 2 or more 24/96 files into samp and then track, edit, etc. and bounce it gives me a W01 file in addition to the 1.9gb wave file. I know Brian addressed that but I didn't quite understand. How do I make 24 bit flacs from the wav file and the W01 file?

It appears that you're creating one big, long WAV file that's larger than 2GB, hence the initial WAV file + the additional W01 file.  To make FLACs, you want to create individual 24-bit tracks instead of a single, large file.  There are several ways to do this, and at least a couple can be used the same way for both 24- or 16-bit output.  The two options I've used (though there are probably more ways to do it, as evidenced by Gordon's comments )...

Note:  the following options assume you've already defined track markers for the virtual project, either by <a> adding the track markers directly via main menu CD/DVD | Set Track (keystroke Ctrl+Alt+I) or <b> splitting objects via main menu Object | Split Objects (keystroke T) and then creating track indices on object edges via main menu CD/DVD | Set Track Indices on Object Edges.

Option 1 - Export Audio

This option does not allow you to specify the quality of the sample rate conversion (SRC).  SAM SE (I assume it's the same in Pro, but not certain) provides 4 different levels of quality for SRC, from lowest to highest:  High, Very High, Ultra High 1, Ultra High 2.  The SRC quality used in the Export Audio option is Very High.

• Main Menu:  File | Export Audio | WAV (keystroke:  Ctrl+E)
  
• Specify the path and filename for the exported WAVs (SAM will add _01, _02, _03 to the end of the filename specified as it creates individual tracks based on your track markers)
• In the Range section, select the Export complete project radio button.
  
• In the Files section dropdown (bottom right), select 2. Each CD-Track in a file (from track marker to track marker in a file)
  
• Press the Format Settings button
  
• In the Samplerate dropdown, select the desired sample rate (I assume 44.1kHz for 16-bit and 96 kHz for 24-bit).
  
• In the Format list, select the desired bit-depth and sample rate combination (all sample rates in the list should reflect the value you selected in the Samplerate dropdown, so you're really just selecting the bit-depth here).  Based on what you've wrote in this thread, I assume you'll want 441000 Hz;  16-bit;  Stereo for your 16-bit output and 96000 Hz;  24-bit;  Stereo, for your 24-bit output.
  
• Press the Dithering button and choose your Dithering Mode.  I usually use the Dithering with triangular spread noise radio button using a Dither Depth in Bits value of 1.0.
  
• Press OK to close the Dithering Options window.
  
• Press OK to close the Choose WAV Codec window.
  
• Press the Export button to initiate the export.
  
  

Once completed, you should have individual tracks, of the bit-depth and sample rate you selected above.  For 16-bit, you'll want to use the "Fix SBEs" option when FLAC-ing your files, as I haven't found a way to create 16-bit tracks in SAM without SBEs present.  I've tried what I think should work - using the CD MSF unit of measurement and snapping the cursor / track markers / object splits to grid/frames - but haven't had success.  Hopefully I figure this out, though it's not a big deal as it's easy to fix SBEs in FLAC FrontEnd.

Option 2 - Track Bouncing (internal Mixdown) + Export Audio

This option does allow you to specify the quality of the sample rate conversion (SRC).

• Main Menu:  Tools | Track Bouncing (internal Mixdown).
  
• In the Trackbouncing window's Format section, select the Wave radio button.
  
• Then specify the following Wave format values:  bit-depth (presumably 16- or 24-bit), Sample rate, and (Sample rate) Quality.  FWIW, I usually use a Quality value of Ultra High 1.
  
• In the Source section, select the From VIP Start to last Object End radio button.
  
• In the Generation Options section, select the Only a Wave Project radio button.
  
• In the Options section, press the Dithering Options button.
  
• In the Dithering Options window, choose your Dithering Mode.  I usually use the Dithering with triangular spread noise radio button using a Dither Depth in Bits value of 1.0.
  
• Press OK to close the Dithering Options window.
  
• Press OK to close the Trackbouncing window.
  
• In the Choose Name for Wave Project window that opens, specify the path and filename of the file you'd like to create. 
  
  

Unlike the Export Audio process previously used, Track Bouncing (internal Mixdown) will not create individual tracks from the track markers.  Once the Track Bouncing (internal Mixdown) process finishes, SAM will automatically open the bounced WAV file of the bit-depth and sample rate specified above, including track markers.  Now, we create the individual tracks, similar to the way we did in the Export Audio option above...

• Main Menu:  File | Export Audio | WAV (keystroke:  Ctrl+E)
  
• Specify the path and filename for the exported WAVs (SAM will add _01, _02, _03 to the end of the filename specified as it creates individual tracks based on your track markers)
• In the Range section, select the Export complete project radio button.
  
• In the Files section dropdown (bottom right), select 2. Each CD-Track in a file (from track marker to track marker in a file)
  
• Press the Format Settings button
  
• Select the desired Samplerate (presumably 44.1 kHz for 16-bit files and 96 kHz for 24-bit files assuming you want to retain the high sample rate from the master recordings in the 24-bit files).  The default value for this field should be the sample rate specified during the Track Bouncing (internal Mixdown) process above.
  
• In the Format list, select the desired bit-depth and sample rate combination (all sample rates in the list should reflect the value specified during the Track Bouncing (internal Mixdown) process above).  Select the option that matches the sample rate and bit-depth of the file we processed above in the Track Bouncing (internal Mixdown) process above.  In other words, if you bounced to 16/44 above, select 441000 Hz;  16-bit;  Stereo and if you bounced to 24/96 above, select 96000 Hz;  24-bit;  Stereo.
  
• No need to press the Dithering button and choose your Dithering Mode.  Since you've already dithered via the Track Bouncing (internal Mixdown) process above, and SAM isn't actually performing any processing on the file - assuming the sample rate and bit-depth you've defined above match the sample rate and bit-depth of the actual file - it won't perform sample rate conversion or dither, so the quality settings for sample rate conversion and dither don't matter.
  
• Press OK to close the Dithering Options window.
  
• Press OK to close the Choose WAV Codec window.
  
• Press the Export button to initiate the export.
  
  

Once completed, just like the previous process, you should have individual tracks, of the bit-depth and sample rate you selected above.  For 16-bit, you'll want to use the "Fix SBEs" option when FLAC-ing your files, as I haven't found a way to create 16-bit tracks in SAM without SBEs present.  I've tried what I think should work - using the CD MSF unit of measurement and snapping the cursor / track markers / object splits to grid/frames - but haven't had success.  Hopefully I figure this out, though it's not a big deal as it's easy to fix SBEs in FLAC FrontEnd.

Option 2 may seem like a lot more effort, but really, it's quite easy and fast to get through once you've done it a couple times.  The only real difference between these options, as noted abofe:  Option 2 provides the ability to specify the SRC quality, while Option 1 always uses Very High SRC quality.

[panther65]

When I take my 24 bit flacs and drag them into Lplex, it says "cannot decode flac file". I selected "dehisser" in the mixer if that has anything to do with it. I have been having no problems since Brian detailed the workflow. There must be some setting that I'm missing. I had to download a new version on another computer as my laptop crashed and there must be something I'm missing. The waves are the correct bit rate and the waves encode to flac without any problem. The problem comes when I try to make a .iso file in Lplex from my 24 bit flacs. Lplex has worked for me without problems before. Thanks.

[panther65]

I'm a little bit stumped here. I track and bounce then export as wav 1n 24/96. But when I flac and then try to drag the files into Lplex, it either says that I don't have a viable format or "unable to decode flac file". Then I dragged the wav file into cdwav and selected "select alternate 24 bit format" and then the wav is able to be decoded in Lplex, but not the flac. When dragging a flac file into Lplex it starts to decode, but after 10-15% it says "unable to decode flac file". Any help would be appreciated.