Topic: tracking on a mac (DP?)

[spcyrfc]

so, i desperately need to track.  been putting it off for sometime.

audacity is pretty unwieldy IME. any reccomendations for a streamlined mac tracking program?
would prefer to stay away from protools, tho tracking there is a cinch.

i have DP, but have never been able to figure out how to track there.

any help is appreciated.

cheers,
luke

[greenone]

Copied from another thread. FWIW I use Sound Studio and have done so for about eight years. Pretty simple to use and with a very generous full-featured trial period.

Only free programs I can find other than Audacity are Audio Editor and Wavepad which I'd never even heard of until now.

Fission is $32, Wave Editor, Twisted Wave and Sound Studio are all $80, Wiretap Studio is $70. All from reputable vendors though I've never used them. Fission I think I tried for a little bit but don't remember my experiences.

Todd R also mentioned Amadeus Pro which I'd completely forgotten about - it's $40.

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so, i desperately need to track.  been putting it off for sometime.

audacity is pretty unwieldy IME. any reccomendations for a streamlined mac tracking program?

I use a mac and I use audacity. 

It's just adding labels, in the v1.3 world the keyboard command is Apple+B I think and if you don't like the placement, highlight it where you would type a label and delete it. If that is cumbersome (and it still could be for whatever reason), then I'd consider Wave Editor (from Audiofile Engineering). If I wasn't using Audacity then I'd probably use that.

[printguy]

I think I've used all the options that Dave mentioned and Fission is by far the easiest for just tracking. It doesn't do much else really. Click where you want the splits, save audio and choose your format.

But it adds a step of needing to save your mixed/mastered audio from one program and open it in another.

[DigiGal]

I've found Wave Editor to be an excellent program.


http://www.audiofile-engineering.com/waveeditor/

[easy jim]

Don't mind the folks suggesting other software; Digital Performer works great.  Here's a pasted message I had sent to another member explaining how I do my tracking in DP:

Use the 'marker' window to add a marker for the start of each track using the green line/time cursor (I do this while I'm editing/listening).  When you bounce your final mix (select the 'add to sequence' option), you can then use the marker window to jump the time cursor to the start of each track; then highlight the final mix track and 'split at counter' under the edit menu ('option' - 'y' = keyboard shortcut).  You can then use the 'soundbites' window to rename the track files "...d1t01, d1t02, etc." before also doing any resampling/dithering in the soundbites window's menu if necessary.  Keep in mind that when you split the bounced final mix, it will rename the split files and you should use the sequence view and zoom in to make sure you are renaming the correct split soundbites (usually t01 will correspond with 'soundbite'.02, t02 with 'soundbite'.04 and so on, until the last track/soundbite which will be an odd number one more than the last even one).  Then you can clean up/delete the unused soundbites if you want and export the now split tracks from the soundbites window.  Remember to correct for sbe errors on any 16bit/44.1khz files you export when you're splitting tracks of continuous groups of tracks (i.e., a full 'set '), because DP does not automatically split on sector boundaries.  Using xACT's "fix sbe" tab to make your 16/44.1 .flac files is the easiest way to do this.

Feel free to PM me addt'l ?s

[runonce]

One thing about using Audacity...regardless of platform. I seldom find myself needing anything more than tracking for most of my recordings. So - loading it into an editor seems like the long way around. Especially, Audacity - that wants to make a all those little .au files, and hog up disc space.

I also wonder if we are adding an extra dither step on export...?

Using it for tracking isnt that hard - but could be easier. At least it cuts on sector boundries properly.

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I also wonder if we are adding an extra dither step on export...?

Using it for tracking isnt that hard - but could be easier. At least it cuts on sector boundries properly.

It dithers regardless if you tell it to dither, it's not a "when applicable" setting. I record in 24bit, so 99% of the time I'm dithering anyway.

I agree, using it for tracking isn't hard, but it could be easier.

[scb]

digital performer is way overkill for tracking 2 channel audio.  yes, it'll work, but it's overkill. 

i'd suggest checking out something like sound studio if you need to do something immediately.  very quick to learn. 

you can sample the other apps after because most have a trial period

[easy jim]

digital performer is way overkill for tracking 2 channel audio.  yes, it'll work, but it's overkill.

Yes.  It's overkill for 2 channel, but the OP does already have DP.  It's better to learn to use what you have, IMO, than go spending money on something else  (blasphemy around these parts, I suspect)...

[scb]

I had digital performer on my machine a few years back, and I chose to buy another app because it was easier to learn and actually was better for the things that I wanted to do (better resampling, dithering, handling of files > 2GB). 

[spcyrfc]

thank you all.  appreciate it.

i have been playing around with the free d/l from fission.  pretty damn easy to track in that.  seem to have misplaced my key for dp - oops, looking for [k] now.

cheers,

luke

ps. easy jim - thanks for the step by step DP guide. 

[easy jim]

seem to have misplaced my key for dp - oops, looking for [k] now.

If you got the software w/ box & manual, the serial # should be on a label on the back/inside cover of the manual.

[Əkoostikal]

I started using Amadeus Pro for tracking on my Mac and I will not go to anything else..... hit the "m" key to drop markers.... Then when you are done "align" the markers and you are set.... you can split > flac or export the markers as a .cue and split using xACT. No need to fix sbe's since the "align" function will set good split points for you. I have sound Studio and Soundtrack Pro and I use Amadeus exclusively for tracking..... The only downfall I have had with it is that it will not open files larger than 2 gigs.