Combining 2 Tracks in Audacity?

[dennisrtyler]

forgive me, i know this has been covered before but i can't find the answer. made my first 24 bit recording last night of the Karl Denson Trio. he played over 2 hours so at 24/48 i ended up with 2 wav files. i copied and pasted the second track into the project of the first track so know i have both files open in the same window but they are still 2 separate files. how can i now combine the two into one long track so i can then dither/resample down to 16/44.1? TIA for the help!

[Brian Skalinder]

Two options.  Import both WAVs, each into its own "row", and then...

• align the start of the 2nd row with the end of the 1st row and export*
  
• copy the 2nd row and paste at the end of the first row, delete the 2nd row, and export*
  

* If you're not doing any other processing, simply tracking, make sure Audacity's preferences are set such that you don't needlessly dither, etc.

[dennisrtyler]

thanks Brian! +T

[dennisrtyler]

:n00b alert:

ok i got my two files combined, got all the settings correct for dither/resample and exported as wav. all seemed well. i opened up the new wav file and it was 16 bit but still at 48 and not 44.1 as i had set it to. do you not click the upside down triangle, select set sample rate, choose 44.1 and the "export to wav"? seemed easy enough but i still ended up with a 48 file. any ideas? TIA

[Brian Skalinder]

do you not click the upside down triangle, select set sample rate, choose 44.1 and the "export to wav"? seemed easy enough but i still ended up with a 48 file. any ideas? TIA

Nope.  You did this:

• Set Rate - Controls the sample rate at which Audacity plays back.  This is -not- the sample rate of the Project itself, and one cannot use it to resample the source file.  It impacts the playback sample rate -only-.

But you want to do this (bottom left of of the project window, not in the black triangle / dropdown):

• Project Rate - Controls the sample rate of the WAV exported from the contents of the Audacity Project.  Whatever the sample rate of the waveforms within the Project, Audacity converts them to this sample rate.  In other words, use this setting to perform sample rate conversion, say from 48 kHz to 44.1 kHz, or 96 kHz to 44.1 kHz, etc.

[dennisrtyler]

thanks Brian, you rock!

[dean]

do you not click the upside down triangle, select set sample rate, choose 44.1 and the "export to wav"? seemed easy enough but i still ended up with a 48 file. any ideas? TIA

Nope.  You did this:

• Set Rate - Controls the sample rate at which Audacity plays back.  This is -not- the sample rate of the Project itself, and one cannot use it to resample the source file.  It impacts the playback sample rate -only-.

But you want to do this (bottom left of of the project window, not in the black triangle / dropdown):

• Project Rate - Controls the sample rate of the WAV exported from the contents of the Audacity Project.  Whatever the sample rate of the waveforms within the Project, Audacity converts them to this sample rate.  In other words, use this setting to perform sample rate conversion, say from 48 kHz to 44.1 kHz, or 96 kHz to 44.1 kHz, etc.

Wait now.  Does this mean I can do all my tracking in 48, then change the project rate in the lower left hand corner, export as wav, and get a 16 bit output without messing with the sound?  Export as wav, fix sbe's (mac) and burn a disc?

Here's what's happened to me:  I cut tracks in 48 without realizing it was in 48.  Once finished, I noticed the rate, so changed it to 44.  I didn't export anything, but listened to the recording in Audacity with project rate now set at 44, and it slowed the whole recording down.  Similar listening to a record with someone was holding their finger on the it to slow it down.