Hello, my name is Jacob Zeier from Madison, WI. I’m 29 years old. I need help getting my .txt file to import.
I am currently using Audacity 2.4.1 on a Windows 10 Home 64-bit desktop.
What I’m trying to do is copy the equalization from one sound source to another for aesthetic reasons, like trying to emulate the sound quality of an old 16mm film from the 1970s. I’m a filmmaker and a sound engineer. A long time ago, when I was using an older version of Audacity on an older computer (Windows 7) back in 2016, I used a Python application that would convert a source sound EQ spectrum and a reference sound EQ spectrum. The former file was called src.txt and the latter file was called ref.txt. The application worked pretty well. But anyway as of now, I can’t seem to import any .txt file into the filter curve dialog. When I attempt to import a .txt file, I receive a dialog box that says “eq spectrum 1.txt: is not a valid presets file.” This is frustrating.
Hopefully someone can help me solve this problem. Thank you.
I was going to suggest creating a super simple file and see if that imports. Forget the actual production job for a while until you get the basic process to work, then build up to the job.
For one silly example, if you don’t have “reveal filename extensions” set, you could be trying to import a file called MyCurves.txt.txt and not know it.
If you write curve presets manually you have to format it correctly.
The filter must be written on one line, and between the “f” lines and “v” lines there must be:
Well, you are doing better than I am. When I tried to import your file (on Audacity 3.1.3) I got no errors. However it seemed to ignore it all together.
I compared your file to one that was exported, I notice the major difference was the exported file had no line breaks. I used an online tool https://www.textfixer.com/tools/remove-line-breaks.php to remove them and here is the result:
. eq spectrum 1R.txt (4.43 KB)
.
This modified file seems to load OK.
That’s interesting. It seems that the “FilterLength…” part is not actually required in Audacity 3.1.3. Unfortunately I don’t think that a specification for the format has ever been published, so probably best to include the “FilterLength…” part as that’s how Audacity exports filter preset files.
I got the eq spectrum that you sent me to work on Audacity; I’ve got it imported into the filter curves. However, the results when applying it to another sound file are too quiet. It sounds muffled as opposed to my desired eq matching. I was hoping that when I apply the eq effect to a sound that I’ve recorded as raw (unprocessed), it would make it sound as if it were an old 1970s 16mm film. Unfortunately, I’m not getting anywhere.
If only there is some application that can take my source sound (the raw recording), compare it to a reference sound (a sample from an old 1970s 16mm film), let the program combine the two sound files, convert the “admixture” into a filter curve text file for Audacity, and voila; an old 1970s 16mm film eq curve ready for use!
I mentioned earlier in my post that a long time ago I used a Python tool called “DifferentialEqualizer” which was the kind of application that I’m talking about. It was quite invaluable as it did a pretty good job emulating the old (retro) EQ effect that I wanted. Sadly, I can’t find the old 2016 application and its files. I probably have the old files stored on some old hard drive some place. But right now I found something that could be the answer: it’s the new 2018 Differential Equalizer from GitHub made by a user named Hendrix ZT2. Here’s the link to it:
I don’t know how to get it completely installed onto my computer but in the meantime, I’ll probably have to make my chosen (desired) filter curve by hand, by ear and by eye, which would be quite time-consuming.
