Comparing two supposedly identical tracks.

[kozikowski]

Must have lost the lawsuit.

Koz

[maniacminer]

While giving it little or no thought, I would import both of them, invert one and mix and render to a new track. If the new track is completely silent, then they’re the same.

But I know that doesn’t tell you about a match down to bit level and I also know it will miss a little due to the way digital audio works. I created a known, good, working matched track once that would not perfectly cancel. It also creates problems if they’re bit identical but they don’t start at the same time.


I also know that we’re sensitive to the parts of the post that you didn’t say. Like, “… see that they match so I can sue the pants off somebody in court.”

Koz

Yup, I know this is an old thread, but it was useful to me for subtracting the error correction from a raw wave file to examine its effects. Dunno what the other guy was doing, this info worked perfectly, first time. Of course the data needs to be sample aligned for it to work though.

[talu]

I’m sorry, but I have even more suggestions like to the issue at hand.

Comparing, contrasting, identifying superficial differences; among, between; two tracks in Audacity.

Import [C-S-i] the two tracks.

• Reduce the gain of both; I should say by about -12 dB.
• Zoom your view in [C-1] tight enough.†
• Set one slightly after the other (with Time Shift Tool [F5] or the track’s drag bar or Clip Handle); the beat of the second comes as off the back wall of the dancehall, but of course not so far that you can’t track it.

And you might try with and without, or you might not, but especially with headphones and stereophonic players…

• Pan the first track to the far left, and pan the second track to the far right.

Now the following:

1. Listen; contrast.
2. Observe the waveform shapes; †this occurs to how much you’d like to zoom in; contrast.

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On the above Emacs Key Notation: https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/EmacsKeyNotation#h5o-1

[levvel]

This worked for me in the past, but it is not working now.

Don’t select either one by clicking in a blank area.

Tracks > Mix > Mix and render.

When I do that, I get:

[steve]

This worked for me in the past, but it is not working now.

Don’t select either one by clicking in a blank area.

Tracks > Mix > Mix and render.

When I do that, I get:

That was 2 1/2 years ago. Things have changed.
You will get the old behavior if you enable:
“Preferences > Tracks Behaviors > Select all audio, if selection required:”