Create an album/audio programme from multiple tracks (copied from cassettes)

Audacity 3 Help Forum Windows
1

Hello Audacity friends.

I’m a complete beginner when it comes to audio editing, so I sat down and viewed all the videos in Audacity Explained – wow, LOTS of information and some new terms for me to learn (really well explained, though I am somewhat mind-boggled).

I haven’t found the instruction I need, so I am hoping you can point me in the right direction, please.

My Project: to convert an audio program from 6 audio cassettes to MP3, on my PC, still running Windows 10

I have converted the tapes to digital format and I have 12 files (one of each side of 6 cassettes).

My original intention was to trim these and make something like an album with 12 tracks – hmm, ‘tracks’ is possibly ambiguous in this context – this would be 12 individual audio recordings with one sound source, so only the one ‘audio track’ in each. Like an album with 12 songs, no mixing needed.

How to do this was something I couldn’t find in the videos or manual, so I asked Google. All the advice I found assumed recording an album of music songs as a single track and flagging the start of each song with a label and exporting that as multiple files, separated into tracks where the labels were (labels becoming titles).

I might have misunderstood the best way to do this – I probably should have joined all the clips together, instead I dragged them in to make separate, parallel audio tracks in my project (so they all appear in the same Audacity screen). I trimmed start and end of each track and then thought I could make the material more accessible by breaking into tracks in line with the key learning points, so I would have 2 or 3 tracks from each side of the cassettes. I could then align these end to end and export as a whole.

Except, I couldn’t align the labels with the audio tracks to give me my new track breaks, So, I have 12 tracks with matching label tracks, currently all in parallel, where I need them in sequence. I have two questions, please:

  1. What should I have done to make a single ‘album’? ( have a few programs on cassette and no player, so I’d like to put them into MP3 format and ideally do it right first time, so this is something I will need to do again!)

  2. What should I do now, either with what I have, or do I need to go back to source and follow your advice from 1) above?

If this has already been covered somewhere, please do point me in the right direction – otherwise, maybe that’s another video clip?

Mank thanks for your help

Jill

2

If you want one long audio file, just export the whole project to an MP3 file.

If you want to break it up into several files, probably the easiest way for you to do that would be to select the first section, cut it from the project, then while that copy of Audacity is still open, tell it you want a new project, paste it there, and export that. Repeat until you have it all cut from the original project.

3

Thanks, Rex - I’ll just have to experiment.

I just wondered whether there was a recommended way to approach this.

I appreciate you taking the trouble to answering my question, thank you.

4

Mh, is each cassette side only one single song?

I would split the 12 files as follows:

Make a list of all songs using a text editor.
Use the labels function of Audacity and set a label at the beginning of each song.
For this you can copy the title of the first song, place the cursor at the beginning, click the mouse and then paste the title using “Command-Option-V” (this is on macOS, on Windows it would be Control-Alt-V probably).
Do this for all songs
Then chose "File → Export Audio → select “multiple files” / split files based on labels / Using label/track name

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This gives you as many .mp3 (or other format) files as there are songs in your recording. You can then use an editor to fine-tune the ID3 tags, add album cover art, etc. to the files. I recommend mp3tag, which is available for Windows and macOS.

You can then use your favorite music player to create playlists or play the whole album when the ID3 tags are set correctly.

5

Thank you, Romontschun

I did all this. I had each cassette side as an audio track on the same screen (i.e. where in one audio project you might have drums, bass, guitar, keyboards and voice, I have tape side A, tape 1 side B, tape 2 side A etc.)

Each of these lines also has a label line, with labels added to mark track names, 2 or three per cassette side as I would like there to be breaks where the topic changes. (So, no, there is more than one ‘song’ on each cassette side)

When I export multiple files, only the the top line and labels were exported.

I think I will probably need to split the project into 12 separate files and work from there.

I am curious what is the ‘right’ way to do this - transfer an audio learning programme from a set of cassettes to a digital format.

I appreciate the time and trouble taken to reply to me, thank you.

6

Hi Jill,
Would you be willing to share one pair of these project files so I can look and understand better?
If you are okay with that and have a Google account perhaps you could upload to Google Drive and share the link.

7

I think I do not really understand how your recording looks like. When you record from a “normal” cassette (or vinyl, or whatever), you usually have two sound channels (stereo), left and right. And not every instrument in a separate channel.

In the image below, I added 4 labels where Audacity should split the recording into tracks. The labels are all on the same level (you may call this “line”), and the recording is a simple stereo recording.

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8

Hi again

This is what the file looks like - a line for each cassette side, 12 of them, with corresponding label lines.

image
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Apologies if I wasn’t able to describe it propoerly.

9

Hello evilmrb

No, I don’t use the cloud, though here’s a picture of the file, if that makes any more sense. Cheers, Jill

image
image451×819 21.3 KB

10

So you have a single project file with all 12 sides in it? And you need to ‘glue’ them back together end-to-end. Is that right?

11

Yes, ideally with track markers from the labels. Do you think that’s doable, or should I just separate it into 12 tracks and treat them as mini projects to be combined?

When I tried to copy and past these, I could join them together but I couldn’t move the labels in line with the audio track.

12

I think I understand better now. :grinning_face: The sticking point seems to be the labels then. One idea might be to join the audio and re-do the labels maybe. Can you elaborate on what your eventual usage will be? Will you play them on the PC, write them to CD…?
I’m going to send you a private message with a link to MY public folder on Google Drive. You can upload them there if you’re willing to do that. That way, I can play to my heart’s content without breaking anything.

13

Thanks, Mark

I haven’t quite decided, probably on my PC, or maybe some way I could download to my phone to listen on the move. This is a programme recorded by my favourite trainer and I am mindful not to breach her copyright, I just want to convert the tapes I bought back in the day to a format where I can use them myself. I have other audio programmes on cassette, so would like to be able to convert them effectively too.

I thought about joining the audio and redoing the labels (hoping it wouldn’t take me so long the second time!), or making 12 mini project and then finding a way to combine them into lone long ‘album’. Maybe a complicated first experience of Audacity and working with audio - but then, that’s what I needed to do!

Cheers

Jill

14

Fair enough.
The issue of splitting/combining is important. If I was doing a music album, I’d record the whole thing on one track, clean it up, add labels and then normalise it to get a strong level without distortion. Then I would save it and export it as individual tracks using the labels as splitting points. When you have separate tracks you can skip some, make playlists etc. If your tapes are spoken word then the relationship between tracks might differ. Are they sequential or can they be listened to in isolation, for example?
From the pictures you posted, track 1 seems to be at a higher level than the others. You will need to address that to avoid wildly varying volume levels.
Try opening your project again and doing ‘Save As’ and give it a different name so you have a copy of it. Work on the copy to avoid screwing it all up. See if you can drag the second audio track to be after the first and then carry on for the rest. See if you can do the same for the labels tracks. If that doesn’t work do all but the first labels again - the first will still align properly; the others might not.
Good luck.
PS - These 2 YouTube videos are the best I’ve found for doing what you are trying to do. You don’t need to be an Iron Maiden fan to gain from them. :grin:

15

Hi Mark - and apologies…

I did manage to upload the file and it’s HUGE - you may want to remove it.

I’ll look at the tutorials - thank you.

Kind regards

Jill

16

Just to close the loop on this thread, (with many, many thanks to Mark for his help and very useful offline conversation) and so that anyone else with a similar question sees how this was resolved:

  1. to join tracks with existing labels, it was just a matter of clicking in the boxes on the far left and then moving both together. Obvious when you know - but I didn’t.

  2. That said, it is probably better NOT to work with one long (unwieldy 6-hour) recording but several shorter ones, so I need to split my project up into smaller, more manageable chunks

Lots of other helpful detailed bits, though those were the major takeaways in response to my question.

Thank you, Mark, you are a superstar!