I’m running audacity 2.4.2 on windows 10
I recorded 12 hours of continuous spotify music from my computer during one recording session then exported it as an MP3 file. It took 33 minutes to export and 33 minutes to reimport. I have another 17 hours of individual tracks to record but but find it time consuming waiting for file to export/import each time I add a few tracks and with 29 hours I music it could take an hour to export/import
I tried exporting as .WAV but got error message that file was over 4GB and could not be saved by audacity as .WAV file.
Any ideas on how to shorten import/export time? and, if possible, keep all thr tracks in one file
One of Audacity’s “problems” is that it immediately converts the incoming show to its own super high quality sound format. It does that so you can apply effects, filters and corrections without causing any accidental damage. That means the show is enormous while it’s inside Audacity and if you Save a Lossless Project, it’s even worse. As you found, WAV files run out of steam at about the 4GB boundary.
I recorded 12 hours of continuous spotify music
Let’s go back to goals. Why are we doing this? Do you have a SSD as an internal drive? They’re expensive, but they’re massively faster than older spinning metal drives. It doesn’t matter how many cores your machine has for high speed work, Audacity can only use one. So right away Audacity may not be the program for you.
Is the real goal to start at the beginning and have it play to the end but still let you edit and manage the individual songs? I think insisting that it be one huge file is a mistake.
You may run into another problem, too. Chances are good you will not be able to compress the songs to MP3 or other squished format without running into quality issues. You can’t double compress even if you put WAV format in the middle.
My goal is to take the 489 spotify songs I have in one playlist, convert them into any file format that can be saved to a portable flash drive and transported to another device for playback or download without using spotify.
What app can I use if I can’t accomplish this through audacity?
Thanks
I think you missed a step in the process. If you smash everything into one sound file, you won’t be able to select any one song for playback and every time you press Play, you going to get the first song.
Last time I did this, my music manager program let me create a playlist from my pile of music and rearrange the list however I like (not necessarily alphabetical listing). Then connect my Portable Music Device and shove the playlist over to it.
On the PMD, I pick the playlist (Hiking to the Restaurant) and have the option of starting with the first song and just let it go, or select any song and play that plus the rest of the list.
I don’t know of any way to do that outside of a music ecosystem.
OK, wait. Yes I do. You can burn an Audio CD and bring a portable CD player with you. You have one of those right? Same deal. Pick a song at random or play the whole thing. Play it on any CD player.
One favorite hike is 35 minutes and I found someone who made a 33 minute mix of a favorite song. Yes! (pumping fist).
You are correct. Having all my songs in one large audacity mp3 file is not a good option.
When I open the file in windows media player or groove music i only see the file name. I can’t open the file to view individual tracks. Playback automatically starts at first track. there is no way to jump to next song or randomly pick a song.
I’m going to start the recording process all over again and use the many tools in audacity to create the output playlist format that I want.
If audacity doesn’t work I’ll find another audio recording app.
Thanks for your help.
If audacity doesn’t work I’ll find another audio recording app.
You should start looking. I don’t know that Audacity has any playlist tools, and the instant you step outside a music ecosystem, the songs are going to snap to alphabetic computer order.
Abba
Beetles
Chirino
Dylan
Eagles
Frank-Sinatra
etc.
Hint: Do a capture of four or five songs first and see if you can make them do what you want. Don’t start the exercise with a 12 hour capture.
If you do get one to work, post back how you did it. This is a forum, not a help desk.