could somebody help to understand how to seperate lp tracks with this software?thoes videos didnt help…
lenny
Lenny,
All you need to do is to place a label at each track break - use the Ctrl-B shortcut - and don’t forget to place a label right at the beginning for the first track.
Then use Audacity’s Export Multiple command (available from the File drop-down) to export a multiple set of WAVs, MP3s or whatever.
What I do when transcribing LPs/Tapes/MDs is to create a crib-sheet for the project while I am recording it. I note the start/end time of each track and the time of any cracks/pops that I will want to edit out later in the clean-up process. Also I record both sides of the album as a single project - when I reach the end of side-1 press Pause - flip the record - and press Pause again to start recording again. Having it as a single project makes it easier to get the track numbering right automatically on Export.
To assist with the track numbering/ordering when creating the CD, I initially label the tracks as 01 <trackname1), 02 etc. Then Export Multiple WAV files. This gives me a set of WAV files that can easily be ordered correctly for burning to a music CD. (BTW the editing of labels is MUCH easier in the Beta 1.3.x version of Audacity - in 1.2 you have to erase the whole label a character t a time starting from the right and then re-type).
WC
hi
couldent i just play a tune…the stop it and then export it?ive been trying to do this and select "save as"name the track
and move on…why is that so complicated?
lenny
Of course you can do it a tune at a time but IMHO that is more complicated than the labelling/multiple export - but it’s purely down to personal choice of working method.
The important bit is to enjoy the music , however you get there 
WC
hi wax
could u tell me how to do it the way i want to?seperating each track etc and labeling it.i did with everyother sofrware i had previously.thanks.enjoy the music?you betcha.thanks…
lenny
When you look at the track for the album side after you have recorded it, use the selection tool to mark the point you want to split the track at. Go to the Edit drop down menu and select “Select…” and then “Start to Cursor” or “Cursor to End”, this will highlight the selected portion of the track. Go back to the Edit menu and click on “Split”. This will split the selected portion from the rest of the track. Move along the track to the next point you want to split and repeat until you have separated all your tracks. If you plan to burn these tracks to CD, turn on “Snap To” before you split you tracks - this will give proper length increments to your tracks for CD format.
I find it best to do all click removal and audio cleanup between tracks before I split them up.
This is similar to the process I’ve been using. (I’m on WIndows, both XP and Vista, with Audacity 1.3.7) I always split from left to right along the recorded track. First, I zoom in to the area between LP cuts so that I can very precisely find a slit point. For albums with a long gaps between cuts I usually leave about a second of silence before and after my split point. If the gap is longer than that 2 seconds I cut out the extra. Once you have the split point marked with the cursor, hit CTRL-I to make the split. Now double-click to the left of the split point to select that entire clip, which should be just the first track from the LP. CTRL-B adds a label that spans the selected area - just type in the track title. Zoom back out so you can find the next gap between tracks and do the split & label process again. With practice this becomes fairly efficient (at least for me). I’ve averaged almost 2 needledropped LPs a week for the last year.
With all of the tracks labeled, when you ‘Export Multiple’, the labels you typed in become the file names and the track titles in the metadata (for the export formats that support metadata).
Note: save the PROJECT frequently while your doing this!
Definitely agree with this! Track splitting is always the last operation I do on my digitized LPs (before archiving the project.)
As stevethefiddle and Koz are always pointing out, audacity projects are brittle, so my archive practice is the following:
-
Save (i.e. Export) the entire project as FLAC immediately after recording. Normally these are titled ‘Album Name - side n - raw’ since I record each album side as separate clips. If I ever decide I don’t like the processing I did (maybe there’s a more magical ClickRepair or DeNoise in the future) I can go back to the the original recording. this is my ‘master tape’.
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After any processing and the track splitting, save (Export) the entire project as a single FLAC, which I call ‘Album Name - cooked’.
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Save the track splits (‘Export labels’ command). this write out a text file.
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I archive to dvd or external disk only the 2 ‘raw’ FLACs, the ‘cooked’ FLAC and the labels text file. If I need to rework anything, open a new Audacity project and recreate the original project using ‘Import audio’ of the FLACs and then import the labels.
Hope this helps.
–Ken
I am sorry for what is likely a stupid question or comment…new to the software (trying to justify my stupidity). I’m running 1.3.7 (Unicode)
I too am trying to separate tracks from an LP I recorded. I am missing something after reading this post. I can place a split point but it won’t let me label (Ctril-B) a track. Also, I don’t have a “Export Multiple” on the File pulldown menu. I have a “Export” and “Export Selection” only.
Any suggestions as to why I don’t have these functions mentioned in the post?
Thanks
Vince
hi vince…
nice to meet another guy who does this type of thing.well the way i do it is i play a song from an lp and click save project as and
then i export it to my desktop so i can put it to a cd,.but before i export it i edit with the click remover.and then i export it…
hope this helped…
lenny
Lenny,
Thanks for the info. I hope I’m not hijacking your post. I don’t have a “click remover” option. I’m wondering if I have the latest version, 1.3.7?
But, thanks for your splitting process.
Vince
hi
the click remover is in effect option at the top of audicity options…
glad i could help.
lenny
Another newbie question in finding best way to do the ADD thing (digitize 40-year-old 33.3 LPs):
Question on Click Remover “effect”:
Haven’t been able, through the deep, deep science of heuristics, to find any settings on the click/pop remover effect which actually do anything–like, eliminate the clicks. So I’ve been using the “Repair” effect.
Does anyone have any suggested settings/use instructions for this essential little function (even after giving all the LPs a bubble-bath and spin-cycle drying using a #2 pencil as an axle? (crude, but effective).
Also have question on noise reduction: Like, what settings work? I guess I’m having difficulty understanding the concept of decibels, minus decibels, translating the wave-form display into numbers I might plug into these “effects generator” applets.
On Exporting Multiple, I’ve found (heuristics again), that if the “label” is not of zero width on the screen (that is, it covers some small width), it crashes the application. And you can turn off the pop-up from the preferences panel > input/output > {√} show metadata popup before export step (a checkbox).
(I also can’t figure out how to make an image anchor using the verdammnt [brackets]; what’s wrong with native HTML, I wonder?). So here’s the screen grab on my web log: http://www.inkywretch.com/2009/07/audacity-metadata-editor-form-on.html
I bought the English translation of the Audacity compakt user guide, by Markus Priemer.
I don’t recommend it. It’s an exercise in frustration.
But because a manual is so needed with this complex software, I’ve asked the publisher to send me a PDF and I’ll mark the darned thing up, free of charge, if necessary–it takes so long to figure this stuff out that writing it up hardly adds any significant additional time to the process. And the translation from German to English merely compounds the problems I find with the manual, never mind the typos (howabout a running footer with the product name spelled AUCACITY instead of AUDACITY. Close, but no cigar. (I’ve written a few user manuals for commercial products in my day, three-score and seven years of 'em, and edited newspaper copy for several of those decades, as well, so I ought to be able to make at least some small contribution–verstimmt.
Question on ID3 tags and the “meta-data” editor: Does anyone know which of the standard “tag frames” or “tag fields” have been implemented, and/or know of a URL where the info re: Audacity is posted?
Or is there a “cookbook” approach described somewhere that suggests how best (or at least usefully) to use Audacity to digitize old LPs into iTunes and subsequent printing out to CDs? I of course, being a renal retentive and pack rat, want to capture every little bit of the information associated with the old LPs and their jackets and liners (Bob Dylan has a neat autobiographical free-verse poem, 11 Outlined Epitaphs on The Times They Are a-Changin’ that I’d like to put into the Lyrics field, or frame (which one is the “official” term?)). And I noticed in processing ABBA that so many of the beat tracks are similar, I’d like to figure out the Beats Per Minute/Metronome (hopefully the “time track” would be of assistance–I haven’t experimented with this yet, though–, and put it the ID3 tag field “BPM”–and then I could search my library for that attribute (possible use: find tunes with a human heartbeat tempo to play near grandchildren’s cribs to keep them sleeping soundly in the city noise. Like putting new puppy to sleep with a loud-ticking old mechanical alarm clock wrapped in flannel to simulate the missing mommie. Worth a try when daughter has a one and 3-year old plus a career.)
Anyway, there probably is such a tutorial or cookbook out there somewhere, but I’m probably overlooking something, or am too dumb to find it with google. Any help would be appreciated.
TIA.
bw
The Audacity Wiki has a wealth of information - and all available for free.
In particular see: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=Transferring_tapes_and_records_to_computer_or_CD
and http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=Splitting_recordings_into_separate_tracks
and http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=Exporting_your_Audacity_Project_into_iTunes_and_iPod
There is also the manual - see: http://audacityteam.org/help/documentation
And I believe there are several tutorials on how to use Audacity available on t’interweb (try starting by searching in YouTube)
If you’re serious about wanting to help out with the documentation, the developers will only be too keen to hear from you. Writing/editing the manuals and Wikis is the bit that they struggle to find the manpower for. Drop a PM to Gale Andrews offering your services with your skills and. experience.
WC
When I digibitted my LPs I started out by using Audacity’s Repair function to manually remove clicks (Repair is only available in the 1.3 beta version - now emminently stable for day to day use) - actually I started in 1.2 br locating the clicks and redrwing the waveforms. I eventually gave this up as too much hard work and instead invested in a piece of software called ClickRepair. Costs c. $40, but works like magic. See this thread that I started a while back: https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/click-pop-removal-clickrepair-software/1933/1
WC
hi
thought id add my 2 cents…all i do is record one song at a time. then stop recording add the title to it then go on to the next
song and so on…no fuss no muss…period…hope this helped…
lenny