Split a double recorded track

[jwhengeveld]

Hi!,

I have a problem,
There was a study, someone recorded for me with Audacity, and it consists of 2 parts with a pause in between,
She recorded the first part, and when the pause began, she pressed stop, and when the speaker began, she pussed the record button.
Afterwards, she exported it (the two tracks) to a mono mp3. She didn’t saved it as a project file.
Now, i’m stuck with a mp3 file, in which you hear the first part of the speech, and the second part of the speech, at the same time, simultaniously.
I tried importing the MP3 in Audacity, but all i saw was a single track,

Is there any way to split these 2 tracks in this mono mp3?
Thanks for your answers,

Jan Willem Hengeveld
jwhengeveld@gmail.com

[steve]

Unfortunately the tracks can not be split. As you say, it is a mono mp3.
Please check your private messages (Link at top of this web page).

[steve]

@jwhengeveld

Isn’t there any filter or effect or commercial program to remove the simultaniously recorded second part? There are several people who asked me for the recording, and i don’t want to disapoint them…

I’m sorry to say, no there is nothing can be done about it. In terms of sound waves, the two “tracks” are virtually identical - same frequency bands, same sort of dynamics, similar rhythms… It’s a bit like having two bags of peanuts, mixing them together, and then trying to separate the peanuts according to which bag they came from.

The most sensitive and discriminating tool that we have for isolating human voices, is our ears, If you listen very carefully you can pick out parts of one track from the other, but even with these incredible “tools” it is difficult. There is as yet nothing created by man that can do a better job of it.

@jwhengeveld

And my second question: is there a way to prevent that this happens next time, so that when you press record, then press stop, and then press record again, that Audacity will continue recording on the first track?

Audacity does not actually record over the same track. When you press “stop”, then press “record” again, it will create a new track. However, what has happened is that when you “Export” a track, all tracks in the project will be “Mixed” into a single audio file. This is what is supposed to happen (and this is what did happen), so that you can mix several tracks together.

To prevent this from happening, you can “Save” the project until you get home - that way both tracks will exist separately in the project.
Another way is to select one track and “Export Selection”, then select the second track and again “Export Selection”. This will just export the track that is selected rather than exporting a mix of all tracks.
A third, and possibly the safest way, is to record each “session” as a separate project.