TIMESTAMP 11 OVERDUB TRACKS

Hi, thanks for being there…i am using Windows 7 Home Premium (x64) Service Pack 1
I am using Audacity Version 2,0,5,0
I have a project going here, i have a piano track and i have overdubbed 11 separate tracks (neophyte engineer here) and the “real engineer” will take the separate tracks in WAV and put them into PROTOOLS…he has the cd, the tracks are playing fine, however, he can’t put the od tracks where they should be in the track, they all start at zero and all play together…so, as he is unfamiliar with Audacity (which i love) he is asking my to TIMESTAMP them so that they will go to their respective “homes” in PROTOOLS…
I have looked online and could not find the answer to “where can i find TIMESTAMP in Audacity” and certainly looked around in the program, to no avail…
Am I correct in assuming i can indeed put timestamps on my od tracks?
I did highlight the whole track before exporting one separate track at a time…
I hope i am explaining myself well…if not, let me know and i will do my best to elucidate further!
Thanks very much Ray…(jimmola)
I

I think I understand the problem. You used the Time Shift Tool to push your overdub tracks around so they would be in the correct time for the performance. The problem is Audacity doesn’t respect the time offsets when you export each track, so all your careful timing production is missing. I believe retaining this timing in exported tracks is a popular Feature Request.

There is a way to include “silence” in the offset portions so the tracks export as properly timed, but I don’t remember the spells. Looking.

Koz

This may help

https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/easiest-way-to-reassemble-wav-files-after-export/35096/2

Koz

Thanks Koz, just so i understand you…there is no way to timestamp then in Audacity??
The engineer was hoping they would slot right in in PROTOOLS where they belong in the track…and there is no tool apart from time shift with which to do this??
Yes, that’s what we need the “silent space” when exporting…surprising there is not a choice?
Would we have been able to “save” the “silent space” had i not,when cleaning up hit “clean audio”??
I did use the time shift tool, but not a lot…where the od was to be recorded that’s where i started playing…make sense??
Not that we can’t do that again, just a little labour intensive as opposed to what were looking for…
I looked at the link…thanks again R

there is no way to timestamp then in Audacity??

I’m not sure that that means except in the very general sense. I remember a Hollywood Recordist did a voice job for us and delivered what I can only assume was a Pro Tools sound file. I don’t have Pro Tools and nobody at the company could open it or make any use of it. So I guess that’s a proprietary sound format. The short answer is no. Put the stretches of silence (not blank space) in the song and deliver that.

You should also know that if you Export the whole song with all the tracks, Audacity will push all the tracks together into one stereo file with everything in proper order and timing. So it doesn’t completely ignore the blank spaces.

Koz

Thanks Koz, what i mean by time stamp is, if the overdub starts one minute in that would be where the time stamp would be, no??
And when the engineer imports the od it would automatically be placed there under the piano track by virtue of the time stamp, one minute in…
Sort of like when you use a video player there is always a time and place in the video and can use that to find specifics parts…different, i know…but you get my drift, i hope?
Maybe Audacity just doesn’t have that option?
Yes, i know if i copy the whole track it goes into stereo, that won’t work as we need separate tracks to eq and mix etc.
Anyway, thanks, i hope i explained myself well enough for you…R

There is no option to export the leading white space, but we will add your vote for that. Meantime if the beat does not start at time zero you will have to generate some silence starting at time zero in those tracks.


Gale

Sort of like when you use a video player there is always a time and place in the video and can use that to find specifics parts…different, i know…but you get my drift, i hope?

I do get it, but video carries time with it and conventional sound doesn’t. The video people are over there pre-setting the TC so it will “label” each hour segment with the digit. “This is the ‘hour four’ roll. You can tell because all of its run times start with 04:.”

Meanwhile, the sound people are putting sticky tape on their reels with magic marker telling the world what we did.

I understand there is a SMPTE/AES/IATSE relaxation of the rules now where the marker can be slightly mysterious. It doesn’t have to actually be magic any more.

Koz

Mmmmm, you lost me on most of that Koz, but suffice to say when i “generated silence” that Gale sent… “Meantime if the beat does not start at time zero you will have to generate some silence starting at time zero in those tracks.”… in so doing i was creating my own “time stamp” if you will and was able to export those tracks separately for the engineer and have the pertinent od’s come up in their rightful place AS OPPOSED TO THE ALL AT ZERO CACOPHONY LOL!
That really solved the problem, thanks to both of you! J