Help with editing large files in Audacity

[omantench]

Hi there

I have recently been given some large files (1 - 1.6gb) of a number of gigs to edit and break down into individual sets (of roughly one hour each).

The files are 256kbps mp3s and are 15, 15 & 10 hours long respectively.

I am using a (not so great) Toshiba dual core 1.7gb laptop with 2gig of RAM and plenty of temporary hard disk space (40+gb).

I have managed to open and edit the 10 hour (1.06gb) file successfully and am now trying the larger files. I can (eventually) open the larger files (1.6 and 1.53gb) but no wave form is displayed. If I import another track alongside and mute it then I can play the larger file but only when there is a waveform for another track there.

Can anyone help?

Many thanks in advance,
Oman

[kozikowski]

The problem is not the MP3 file, the problem is what Audacity has to turn it into to edit.

The 15 hour presentation turns into about a 12 GB project when uncompressed. So with all the UNDOs and effects and production, you need about 15GB or so of memory. Not hard drive, memory. Nobody has that, so the computer has to swap out to hard drive space and that's really slow. Particularly if your drive is full and you never defragment.

Depending on your Windows, you're also going to run into the 2GB and 4GB file limit -- again after decompression. Audacity will not edit an MP3 file directly.

You may be way better off looking around for an MP3 editor rather than Audacity -- at least to get the massive files cut up into smaller chunks. Then you can use Audacity for fine tuning and post production. Each hour is around 700 MB based on an Audacity setting of 44100, 16-bit, Stereo.

I do that all the time on multiple computers. Piece of cake.

Koz

[omantench]

Thanks for your help mate, much appreciated.

What mp3 editors can you recommend?

[kozikowski]

I don't. I'm almost all the way over to using Macs now. Somebody posted a list of editors on the forum, but I can't find it and the forum search is no help.

It doesn't have to be much. You don't need effects or anything fancy, you can use Audacity for that later. You just need generic file management. Google time.

When was the last time you defragmented? Audacity will not work into a badly fragmented hard drive.

Koz

[steve]

MP3Split. It's a free, open source MP3 editor for Linux, Mac or Windows. You will find the Windows version here: http://mp3splt.sourceforge.net/mp3splt_ ... nloads.php

As an editor it doesn't do much - as the name suggests, it splits MP3 files into shorter bits, but it does so losslessly. The MP3 is edited without decompressing it, so the split files have exactly the same sound quality as the original file. I would suggest splitting into chunks of no more than an hour to make the files a manageable size. (also handy for backing up onto audio CD).