Overly Large Database on Windows

[normkelly]

I am digitizing my vinyl albums into MP3 files using Audacity 1.2.6 on Windows XP. I have done many albums at this point, and most of the databases are around 400 - 500 MB (.au files in the project-name_data file). However, I have a few that are MUCH larger. For example, I have one that is about 1.75 GB, and the recorded time (~35 minutes) is about the same as another one that is only 355 MB. The large one has 1774 .au files, and the small one has only 356.

I am guessing that some of the data in the large one isn't really being used (I may have deleted a significant section of audio), but I can't figure out how to shrink the database down to something that is reasonable.

Can anyone help with this?

Thanks Much!

Norm

[kozikowski]

I so would not be using Audacity Projects for this.

Open up your Projects one at a time (if you still can) and Export As WAV. This should give you a much more consistent filesize from record to record and as a bonus, it gives you standard, common WAV sound files that you can copy to backup media. You can't move or modify Audacity Projects. They're not sound files and they're brittle -- easily damaged.

You can't, by the way, make music CDs from Audacity projects, so you'll be doing something like this anyway. If there is a new computer or hard drive or anything major changes in your future, it will pay you handsomely to do this export dance before.

My personal preference is do the Exports in sides. ElvisInHawaii_sideA.wav

Koz

[kozikowski]

You can continue to use Audacity to capture the work, just stop Saving Projects.

Koz

[steve]

"Projects" are a "work in progress".
When you have finished you will usually want your finished "product" which will be an audio file.

Audacity Projects have the advantage that they can hold multiple tracks, envelope data, and so on, but they are usually huge and can't be used outside of Audacity. To get a usable audio file, Export.

WAV and Aiff audio files are "uncompressed", and are the same (or very close) to the sound quality of the original project. MP3 and Ogg files are smaller, but slightly lower sound quality than WAV and Aiff files.

If you intend to burn the tracks to an audio CD, Export as WAV (16 bit 44100Hz stereo).

[normkelly]

I understand the difference between the project files and the exported (WAV, MP3, etc.) files, but I still don't understand why 35 minute project file is 4-5 times as large as another that is the same length and captured with exactly the same parameters.

Norm

[steve]

Are they at the same "Quality" settings (bit depth and sample rate)?

[normkelly]

Yes. Everything is exactly the same. That is what I can't figure out.

Norm

[waxcylinder]

... I still don't understand why 35 minute project file is 4-5 times as large as another that is the same length and captured with exactly the same parameters.

Norm,

it may just be down to the amount of editing that you have been doing on the two different projects.

What happens if you export them booth as WAV files? Are they then similar file sizes?

WC

[steve]

Perhaps we are looking at this the wrong way round.
If a project is using files that are external to the project, then the project folder could be considerably smaller than a project that includes all of the audio data.

In Audacity 1.2.x, there is an option in "Edit menu > Preferences > File Formats"
"when importing uncompressed audio files into Audacity - Read Directly From The Original File (faster)".
If this option is selected, then Audacity will only copy data from the imported file if it really needs to - otherwise it uses the data directly from the original file without copying it. This is potentially very dangerous as it means that the saved project depends on these external files still being available when the user next goes to open the project.
This is probably the number one cause of "I can see the waveform in my project but the sound is missing".

Recent versions of Audacity 1.3.x display several warnings about this (which many users ignore). There is also a feature in the File menu "Check Dependencies", which will tell you if your project contains all the needed data or depends on external files. (this feature is not in Audacity 1.2.x)

Do the smaller files play OK?
If you copy the file and the data folder to another computer, do they still play OK?