File & Project Sizes

[jegenes]

I've read some threads here about file sharing over the internet, and how the file sizes are sometimes a problem. But so far I still can't figure out a few things. I want to give others access to my Audacity projects. These are songs with several tracks in each. Currently, I'm importing MP3's into a project, then "Save As" an Audacity project.

Example: I import 7 tracks of a song: total combined file size is a bit over 40MB (these are MP3's at 320K)
When I save the project, the data folder in the Audacity project balloons to over 350MB. I've also created the same project, using the same tracks, but with WAV files (16 bit). The original set of 7 tracks was a bit under 180MB, but bloated to the same 320+ MB when saved as an Audacity project.

My settings in "Preferences" are:
Quality: 16 bit, @ 44.1K

Is there any way around this file size? I want to be able to put an Audacity project onto an FTP server for people to download, and I'd rather not have to explain how to use raw MP3 or WAV files. It would be a lot simpler if they could just download the project and open it. Also, I'm using a PC, but also work on a Mac, so I can offer the files in both formats if need be.

NOTE: I originally recorded these songs in ProTools and Sonar, 24 bit, 44.1K, etc. They are mastered and finished, but I want to give access to the original tracks so that people can remix and do mashups. I figured that Audacity was one of the most popular programmes for this, and besides, it's FREE! I've converted the original tracks to both WAV and MP3 for these purposes. I will also offer them in Ableton Live format, and possibly in GarageBand format (although GarageBand seems to suffer from the same file bloat as Audacity). To get an idea of how this works, check out Nine Inch Nails site: http://www.nin.com (go to their "Remix" section).

Thanks a lot.

--john

[kozikowski]

<<<I want to give others access to my Audacity projects.>>>

About Monday of this week, I had an event that will live in my mind for a very long time. Somebody send me an Audacity Project and I could actually open it when it got here. I had to lie down for a minute.

That's not the rule.

As you're finding out, Audacity isn't a WAV editor. It's certainly not an MP3 editor. It's an Editorial Production Environment Manager. Because of that distinction, Audacity Projects contain lots of different files depending on the complexity of your show. Editing configurations, UNDO layer information and sound snippets, and all the effects and effect Undo data in addition to uncompressed versions of all the included clips. That's why when you open up two tiny MP3 files and do a little editing, the Project suddenly takes up your whole machine.

All that plus strict limits on who can open up a specific version of Project and who can't. Mostly can't. You can't back up versions. If you make something in 1.2.6, it will not open in 1.2.4, or if it does, it may be damaged.

I will admit I never tried creating a 1.2.6 project on a Mac and seeing if I could open it up in Windows 1.2.6. That might be interesting to try later.

So if you're after a universal editing format for posting, this may not be it.

NIN.

I didn't feel like starting an account, but my guess is they are creating custom JavaScript tools, since nothing on their site works without JavaScript. Once you can determine what the end user has on their machine via the download tools, the rest is almost easy. That determination is the magic step.

You could publish each Audacity Project version on each platform. Then you'd be really overloaded.

You could also JavaScript your way into each download machine to figure out which version of Audacity they have and download the right Project. Of course, if you could do that, you could just write the editor.

Koz

[jegenes]

Thanks for that info. It's as I expected, but I thought I'd give it a shot. I'm definitely one who tries to support open source software when I can. Looks like, in this case, maybe I can't.

I probably won't go the javascript route. Just too complicated and, I think, might even be rendered useless if things change much on the internet. I'll keep it as simple as I can.

One way to do it is to simply package MP3 files with an empty project--one that's already set up with the correct tempo, key signature, etc--and include a short tutorial on how to drag the audio files into the programme. I know that Audacity doesn't support the tempo and key signature the way others do, but you get the idea. For those who are comfortable with this kind of software, well, they're going to just use raw audio files anyway, so all this project setup is moot in the first place. But I'm trying to get "the rest of us" interested in this sort of thing, so I want to make it as accessible as possible. I'm no big fan of Apple or iTunes, but I use it (as do millions of others) because it's simple and it does what it's designed to do. This sort of mashup/remix stuff should be easy, and I think that someday soon it will be.

thanks again.

--john

[steve]

If you know that the other people use Windows 2000/XP/Vista, then you provide the zip version of Audacity (see this page http://audacityteam.org/download/beta_windows ) and a second zip file with each track of your project exported as an MP3 (or if you want to keep it open source, export them as OGG files).

The other people could then down unzip Audacity and double click on the executable (audacity.exe) to run the program, and unzip the audio and import each of the tracks.

You could also include links to the FAQ page, the tips and tutorials from the Audacity wiki, the manual (and the donations page?)

http://audacityteam.org/help/faq
http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php?title=Tips
http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php?title=Tutorials
http://audacityteam.org/manual/index.ph ... =Main_Page
http://audacityteam.org/community/donate