long audacity file saved as repeating loop - why?

[12_tone_lizzie]

I just digitized 4 LP sides into 4 Audacity files. I then processed each file with a click removing program. I then re-opened each file in Audacity, trimmed the tops and tails, then re-exported each file (by selecting the entire file and choosing "export selection as wav") to its existing filename, selecting "replace". Exporting to the existing filenames didn't seem risky as I had the pre-click-removal originals as backup. Alas, I deleted these originals before I actually listened to the re-exported files. I was shocked to find that each of these now consists of the first 15 seconds of the LP side, followed by the first 5 seconds repeating for the entire 20-min-plus duration of the file. Several hours' work down the drain!

Any explanations? Thanks

[kozikowski]

<<<I just digitized 4 LP sides into 4 Audacity files.>>>
<<<Any explanations? Thanks>>>

Yes. You join a long list of people burned by Audacity Projects.

When you captured your vinyl, Audacity didn't save a file. Audacity Saves Projects which can be thousands of audio snippets, directory structures and project management files. Literally thousands. When you play one of these performances on the timeline, Audacity constructs the show from all the pieces as you listen. There's never a single sound file there.

This sort of thing is very fast and efficient and lets Audacity apply effects and filters and then take them out again very easily.

Unfortunately, Projects are also very delicate and fragile. Lose, damage, or move any one of those thousands of snippets and your show stops playing. Write over them and only the parts of the show that have to do with special effects remain. The main music vanishes.

Next time you capture a single vinyl performance, Export As WAV, make a copy of the WAV file and put the copy someplace safe. When you get past the last album, open the original WAV file (and in that case, it is a single sound file) apply your noise removal, and export as another WAV file for conversion to music CD in the CD authoring program of your choice--since that's what most people want to do.

Koz

[12_tone_lizzie]

Thanks for the suggestion. I still wonder what I did wrong such that all four output files had the same weird structure – the first 15 sec followed by the looping first 5 sec.

[kozikowski]

Did you do some editing or special effects to the first fifteen seconds of the performance? That would have placed the performance segment in the _DATA folder and made it separate from everything else so it survived. As far as the looping five seconds goes, goodness knows. The AUP file is the one responsible for keeping track of everything--the coordinator. If it became damaged or confused, the usual result is no show at all.

If you did, as you say, write over earlier work, you in effect wrote over the only work with a different version of itself. Recursive damage is the most fun. If you went back in time and shot your father...

Export As WAV (or other file type) is the only way to get a single, stand-alone sound file. Microsoft WAV happens to be the most robust, universally accepted, and uncompressed-undamaged.

Koz