Audacity Forum

Hi Guys

I'm really new to doing podcasts and editing sound, I recorded an interview from SKype using call recorder and now I want to edit it
before publishing. But I can't import it as it's an .mov file

format AAC, Stereo, 44.100 kHz
data size: 36.9 MB
data rate: 229.67 kbit/s

I have never used Audacity before so any help would be hugely appreciated.

Thanks in advance : )

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Try upgrading to Audacity 1.3.12 and install FFmpeg.
Audacity: http://audacityteam.org/download/
FFMpeg: http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.ph ... tallffmpeg

Hey Steve

If this appears twice it's because I typed it all out and submitted it and then it disappeared. Not having a good day.

Thanks for the advice, I downloaded the other version and the sound did indeed import, however, there is still some confusion.

The sound has appeared as four boxes on top of each other, when I try to delete the first section of the recording it disappears but still
plays over the top of the new beginning?

There is a line which seems to down the whole page and so appears to be playing every box, I tried to highlight the top box so I can just work on that
box but this doesn't seem to work.

I am wandering if it has to do with how the sound was recorded. I used sound recorder and it was a skype call, so it must record both my end of the conversation and the other persons,
do you think this is what is causing the problem?

This is a photo of the page if it helps http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/5514719781/

All I want to do is edit out a few bits where I messed up, I usually do video interviews so edit in imovie something like this would take me half an hour but this I have been trying to sort out
for two days and I don't know what to do next. I can't use imovie because it won't let me import the file, so I thought Audacity would be the best alternative, but I don't have a clue how
a sound editor like this works, is there an easy solution or would you recommend I use different software, is there something more basic?

Like I said previously i'm not the most technically minded person and I don't want to spend days learning how to use a new program, just something that I can highlight a section of the recording and delete, maybe adding a space of silence in between each interview question and answer.

Thanks again for your time I really appreciate it, sorry if I sound stressed, just that it feels like I am running out of options

A

Could you upload to somewhere on the Internet, a short (only needs to be a few seconds) test file from your Skype recording program, then post a link in your forum reply.

Hi Steve

Do you mean upload the file I'm trying to edit online somewhere? If so I can upload it to youtube and post the link?

angelbws wrote:Hi Steve

Do you mean upload the file I'm trying to edit online somewhere? If so I can upload it to youtube and post the link?

Uploading to youtube doesn't help. Steve probably meant that you should export a few seconds of the imported show and upload that.

Anyway regarding your problem if I understood properly... what you have there is a 4-track show (each "box" containing a "blue wave" is a mono track). I don't know how the skype recording software works, but how many persons where in the skype conference? 4? Probably it recorded each talker into a separate track.

If you want to delete any individual track you can just click on the 'x' on the top-left corner of each "box" (track). To listen to only one, or just some of the tracks you can use the 'Mute' and 'Solo' buttons on the left side of each track.

Having some reading at the manual and tutorials on the wiki might help clearing up some of your doubts, check the links on the top of this page that says "Documentation", "Tutorials" and "Tips". You could start by these basic 'getting started' links: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Quick_Help

Hi thanks so much for your advice, I will try some of your instructions and I will read the instructions on wiki I thought there must be
some sort of guidelines somewhere on how to use it.

The software I used to record the skype call was call recorder - and there was only two of us on the call.

http://www.ecamm.com/mac/callrecorder/

It says on the call recorder site you can convert the files to mp3s would this make it easier for me to edit if it was in this format?

angelbws wrote:It says on the call recorder site you can convert the files to mp3s would this make it easier for me to edit if it was in this format?

It would be better if you could export to WAV.

MP3 is a lossy format, that means the audio gets "damaged" in order to produce smaller files. That damage is permanent and irreversible. So a lossless format ir preferred. WAV is the most simple and compatible format available and it's a lossless format (means no damage is done to the audio), the downside is that it produces bigger files.

I have just tried the solo thing and it's starting to make sense now, the top boxes are my output from the telephone call and the bottom
are the other person's, maybe it was recording left and right as some of the sound waves are different in each box.

So what I need to do is match up all the sound, because her answers aren't matching up with my questions, her sound starts at the beginning of the box
3 and 4 when it needs to be empty space and start later in.

Thanks so much for your help I can finally see some light at the end of the tunnel : )

A

Thanks guys so much you've really helped me out.

I did try to copy the bits I needed from the bottom two tracks to the top two, but it was so difficult to match them up, they kept echoing and not lining up,
and there didn't appear to be any sound missing if i just copied one of the bottom two and pasted it in the top track,

So now I have all the bits in one track and it flows perfectly, I'm still a little worried about deleting the other three tracks now, incase I actually needed the sound from both left and right. But it seems
to sound ok to me and nothing is missing.

What is the best format to export for podcasting? Maybe I need to find which podcast site I'm uploading it to.

Anyway I really appreciate all your help I was stressing out earlier and couldn't see how I was ever going to get this done and now I'm almost done : )

You guys ROCK and so does Audacity : )

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