New to editing - help!

[jess44]

Hi,

I've recently downloaded audacity to edit audio for the first time, I've spent a few hours 'cuting' audio from the WAV file I opened and adding fade in and fade out effects, then saved the file as a project. However when I reopen this aup file all my editing seems to have gone a bit wierd, now there are long periods of silence in between bits of audio. The project has also saved lots of auf and au files that appear to be the same.

I'm guessing I've done something completely wrong when opening or saving but is there any way of retrieving my editing and what did I do wrong??

Can anyone help...?

[kozikowski]

"Open" and "Save" in Audacity are not opposites of each other like they are everywhere else. Here you can Open a sound file and Export to get another sound file with your changes in it.

Audacity saves Projects which are great if you're cutting a large show, but for day to day use, can get you into trouble.

Once you Save Project, you can't change, move, delete, or rename anything on your machine having to do with the show. All the sound clips, capture segments, imported music and production files become set in stone. You probably moved or deleted one of the original sound files, so every time Audacity gets to that part, it goes silent.

Audacity doesn't keep a "Show" while you're working on it. It builds your show from pieces as you play. The first time you get one single sound file you can email to your mum, is after you Export.

The AUP file is a text file and you can open it up in TextEdit and read it. It's job is to construct your show and keep track of all the pieces.

Here's a simple one...

http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/aup1.jpg

Note in line 6 that there is a sound file name (piano2.wav) and a folder location. If I move that sound file to somewhere else, it will destroy this project.

Koz

[jess44]

Thanks Koz.. umm not so straight forward as I thought! Will have another go and make sure I keep everything in the same place this time.

Cheers, Jess

[kozikowski]

I pretty much never "Save Projects." I capture live performances and Export As WAV immediately to get a good sound file. If it's an important show, I'll copy those sound files to a backup drive or device.

Then I edit and produce the final show and Export the client deliverable show file.

That said, I never work in multiple tracks (over 2), so if you have a six track production (5.1 Dolby Surround, for example) then you're stuck with Projects.

Koz

[steve]

if you have a six track production (5.1 Dolby Surround, for example) then you're stuck with Projects.

Audacity 1.3 allows "custom export, for example to export a 5.1 multi-channel file"
Edit menu > Preferences > Import/Export tab

(I've not used this option, but it's there.)

[kozikowski]

I was wondering when somebody was going to get around to doing that. Dolby 5.1 surround has been around as a sound file format for a long time (Dolby Audio DVDs. I have "Buena Vista Social Club" as a surround sound performance), but you get to pay Dolby Labs a license fee every time you do it. I believe WAV format supports multiple channels, but nobody supports WAVs when they do that.

So how did Audacity do it?

Koz