npags711 wrote:I knew the 400% increase in tempo wasn't going to work b/c it's too fast/distorted to hear anything clearly
Ha! You did ask for "Mach5 Light-Speed"
How about increase the Tempo by 100% and then slow down by -50%.
npags711 wrote:after some Einsten-like mathematical calculations
lol. Yes it's counter-intuitive isn't it, but it makes sense for "Tempo". If you want to increase the tempo of some music from 100 beats per minute to 120 bpm, then that's 20% increase. Fortunately there is also a text input option that allows you to enter the target length. If you speed up the track by x% and the original track length was 30 minutes, then to get back to the original speed just enter "Length (second) To: 1800" (30 x 60).
npags711 wrote:The labels don't line up - b/c they just stay in the same position along the timeline...and don't shift to adjust for the change in tempo...
You must ensure that both the audio track and the label track are selected.
You must be using Audacity 1.3.12 (old versions of Audacity do not have this feature).
npags711 wrote:I also wanted to ask you about ....
It's generally less confusing to start a new topic for each question.
npags711 wrote:about two messages that pop up
When you record in Audacity, the audio data is written as small (1 MB) blocks of data. Similarly when you copy/import a file into Audacity, the file is copied as small 1 MB chunks (blocks). These blocks of data are stored as files up to 1 MB in size (with names like "e00003be.au"), initially in the Audacity Temp folder, then when the Project is Saved they are moved to the Project "_data" folder. This means that (for example) if you delete a short section from a track, then Audacity does not need to rewrite the entire track data, it only needs to worry about the blocks that are in that section.
"Orphaned block files" means that some blocks of data got left over in the Temp directory from a previous project. That should not happen - block files should either be moved into the project _data folder when you save the project, or deleted when you close Audacity.
If you are working on an important project and Audacity crashes - if you then re-open Audacity and it says there are 148294027394 orphaned block files, the DO NOT delete them. Those block files will be the audio data from the previous project. Although in such an unfortunate case the chances of recovering the previous project are not very good, if you delete those orphans then you make data recovery considerably more difficult.
If on the other hand you have completed one project, successfully Exported it as a WAV file and deleted (or never saved) the Audacity Project, then it is safe to delete the orphaned block files because they don't belong to anything (poor little orphans).
"Detected ... missing audio data blockfile[s], (.au)"
These means that Audacity thinks that ... blockfiles have been lost from the current project. 1 MB of audio is usually around 6 seconds, so for each missing blockfile there is up to 6 seconds of audio missing from the project. Each blockfile is listed in the Project File (the .AUP file), and if Audacity cannot find all of the .au files that are listed then it will produce this error. If you're lucky, then the error could be that a block file is listed in the AUP file that shouldn't be, or the missing data is from an unimportant part of the track such as the "lead out" at the end of a recording. If you are less lucky, then there could be some silent gaps in the track where there should be sound.
Missing blockfiles may not be immediately obvious because Audacity stores the track waveform visuals in just some of the blockfiles. If there are blockfiles missing that do not contain the waveform graphic data, then the waveform will look fine, but when you play the track, or process it in any way, the missing data will be replaced with silence.
If I received this error on an important project, I would select "Temporarily Replace", then immediately check that I have sufficient fee disk space and Save the Project with a new name. I would then try to find which bit of data is missing. That can be done by listening to the entire project, or if you zoom in and out it will usually cause the waveform to be recalculated and redrawn, showing gaps where data is missing. Hopefully I would have a backup with which I can patch up the hole.
