Audacity Forum

hello, this is my first ish post.
i have been using Audacity beta 1.3 for a couple years and LOVE it, recomend it to everyone, even bought a t-shirt since i couldnt donate money to anyone. i a 4 core 3.6 amd, audio is halo. no problems with any hardware or software. just need help if it is possible for a messed up recording.

praise aside. i record live dj sets from various mixers with an h2 digital recorder. ac, 16 gbs and uncompressed.
never had problems with the mixer before, or my recorder.... mayby the cable was not connected properly but that doesnt matter i have a messed up 6 hour recording of 5 djs playing their hearts out for a goodbye session.
the mess is drop-outs, on left and right channels, but never same. pics here wav form in audacity.
(also if any of you are in San Francisco. the closing was ANu on 6th street. weds sessions were leonards(tocadisco, inhouse, endup) gig and mostly vinyl deep house was playd).( i have about 2 years of recordings from there that are fine. and have used audacity the entire time as my only editor. figures the last most important one would have these wierd drop-outs)
https://picasaweb.google.com/trishya333 ... 6546590018 (first hour)
https://picasaweb.google.com/trishya333/ANUSOSAD# (all pics)

i am trying to work on the individual dj sets which are 1 hr each. the first hr has only right channel drops, so a mono/ stereo fix was easy by separating left right, copying the good side, and repacing the bad channel. tho im not happy with mono, specially with good records being played and very good djs. making the whole thing mono (working it as a stereo mix/ default) shows volume drop in the areas with less info, makes sence, not good.
i also tryd to cut and paste from the good side (in seconds) to the drop out side and almost made it a few times until i realized just how perfect id have to be (like mili seconds can be heard as off beat if not perfectly placed)

SO, is there a way to select the silence/ drop outs on a left or right channel and have them filled in by the opposite (good)side? something i cant seem to be good enough at manually. and believe me this is almost important enough to me to spend a few days on, as in many hours.

THANK YOU ANYONE WITH ANY IDEAS OR REPLYS>>> even if a very advanced person says give it up, no way, i am thankful.
Trish

Yeah, that Murphy's Law can be a real killer.

Well, from the picture it does look fixable, but it will be some work. There isn't a completely automated way to do what you need, but there are some tools that can help. Between those and a little patience, I think you can rehabilitate your recording nicely.

Under the Analyze button there's an option called Silence Finder, which can help locate the dropouts, though yours look large enough to be able to locate visually. The big challenge with patching audio is lining it up and avoiding clicking. This can be done by working with more audio that you need. First create a new mono track below the main recording, and set it as Left or Right, depending on which set of dropouts you're working on. Then for each dropout copy and paste a section from the good track into that new mono track. Make sure the copied section is longer than the gap. Zoom in, and get it nicely lined up. Then you'll need to experiment with fading out and in the edges of the gap, and also the edges of the patch. It will take some trial and error, but will sound flawless once you get it right. And the same technique should work for each gap. Then make another mono track and set it the to the other side (Left, if you started with right) and take care of the other dropouts.

I'm not sure if I've explained that very well. Let me know if I can clarify or offer any other advice.

Take care
-Justin-

yes, THANK YOU, i do understand that concept. i wonder if there is a way to set microsecond cue points so that i wont be miliseconds off. I did try the cut and paste from a good left to a bad /silent right and it seemed to work until the 3rd patch where i was exactly a half second off and it sounded like breaks not 4 x 4. then i realized just how perfect the patch had to line up.

i did not try from a mono version only as separate left to right channels. BUT as i loaded for picture, it makes sensce that since half the information is missing there will be a volume drop in mono on that section. i guess i can also amplify after that or maybe normalize, im not sure how aubidle the few secs will be, until i try.
so thanks and I will try more patch tomorrow am, wish me luck. ill check here too before i get too involved, more ideas always better.

this is what you mean, right?

Here's an illustrated guide to the process I described.











Repeat the process for each of the holes. It will get much quicker as you go along. Remember that you'll need to add a new track for the Left channel as well, when you patch that one. At the end, just export as a stereo file and you're done. Again, wherever I've been unclear, just ask.

Take care
-Justin-

To build on Justin's good suggestions ...

trishya, one way that you can keep evrything in synch is not to delete the sections of your third track (the mono one you are copying from track one for the repairs to the dropouts in track-2 - rather just silence the sections you don't need in the thirrd track with the CTRL+L command (having selected the section(s) to silence. Al three tracks will have the same length and will remain in synch this way.

Leave a bit of signal overlap beyond each gap and then you apply some crossfade with Effect > Fade In/Out.

Then you can mix down tracks 2 & 3 into a single mono track and then remake your stereo pair track from tracks 1 and 2.

WC

I wrote a plug-in that can help to semi-automate patching one channel with audio from the other channel.
It's available here: http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 42&t=53929

WOW, thank you so much for that very detailed help process. i think that i am going to listen to the mono version and see if its really that bad, i guess it seems like a little bit too much to try and fix what looks like hundreds of gaps. but even listening to the mono version i can see if theres a particular section worth the work.
so thanks again!
(and if i learned anything its to make sure the rca s are tight! or maybe it was the mini plug)

darn murphy and complacency

No problem. Hope you can find a workable solution that pleases your ears Gotta love loose cables -- always at the most inopportune moment.