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Using zero crossings function

Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2008 9:35 pm
by scottmacneill
Each Sunday I record our church service as part of the Microsoft encoder send to the local radio station.

After the broadcast, I use "Super" to convert the .wma file into a .wav file so that I can edit it for future reference. As part of the editing process I cut out some of the crowd noise, coughs, etc. and would like to use the zero crossings function to avoid clicks and such. The function seems to do something but I cannot figure out how move from one zero crossing to the next. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Also, on an entirely different subject, an export of the final edited file to a .wav file occasionally goes awry and sections of the original audio are duplicated over and over. It is much like an old record skip. I have found no rhyme nor reason for this but it seems to occur most often after using the truncate silence function although I have also had the problem in v1.2 as well. Has anyone experienced this problem?

Thanks for the help.

Re: Using zero crossings function

Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2008 10:16 pm
by steve
scottmacneill wrote:The function seems to do something but I cannot figure out how move from one zero crossing to the next. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
It does do something, but at the moment it doesn't do it very well. I find it easiest to not use it, but instead, use "Ctrl+Mouse Wheel" to zoom in really close to the end position, then use "Shift+Left Mouse Button" to drag the edge of the selection to a suitable point.

Note that it is not always necessary to find a zero crossing point, for example, if there is "applause" going on, then you can select just about anywhere and the cut will be invisible. Also, selecting immediately before a percussive sound will usually be masked by the percussive sound.
If there is a very quiet point close by, that can also be a good choice, and to make it totally "clickless", apply a short fade so that the cut occurs in silence.
scottmacneill wrote:ccasionally goes awry and sections of the original audio are duplicated over and over.
Missing bits of audio are usually caused by people moving, renaming, or otherwise changing some of the project data files. (see here for more info http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... ement_Tips )

As for the duplicated sections (record skip), no I've not come across that. If you find a way to reliably reproduce the effect, please tell us so that it can be investigated.