Saving (exporting) to non-Wav is needlessly tedious

[waxcylinder]

THIS is why I feel I should be able to see extensions in the export dialog box other than the one I'm exporting to. So that I can clone from the .wav name THERE and manually replace the .wav with .flac.

Have you tried my revised (corrected workaround above - it does just that ...

I just tested this and it works just as I say

WC

[steve]

I believe my problem came up when editing a "raw" 4 hour .wav, i did trimming, normalizing, etc. Then saved (exported) back to .wav with a carefully built "long name" (not approaching 240, but way more than 8.3). Then in theory, I should dump my project (I don't need a "project", I just work with a file), reload the new .wav and do my conversions. But reloading the .wav takes a lot of time. I figured "I've got the exact content of the exported .wav IN the editor now, so why not proceed to convert to .flac and also to .mp3 WITHOUT reloading the newly named .wav file? But I want the new .flac and .mp3 files to take on the base name of the new .wav file, not the raw one I last imported.

THIS is why I feel I should be able to see extensions in the export dialog box other than the one I'm exporting to. So that I can clone from the .wav name THERE and manually replace the .wav with .flac.

OK, but that is quite a specific use case that most users will never experience, and there are many workarounds to choose from:

• Open a file browser and copy the name from there.
• "File menu > Export as WAV", select the file name, then change the export type (and file extension) to ".flac"
• Export all of the files with short names, and rename them later:
  In the Windows file browser, you can select multiple files of different types, then right click on one and select "Rename". Rename that file and all selected files are renamed.
• Before exporting the original WAV file; "Extra > Scriptables 1 > Set Project" and set the project name.
• Probably some other ways ...

[kozikowski]

case that most users will never experience

You are a celebrity unicorn.

I'm sure there are occasional posters with similar, very much simplified versions of this problem, but I've never seen anything like this application.

People do run into problems when they try to adapt Audacity to industrial applications: "I need to open 50,000 files....." and the perennial favorite: "I need to record six weeks."

Companies with an eye on the bottom line are attracted to Audacity's price point.

Unfortunately, both developers are intent on making an app useful for most casual home users (on all three platforms) and there are only so many hours. Everybody thinks Audacity is a large corporation, but it's not, as witness the British corporate headquarters at Lands End.



So if you want to contribute some of your programming skills, we'd be glad to have you. Are you conversant in C++? I think that's how the base Audacity is written. So until then, we'll be happy to add you to the Future Consideration List.

Koz

[tcmullet]

Thank you all for the insightful replies. Yes, I realize this is a freebie, so should not expect the kind of support that one might expect from a giant like Microsoft or something.

[tcmullet]

I had suggested a checkbox, but other systems include a dropdown where the default value is *.flac (in this case) or *.mp3. And the other value in the dropdown is "all file types"...

Actually, before I reported the situation, I had looked for such an option under preferences. If such a switch was to be implemented, I suspect it would be better there than at the export dialog box. But I will proceed with the workarounds for now.

[tcmullet]

I wouldn't use Audacity for "merely" converting the file type. I'd use a format converter such as LameDropXP or Foobar2000 (both free applications).
This avoids the unnecessary intermediate conversions from WAV -> Audacity Project (32-bit float format data) -> MP3.

Hi Steve. I downloaded both. I've used an older LameDrop before. This newer one works, I'm sure, but it's only for MP3, as best I can tell from the encoding options. Foobar2000 doesn't claim to do conversions, but is a player. But I proceeded to install, and still cannot see any evidence of file conversion utility.

[steve]

Yes "LamedropXP" is specifically for MP3 (using LAME). That was just an example - there are many others.

Foobar2000 has very powerful transcoding abilities. Their documentation is here:
http://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?ti ... Foobar2000
and specifically:
http://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?ti ... :Converter

[tcmullet]

Thanks. Will check it out. While we're here, can you please tell me where I look to find the feature to convert my loaded file from 48k to 44.1k sampling rate? I don't see anything like it in "Effects".

[steve]

When you export a file, the sample rate of the exported file is determined by the "Project Rate" (lower left corner of the main Audacity window https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/sel ... .html#rate)

[tcmullet]

To me, changing the sample rate is a big deal. I'm doing it now, changing a 4-hr wav from 48000 to 44100, and will take about 8 min. But there's nothing talking about this conversion in the GUI anywhere (that is, it doesn't label anything as being "Change sample rate" or something). Can you assure me that the conversion will be done "as perfectly as mathematically possible"?