Beginner-itis - Saving a chosen portion of an mp3

[eager to learn]

Hi there,

I have no experience editing audio. I'm just trying to Forst Gump my way through.

I'm using version 2.0.1.

I found the section I wanted to convert and read you're supposed to use the Zoom (magnifying glass) to somehow capture that section and then click Edit>Copy and then click File > New and save that track.

Well.. when I clicked on the mp3 file to listen to the song so I would know which section to grab now when I use the magnifying glass to go from 15 to 15 and 1/2 (I guess) it plays the song and then reverts all the way back to the very beginning of the song which is not in the area I wanted to grab.

So, I'm not sure the exact steps to grab the section I want in order to save it?

Once grabbed, how do I save it so I can name it before trying to export it?

Finally, can I save a track as an .amr file?

That's the format my cell phone seems to use to play audio recordings.

Thank you.

[steve]

See here about how to zoom: http://manual.audacityteam.org/manual/h ... oming.html

Zoom out so that you can see all of the section that you are interested in (can be a rough guess).
Click at the point that you want to start playing - by default the cursor will jump back to this point when you press Stop. You need to be zoomed out far enough to see the whole of the section that you are going to play otherwise the screen will start scrolling.
(You can also use the space bar for play and stop).

Watch the cursor move across the screen and make a mental note of (roughly) where the cursor is positioned when it plays the bit that you want.

Click and drag on the waveform over the section that you want to keep (still does not need to be accurate).

Zoom in a bit so that the selected (highlighted) audio fills most of the screen.

Press Play - if you have selected too early or too late, grab the left edge of the selection with the mouse and drag to adjust it. To "grab" the edge, either put the mouse pointer very close to the edge so that the cursor changes to an arrow, or you may find it easier to hold down the shift key while grabbing the edge.
Adjust the end of the selection in similar fashion.
(It's difficult to describe exactly, but it becomes quite intuitive when you get the hang of it. More ways to adjust a selection are shown here: http://manual.audacityteam.org/manual/h ... ction.html)


To make an audio file from the selection, "File menu > Export Selection".

More info on the whole process: http://manual.audacityteam.org/manual/h ... _file.html


Audacity can export "AMR narrow band" if you have FFMpeg installed.
See here: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/FAQ: ... Ins#ffdown

Your phone may have more specific requirements than just "AMR". You may need to get the right sample rate or it may need mono or stereo, or it may need some other version of AMR. You can check in your phone manual, but you probably won't know if this is going to work until you try it.

[eager to learn]

Hi Steve,

I'm using Portable Audacity. Will that work with FFMpeg?

Thank you so much for your help.

[steve]

I'm using Portable Audacity. Will that work with FFMpeg?

You mean from "Portable Apps"?
If so, I've no idea, you'd have to just try it or ask them.

However, you don't need to run Portable Apps for a portable version of Audacity as Audacity already is portable. All you need is to download the Audacity 2.0.1 zip file, extract it to wherever you want it, then create a "Portable Settings" folder as described here: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/pr ... tml#stored

For a "portable" version of FFMpeg, download the ZIP version from here: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/fa ... tml#ffdown and extract it to the same location as the un-zipped audacity.exe file.

[eager to learn]

Hi Steve,

Just so I have this correct?

I connected to http://lame1.buanzo.com.ar/ and there I downloaded ...

ZIP OPTION:
libmp3lame-win-3.98.2.zip (Issues? Some help HERE and HERE)

I downloaded that zip file to C:DonwloadAudacityPortable
whch has 3 folders - App, Data and Other and 3 files - AudacityPortable.exe, help.html and now the fiel libmp3lame-win-3.98.2zip.

So, at this point I would just Right Click that file - libmp3lame-win-3.98.2zip - and click Open to extract that zip file??

Do I need to do anything more to enable Audacity to create .amr files at that point?

Thank you for your help.

[Gale Andrews]

LAME is a different library that enables Audacity to export MP3.

To export AMR you need the FFmpeg library using the instructions Steve gave you:
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/fa ... tml#ffdown

So from http://lame1.buanzo.com.ar/ you need the ZIP version of FFmpeg - here is a direct link http://lame1.buanzo.com.ar/FFmpeg_v0.6. ... indows.zip .

Please note that Audacity Portable is a separate project from Audacity. So we can't and won't help you with Audacity Portable here (for example they have made a second 2.0.1 release and we know nothing about what that is). For help with Audacity Portable, please ask on http://portableapps.com/forums/support/ ... y_portable .

If you want support here, grab Audacity 2.0.1 zipped from http://audacity.googlecode.com/files/au ... -2.0.1.zip .

1. Extract http://audacity.googlecode.com/files/au ... -2.0.1.zip to whatever folder you like (for example, call it "Audacity"). Don't launch Audacity yet.
2. Extract the six files inside http://lame1.buanzo.com.ar/FFmpeg_v0.6. ... indows.zip

avcodec-52.dll
avformat-52.dll
avutil-50.dll
ffmpeg.exe
gpl-v3.txt
swscale-0.dll

to the folder you extracted the Audacity files to. Don't put those six files inside another folder inside the Audacity folder, or you will have to do extra steps to tell Audacity where the FFmpeg files are.

3. Open the folder you extracted the Audacity files to then create a new folder inside called "Portable Settings". It has to be called exactly "Portable Settings", not "PortableSettings" or "Portable" or anything else.

Now you can launch Audacity. FFmpeg will be recognised and you can do File > Export... then choose "AMR (narrow band) Files (FFmpeg)" in the "Save as type" box. See this page for help with exporting http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/fi ... ialog.html .



Gale

[eager to learn]

Hi Gale,

I deleted all the Portable Apps Audacity files.

Then, I tried following your instructions explicitly.

I have this now....C:Downloadsaudacity-win-2.0.1 and in there are the following folders:

1. Audacity folder
2. FFmpeg_v0.6. ... indows folder
3. Portable Settings folder

After creating the Portable Settings folder I then clicked Extract on the audacity.exe file and the files extracted to C:Downloadsaudacity-win-2.0.1Audacity

There are no files in the Portable Settings folder.

So, now I can play the mp3 song. I can drag the magnifying glass over the wave form area and it starts playing from a certain point and then I can see a grey bar area over the green music area and it stops at the end of the grey area bar.

But, it just seems to create more than one gray area to play music. If I hit Play it starts playing music wherever it wants.

I can find the approximate area I want to save as a clip - almost to the first line after 2:15 but when I try to grab it with the magnifying glass it stops the music and then I play again and I try to stop to grab the rest of that section and it either stops too far or keeps playing to the end.

I'm sure if an experienced sound engineer were working this they'd find it easy but for a novice it's anything but easy. Once I have that gray bar in place I'm not sure how to Save File or Save Clip? Under File, do I Save Project as?

Is there a youtube video which shows one how to do this?

Thank you.

[Gale Andrews]

I have this now....C:Downloadsaudacity-win-2.0.1 and in there are the following folders:

1. Audacity folder
2. FFmpeg_v0.6. ... indows folder
3. Portable Settings folder

After creating the Portable Settings folder I then clicked Extract on the audacity.exe file and the files extracted to C:Downloadsaudacity-win-2.0.1Audacity

There are no files in the Portable Settings folder.

This is what should be in the Audacity folder:

Folders:
Languages
modules
nyquist
plug-ins
Portable Settings

Files:
audacity.exe
avcodec-52.dll
avformat-52.dll
avutil-50.dll
EQDefaultCurves.xml
ffmpeg.exe
gpl-v3.txt
LICENSE.txt
Microsoft.VC90.CRT.manifest
msvcp90.dll
msvcr90.dll
README.txt
swscale-0.dll
wxbase28u_net_vc_custom.dll
wxbase28u_vc_custom.dll
wxmsw28u_adv_vc_custom.dll
wxmsw28u_core_vc_custom.dll
wxmsw28u_html_vc_custom.dll

The "Portable Settings" folder should not be empty if you place it in the Audacity folder but it will not contain the "audacity.cfg" settings file until after you quit Audacity.

So, now I can play the mp3 song. I can drag the magnifying glass over the wave form area and it starts playing from a certain point and then I can see a grey bar area over the green music area and it stops at the end of the grey area bar.

But, it just seems to create more than one gray area to play music. If I hit Play it starts playing music wherever it wants.

I can find the approximate area I want to save as a clip - almost to the first line after 2:15 but when I try to grab it with the magnifying glass it stops the music and then I play again and I try to stop to grab the rest of that section and it either stops too far or keeps playing to the end.

I'm sure if an experienced sound engineer were working this they'd find it easy but for a novice it's anything but easy. Once I have that gray bar in place I'm not sure how to Save File or Save Clip? Under File, do I Save Project as?

Is there a youtube video which shows one how to do this?

To select audio, press F1 on your keyboard to enable Selection Tool then click and drag in the track.

If you want to zoom in before selecting, do it with the Zoom In button on Edit Toolbar ( http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/edit_toolbar.html ).

For the actual editing down to the selection you want to turn into AMR, try this Tutorial in the Manual:
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/tu ... _file.html .

As explained in Step 7 in that Tutorial, you have to export in order to produce a file for other players. Save Project only makes a file that Audacity can open.

Remember, you won't be able to export as AMR without extra steps unless the contents of the Audacity folder are as I listed above.



Gale

[eager to learn]

Steve and Gale,

I've got it installed now and working.

I have threpointer exactly where I want to music to begin in a saved.amr file but it's very difficult to get it to the point I want it to end.

Is there some way to make that finger icon to remain resident?

It just appears from nowhere - I have no idea how it gets on the screen.

I slowly run the mouse down off the line across the top and then into the blue/purple area and sometimes the finger appears other times I spend 10 minutes moving the mouse all around and it never appears.

If I try to shorten or elongate the length of the piece I'm trying to save by using the line across the top (whatever that line is called) and drag it to the right to elongate the piece it doesn't work.

Only that finger seems to work. But, I don't know how to *make* that finger appear and then stay appearing long enough so I can push it with the finger graphic to the right.

Thank you!

[steve]

Getting that "finger" to appear can be quite tricky as the pointer needs to be quite precisely on the edge of the selection.
Fortunately there is a much easier way, though it requires using one of your own fingers

Hold down the shift button with one hand.
Now click with the mouse somewhere near the edge that you want to drag - the pointer will not change, but it will automatically grab the closest edge of the selection - you don't need to be at all precise, it just grabs the closest edge. (this is the method that I use all the time).

My other favourite "trick" is to use Ctrl + Mouse Wheel to zoom in and out.

If you prefer to use the keyboard rather than the mouse, there are several other ways to zoom and to adjust selections - I'll try and find the links....

Here they are:
http://manual.audacityteam.org/manual/h ... oming.html
http://manual.audacityteam.org/manual/h ... ction.html