Scripting the creation of rehearsal files

I’m new to all this, but I’ve been looking for some kind of solution to automate the creation of rehearsal files from a full multitrack with WAV or M4A files for every part. From what I have seen it seems like Audacity scripts (maybe macros) might be able to do this. Wondering if anyone has tried this or might be able to point me in the right direction, or at the least confirm if it’s possible. I’ll try to explain the process I’m looking to automate:

  • using full licensed multitracks, we want to create iso-tracks for each part to facilitate rehearsals
  • to do so we just need to boost one part, and lower volume on the rest of the tracks so that part stands out
  • if I had all the files for a song in a folder, I’d love for it to just do this process and dump out an mp3 for each track

it seems like you mostly need some kind of amplify command option (+/-) and a loop to process through each track. I just don’t know all the capabilities and syntax to make it happen. Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

Jeff

Audacity macros can probably do what you are looking for, but they won’t loop - so you would need to spell out every step. Nyquist Python programs can loop but have a steeper learning curve. Personally, I am not an expert on any of these.

However, If you select View > Extra Menus, then study the “Extra” menu, you can experiment with commands that can be used by macros or by programs.

Suppose for example that you have 4 .WAV files each containing 1 part for a chorus or choir: abc_sop.WAV, abc_alt.WAV, abc_ten.WAV, and abc_bas.WAV. In Extra > Scriptables II, you could “Import” each of those four files. Then Extra > Focus > Move Focus To First Track, would select the Soprano track, then you could use Extra > Track > Change Gain On Focused Track by say, 6dB, to bump the level on this track. Tracks > Mix > Mix and Render to mix the tracks down for the Soprano, then Effect > Normalize to bring everything down to a reasonable level, then Extra > Scriptables II > Export2 > abc_sop_learn.MP3. Undo a few times to get back then Extra > Focus > Move Focus to Next Track for the altos.

:smiley: Once you have the steps worked out for the first (Soprano) part, it should be an easy matter to build a macro to do this for all the parts. Note there is generally a one-to-one correspondence between Extra menu items and macro commands. :smiley:

:nerd: Macro tip: once you have created (and tested) a small macro to create the first one or two mp3 files, save it. Then locate your macro .txt file in the (Windows-key, R) “%appdata%\audacity\Macros” directory and edit with Notepad. This is how you would solve the “looping”.

Why not just adjust the mix on the fly as needed using Audacity’s “Mixer Board”: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/mixer_board.html