How to record each step into a macro

[TalkingDog]

I have about1800 clips that I have to create labels for. I am doing the same steps over and over again.

The Parameters are already set for soundfinder @ 40.0, 100.00, 0, 0, 0,
I import the 1st Mp3 file in a sequenced folder,
select audio track name
Press control C,
press enter
select the track,
open analyze menu,
select soundfinder
press enter,
select label track name
Press control V,
press enter,
Open File menu,
select export labels,
press enter,
close both tracks,

Start process over
I import the 2nd Mp3 file in a sequenced folder,
.etc

Start process over
I import the 3rd Mp3 file in a sequenced folder,
.etc
1800 clips

Please help me, these clips are for a project I am creating for humanity.
I can not ask for help, from anyone with this project , because I do not own creativity, creativity expresses through me.

And I am looking for a creative solution, to this repetitive task of1800 files.

PLEASE HELP

[kozikowski]

I can't follow that. Can you describe in English words what you're doing? What are you starting with and what is the product?

There is a caution not to do production with MP3 files. MP3 gets its small, convenient files by cleverly hidden damage and leaving some sounds out. If you make an MP3 from an MP3, the damage gets worse and harder to hide. By the third pass, the sound damage can be pretty serious and can kill a show.

Do you know how to use any of the programming languages? Nyquist?

The obvious choice is create a Macro. They're pretty simple, but Macros can't make decisions, and someone will correct me, they can't call each other, so you can't slosh actions and processes back and forth between two of them.

Koz

[kozikowski]

https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/macros.html

Koz

[steve]

I can't follow that.

Neither can I.

The Parameters are already set for soundfinder @ 40.0, 100.00, 0, 0, 0,
I import the 1st Mp3 file in a sequenced folder,
select audio track name

What does "select audio track name" mean? How are you doing that?

Press control C,
press enter

What does that do? It seems that you are copying something and then pressing "Enter". What are you copying and why press Enter?

and someone will correct me, they can't call each other,

A macro can call another macro, though there are not many cases where one would need to do that. You may be confusing this with "Nyquist Macros" that can't call Nyquist effects.

[kozikowski]

"Nyquist Macros" that can't call Nyquist effects.

I believe you. I never got close enough to Nyquist programming to worry about it. My experience with plain Macros is measured in days.

Koz

[TalkingDog]

I can't follow that. Can you describe in English words what you're doing? What are you starting with and what is the product?

There is a caution not to do production with MP3 files. MP3 gets its small, convenient files by cleverly hidden damage and leaving some sounds out. If you make an MP3 from an MP3, the damage gets worse and harder to hide. By the third pass, the sound damage can be pretty serious and can kill a show.

Do you know how to use any of the programming languages? Nyquist?

The obvious choice is create a Macro. They're pretty simple, but Macros can't make decisions, and someone will correct me, they can't call each other, so you can't slosh actions and processes back and forth between two of them.

Koz

I described the exact process that anyone would have to use, to accomplish what I am doing. I wrote it had way for clarity.

I am making labels from 1800 audio files with the duration as start and stop and saving them as a text file. It seems obvious to me, that if audacity had a macro recorder built into it, that could record the steps, this could be automated. As long as there was the ability to have the next imported file auto selected, using the recent file history and selecting the next file. They use a macro recorder in notepad++ which works great.
I have a micro step recorder that is portable, but I can not select the next import file, because no file is high lighted, if one was, I could use the down arrow in the micro recording to select the next file, and this process would be automated. What I would like to be able to do, is accomplish this in bulk, there are 1800 files. Does anyone know of an desktop app that can do this?

I already no that this can not be done using macros, but if there was the enter key, control key + C, control key + V, in the macros list,

[TalkingDog]

I can't follow that.

Neither can I.

The Parameters are already set for soundfinder @ 40.0, 100.00, 0, 0, 0,
I import the 1st Mp3 file in a sequenced folder,
select audio track name

What does "select audio track name" mean? How are you doing that?

After I import the file, it is in a track, there is a select button at the bottom left side of the track, I click it, it selects the track, only then can I open soundfiner with the preselected Parameters @ 40.0, 100.00, 0, 0, 0,.

Press control C,
press enter

What does that do? It seems that you are copying something and then pressing "Enter". What are you copying and why press Enter?

I have to select the track name and copy it, because there is no way to have it named automatically, if track name is selected, it names the file track name and will only record over that file name, it will not create a file named track name 1.

[steve]

You can apply a macro to multiple files as a batch process, so long as all of the files that you want to process are in the same directory.
More info here: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/macros.html

I am making labels from 1800 audio files with the duration as start and stop and saving them as a text file.

The tricky part of this is that each label text file has to have a unique name.

Batch processing with Audacity is more commonly applied to an audio file, and exports the processed audio file into a "macro output" folder, using the name of the audio track (which takes its name from the name of the imported audio file). Unfortunately there is not an equivalent macro command for exporting label text files.

As you want to export a label track file rather than an audio file, you will need a plug-in to handle the export. Here's a plug-in that I've written for the task:

ExportLabels.ny

(1.22 KiB) Downloaded 4 times

This is a "Nyquist Plug-in". Installation instructions are here: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/ins ... st_install
(Don't forget to enable the plug-in after installing it).

When the plug-in has been installed and enabled, it will appear in the "Tools" menu.
I have tested this plug-in with Audacity 3.0.2. It may work with slightly older versions, but not with very old versions. I think it should work OK with Audacity 2.4.2.

You then need to make a macro containing two commands:

1. Sound Finder (or "Label Sounds")
2. Export Labels

When you add the commands to the macro, you will also need to "Edit Parameters".
For the Sound Finder, use the settings that you have decided to use.

For "Export Labels", the only setting is to select a file to write to. The default file name is "filename.txt", but that will be changed automatically when the macro runs to match the name of the audio track. All the label text files will be written to the folder that you specify.


I would highly recommend that you test the macro with just a few files first to ensure that it does what you want.
It is usually recommended to batch process no more than about 500 files at a time.

[TalkingDog]

You can apply a macro to multiple files as a batch process, so long as all of the files that you want to process are in the same directory.
More info here: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/macros.html

I am making labels from 1800 audio files with the duration as start and stop and saving them as a text file.

The tricky part of this is that each label text file has to have a unique name.

Batch processing with Audacity is more commonly applied to an audio file, and exports the processed audio file into a "macro output" folder, using the name of the audio track (which takes its name from the name of the imported audio file). Unfortunately there is not an equivalent macro command for exporting label text files.

As you want to export a label track file rather than an audio file, you will need a plug-in to handle the export. Here's a plug-in that I've written for the task:
ExportLabels.ny
This is a "Nyquist Plug-in". Installation instructions are here: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/ins ... st_install
(Don't forget to enable the plug-in after installing it).

When the plug-in has been installed and enabled, it will appear in the "Tools" menu.
I have tested this plug-in with Audacity 3.0.2. It may work with slightly older versions, but not with very old versions. I think it should work OK with Audacity 2.4.2.

You then need to make a macro containing two commands:

1. Sound Finder (or "Label Sounds")
2. Export Labels

There is nothing in the Export Labels files. But the naming worked perfectly. I so appreciate your help with this.

[steve]

Which version of Audacity are you using?
Perhaps your Sound Finder settings are not producing any labels.