labelling

[roy windmill]

Hi, In "Splitting Records into Seperate Tracks" Audacity Wiki, it states," labelling should not be done if there is more than one track in the Audacity Screen" my screen desplays 2 tracks, which I assume is right and left stereo channels. I have recorded the whole of an LP, just pausing to turn over the L.P. Do I need to convert this into one track? And could you tell me how to do it. Thanks. Roy Windmill

[waxcylinder]

No, you want to break it up into one "track" per song - so that when you use Export Multiple you will get a set of WAVs or MP3s rathere than a single WAV/MP3 for the whole LP.

See: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php? ... ate_tracks

and: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php? ... uter_or_CD

WC

[roy windmill]

Hi W.C When I paused to turn over my LP, there was a long gap befor the next song. How can I get rid of this gap?
Thanks. Roy

[waxcylinder]

Just select the amount you want to get rid of, by clicking and dragging with your cursor and the delete it by pressing CTRL+K

WC

[roy windmill]

Hi W.C, Thanks for info to delete. But I am still struggling with "break up into one track per song" which you answered in reply to my query on Tues. Sept o1. I have both the articles in http:// wiki, and I hate to appear stupid, but I can't find where it tells me how to "break up....." Can you tell me what I have to do? Thanks. Roy

[waxcylinder]

Roy,

1) Place a label at each track/song break - use the shortcut CTRL+B - You may find zoooming in a bit helpful here
2) type text into the label as yoy create it (I use 01 <track_name_1>, 02 <track_name_2>, etc. as this helps me get them uin the right order on the CD I make and when I import into iTunes)
3) when labelling is complete use File > Export Multiple choosing the export format you require from the drop-down in the dialog box - and carefully choose an export location to export to. Do NOT use the Audacity temporary file area as you will most likely lose the files when Audacity cleans up on exit - rather, I create a folder for each album that I record so that each folder holds only one album - sorted in higher level folders by genre.

You should think about upgrading to the Beta 1.3 as label handling and editing is much improved in the new Audacity versions - and don't worry about the "unstable" and "for experienced users only" warnings. 1.3 is pretty stable now in its later releases - I use it all the time.

WC

[roy windmill]

Hi wax, thanks for your advice. I have now downloaded Aud.1.3.9. But I'm still stuck with my question sent to you Tues. Sept. o1. Where I say I have 2 tracks on my screen. They are one above the other for the whole of the recorded LP. Do I have to convert them into one single track, i.e not one above the other, before labelling? Sorry for the confusion. Roy

[waxcylinder]

Assuming that you have set your Audacity preferences to work in stereo - then you will see 2 channels in each Track that you create - I assume that this is what you are describing.

If however you make a recording and then press Stop, this will create a track with a stereo pair. If you then press Record again (and NOT SHIFT+Record) Audacity will create a second track immediately underneath your previously created track, starting at the same time. This is very useful for folks who are using Audacity as a mult-track recorder to record their own music - but for your application of LP transcription you really want a single track with a stereo pair. And in this mult-track environment then youe, the final production step is normally to mix the tracks into a single stereo pair.

But, no you do not need to (nor indeed should you want to) merge the stereo pair together - as this would produce a mono track - and I'm pretty sure that this is not what you really want (unless you're trying to restore the early Beatles albums to mono - or want to use mono to save space).

I can see why you might be a bit confused as I just linked to the link of the tutorial on labelling I posted for you in my earlier post - as in the example, there is only a single mono track that is being labelled. AN example with a stereo pair would be a better illustration for many folks.

Tip: I would also ensure that you set your Audacity Preferences to Project Rate of 44.1kHz and a bitrate of 16-bit - and of course 2-channel stereo. And when you export do it to WAV at 16-bit PCM stereo 44.1kHz (the Red Book standard for CDs).

WC

[roy windmill]

Hi Wax, Thanks for your reply. So it appears now that I should not merge my "Stereo Pair" together. So can I go ahead and "Place a label at each track/song break..." as per your reply Wed. Sept.02? Or should I "Split" each song first and then label. Thanks. Roy

[kozikowski]

If you produced a normal stereo show, you will have two blue waves one above the other like this...

http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/Audacity1_playback.jpg

The panel on the left tells us that this is a stereo show. "Left" on top and "Right" on the bottom.

Press Control-B at the beginning of each song. Then File > Export Multiple and all your songs will be exported as individual WAV files suitable for making into a CD with your favorite Music CD authoring program.

And yes, all these tools are easier to use in Audacity 1.3. You can install both 1.2 and 1.3 on your machine as long as you only use one at a time. Audcity 1.3 Projects will not open in 1.2

Koz