help! the audio is gone

[schnahz]

Hi all ,
I'd like to submit this post from the Spanish forum to try and mitigate the discouragement felt when you have to wait a long time for an answer to your question. grahf writes:

Hello, I have a terrible problem , the other day I was editing an audio file for a podcast and everything was O.K.,but now as I am checking it I realize that there are portions where the audio is gone from my main track. The wave form is there but the sound isn't and I can't figure it out. Please I could use some help.

Thanks, schnahz and grahf


view topic .php?f=8&t=23271

[kozikowski]

Audacity Projects are not sound files. If you used a sound file in your production, then Audacity will keep going back to that sound file forever to play the show. A very typical problem happens when people don't realize the original sound file is still part of the show and they decide to move it, change directories, or change its name. "Cleaning Up" is deadly.

We also tell people they can't ever move Audacity Projects.

If you put everything back the way it was -- exactly the way it was -- your show (your Project) should come back to life. The blue waves on the screen are produced by picture files and can easily get out of step with the show.

You can prevent this happening in the future by telling Audacity to copy all music inside itself instead of leaving it all lying around the computer. This will make the Project very much larger and sometimes slower.

Preferences > Import/Export > [X] Always Copy All Audio Into the Project (Safest).

This may appear in a different place depending on which Audacity you have.

Export a WAV file of the show at each point where you have valuable work. Certainly Export a WAV of the final edited show. That will give you one single, stand-alone sound file.

Koz

[steve]

It seems that we are back on this subject again: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/File_Management_Tips

[schnahz]

Thanks guys, I'll start the translation today.
Schnahz

[kozikowski]

<<<It seems that we are back on this subject again>>>

When did we leave?

I did think of one way to eliminate this problem. Charge $700 USD for the program. Apparently ProTools does this all the time and everybody's used to it. The problem with free software is Mrs. McConnolly and her young son Sean from Saint Sebastian's in Brighton Beach are trying to use it and expecting a WAV editor.

Chances are very good one or the other of them is eventually going to use naughty words.

Koz

[steve]

On the other hand, if Audacity is not what they want, they're quite at liberty to use a different program - it's not as if they've paid a lot of money to try Audacity. A problem for Spanish users is that much of the documentation is unavailable in Spanish.