Deleting files; Record level meters

[Hodge]

When I delete a sound file (FILE/RECENT FILES), that file shows up again the next time I turn on Audacity.
Also, why are the record level meters suddenly missing? (XP, 1.2.6)
Hodge

[waxcylinder]

When I delete a sound file (FILE/RECENT FILES), that file shows up again the next time I turn on Audacity.

Because Audacity doesn't have a delete function - so the recent files list doesn't get cleaned when you delete your project with Windows Explorer.

Note that a project is not a sound file.
When you save an Audacity project as <project_name> it creates a number of things:

1. a top level master project file called <project_name>.aup
2. a folder at the same filing level called <project_name>_data
3. and within the folder a sub-folder structure with lots of little .au files - segments of the recording (mainly audio clips - but a couple of them are graphics files)

When you re-open a project with Audacity you should always open the <project_name>.aup top level file. This tells Audacity how to thread together all the little .au files. It is deliberately designed this way so that Audacity doesn't have to open and work with a single humungously large file, which would hamper performance. You should not be attempting to open or manipulate any individual .au files.

When you have finished editing your Audacity project you can Export it from Audacity as a WAV file or MP3 file depending what sound quality you wish to achieve. WAV files are around ten times larger than the equivalent MP3 files but are uncompressed and thus the audio quality is higher.

WC

[waxcylinder]

why are the record level meters suddenly missing? (XP, 1.2.6)

In 1.2 - go to Edit > Preferences and click on the Interface tab. Make sure the tickbox for Enable Meter Toolbar is checked on.

You should think about using 1.3.11 the latest Beta vn. it is very stable these days and has improved functionality. You can get it from here: http://audacityteam.org/download/

BTW: I moved your posting to the appropriate section of the forum. Please put future postings in the section relevant to your operating system and version of Audacity.

WC

[Hodge]

In all the material I've read thus far there was no mention of the two corrections you offered so I'm grateful for your response (and so promptly !). Where I'm a "newbie" at this I'd be pleased to get your further input on what I'm trying to do. I'd like a folder into which all my sound recordings can be placed and retrieved later. Based on what I think you said, I need a master project (example: V123-demo.aup), a folder (V123-demo-data), and sub folders (First recording.au,
Second recording.au) etc. These will be finished (edited) recordings that will later be brought out of storage and assembled with others (first recording, ninthrecording, etc), exported as MP3s
and sent to a client. Is any of that right ?
Thanks in advance.
Hodge
PS: I don't have Windows 7 so I'll be sticking with 1.2.6 for now.

[kozikowski]

<<<Is any of that right ? >>>

That's pretty dangerous. Audacity Projects are misunderstood, brittle, complex, and easily damaged. You should Export as WAV to get a simple, high quality, self-contained sound file that you can archive and copy to other locations. You can't move Audacity Projects.

You get killed if you have a show with multiple tracks one above the other. There is no good simple way to archive those as WAV files, so Projects are your only game. Also know that Projects do not retain UNDO data. So If you close everything this afternoon and open it all back up tomorrow, UNDO will not work.

It is possible to select each stereo track in a multi-track show and export each one as a separate WAV file. That is possible, and as far as I know, the only way to permanently off-site archive a multi-track stereo show.

Koz

[waxcylinder]

As Koz says - but if each of your "First recording" second recording" etc. are single stereo pair track recorings and not multitrack - then as Koz implies you will be much better off exporting thoses recordings as WAV files (export at 32-bit floating - with Audacity set to that qulaity level too).

You can the assemble and work on your "master project" by importing the raw capture WAV files as and when required.

Just be aware that Audacity has a dangerous default setting whereby when you import WAVs like this - it doesn't actually import the files but just makes a reference to the external file. It is trying to help you here by making the import "faster" - but it catches a lot of people out when they move/delete/rename thaeir original WAVs and their project collapses.

So I strongly recommend thay you go to Edit > Preferences and on the File Formats tab check on the radio button that says "Make a copy of the file before editing (safer)" - it takes a little longer and uses more disk space - but its an awful lot safer way of working. (The "faster" setting is really for power-users who really know and understand what they are doing - it burns an awful lot of newbies and should not be the Audacity default IMHO.)

Also, for serious work with Audacity you will be much better off upgrading to 1.3 - in spite of the fact that is labelled Beta it is in fact much more stable than the ancient 1.2 on most modern computing platforms. You can down load it from here: http://audacityteam.org/download/

WC

[Hodge]

OK: I now know that:
1. All files must be exported as 32-bit WAV recordings
2. When opening Audacity I should always open via Project Name first
3. WAVs in Audacity cannot be moved, deleted, or renamed
4. A recording should have a 2nd copy made before editing (Pref./File Formats)
/////////////////////////////////////
The objective, if not clear yet, is for me to be able to assemble .au audio clips (from outside Audacity) in several different ways (using Audacity) to satisfy the wishes of various clients. The clients need to be able to listen via MP3s.

PS#1: I've learned a lot from both of you but I know there's still much more ahead. I'd like to feel more confident than I am at the moment in knowing what I'm doing.
PS#2: I have installed 1.3.11 and have deleted 1.2.6

[waxcylinder]

OK: I now know that:
1. All files must be exported as 32-bit WAV recordings

Yes - during the capture/editing process - BUT if you want to create WAVs that can be used to burn a CD you will need to Export as 16-bit PCM WAVs (Aidacity will do the necessary downsampling and dithering for you).

I have installed 1.3.11 and have deleted 1.2.6

Good, in which case have a look at the 1.3/2.0 manual: http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.ph ... =Main_Page

WC

[kozikowski]

<<<The objective, if not clear yet, is for me to be able to assemble .au audio clips (from outside Audacity)>>>

May I scramble the English a little? .au sound clips are internal to Audacity. They are not world-standard sound clips and in some cases, inside an Audacity Project folder, aren't even sound files. If you start personally managing .au files, you're very much doing something wrong.

Other humans can supply you with AIFF, WAV, MP3, and other standard sound files for use in Audacity. Nothing wrong with that, although if you get into some of the more exotic sound formats, Audacity may not know what to do without pre-conversion. Native iPod files, for example, I believe are still foreign to Audacity.

There are conversion programs that can "clean up" these files so they are acceptable to Audacity.

Koz

[Ctrl+N]

Code: Select all

OK: I now know that:
1. All files must be exported as 32-bit WAV recordings
2. When opening Audacity I should always open via Project Name first
3. WAVs in Audacity cannot be moved, deleted, or renamed
4. A recording should have a 2nd copy made before editing (Pref./File Formats)

Let me try to clarify things.
1. All files need not be exported as wav files.
You can export directly to mp3 from your Audacity project. The uncompressed data is stored in the project; the point is don't try to access it directly. Any thing you want direct access to outside of Audacity must be exported. Don't look inside the _data folders. You know, it might be a good idea to make them hidden by default in windows.
2. Inside the folder where you save the Audacity projects their is a file that has the Audacity logo as its icon. Double click on that to open the project. Again, Audacity will open the data files for you. Don't look inside the _data folders.
For an idea of when you can look in the folders, go to Audacity wiki and study the topic 'Crash Recovery'.
3. Actually, if you move the *_data folder and the *.aup file together to the same new folder, or if you rename both the .aup file and the _data folder to the same thing, the project will still open. The thing is though, like any other windows program, you can always use 'save as..' to create a copy under a different name.
4. This is a recommended practice, but is not necessary. Right now I am choosing 'duplicate' from the edit menu before I start editing the wave file within my project so that if I decide I don't like how I am editing the file, I can start over. Using duplicate is a way to make an extra copy before you export anything from the project. Remember, the whole purpose of an Audacity project is so you can have more time to edit before you export. I was using Audacity a long time before I even saved a single project, now I do it routinely.

To put it another way, the reason why I create the projects now is because I don't want to import into Audacity anything that I previously exported from Audacity. I now I keep everything inside Audacity until I am ready to export.

Finally, I think that you have misunderstood what an Audacity project is. Here is a quote from sourceforge that might clarity things:

Save Project - saves everything in the window into an Audacity-specific format so that you can save and quickly continue your work later. An Audacity project consists of a project file, ending in ".aup", and a project data folder, ending in "_data". For example, if you name your project "Composition", then Audacity will create a file called "Composition.aup" and a folder called Composition_data. Audacity project files are not meant to be shared with other programs; use one of the Export commands (below) when you are finished editing a file.

Save Project As... - same as Save Project (above), but lets you save a project as a new name.

and look at this link:http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.ph ... y_Projects