Newbie needs help!

[Larwib]

Hi!
Just started using AC and have already come across a few problems. I downloaded AC as I wanted to edit a mp3-file of a live recording from an LP.
1) How come I can´t scroll through the audio file when I want to place labels for each individual song ? Now I have to keep the whole file going and mark the labels as each new song begins. I can only imagine what it would be like if I had an audio-book of ten hours or so...

2) The places where I mark each lable seems a little "blunt". I thought I marked exactly where the first song ended and the next one began (they actually were inseparable) by using the Pause-button. Then when I listened to the exported mp3-file, it still contained the beginning of the second song. How can I avoid this ?

I´m using the stable 1.2.X.version.

Many thanks in advance,
Larwib

[Larwib]

Ok ok, I managed to figure out a few things by myself....
Now, how do I do this:

- I want to mark a starting point in the audio-file (for example when a song starts), then move forward and work with the ending - going back and forth, finding exactly where the song ends - WITHOUT losing the STARTING POINT.
Thus making it easy to mark the exact area and then "Export marking as mp3..."

Thank you.

[Larwib]

Well....that was helpful. Any secret word, handshake, wink I need to know about ?

[archaeologist]

try putting what help you need in the subject heading. i have got very promt help on this forum, so the good people are here, just make it easier for help to find you.

[Larwib]

Alright, thanks. I´ll try that. Unless I manage to solve my problems during the next session.

[alatham]

Weekends are kinda slow here, and we only have a few handfuls of members with more than 10 posts. So sometimes patience is the name of the game.

Before I get started, I recommend using 1.3.3 for this kind of work. The labeling system is nicer.

1) How come I can´t scroll through the audio file when I want to place labels for each individual song ? Now I have to keep the whole file going and mark the labels as each new song begins. I can only imagine what it would be like if I had an audio-book of ten hours or so...

To place a label, use the Selection Tool (looks like an uppercase i) to click on the audio (thus placing the cursor at a specific point) and press [ctrl]+b to place a label. For some reason the keyboard commands for placing a label while playing is different from the keyboard command for placing a label while stopped. I don't know why.

It's easier to do this if you zoom in and look for the volume dips that usually represent a new track.

2) The places where I mark each lable seems a little "blunt". I thought I marked exactly where the first song ended and the next one began (they actually were inseparable) by using the Pause-button. Then when I listened to the exported mp3-file, it still contained the beginning of the second song. How can I avoid this ?

This is a failing of the MP3 format. All encoders seem to add either silence or continue encoding data at the end of a file since the MP3 format requires all the data to be quantized to some multiple of samples (I can't remember the exact number of the multiplier). There is no workaround for the MP3 format.

- I want to mark a starting point in the audio-file (for example when a song starts), then move forward and work with the ending - going back and forth, finding exactly where the song ends - WITHOUT losing the STARTING POINT.
Thus making it easy to mark the exact area and then "Export marking as mp3..."

I'm unsure as to exactly what you're trying to do, but I think you will want to simply add a label to the beginning of the file.

Ideally you should be using Export Multiple (depending on what you're doing). Export Multiple expects a label at the beginning of each track (don't forget the very beginning). I'm not up to speed on Export Multiple, but I think you name each label with the name of the file that you want to export to.

If that's not helpful, please explain exactly what you're trying to do.

[Larwib]

Pls accept my apologies for coming across as impatient and sourly. Probably a result of too much forum-dwelling, on larger forums where sometimes you can get an answer almost before you posted the question...

Thank you very much for the advice, but right now my main concern is that which I mentioned here:

WITHOUT losing the STARTING POINT

I can easily find and mark the spot where the song starts, but then when I scroll forward to locate the exact spot where the song ends, I get a NEW starting point (near the end) as I go back and forward to find the end of the song.

Summary:
I would like to be able to
- mark the exact starting point of the song (this I can already do)
- then find the exact ending point of the song (without losing the starting point)
- mark the whole area between the two points
- export the marked area (or Copy-paste, or whatever is preferable)

Labeling is easy when you have moments of silence between songs, but in this case it´s a live recording, with no silence (not even applause/crowd-noise).

Thank you

[alatham]

I see what you mean.

Audacity doesn't work that way exactly. There are two workarounds though. The first is using Export Multiple as I previously mentioned.

The second is to work backwards from the ending. Fix up the end of the whole track (remove excess silence, fade out, etc), and then slide back a few minutes to the beginning of the last tune. Place the cursor there and click Edit -> Select -> Cursor to End. Then Click File -> Export Selection. After exporting, delete the highlighted part and then repeat for each track.

It's annoying, I know. But there is currently no way to select the area between markings. It seems like you should be able to do this in 1.3.3, but I can't really figure it out.

[kozikowski]

There's something that drives the video people crazy--past not being able to scrub.

The "I" key sets the in point and the "O" key sets the out point--no matter what happens in the middle short of a thermonuclear event. Open a track. Mess around, jiggle, scroll back and forth, play, play, play and finally set your in point . Then zoom out, select a couple of different segments looking for the one you want, find it, zoom in, mess around, jiggle, scroll back and forth, play, play, play and finally press [O] to set the out point. Everything between the I and the O becomes selected.

I know the audio people are looking at me horrified with "That's not the way it works!" on their lips. Oh yes, trust me, I know. But I'm here to tell you the video people would be dead without that. I had to accurately delete a very long audio segment a while ago and it took way too many keystrokes to do it. I kept glancing longingly over at the video package wondering if it would pay me to open this track, cut it, and blow it back out while nobody was watching.

Sigh.

Koz

[Larwib]

Thank you very much for your help, deeply appreciated.
Now, kozikowski - are you saying that I can use Audacity in the way you described above ?

The "I" key sets the in point and the "O" key sets the out point--no matter what happens in the middle short of a thermonuclear event. Open a track. Mess around, jiggle, scroll back and forth, play, play, play and finally set your in point . Then zoom out, select a couple of different segments looking for the one you want, find it, zoom in, mess around, jiggle, scroll back and forth, play, play, play and finally press [O] to set the out point. Everything between the I and the O becomes selected.

Or was that just wishful thinking ?