Time between songs

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cgib55
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Time between songs

Post by cgib55 » Sun Aug 10, 2008 5:50 pm

Hello,

Would you be so kind as to tell me how to put a few more seconds between songs as I paste them into one long string?

Also, what is the standard amount of seconds between songs in commercial recordings?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Have a nice day,
Ms. Cosby Gibson
New York State

waxcylinder
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Re: Time between songs

Post by waxcylinder » Sun Aug 10, 2008 6:25 pm

After each song you can make a gap with the Generate > Silence function in Audacity.

The Red Book standard for CDs specifies a 2 second gap (lots of CD burning software inserts this intertrack gap unless you tell it not to).

I am most curious as to know why you want to create "one long string" of music - most folks want to use Audacity to split up a long recording (of a side of an LP say) into several "tracks"?

WC
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steve
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Re: Time between songs

Post by steve » Sun Aug 10, 2008 9:21 pm

cgib55 wrote:Also, what is the standard amount of seconds between songs in commercial recordings?
There is no standard amount of seconds between songs in commercial recordings. It is quite common on some commercial recordings to have no gaps at all. Other CD's can have 4 seconds or more.
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cgib55
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Re: Time between songs

Post by cgib55 » Mon Aug 11, 2008 12:33 am

Thank you very much for your advice. I really appreciate it. =)

The reason why I am making a long string is so I can transfer the whole darn thing to a cassette without having to babysit for an hour adding one track at a time.

Basically I am bringing the tracks down to a cassette recorder. I am using a cable that goes from the headphone plug in my computer to the cassette player. This was advice from people on this forum and it works very well !!

Thank you again,
Cosby =)

steve
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Re: Time between songs

Post by steve » Mon Aug 11, 2008 12:54 am

You could always burn the whole thing to a CD (assuming that you have a CD writer), then copy the CD to tape. That way you would have a CD and tape.
(the same cable would do the job if you play the |CD on your computer.
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waxcylinder
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Re: Time between songs

Post by waxcylinder » Mon Aug 11, 2008 11:05 am

cgib55 wrote: The reason why I am making a long string is so I can transfer the whole darn thing to a cassette without having to babysit for an hour adding one track at a time.
Cosby,

WOW, I thought the art of the mix-tape was a dying craft (The BBC certainly thinks so - they recently broadcast a nostalgia documentary about mix-tapes on R4) - intriguing to see a new high-tech way of doing it.

Most folks on this forum go the other way though - they digitze their tape and vinyl to create WAV files and MP3 file to play on their PCs/MACs and their iPods/MP3 players. I'm curious to know why you're still using cassette tapes - apart from anything else it's hard to source them in the shops any more ...

If you do follw Steve's advice about CDs use good quality CD-Rs and not CD-RWs - and they are much cheaper bought by the hundred. One thing that gets in the way of Steve's idea there is that the lengths differ - maximum length on CDs is 74 or 80 minutes - and my guess is that you are using 90 minute tapes.

WC
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cgib55
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Re: Time between songs

Post by cgib55 » Mon Aug 11, 2008 3:58 pm

Thank you everyone for your really excellent advice. I am certainly lucky to have this forum! Thank you! :D

Let me explain: I am a singer/song writer. The songs I am putting on the cassettes are my own that I recorded on a four-track tape player, mixed on Audacity, then converted to MP3's.

However, my older relatives do not have CD or computer access. And they would like to hear the songs, but they don't live nearby unfortunately. Therefore, I am making cassette tapes to send to them. The songs total maybe 35 minutes.

Thank you very much again, :D
Best wishes,
Cosby

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