sharing audacity files btwn Mac & Windows

[shamus]

I have searched the postings and did not find this topic !
I am practice/jamming guitar with a buddy ;I have new Mac & he has 4yr old PC ! We would both like to be able to edit the same recordings.
I would like to find a recording software that can transfer back & forth for editing & recording between a macbook pro osx 10.56 and a PC running windows (not vista).Will audacity do this between any combination of mac & pc ? If not, is there any recording software that can do this,whether free or purchased? Thanks in advance for any input- shamus

[kozikowski]

Audacity is a really simple editor and edit manager and doesn't do file transfer or sharing.

So we have two problems. People have managed to push Audacity Projects between different computers, but that's more likely to cause tummy troubles and splitting headaches than beautiful music.

So your best bet is to shuffle WAV files around between the two locations. WAV files open up perfectly between all three common computer types, not just Windows and Mac.

How would I do that.... ..?

A lot of people apply for space on free file sharing servers. You have to put up with commercials, but it's a good way to shuttle large files back and forth between two locations. If you're really adventurous, OS-X has a delightful FTP server built in and you can figure out what your "real" IP number is, you can transfer files that way. Drop Box is another technology.

If you have your own web site, you can post stuff up there non-published and share it that way. I have a lot of stuff up on kozco.com that you can't see unless you already know it's there. We cut a music video that way once. Collaboration Software is a Really Big Deal.

You probably can't use Email. Most email accounts limit you to small attachments and WAV files are big.

Oh, and you can't use MP3 to shrink the files. MP3 damages the audio and it won't be long before you're editing each other's bubbling mess.

Exactly how you decide to share each part of the music is entirely up to you. Some people push Edit Masters back and forth. Some people push edit segments and clips and a list of instructions (put the violins here, put the cellos there).

Up to you.

Koz

[shamus]

Wow, thanks Koz
I'm new here and new this year to computers. The speed and quality of your reply are really appreciated. This level of input gives me confidence to work with audacity even if it will require a little ingenuity to share between mac & pc ! Hope to share some results and info soon- most grateful- shamus

[kozikowski]

<<<The speed and quality of your reply are really appreciated. >>>

That's not normal for User Managed Forums. This one happens to have dedicated elves all over the world.

Someone reminds me there is another reason you can't easily share Audacity Projects between Mac and PC. Directory name, folder name, file names, and file locations are saved inside the Audacity AUP file, and roughly the same location is called two different things between the two computer types.

So you are seriously stuck with shooting WAV files back and forth. WAV files are for production, MP3 is for end user delivery.

Koz

[shamus]

thanks again koz
would we be able to edit a wav file transferred from a mac to a pc, or does it become locked in "as is" as a wav file ? shamus

[kozikowski]

<<<does it become locked in "as is" as a wav file ? shamus>>>

This is where it would be really nice to share an Audacity Project over the internet. Maybe I'm going to post that as a Feature Request.

You do the drum track -- all three minutes, all the way through, save the project and Export that as WAV.

Drum1_20090501.wav.

No spaces. Upper and lower case letters, numbers, underscore, and dash. That's it. No other characters in the filenames.

Post it somewhere. I pull it down and load it on an Audacity timeline and add my lead guitar track. Save the Project locally and Export the composite as another WAV file. You pull it down and add the bass track. Repeat for all the members of the orchestra.

I'm sure there are much better ways to do this, but that would work, given you're never going to go over four instruments and three vocals.

Bookkeeping is a really big part of this. She did the bass, second and third vocal harmony, and flute. I did the drums, lead guitar and lead voice, etc. and these are the filenames of all those parts.

If you were really compulsive, you could Export each instrument and voice by itself and then share the basket of performances so each could have a shot at a total master mixdown. One of you is going to come out a much better mixer than the other, so be ready for that. This is how Very Large Songs are created. They make an enormous tape or capture recording of each piece individually and then mix their brains out later in a quiet room with good speakers. Only live performances are ever recorded as-is and even some of them come back from the stadium in pieces.

There are pages and pages of things that can go wrong with this, but I don't want to worry you ahead of time. Let us know how it goes. These things are unusual enough to still be fun.

Koz

[kozikowski]

As I think about this (but not too hard, it's Friday), I would probably do a simple fifteen second song all the way through first to get used to the problems. Nothing like kissing six weeks of work away because of a simple but stupid mistake.

Normally, we tell people to change the Audacity preferences to 44100, 16-bit, Stereo, but in your case, I would leave the bit depth at 32-Floating and I might even up the sample rate to 48000, the TV standard. Both of your systems must match.

<<<he has 4yr old PC !>>>

I do simple production on fifteen year old PCs every week, so that doesn't bother me a bit. He is going to need tons of high quality, error free, defragmented drive space. You will just need tons of drive space. On the Mac, everything else is automatic. If he's never done the defragging tricks, now is a really good time to start.

I like to hear that 1/4 of your drive is free for production, not "I have a couple of gig free." You'll go through that before dinner.

Koz

[shamus]

thans again Koz
I just tried to post a reply and keep getting" server error."If this posts ok I'll post the other. If not I guess you won't know! thanks again - shamus

[shamus]

again thanks koz
great suggestions," start with a 15 second song" is among the best! I would have probably attempted a full track and not allowed for a large learning curve!Both musicians will be going through that curve on different computers so I may be AWOL for a while, on the other hand I will likely hit a wall the first day! Talk to you soon shamus:)

[3seas]

it appears that the aup file is xml based.

with this in mind, is it not possible to edit that file in order to share project files between different systems?
If it is possible, then wouldn't a simple find and replace script be possible?
And furthermore, if such a converting script is possible, might it be integrated into audacity?