Sermon to CD & Web s/w? (Tag, encode and split)

[Jon WBC]

Hi Folks

It's my first time here but I think not the last!

We record our sermons on a small personal MP3 player/recorder. This works fine. (No PC or windows to fall over!)

When done I need to normalise this and copy this to CD's which need to be tagged and split into ~5 minute tracks.

Also

I need to edit this MP3 to capture just the sermon and then re-encode this (normally 24bps mono) to place on the web.

Currently it takes several bits of software and me to do it.

What I'm looking for is one peice of software (freeware would be good) that can do all this and would be easy for the rest of the team to learn and use. Unlike a lot of people here out preference is to do this imediatly the service has ended so time and ease are important.

I've spent quite a while looking around at what's available but it's like looking for a needle in a hay stack so hope to benefit for your experiences.

Thanks Jon

[[Admin] skstarkiller]

try audacity...
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

[boltd]

I use Audacity to do what you are doing. I'd suggest checking out two books. One is the Blogging Church and the second is the venerable yellow Podcasting for Dummies book. Most of what I do is from the Dummies book.

[derekchaplin]

Hi Jon,

I used to use Audacity but I've switch to WavePad at nch.com for a number of reasons:

1. The quality of WavePad's downsampling to 32kbps MP3 is FAR superior to Audacity
2. It is Free - you'll have the full Master version for a few weeks then it will revert to the free version.
3. It is faster and more stable than Audacity by a long shot.
4. It is easier to use and just as flexible.

I use the free MP3Tag mp3tag.de/en/ to edit the tag info.

Give it a try. You won't be disappointed. Check out some sermons edited with WavePad at citychurch.net.

cheers,
Derek

[[Admin] skstarkiller]

Had not heard of that Derek. Thanks for the heads up

[Jon WBC]

Thanks for that! I had a feeling that Audacity would come in somewhere!

Now I've had problems when trying this out but that maybe just that I don't know what I'm doing.

To select just the sermon I've been using MP3directcut. Very basic but does a good job for normalising and cutting off the start and finish of the recordings. Basically you

Drag the cursor to where you want to play from.
When you hear the start of the section you want you click a button to mark it.
Drag the cursor to where you want to play from.
When you hear the end of the section you want you click a button to mark it.
Save section.

With Audacity I couldn't find a way of quickly moving through the file I just had to let it play real time. Normally I'd expect something like this to allow you to drag the cursor through the file and play the file where the cursor is, sort of fast forward.

I explored what menus, instructions and documentation I found but could find anyway of doing the above! I'm willing to give it another try though if anyone has any pointers on this!

Thanks Jon

[Jon WBC]

Yeh! I've seen Wavepad but not tried it! I'll take a look.

Thanks Jon

[daver2]

Hi guys,

I have used both Audacity and WavePad. I prefer WavePad though. It seems a more 'polished' product and more intuitive to use than Audacity. Both of them are 'free', so download both and see which you get on with better!

I have not come across a problem before with being forced to listen to the service in real time (although the user interface is not 100% intuitive as I have mentioned before)!

One thing that is not documented well with Audacity is the ability to add a 'named marker' track (a label track). This allows you to enter labels such as 'Reading' or 'Message' . An additional feature then allows you to split the Audacity recording of the service up into separate files - the files being named the same as the markers you have put in. This is a nice feature.

You can also enter 'unnamed markers' on the fly as the service is being recorded (I think the keyboard shortcut is control+M). At the end of the service you can use these unnamed markers to quickly step through the recording at will.

[daver2]

Hi again,

I am sat here at Church after a practice for Sunday and I have Audacity up and running anyhow so I shall drop a couple of lines here to provide some feedback on how I use it.

Start Audacity and use the menu item Project -> New label track to create a blank label track (as it says on the tin). Hit the record button when you are ready and away you go (after adjusting levels etc.).

At any 'significant' point during the service - hit CONTROL+M to enter a blank label onto the label track. I mark reading and sermon starts and finishes this way (i.e. anything I want to put onto our website).

At the end of the service STOP Audacity and save the project to disk before the PC dies(!) You can now select each blank label in turn and enter some meaningful text. Tip: Use TAB and SHIFT+TAB to move forwards and backwards through the lablels. Use these marks as 'rough' locations.

You now have to find the 'exact' locations for the labels you have marked. Click close to a label on the audio track with the mouse and a vertical line should appear. Use the magnifying glass and zoom in to see the waveform. Use the number '1' key to play a small section around the cursor. If you are not happy with the placing of the label, keep moving the cursor whilst listening to the audio track using the '1' button until you are happy. Place a new label at the cursor point by typing CONTROL+B and enter some text.

You can delete the old 'rough' label by selecting it, using BACKSPACE to delete each character in turn and then pressing the ENTER key when the label is empty to finally delete the unwanted label.

If there is the possibility of 'overlaying' the labels you may find difficulty in selecting the old label to delete. In this case, select the new one and TAB to the next (old) one.

I have found audio track positioning and using the '1' key a bit 'hit and miss' sometimes so bite your lip if necessary!

When you have finished, you should have an audio recording plus some labels marking significant events throughout the service.

I then use the File -> Export Multiple... to export the audio 'tracks' into files based upon the text within the labels e.g.

ReadingStart, ReadingEnd, SermonStart, SermonEnd.

ReadingStart.mp3 has the reading.

ReadingEnd.mp3 has the audio between the reading and the sermon.

SermonStart.mp3 has the sermon.

SermonEnd.mp3 has everything from the end of the sermon to the end of the service.

ExportMultiple can also export everything from the start of the recording up to the first label into a file specified at the time you perform the export.

It is now a relatively simple matter to listen to the exported files and make sure the 'top' and 'tail' of each is as you want and to stitch them back together as (say) a reading followed by some silence and the sermon.

Beware though, If you select a label using the mouse and then press the '1' key you will find that you have added '1' to the end of the label and not played a small section of audio around the label! There are a few other annoying user interface habits - that's why I prefer WavePad - it has none that I have noticed.

I haven't seen a 'play fast' option on Audacity (this is, incidentally, on WavePad).

Hope this quick tutorial on how I use Audacity is of some use?

Any further tips gratefully received...

PS: Since the source code for Audacity is available I am hoping to interface it to our Yamaha LS9-32 desk and automate the process of adding labels complete with the text from the user defined keys on the desk. That's a bit off yet though!

[BenHT]

Thanks hadn't heard of WavePad before.

We've been using Audacity though I agree with derekchaplin that the downsampling isn't too good so we do the downsampling as a separate process on the command line with lame (the mp3 encoder that ironically is used by Audacity for mp3 work).

In case anyone wants it the command to get it to 32kps in mono is :
lame -m m --mp3input -b32kbps

[Jon WBC]

Hi

Well had a play with wavepad and not bad although still finding my way around it.

One thing I've not found that would be useful is quick keys to set the begining and end of selection instead of dragging the cusor. Is this possible?


I've not given up on Audacity I plan to go back and revisit that

Thanks Jon