Audacity and Tracks

[techie2k4]

Hi... got a question regarding creating tracks in Audacity. I typically record the sermon with Audacity for later use as an mp3 file for upload purposes. If I want to create a CD i'd like to be able to "add tracks" say every 5 minutes or so... is there a way to automatically insert tracks at set time intervals (like very 5 mins.) I am aware of the label feature to manually add tracks, but as this is not practical for my application just wondering if anybody has any idea about doing this somewhat automatically based on time intervals???

[greg4god]

This is easy to do, you just need to set up a "track file" once then import it to each project before doing the multiple export.

Open up Notepad.exe (If you don't use it often, its under START->Programs->Accessories). You can also use another editor, but make sure it saves out as a pure text file.

Put the following in the new text file. The time is # of seconds, so this is doing it every 5 minutes. Note do NOT use Spaces between the time and the track name, just hit TAB once:

0 Track 1
300 Track 2
600 Track 3
900 Track 4
1200 Track 5
1500 Track 6
1800 Track 7
2100 Track 8
2400 Track 9
2700 Track 10
3000 Track 11
3300 Track 12

Save this file as 60Min-5Int.txt

This file will be good for messages lasting up to 60 minutes. (Track 12 starts at 55 minutes). Adjust for what length your normal service lasts, save out a couple adjusted for what you may use.

If you are usially between 30 and 40 minutes, I'd make a 30Min-5Int.txt, 35Min-5Int.txt, 40Min-5Int.txt Remember, set them up so the last tack is actually the 5 minutes before the filename.

Now, load up your project you want to work on. When you are ready to export, do Project->Import Labels and choose the file that fits. (ie, if the message is 33 minutes, choose 40Min-5Int.txt). Me personally, if it only goes over the 5 minute mark by under a minute, I choose the next smaller one.

Anyhow, you will now have labels at 0 and every 5 minutes. Now you can do the File->Export Multiple. From here you can do Split on Labels (since we set one at 0, you can leave the "include audio before first Label" unchecked.)

One note for if you are going to export these to an audio CD, in your authoring program, most of them default to a 2 second gap between tracks. Be sure to set these to 0, so when listening there is not gap.

-Greg

PS. Not really asked, but I always plug this while on a topic like this:

http://www.conversationsnetwork.org/levelator is one fantastic program from leveling speeches/sermons. Not for music though.

The only issue is you cannot use it directly in audacity (at least last time I downloaded it), so you do have to take the extra step to export your final file to a .WAV file, then run it though levelator, and then open that WAV file in Audacity. however, IMO this is WELL worth the extra steps!

Now, that being said, if you have a place in the audio where you specifically need it to drop in level (ie. pastor gets really quiet to make a point). you will need to manually reduce the level once you get it back from audacity. The best way is this:

Right before you export the file as a WAV, create Labels to mark the start/end of the quiet periods, or where you need to adjsut. Export that Label file to a .txt file. Then export the WAV, run it through Levelator, Open up the output .WAV file in audacity, and import the label track you just made. Now you know where to look to adjust things. Then you can delete that label track and import the 5-minute one to continue with the export multiple.

[techie2k4]

Oh PRAISE THE LORD for you Brother!!! I just knew it could be done... just couldn't figure it out on my own LOL!

[waynehoskins]

If you're on a UNIX system (or Linux, Mac, etc.) I believe you can pipe it through ffmpeg to do that as well. I also wrote a neato script the other week that writes timehack events to a file (things like "track", "sermon start") and an export utility that in my case reads that timehack file and dumps out the sermon. It seems to be going well.

[techie2k4]

Haven't gotten around to playing much with recording in ubuntu but this is some very good info. Thank you as well.-Al

[Duggus]

Through research in the these forums, I found, tried, and succeeded in putting numbered tracks into my audacity edits. There's a free download called NCH Audio File Splitter. You do your work in Audacity, save to your disc or to your flash drive, bring up the splitter, drag & drop the edited file into it, set the time for the tracks, hit the button and it makes a set of files out of the one you dragged in. It also puts the set of files back into your disk or flash, so you can open your burner, drag and drop all the files together just like making a music disc. It is sweet!!

[Frank DeWitt]

Another way is to use EZTrackerCD instead of Audacity http://eztrackercd.com/

It costs $30 but it will do everything you want automatically during the service and more.

For example, we use it to record the service to two files One continues for the internet, and one split every 5 min Also we can click a button any time and manual start a new track, we have a track for the opening, and each song, and then when the sermon starts we let the automatic timer take over. At the end of the service we are ready to burn CDs

Frank

[Duggus]

I posted some time ago about this problem, and at another thread I found the greatest product I'd ever seen. Best part is that it's free. There is a company called NCH that has a program called "Slice". You can download it in 20 seconds or so off the web. You load the whole file from your flash drive, set the length of the tracks you want, click, and it dices it before it puts the new tracks back into your flash drive. Truly one of the best products I've ever used. Now I'm a happy camper. :0)