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Shareware PC audio editing program: insert markers, etc.

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don tuttle

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Nov 22, 2009, 6:28:56 PM11/22/09
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I will appreciate recommendations for a shareware or inexpensive audio
editing program for PC that will enable recording from a cassette
recorder, normalizing, inserting markers, splitting according to
markers, and burning to CD.
I use Amadeus Pro on the Mac and would like to find a PC application
with similar functions.
Thanks.
Don

Nil

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Nov 22, 2009, 7:07:07 PM11/22/09
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On 22 Nov 2009, don tuttle <d...@noplace.net> wrote in rec.audio.pro:

> I will appreciate recommendations for a shareware or inexpensive
> audio editing program for PC that will enable recording from a
> cassette recorder, normalizing, inserting markers, splitting
> according to markers, and burning to CD.

The free editor Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) will do all
that except burning to CD. You'd need a separate program for that.

Reaper (http://www.cockos.com/reaper/) is a full-featured multitrack
editor/DAW so it's a little overqualified for your purpose, but it
meets all your requirements.

The popular CD burning suite Nero includes a simple audio
recorder/editor that can do all that (if I recall correctly.)

The excellent free CD ripping program Exact Audio Copy (EAC)
(http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/) can do all that. You might find the
interface a little clunky, though).

The shareware CDWave
(http://www.milosoftware.com/en/index.php?body=cdwave.php) is good for
splitting big WAV files into CD tracks. It can record, but not
normalize adjust volume.

don tuttle

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Nov 22, 2009, 11:02:43 PM11/22/09
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In article <Xns9CCBC27D...@130.133.1.4>, Nil
<redn...@REMOVETHIScomcast.net> wrote:


Thanks for help. I saw 2008 comment online "Audacity does not have a
track break/marker tool." If it now does, could you pls tell me where
it is? I cannot find it on Mac Audacity and would like to be able to
tell the PC guy helping me where it is in PC Audacity. Thx. Don

geoff

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Nov 22, 2009, 11:03:51 PM11/22/09
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don tuttle wrote:
>
>
> Thanks for help. I saw 2008 comment online "Audacity does not have a
> track break/marker tool." If it now does, could you pls tell me where
> it is? I cannot find it on Mac Audacity and would like to be able to
> tell the PC guy helping me where it is in PC Audacity. Thx. Don

Of course the term 'Shareware ' is a bit vague these days . Many mainline
apps work on a similar principla, and the term smacks more of 'amateur' that
the sales model itself.

You can download demo versions of mainstram applications , such as Sound
Forge ( or SF Audio Studio, the cut-down version) , etc, for free and pay if
it does what you want.


geoff


Nil

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Nov 23, 2009, 12:00:45 AM11/23/09
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On 22 Nov 2009, don tuttle <d...@noplace.net> wrote in rec.audio.pro:

> Thanks for help. I saw 2008 comment online "Audacity does not have
> a track break/marker tool." If it now does, could you pls tell me
> where it is? I cannot find it on Mac Audacity and would like to be
> able to tell the PC guy helping me where it is in PC Audacity.

It's not very intuitive. You need to add a new Label track (Tracks |
Add New | Label Track). Then you can select a region of your project
with the mouse, then choose Tracks | Add Label at Selection from the
menu. Add as many labeled regions you want. You can drag the boundaries
of the regions around as you like. Lastly, you can split the labeled
regions into separate files by doing File | Export Multiple.

I just learned how to do this today!

Peter Larsen

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Nov 23, 2009, 5:38:31 AM11/23/09
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don tuttle wrote:

Goldwave is a likely candidate.

Kind regards

Peter Larsen

> Thanks.
> Don


Mike Rivers

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Nov 23, 2009, 6:47:21 AM11/23/09
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Nil wrote:
> On 22 Nov 2009, don tuttle <d...@noplace.net> wrote in rec.audio.pro:
>> Thanks for help. I saw 2008 comment online "Audacity does not have
>> a track break/marker tool."

> It's not very intuitive. You need to add a new Label track (Tracks |

> Add New | Label Track). Then you can select a region of your project
> with the mouse, then choose Tracks | Add Label at Selection from the
> menu. Add as many labeled regions you want. You can drag the boundaries
> of the regions around as you like. Lastly, you can split the labeled
> regions into separate files by doing File | Export Multiple.

How very Unix-like, but effective. Thanks for posting this tip in a
place where a
lot of people who use Audacity don't hang out on a dedicated Audacity
forum.
I doubt I'll ever need it, but I know someone who uses Audacity will get
some
good mileage from this "new" cabability.

How long has this been going on, by the way? I keep a copy of Audacity on
my computers just in case, but don't get an update but about once every year
or year or two. I'll have to look at my current versions to see if it's
there.

Mike Rivers

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Nov 23, 2009, 7:06:07 AM11/23/09
to
Nil wrote:

> It's not very intuitive. You need to add a new Label track (Tracks |
> Add New | Label Track). Then you can select a region of your project
> with the mouse, then choose Tracks | Add Label at Selection from the
> menu. Add as many labeled regions you want.

After that "thanks" I'll have to add that it's not intuitive enough for
me to
figure it out. Maybe I don't have a sufficiently up-to-date version of
Audacity.

I found the Label Track and Add Label at Selection. A section of the Label
Track was highlighted over the region I selected on the audio track. When
clicking on something else, it removed the highlighting and left a pair of
flags to mark the beginning and end of the region I marked. So far so good.
I renamed the label track "Intro."

Then when I wanted to add a second labeled region, I couldn't figure out
how to do that. If I added a second Label Track, I couldn't get the second
marked region into the second label track. It kept changing the markers in
the "Intro" track. I tried moving the new label track up, thinking that
it might
only work on the top Label Track. (How Unix-like!). Nope, that didn't work
either.

So can you step through the process of, say, selecting several songs from
a recording and "label" each one?


Nil

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Nov 23, 2009, 3:33:09 PM11/23/09
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On 23 Nov 2009, Mike Rivers <mri...@d-and-d.com> wrote in
rec.audio.pro:

> So can you step through the process of, say, selecting several
> songs from a recording and "label" each one?

OK. I really haven't used Audacity much, I just keep it on my computer
so I can make sure it's a good recommendation for a free and capable
editor. I just learned how to do this yesterday in response to the
question. I see now that it's even easier than I said before...

1. Open your big WAV file, of course.

2. Make sure you have the Selection Tool active. Select a portion of
the audio by sweeping across it with the mouse. I like to start at the
tracks end and sweep toward the beginning.

3. Choose Tracks | Add Label at Selection from the menu, or hit Ctrl-B.
This will automatically add a Label Track. The cursor will be waiting
for you to type in a label for the newly created region.

4. Select another region from later in the big file as you did the
first. You will find that as you bump up an adjoining region that it
stick there and a vertical yellow line appears - this helps you get the
regions to butt up against each other properly. Lather, rinse, repeat.

5. Export the tracks with File | Export Multiple.

Nil

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Nov 23, 2009, 3:59:32 PM11/23/09
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On 23 Nov 2009, Nil <redn...@REMOVETHIScomcast.net> wrote in
rec.audio.pro:

> 1. Open your big WAV file, of course.
>
> 2. Make sure you have the Selection Tool active. Select a portion
> of the audio by sweeping across it with the mouse. I like to start
> at the tracks end and sweep toward the beginning.
>
> 3. Choose Tracks | Add Label at Selection from the menu, or hit
> Ctrl-B. This will automatically add a Label Track. The cursor will
> be waiting for you to type in a label for the newly created
> region.
>
> 4. Select another region from later in the big file as you did the
> first. You will find that as you bump up an adjoining region that
> it stick there and a vertical yellow line appears - this helps you
> get the regions to butt up against each other properly. Lather,
> rinse, repeat.
>
> 5. Export the tracks with File | Export Multiple.

Just for the hell of it, I made a little movie demo of the above
process with a screen capture program I'm playing with. The clip is
about 25 MB, so it may or may not not be worth the download time, but
here it is:

<http://home.comcast.net/~esionder/temp/Audacity-tracksplit.avi>

Nil

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Nov 24, 2009, 9:31:45 PM11/24/09
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Was this of any help to anyone?


On 23 Nov 2009, Nil <redn...@REMOVETHIScomcast.net> wrote in
rec.audio.pro:

> On 23 Nov 2009, Mike Rivers <mri...@d-and-d.com> wrote in


> rec.audio.pro:
>
>> So can you step through the process of, say, selecting several
>> songs from a recording and "label" each one?
>
> OK. I really haven't used Audacity much, I just keep it on my
> computer so I can make sure it's a good recommendation for a free
> and capable editor. I just learned how to do this yesterday in
> response to the question. I see now that it's even easier than I
> said before...
>
> 1. Open your big WAV file, of course.
>
> 2. Make sure you have the Selection Tool active. Select a portion
> of the audio by sweeping across it with the mouse. I like to start

> at the track's end and sweep toward the beginning.


>
> 3. Choose Tracks | Add Label at Selection from the menu, or hit
> Ctrl-B. This will automatically add a Label Track. The cursor will
> be waiting for you to type in a label for the newly created
> region.
>
> 4. Select another region from later in the big file as you did the
> first. You will find that as you bump up an adjoining region that

> it sticks there and a vertical yellow line appears - this helps you

Mike Rivers

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Nov 25, 2009, 10:12:41 AM11/25/09
to
Nil wrote:
> Was this of any help to anyone?

It will, if I remember it next time I'm using Audacity and need
to split up a file. Perhaps it's because I don't really understand
the graphics of the Label track, but it's hard to tell that it's
working. I expected that by naming the label track I could name
each sectin (Song 1, Song 2, etc.) but it seems that there's only
one label track for the project even though Ctrl-B is nomially "Create
a label track."

Nil

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Nov 25, 2009, 11:40:23 AM11/25/09
to
On 25 Nov 2009, Mike Rivers <mri...@d-and-d.com> wrote in
rec.audio.pro:

> Nil wrote:

You can separately name each region. Read my description again - step 3
is specific about that. And the video I posted shows it in action.

Mike Rivers

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Nov 25, 2009, 1:30:17 PM11/25/09
to
Nil wrote:

> You can separately name each region. Read my description again - step 3
> is specific about that. And the video I posted shows it in action.

I looked at the video and I see that you have a different version than I
have. I have
1.2.6 which is the last non-beta version. You must have 1.3.something. I
see from
the Audacity web site page that it was at 1.3 that they added the
"improved Label
track."

Mine has the ability to create a Label track but there's no "Track" in
the main menu
bar. I don't use the program very often, mostly only when I want to
recommend it to
someone and check to be sure it does what he wants. I'll load up the
latest version
and see what's new.

Thanks

Mike Rivers

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Nov 25, 2009, 5:31:30 PM11/25/09
to
Mike Rivers (That's me!) wrote:

> I looked at the video and I see that you have a different version than I
> have. I have
> 1.2.6 which is the last non-beta version. You must have 1.3.something.

I installed the latest version 1.3.9 Beta and it works just like you
say. But
that doesn't mean I'll remember it. <g>

Nil

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Nov 25, 2009, 10:42:24 PM11/25/09
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On 25 Nov 2009, Mike Rivers <mri...@d-and-d.com> wrote in
rec.audio.pro:

> I installed the latest version 1.3.9 Beta and it works just like


> you say. But that doesn't mean I'll remember it. <g>

Ah, so, it was a version discrepancy. I should have thought of that.

Anyway, you don't have to remember this - now that we've had this
discussion, you can search for it the google archives.

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