adding continuous playing tracks to a recording (SOLVED)

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Billy Dean
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adding continuous playing tracks to a recording (SOLVED)

I am a true novice at the age of 62 and have no recording tech vocabulary and have installed the Audacity from website.
The most I have done is with an old ap - CoolEdit 2000 used to edit and convert a few recording.

Desktop using Windows XP - Pac 2 - Home Edition
Audacity 1.3.13 Beta based on instruction above my post - I will update my version.

I attempted a few months back to do the following and had no success.
I have MP3 and WAV format recordings.
They are single recordings from 15min to 120min.

Can Audacity "add" or "insert" CONTINUOUS playing tracks to these recordings.

for example - if my master copy is 60 min long I would like to insert 10 or 11 tracks so each track would be only 5 to 6 minutes long. then when I copy the recording to a CD it will play continuously but give the listener the ability to find given track or fast fwd and back to desired location.
Detail instruction is needed. Still not familiar with the menus etc.
Billy 817-595-1982

Last edited by Billy Dean on Fri Apr 24, 2015 3:56 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: marked "SOLVED"


kozikowski
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Re: adding continuous playing tracks to a single long record

Post by kozikowski » Fri Mar 23, 2012 9:04 pm

Audacity has Labels and you can use labels with a special Export command to cut your show up into individual songs. You need to know that Music CDs need a Music CD Authoring Program. You can't just copy music files to a CD and call it done. Music CDs are a special format of disk. Windows Media can be used to create a Music CD, but I don't know if the one in Windows XP will do that or not. It's a relatively recent addition.

Anyway, back in Audacity, you place a label at the beginning of each song. Don't forget a label at the beginning of the first song. Tracks > Add Label... or use the shortcut keys. After you get your big show cut up into songs, File > Export Multiple and follow the instructions. That should produce a pile of short music files wherever you saved them to.

Select the pile of separate music files that Audacity made and open them in Windows Media. This is where I get seriously foggy since I don't use Windows Media, but the idea is to arrange the songs in Windows Media and during the burn (typically) you can choose the time gap between songs. Pick none. That will produce a Music CD that will play continuously beginning to end, but allow you to skip forward or back as needed -- like an opera.

http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Tuto ... iscs_to_CD

Koz


Billy Dean
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Re: adding continuous playing tracks to a single long record

Post by Billy Dean » Fri Mar 23, 2012 10:25 pm

Koz,
Thanks for the response. However the instructions given appear not to be for my question.
My recording IS NOT MUSIC but an voice audio recording (teaching etc). No songs, not a group of short recording but one long single track/recording that I wish to insert Tracks creating several tracks instead of one single track.
CAN AUDACITY DO THIS?
Thanks,
Billy


billw58
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Re: adding continuous playing tracks to a single long record

Post by billw58 » Sat Mar 24, 2012 1:30 am

Billy:
Ignore the fact that the tutorial talks about songs. Simply put labels to mark where you would like each CD track to start. In the text of each label put what you'd like the exported audio file to be named. There are options in the Export Multiple dialog to prepend numbers to the label text, or simply use the file name followed by numbers. Choose to export to WAV format. You will end up with 10 or 11 audio files (in your example). As Koz points out, you then need to burn those files to an audio CD using whatever CD burning software you may have. In the CD burning software, choose to put 0 seconds "pause" between the tracks - this way it will play continuously but still have tracks the user can skip to.

-- Bill


Billy Dean
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Re: adding continuous playing tracks to a single long record

Post by Billy Dean » Sat Mar 24, 2012 5:44 pm

3-24-12 12:30pm cdt
Bill,
I have worked on this an still no success.
However, I did find in v 2.0, not sure if it was in 1.3, but a menu item 'Analyze > Regular Interval Labels... '
This appears to do what I wanted, but still once created and numbered when I export to MP3 from the created Audacity file AND
THEN burn that file, it still burns with only one of one track (1/1) instead of the 13 that was created.
So when a label is inserted/created will it/should it? show up as a separate "track for each label" in the new exported file?
If it should, I am not getting the multi track recording when I play it or burn it then play it. It appears labels are NOT creating separate tracks. Of course the operator must know what he is doing and I am lacking experience for sure, so it must be me.
Billy Dean 817-595-1982



kozikowski
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Re: adding continuous playing tracks to a single long record

Post by kozikowski » Sat Mar 24, 2012 11:07 pm

As above, it doesn't matter what the show is. Busting it up into segments is exactly the same.

You should get a separate label track underneath your show when you start to add labels (see pix).

You should resist the urge to create MP3s. MP3 is a compressed audio format suitable for portable music players. It creates sound damage while it's working. Export as WAV and the quality will stay the same -- high -- down the whole pathway to the CD. Koz

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kozikowski
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Re: adding continuous playing tracks to a single long record

Post by kozikowski » Sat Mar 24, 2012 11:21 pm

I'm typing this between jobs.

You should have the same number of exported individual sound files that you had labels. You don't get one magic sound file that breaks itself up later. In a computer file system, files will always line up according to name or date or some other scheme like that. In a CD Authoring Program, you can force any order you want. In music, you pick the order that you like to experience the songs. In your case, you need to get the speech or text order right.

And yes, reduce the time between "songs" from 2 seconds (normal) to zero.

Koz


Billy Dean
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Re: adding continuous playing tracks to a single long record

Post by Billy Dean » Sun Mar 25, 2012 12:24 am

Hey Guys, we did it. THANK YOU ALL
I got a 60 min 40 sec recording burned into 13, 5min tracks and it plays continuously.
Using ver 2.0
1 - Import your single audio recording into Audacity
2- Go to Analyze > Regular Interval Labels, a set up screen will appear to set your parameters (note- the length is asking for sec (ie 300 sec for a 5 min interval)
3 - Then File > Export Multiple (make note or be aware of the location where the file will export to) You will need to respond OK for each Label in the 'mediadata' screen and a separate file for each label will be created.
4 - Using your preferred Application to burn your Audio CD, select all of the label file that were created in the Export Multiple. Be sure the files appear in correct order before burn is done.

My simple outline but for anyone needing detail refer to the earlier posts to my question.
Thanks again for each of the forum participants help and support.
Blessing to each of you.
Billy Dean the happy novice


steve
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Re: adding continuous playing tracks to a single long record

Post by steve » Sun Mar 25, 2012 1:20 pm

Billy Dean wrote:You will need to respond OK for each Label in the 'mediadata' screen

If you're not needing to enter Metadata for each track you can bypass this step by changing a setting in Preferences:
Edit menu > Preferences > Import/Export
De-select (un-check) "Show Metadata Editor prior to export step".

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