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Topic: Audacity - file formats i can edit ? (Read 19946 times) previous topic - next topic
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Re: Audacity - file formats i can edit ?

Reply #125
i have come across a file that says "untitled hidden track".  it runs for 6 seconds, and then goes on to play a good song.  when i do a "properties" on the file, it is quite small.  so it shows that it is about 6 seconds long.

any way that i can get to the real song, and get rid of the 6 seconds of nonsense ?

Re: Audacity - file formats i can edit ?

Reply #126
If it is mp3 or aac, you can use mp3directcut to losslessly cut the song.

Re: Audacity - file formats i can edit ?

Reply #127
thanks.  neither foobar, audacity or vlc will play the song.  it just plays the 6 seconds of the titled track.  itunes is the only program that i have used that will play the song.  i was hoping to take the hidden track, and make it a separate track.  so i could manipulate it like a regular song.  i found no way to do that, so i am not gonna fiddle around with it.  i have seen other cds with hidden tracks.  i find it an absolutely annoying gimic.

 

Re: Audacity - file formats i can edit ?

Reply #128
if a normalized song sounds softer to you than the rest of your songs, it is probably because there are one or more peaks in the song that keeps the volume of the rest of the song down.  easiest fix is to de-amplify the peaks, and then re-normalize it

Re: Audacity - file formats i can edit ?

Reply #129
it has been awhile since i last posted.  i normalized all my files to 89 db.  the surprise is that there is quite a bit of difference in loudness between these new mono m4a files and the stereo mp3 files.  the m4a files are considerably louder.  does that surprise any of you ?  my first fixit is i am normalizing all the mp3 files to 91 db.  and see if that brings them a bit closer

Re: Audacity - file formats i can edit ?

Reply #130
hi, havent been here for awhile.  thought i would give a new update.  now that i have all the tools, i am enjoying this LIFELONG project of downloading and editing my music to the computer.  a note about "loudness".  i am using the program  SOUND NORMALIZER.  it does a good job.  all such programs seem to all work on the same wave form principle.  you give it a loudness, and then they up the waveform, until the first peak reaches the asked for decibel level.  if any of your song seems unusually softer than most of the rest of them, the first thing to do is look at the wave form, and see if it has a small number of peaks.  if there is one or a few peaks that are higher than the rest of the song, this will prevent the entire song from going any higher. 

i will 1) go back and de-amplify the small number of peaks, and then re-do the normalization process.  or 2) amplify the areas in between all the peaks.  very rarely will you notice any differences in the song, other than the loudness levels are more even.

if it is a ballad, sometimes i dont mind soft and loud sections.  although i often make soft sections, louder.  but if it is a faster song, where the "beat" is important, i almost never like it when some sections are louder than others.  so i will bring up the softer sections.

if anyone has any questions on loudness normalization, feel free to ask.  at this point, there is little that i have not run into, in terms of typical musical editing.  i edit almost every single song.  getting rid of most introductions, ends of songs that drag on, irritating music in the middle of the song, etc. 

if it is a stereo recording, i can usually take a song that i like ( good melody ), and make it sound good enough for me to keep.  on about 9 out of 10 songs.  it all depends on what i dont like, and how the song was recorded.  but i have developed a lot of techniques, so i dont have to give up on too many songs.

Re: Audacity - file formats i can edit ?

Reply #131
i had a song with some sections a little more quiet than i would have preferred.  so i added some volume to various sections of the two tracks.  it worked great.  it added some storage to the file size.  not a lot, but i wasnt thinking that did anything.  i thought it was just directly connected to the length of the song.  but apparently, two songs of the exact same time length will not necessarily take up the exact same amount of disk space.

Re: Audacity - file formats i can edit ?

Reply #132
so i have gotten pretty good with audacity ( at least the functions that i use ).  a new thing i would like to do, and i dont know if audacity has the ability.  but i would like to give audacity a number, and have everything above and below that number be deleted from the wave WITHOUT TOUCHING any of the rest of the wave.  right now, each channel goes from -1 to +1.  so i would like to delete everything above .8. for example.  and delete everything below -.8.  is there something in audacity that does this ?

Re: Audacity - file formats i can edit ?

Reply #133
so i have gotten pretty good with audacity ( at least the functions that i use ).  a new thing i would like to do, and i dont know if audacity has the ability.  but i would like to give audacity a number, and have everything above and below that number be deleted from the wave WITHOUT TOUCHING any of the rest of the wave.  right now, each channel goes from -1 to +1.  so i would like to delete everything above .8. for example.  and delete everything below -.8.  is there something in audacity that does this ?
Best to ask in the Audacity forum, I would have thought!

What you could try:
  • Increase the gain so that the sections exceeding your threshold are literally clipping;
  • Use the Analyse > Find Clipping tool to create a label track marking the clipped sections;
  • Use the label track to select the sections you wish to remove;
  • Delete.
It's your privilege to disagree, but that doesn't make you right and me wrong.

Re: Audacity - file formats i can edit ?

Reply #134
i was thinking that they wanted me to keep all my questions in this one thread ?  i was having a problem with step 3.  it showed me a bunch of icons to click in the clicking section, but i did not really understand what they meant.  when i clicked 24 of 24, i then hit the edit button and the delete button.  it deleted the whole thing.  i dont think i communicated to you very well what i wanted to do.  so let me try again, in the following post

Re: Audacity - file formats i can edit ?

Reply #135
the way that loudness works is that it looks at the actual wave, and then adjusts it to the highest or lowest peak that it can find.  that is a poor way to look at it.  the real loudness of a song is mainly determined by how fat the middle section of the wave is.  if a song just has one high peak, then i can just increase the loudness to the right of it, and to the left of it.  and also with a few peaks.  but sometimes there are just too many peaks, that this process is not really an option.  i do not want to delete any section of the song, such that the length of the song would shorten.  your explanation would work for me, if i could just delete the clipped section.  and it may very well do that - i just did not understand how to do that.  in other words, i raise the gain to the point that some of the high peaks go into the clipping area.  and then i do some process (possibly yours) that leaves me with that exact same wave field with the exception that whatever had reached the clipping section had been gained down such that it now just simply reaches the top of non clipping.

Re: Audacity - file formats i can edit ?

Reply #136
i was thinking that they wanted me to keep all my questions in this one thread ?
Who is "they"?

It is usually better to ask one particular question in any specific thread, with any subsequent discussion, so that it remains relevant to the thread title.  Most technical forums will insist on that.  Otherwise information becomes difficult to find.

But my point was: there is an Audacity users forum (not HA) where there will be Audacity experts to answer any questions.  This is not the Audacity forum.

i do not want to delete any section of the song, such that the length of the song would shorten.
Well, sorry – you said:
have everything above and below that number be deleted from the wave
...so I took that to mean you did want to delete!  I'm sorry I bothered trying to answer, what a waste of my time.

I now take it you want to reduce (not delete!) the level of the loudest parts of the track, without reducing the level of the quieter parts.  That is called compression, and you will find it on the effects menu with settings for the threshold and amount.
It's your privilege to disagree, but that doesn't make you right and me wrong.

Re: Audacity - file formats i can edit ?

Reply #137
ok, thanks.  i will look into it.  i am acquainted with a number of people on this site, so i pretty much come here any time i have a question about anything.  but i guess i could try the audacity forum, as well.  not sure i ever thought about there being one.