Looking For VERY Simple Editing Software

[JSngry]

Ok, I've been checking out these non-stop house mixes from http://www.routesinrhythm.com/routes/index.html and they're all one continuous track. Needless to say, some tracks I like more than others, so I'd like to insert track #s in the files to facilitate skipping those I don't want to hear.

Any suggestions?

As always, thanks in advance!

[rockefeller center]

Windows? http://www.goldwave.com

[Dan Gould]

That's what I use. Shareware available on the site, or else its something like $30 American to purchase.

Sounds like this a project much like receiving a live recording that isn't track indexed. May I suggest that the way you want to do the breaking up is from the end of the file to the beginning. In other words, find the starting point of the last song. When you've saved that song, move the end point to the starting point and work backwards to find the new starting point of the previous track. By doing it this way, you'll never be confused about end points, because you won't be moving them around.

[Neal Pomea]

I read the Get Help material with Goldwave to get started and did not understand a bit of it. It doesn't seem to even find where on my computer the file is coming from (Audio CD (F:). If this is so easy, can you tell me how to get started? Thanks.

[Dan Gould]

I read the Get Help material with Goldwave to get started and did not understand a bit of it. It doesn't seem to even find where on my computer the file is coming from (Audio CD (F:). If this is so easy, can you tell me how to get started? Thanks.

Is it a music CD in the F drive or is it a data disc?

If it is a music CD, you need to extract the files into a format that you can edit.

Use Tool ---> CD Reader

choose the files you want and click "Save"

You need to write a path to where you want to put the files (don't worry about creating a folder, if the path doesn't exist it will ask if you want it to create it).

Now, are you trying to save the file as an MP3 or something like that? Pick the file attributes you want. (WAV is the standard type for editing - PCM signed 16 bit stereo is equivalent to redbook CD)

If the disc in your drive is a data disc, then its very simple:

Click Open and navigate to the disc drive. If the files are in a format that Goldwave recognizes, then you can open them.

Next question is, are you interested in the same thing that jsngry is, or are you using Goldwave for a different purpose?

[Neal Pomea]

Thanks, Dan. Turns out I was looking at Multisequence instead of GoldWave. I just now got Goldwave and saved a music file of mp3s as WAV files.

Yes, I think my goal is like JSngry's. I have some homemade cds I would like to edit. Some tracks are 24 minutes long but they contain 5 or more songs. I want to break them up into their individual tunes. And if possible I would like to equalize the sound. It goes from loud to faint. Originally recorded on a cheap reel to reel, I believe.

[Dan Gould]

Thanks, Dan. Turns out I was looking at Multisequence instead of GoldWave. I just now got Goldwave and saved a music file of mp3s as WAV files.

Yes, I think my goal is like JSngry's. I have some homemade cds I would like to edit. Some tracks are 24 minutes long but they contain 5 or more songs. I want to break them up into their individual tunes. And if possible I would like to equalize the sound. It goes from loud to faint. Originally recorded on a cheap reel to reel, I believe.

OK. Goldwave changed the method of selecting parts of a sound. The old (and better) way can be accessed through clicking

Options -> Window

Click on Use left and right mouse button selection method

Now, when you right click on the end of a song, the end point is selected.

Left click at the start of the song.

Choose "Save Selection As" from the File menu and call it Track 005.

Now, Right click where you put the previous START marker. You've now changed this to the new END marker.

Left click at the start of Track 004.

Choose Save Selection As and save it as track 004.

Lather, rinse and repeat, and you can split up your tracks very quickly.

Now, for "equalization" or really I think it would be called normalization, there are two options:

Burning programs like Nero have options that will boost levels across all tracks of a CD. If that is an option for you, you might try it and see what happens.

With Goldwave, open one of the tracks you've saved.

Click on Effect -> Volume and choose "Maximize"

There are presets like "full dynamic range" or you may simply choose 90%. This will boost all levels to 90% of the maximum. If you have some tracks that are louder, this will bring them down a bit. The low tracks will get a bigger boost.

If you don't want to use the pre-sets, you can enter a number in the box at the upper right. When I want really strong levels, I'll go around -.5 which is equivalent to 95% of the max (don't ask why you can't just enter the percentage you want - for some reason it is in DBs)

You can also use the slider, but its not that sensitive so I always enter a number.

Basically, you want to apply the same effect to all tracks, and you should end up with improved fidelity. Only caveat to that is that for the tracks you boost, you are bringing up both the signal and the noise floor. In some cases you may discover that the tracks don't sound as good as you hoped, because the increase is so great that the noise really comes out, too. And then when you play one of the tracks that had strong levels, the absence of the noise floor will be very pronounced.

if that turns out to be the case, the answer is real simple - experiment with the best increase for the low levels that still sounds good, and doesn't sound shitty next to the high level tracks.

good luck!

[Neal Pomea]

That's very helpful, Dan! I think I am at the lather, rinse, and repeat stage!

I gather that I need to put all my markers for start and end first, and go from there? Do you just hear it in real time and do that at the breakpoints, or zoom ahead in the main window by moving the vertical lines right and left?

Also, I am only seeing the Main and Control windows, but not the Sound window. Do I even need to see that at this stage, or is that something to see after editing, to judge the levels I should use?

I understand your points about normalization. I will play around with that. I suspect that there will be a lot of floor noise as they were live recordings from a reel to reel.

[Dan Gould]

That's very helpful, Dan! I think I am at the lather, rinse, and repeat stage!

I gather that I need to put all my markers for start and end first, and go from there? Do you just hear it in real time and do that at the breakpoints, or zoom ahead in the main window by moving the vertical lines right and left?

Also, I am only seeing the Main and Control windows, but not the Sound window. Do I even need to see that at this stage, or is that something to see after editing, to judge the levels I should use?

I understand your points about normalization. I will play around with that. I suspect that there will be a lot of floor noise as they were live recordings from a reel to reel.

I'm a little confused by your terminology (I've been using Goldwave too long). When you open a sound file, you should see the sound window (the file itself). The control window has the play/record/pause etc buttons. Not sure what "Main' window is, unless that is the big window that has all of the pull-down menus.

Now, to see the file at greater detail, go View -> ten seconds. this will put you where you need to be to see the start points of your tunes.

Now, another way to "move" the markers is clicking and dragging. Let's say the last track of the file starts at minute 16:00 and ends at 20:00. Those four minutes would then be the part of the file that is "bright" and when you choose Edit - save selection as, that is what you are saving.

After you've saved, if you right click within that "bright" part of the big sound file and drag to the left, you will eventually move the end marker to the previous start marker. Now, from that very spot, left click and drag to the left, and find the beginning of the previous song, When you are happy with that start marker, you save selection again.

When you say that you want to put all start and end markers first, that's actually not the way I have been describing it - but I believe its a function that Goldwave does have. You could mark start and end points throughout the file, and save each one as a track. I'm just not familiar with it, as I have always used the method I've described above - pick the start and end time of the last track, save, then use the start time of that track as the end time of the previous track. find your new start time, save again. And so on ...

When you are ready to do the normalization, what you want to do is make sure that you have selected the entire track before you apply the effect. Last thing you want to do is end up applying the effect from 10 seconds in to the end, and then save the result. So make sure the whole file is "bright". Then when you do apply the effect, if you have it at view - ten seconds, you'll really see the increase. Otherwise, you can select view - all, and you'll see the increase across the whole file.

Hope this is all clear!

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I've used Audacity (from www.download.com) for years. It's great and it's free. Chops up .wav or .mp3 files. I used it to make ring tones for my cell.

[Neal Pomea]

Well, I succeeded with my first project! I may not have done it the easiest way, but at least it worked!

Select a track. Determine the start and end times of the segment to be broken out. To do that, click the play icon and note the clock toward the bottom of the graph. Next click the Set icon. Enter the start and finish times. Click Ok. Go to File at the upper left and click Save Selection As. This saves it as a wav file. Once saved, click the title, right click and select Convert Audio Format. Save as an mp3 in the desired folder.

I will have to play around with equalizing the sound. I followed suggestions to save at 90% capacity but it didn't really change anything in this instance. I guess that means the sound was already optimized?

Edited February 3, 2007 by It Should be You

[Dan Gould]

Well, I succeeded with my first project! I may not have done it the easiest way, but at least it worked!

Select a track. Determine the start and end times of the segment to be broken out. To do that, click the play icon and note the clock toward the bottom of the graph. Next click the Set icon. Enter the start and finish times. Click Ok. Go to File at the upper left and click Save Selection As. This saves it as a wav file. Once saved, click the title, right click and select Convert Audio Format. Save as an mp3 in the desired folder.

I will have to play around with equalizing the sound. I followed suggestions to save at 90% capacity but it didn't really change anything in this instance. I guess that means the sound was already optimized?

Well, I'm glad that it worked, though you stumbled across a different way than what I was trying to describe. One quick note: When you click "Save Selection As" there is a pull-down menu of all the different formats Goldwave supports. So you can pick "MP3" directly instead of your right click - convert audio format. Also, I would only save to MP3 if you want to get this into a portable format. For burning CDs (which I assume you want to do eventually), always use wav files.

edit: Also, when you save as an MP3, the default setting is 128 KBPS, but it supports higher resolution. You can scroll up and select up to 320 KBPS, and get a much higher quality MP3.

As for optimizing levels, yeah, if 90% didn't make much of a change, then its pretty well optimized. When you said that there were some very soft tracks, I imagined that the levels were low enough that this would make a big impact. Remember that whatever you do, apply the same effect to all tracks so that they sound consistent.

Also, you should be aware that the optimization process is limited by the loudest peak of the recording. It takes that peak, lifts it to the level you've chosen, and everything else is lifted to the same proportionate level. Bottom line is that it is possible to have an over-mic'ed drum that is going to limit your ability to get the levels up. When I have that situation, I've actually played a bit with the drum hits (assuming there aren't too many (if there are, it just takes too damn long)). I reduce the level of the drum hit, but make sure I don't eviscerate it. It should still be prominent relative to the surrounding music. This gives me "room" to optimize the entire sound.

It sounds like you're screwing with the sound too much, but believe me, no one will ever guess that you did.

Another way around this problem is possible if the loudest portion is that the very end of the recording. Then, I will select all of the music up to the "crescendo", and boost that signal. The impact is never so great that the crescendo is no longer a crescendo - the "boost" is kind of spread out over five or six or ten minutes of music so that it is an improvement, but again, not something that anyone would frown on because they won't realize its been done.

Bottom line - I know I've gone on too long here - if 90% didn't do much, and you still want a boost, try 98% or so. After choosing "maximize" type -.2 into the text box at the upper right and see what that gets you.

Edited February 3, 2007 by Dan Gould