The all-new "HELP! I have an Audacity problem" thread

Post by **mightyfelix** » December 3rd, 2019, 7:08 pm

TriciaG wrote: ↑November 21st, 2019, 2:31 pm I wish there were a way to remove those two sliders, since I often bump them by accident.

I know I'm a little late to the party, but I did manage to hide those sliders, because I'd sometimes bump them by accident too. I don't remember what I did, but I bet I could remind myself if I play with it. If you want.

Post by **TriciaG** » December 3rd, 2019, 7:11 pm

If you've got the time and inclination, that would be great!

bluedusk · Post by **bluedusk** » December 7th, 2019, 2:13 pm

Hey, I'm trying to figure out how to record multiple chapters without creating a new project for each one. Is there a way to set up a playlist and create tracks that are not linked to each other in the same project? I've played around with recording multiple tracks and using mute or solo to isolate them, but there has to be a better way.

Thanks!

Post by **TriciaG** » December 7th, 2019, 2:28 pm

Each chapter will be a separate Audacity project, since it's a different final file.

What I do is save my chapters for each book in a different folder on my computer.
So I have an overall "LV Projects" folder, then, say, folders for "Tom Sawyer", "Oliver Twist", and "Don Quixote".
Within the "Tom Sawyer" folder will be separate Audacity files/projects for each chapter I'm doing in that project.

(I don't save Audacity projects. I export my recordings to FLAC format and save those, then when I'm done recording and editing, I export them to MP3. So my folders for each book just have a FLAC and an MP3 for each chapter.)

Does this make sense?

KevinS · Post by **KevinS** » December 7th, 2019, 3:04 pm

bluedusk wrote: ↑December 7th, 2019, 2:13 pm Hey, I'm trying to figure out how to record multiple chapters without creating a new project for each one. Is there a way to set up a playlist and create tracks that are not linked to each other in the same project? I've played around with recording multiple tracks and using mute or solo to isolate them, but there has to be a better way.

Thanks!

I suppose it depends on what computer one uses, but I find it easier and faster to just create new projects. The few times I've created multitrack projects of any length, I found it hard to keep track of what was what and I saw my saving and effects times prolonged beyond all reason.

Post by **philchenevert** » December 7th, 2019, 4:38 pm

What do you mean by "create a new project"? Do you mean a new Audacity file? or what?

lurcherlover · Post by **lurcherlover** » December 8th, 2019, 2:37 am

I just have one project for the book in Reaper. I insert a marker for each chapter on the timeline. When I get about half way through (say chapter 12) I may start a new project for the remaining chapters, but it's not really necessary. What is important is to have at least two backups on external drives and I have one also on Dropbox, for example, which contains 16 or 24 bit backups of the rendered chapters often at 96,000 Hz sample rate.

Post by **TriciaG** » December 8th, 2019, 6:59 am

lurcherlover wrote: ↑December 8th, 2019, 2:37 am I just have one project for the book in Reaper. I insert a marker for each chapter on the timeline. When I get about half way through (say chapter 12) I may start a new project for the remaining chapters, but it's not really necessary. What is important is to have at least two backups on external drives and I have one also on Dropbox, for example, which contains 16 or 24 bit backups of the rendered chapters often at 96,000 Hz sample rate.

Except that's in a different program. Let's try to not confuse new folks with how one does things in a completely different recording program.

lurcherlover · Post by **lurcherlover** » December 8th, 2019, 7:15 am

Audacity does not support markers. So that's a very good reason to use a decent program to edit your recordings. Otherwise just use Audacity and put up with its limitations.

bluedusk · Post by **bluedusk** » December 8th, 2019, 4:08 pm

Ok, thanks for the feedback. It seems like I can either start a new project for each chapter or use labels to break up one long track and export them as separate files. I will try both ways and see what works better for me.

lurcherlover · Post by **lurcherlover** » December 9th, 2019, 12:42 am

In Audacity it appears that you can use a new track for each chapter whilst retaining the previous chapters. I would strongly advise that you save an MP3 128KB 44.1Khz file though of each chapter before proceeding to the next one. And for safety have a backup of not only the Audacity project as you add to it, but also the new MP3 file - and all of this preferably on an external hard drive and/or on the cloud. You can get free accounts that will hold up to 2 Gigabytes on platforms like Dropbox and others.

Post by **annise** » December 9th, 2019, 1:18 am

As Tricia said - exporting the files you wish to save as .flac is a better option - it's lossless and smaller.
And I'd strongly suggest that you finish a chapter and upload for pling, just so you don't find yourself having to change every file. I can't see any advantage in having them all in the same Audacity or in other recording programs and I shudder at the thought of losing all the project if there is any sort of equipment, software or human glitch.
It doesn't happen often, but it does happen.

Anne

YouTube · Post by **Darvinia** » December 9th, 2019, 11:47 am

Another thing about Audacity that I haven't seen mentioned in this discussion is that it is a resources hog! The more data (audio, tracks, labels) that you have in a single Audacity 'project' the slower it will work and the more likely it is to drop information. Depending on your hardware this could turn into an issue.

lurcherlover · Post by **lurcherlover** » December 9th, 2019, 11:30 pm

Darvinia wrote: ↑December 9th, 2019, 11:47 am Another thing about Audacity that I haven't seen mentioned in this discussion is that it is a resources hog! The more data (audio, tracks, labels) that you have in a single Audacity 'project' the slower it will work and the more likely it is to drop information. Depending on your hardware this could turn into an issue.

That is a very good point! I haven't used Audacity to the extent where I might have a huge amount of data in one project so in light of your warning it might be best to record each chapter (or at most two or three chapters) in a different project, and this may be the safest way to use Audacity.

I've never had any problems with other Digital Audio Workstations such as Pro-Tools or Reaper, but then they are state of the art professional editors. I have edited whole books with over 30 chapters in one project, and although everything is backed up, I've never (touch wood!) had a problem or lost anything, as they all make automatic backups of the project file anyway.

Post by **mightyfelix** » December 13th, 2019, 1:43 pm

TriciaG wrote: ↑November 21st, 2019, 2:31 pm Sometimes I accidentally nudge that little slider to the left of my track, the one that has a gain and L/R slider. Bumping the L/R one will make the file export to stereo, because it's being told to make one side louder than the other. Perhaps that's what happened to your reader. I don't know if the "Force to mono" thing in the Export fixes this or not.

I wish there were a way to remove those two sliders, since I often bump them by accident.

After re-reading this comment, I realize that I was thinking of a different slider. I hid one of the slider toolbars above my track that I used to hit by accident all the time. The ones to the left I've never had much trouble with, so never needed to hide them.

After playing around with it though, I've found a possible solution for you. You can "collapse" the track either by clicking the little up arrow next to the "select" button at the left side or by going to View>Track Size>Collapse all tracks. You can still see a little squished wave form, but everything on the left side goes away except the menu and the "select" button. I say it's only a possible solution, though, because it may work against you if you really want to see the details of your wave form.