Audacity question

[pitch]

Nearly there with burning my mix CD (it's OK - I'm delivering by hand to Sir Ian T on Sunday) but have stumbled into a problem when splitting / labelling the tracks and importing into itunes.

I am getting one silent break between mixed tracks and some noticeable sound level variations at other track transitions when playing back a test CD burn from itunes.

I have imported the unsplit single mix track into Audacity - played back and it sounds fine.

I've then added splits and labelled them.... then exported multiple. I then have all the named tracks that I import into itunes. Making sure the gap between tracks is set to none, and no sound check - I burn the playlist.

Result - The first mixed transition has an audible silent break in it - and I can hear the transitions - a change in sound level to some..... not noticeable in the unsplit mix.

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks in advance

[Tsundoku]

How about this as a rubbish quick fix - export all as one solid track, without labels. Export as a WAV. Then put this WAV back into Audacity and relabel and re-export.

I'm guessing Audacity is reading each track as different when you label and export them. I don't know the hows and whys of this, but treating it all as one big chunk of sound initially might get round this?

[Tom B]

What BDC said - this is how I've used Audacity & no silence or volume variations. Probably not how it's supposed to be used, but it seems to work

[Cacapo]

I promise not to notice anything.

[pitch]

How about this as a rubbish quick fix - export all as one solid track, without labels. Export as a WAV. Then put this WAV back into Audacity and relabel and re-export.

I'm guessing Audacity is reading each track as different when you label and export them. I don't know the hows and whys of this, but treating it all as one big chunk of sound initially might get round this?

What BDC said - this is how I've used Audacity & no silence or volume variations. Probably not how it's supposed to be used, but it seems to work

But that is pretty much what I've done (I mix it in a different program)?

How do you label / split the tracks - perhaps I'm doing that wrong?

And how do you export (which export option) out of audacity?

If I can't work it out I'm tempted to put less breaks in - just 3 sections..... guess that might upset folk though......?

[Tom B]

But that is pretty much what I've done (I mix it in a different program)?

How do you label / split the tracks - perhaps I'm doing that wrong?

And how do you export (which export option) out of audacity?

If I can't work it out I'm tempted to put less breaks in - just 3 sections..... guess that might upset folk though......?

This is probably what you're doing, but add each label using 'tracks' then 'add label at selection'. To export 'file' and 'export labels'. Are you working from a WAV file?

Maybe the problem is because you're opening the files in another programme (itunes?) and the default for burning tracks to CD adds a 2 second break.

[pitch]

This is probably what you're doing, but add each label using 'tracks' then 'add label at selection'. To export 'file' and 'export labels'. Are you working from a WAV file?

Maybe the problem is because you're opening the files in another programme (itunes?) and the default for burning tracks to CD adds a 2 second break.

I was working from AIFF file - is WAV better?

I'll go back to the single long mix file and start again as you've described - slightly different to the way I did it.

I need to export to itunes don't I - in order to the burn the CD (I've taken out the default breaks between tracks)? Or can I burn direct from Audacity?

Thanks for the help guys! I'll get there eventually!

[Tom B]

No idea if AIFF is more problematic than WAV - and export the labels as WAV as well. Might be worth trying a different programme than itunes to burn discs but you can't do it from Audacity. I doubt this is a huge help & is at the outer limits of my technical capacity. A quick browse here might throw up some more relevant expertise, if you haven't already checked it.

[medlar]

Maybe the problem is because you're opening the files in another programme (itunes?) and the default for burning tracks to CD adds a 2 second break.

I was working from AIFF file - is WAV better?

I need to export to itunes don't I - in order to the burn the CD (I've taken out the default breaks between tracks)? Or can I burn direct from Audacity?

I always record the tracks separately using Audacity and exporting as WAV.
Click on the WAV file and it will open up on Windows Media Player. This way it is possible to drag all the separate files into Media Player to compile a list / mix.
Here's the interesting thing: This time round (I'm using a different laptop with Windows 7 rather than Vista) when burning there were no gaps between tracks. Perhaps if you export your main file as a WAV (after the labelling) you could use Media Player to burn?

#edit# Wait a sec, you're using a Mac?

[pitch]

No idea if AIFF is more problematic than WAV - and export the labels as WAV as well. Might be worth trying a different programme than itunes to burn discs but you can't do it from Audacity. I doubt this is a huge help & is at the outer limits of my technical capacity. A quick browse here might throw up some more relevant expertise, if you haven't already checked it.

Thanks Tom, but as a bloke, I never read the manual (ie. that terrifying forum link)! So I'll just give it another go following all the helpful steers from all......

[pitch]

#edit# Wait a sec, you're using a Mac?

That's right. 'Windows Media Player' sounds like something from 2003.

[medlar]

That's right. 'Windows Media Player' sounds like something from 2003.

Ahh but it works

Is there anything different in your methodology this year? I.e. do you usually record the whole lot as one file / split / label / export as AIFF?

[candiman]

See here (scroll down to Gapless burning).

This may help (only so far as it may tell you you can't do it with your particular flavour/vintage of hardware/software)

[pitch]

See here (scroll down to Gapless burning).

This may help (only so far as it may tell you you can't do it with your particular flavour/vintage of hardware/software)

Thanks - that led me to a handy guide to splitting a long track and exporting... I think maybe the CD player I tested out on might not be the best for CDrs - so going to test on something else.... nearly there!

[pitch]

Is there anything different in your methodology this year? I.e. do you usually record the whole lot as one file / split / label / export as AIFF?

Can't remember