-=PCTechTalk=- Re: audacity program question, recording from tape to computer

  • From: Gman <gman.pctt@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2008 03:54:24 -0400

Cristy,
    When I work on projects, especially those with a lot of files or 
different performances, I rip them to the hard drive first.  I also name 
them with something to describe what they are.  If the details are 
"MyBandName - Shooters B&G St.Pat's day - 1989", the folder for this file 
would be "MyBandName" and the file itself would be named "Shooters B&G 
St.Pat's day (1989).wav".  Once all of the ripping is completed and all 
files are in their respective folders and named appropriately, then I can 
take them one at a time into the "Editing Room" as needed.

    When I'm in the "Editing Room", I will only work with a Copy of one of 
the files at a time and I make a separate folder for the results.  If I'm 
breaking up a long recording into discrete tunes (something I never do with 
live recordings until all else has been done), I'll first check to see if 
all of them were recorded with the same signal strength.  If they were, I 
prefer to edit the entire big file all at once and split them up afterwards. 
If they have different sources and their volumes are not consistent (maybe 
some are off of albums & others were recorded from radio), I'll split them 
at the inconsistencies and then edit each section separately.  For a live 
recording, I always do the editing on the entire file unless there's a 
section with a problem.  In that case, I may edit out that section (to be 
thrown away or more heavily edited separately) and put the remaining tunes 
together into another separate file for editing.  In other words, it all 
depends on the source material, but I want to take whatever steps I can to 
minimize the number of times I have to actually 'edit' the sound without 
messing up any of the individual tunes.  A damaged section of tape will 
require different steps to make it sound decent than a good section, so they 
have to be separated.  If I do choose to split up a live recording, it will 
only happen after I had completed the full editing session and have produced 
a burnable file to get the whole performance onto a CD.  Since that file is 
now a Master, I'll once again make a Copy of it and then split the tracks 
from that copy using fade-ins and fade-outs on each song to give me options 
for rearranging the order of the tunes on any additional disks I might 
choose to burn later.  For a separate project like that, I should be able to 
construct another seemingly 'live' disk by cross recording one track to the 
next, using audience noise as my buffer between the tunes, as needed.

    To best answer your question, I don't use most editing software's 
ability to group things into projects.  Instead, I rely on using Copies of 
files to protect the originals and I usually end up saving copies of 
different stages of my editing in their own folders named after the stage 
their in.  So, I first start by making a new folder (if none exists already, 
of course) called "Editing Room".  Since I'm about to begin a new project, 
I'll create a new folder using whatever info I have for the contents for the 
file.  Going back to my example above, I would also name this one 
"MyBandName", but this time, I'll make another folder inside it and call 
that one "Shooters B&G St.Pat's day - 1989".  I'd then create a Copy of the 
original ripped file and Paste it in there.  Now, as I complete each step of 
my normal editing routine (and you'll develop one of your own after a 
while), I can create additional folders to store my results without 
overwriting anything I had in there.  For example, a folder called 
"2008-06-23 NR" would tell me that I have already applied noise reduction on 
the file(s) inside.  the date not only tells me when I applied that specific 
editing chore, but it also keeps all of the folders in chronological order, 
so I'll always be working on the file inside the very last subfolder I find 
in there.  So, all of these edited folders must be together inside the 
master folder with the descriptive name of the performance or group of songs 
for that project to keep them together and to remind me of where I left off 
the next time I have some time to play.  When I'm completely finished with 
any given project (meaning just one ripped file), many of the copies I made 
can be deleted, but I'll always save a few sub-masters for a while just in 
case I decide to go back and make a change here or there.  It saves me from 
having to start over from scratch and you might be surprised at how 
something can sound really good on your computer, but lousy when played 
through the car stereo.  If I'm editing for someone else, I will burn the 
entire Master group of folder & subfolders to a CD or DVD twice, giving one 
to the person who hired me and keeping one for myself in case they come back 
in a year and want something else done with it.

    I'm sure this is a lot more than you asked for, but I think you will 
gain a lot from the extra depth.            :O)

Peace,
G

"The only dumb questions are the ones that are never asked"

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "cristy" <poppy0206@xxxxxxx>
To: <pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, June 22, 2008 11:28 PM
Subject: -=PCTechTalk=- Re: audacity program question, recording from tape 
to computer


Gman,

I may have asked you this once before, not sure but would you save each
recording as a "project" in audacity?  I am recording many cassette tapes,
as in ALOT.

Christine 


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