Minimising excess tracks when Rec thru line-in to mixer

[Hulamau]

Hi Folks,

I've got an urgent question. Tommorrow I'm recording a lecture in a hall at the local University for later WAV editing and CD production, but instead of using a standalone mic into the RH10 mic input, we are using a Mixer with a separte mic for the main speaker and a separate mic for the audience and will feed teh ouput of the mixer into the line level connection in the RH-10.

The last time I did this the two hour recording was broken up into about 400 separte tracks ranging from 5 seconds to 5 minutes in length and made splicing it all back together and editing the WAV file next to impossible.

Can anyone PLEASE suggest how to avoid this? Is there a way to turn off the autotrack feature and just manually set the track marks at tHE end of each hour, or can we turn up the volume on the mixer and SET the background noise high enough not to trigger the auto-traCk mode?

Sorry for the short time notice but I need an answer in a couple hours and its now 9:20pm West Coast time on Wednesday May 24.

Many thanks,

Hulamau

[dex Otaku]

The last time I did this the two hour recording was broken up into about 400 separte tracks ranging from 5 seconds to 5 minutes in length and made splicing it all back together and editing the WAV file next to impossible.

Can anyone PLEASE suggest how to avoid this? Is there a way to turn off the autotrack feature and just manually set the track marks at tHE end of each hour, or can we turn up the volume on the mixer and SET the background noise high enough not to trigger the auto-traCk mode?

No, there is no way to turn off this option.

However, yes - if you have a high enough background noise level, it will keep the auto t.mark from doing its job. It has to be pretty loud, though, and likely would only serve to ruin your recording.

Possible solutions:

* Remove the trackmarks maually on the unit. This will take a long time and a lot of button-pressing. Not really advisable for so many tracks.

* Combine all the tracks using SS. <blockquote>Knowing it's a single recording, this is likely what I'd do - export the original [uncombined] tracks to WAV [as a backup], then combine them with SS [make sure they're sorted correctly *first*].

SS takes a long time to do this, so - what I've done in the past is combine the tracks in blocks making up 10-15 minutes each, then combine those blocks, &c. until you have one track. Don't be deceived and think SS is locked up while it's doing this, though - just let it do the work, it will eventually finish. When you've got it down to one track, export as WAV again and edit as you will. </blockquote>

* Most nonlinear editors allow you to drop more than one file at a time onto their timeline. Select all in Windows Explorer, then drop them all into your editor. Most behave in such a way that all files will show up in series, in order, and bumped right up against each other. No combining required, though it makes the timeline look messy. This method requires the least effort and incurs no wait.

[Hulamau]

No, there is no way to turn off this option.

Thanks 'dex Otaku'

I use Goldwave as a WAV editor but I don't think I can import a whole slew of separate small tracks into one file for editing without copying and pasting each one back to back.

I haven't used SS to combine tracks yet as I thouight it could only be done on the recorder itself. When you say export to WAV how dod I do that without first exporting through SS with the setting in SS to covert to WAV. Are you saying do a direct upload to analog first?

Thanks for clarifying what you are referring to and many thanks for the suggestions.

Aloha,

Hulamau

[ozpeter]

It's a good moment to mention Reaper here - currently beta, but generally stable, and free until it's officially released (and then might only cost $50 or less). Possibly as good an audio editor as you'll find anywhere at any price. Anyway, it should eat this job. There's a setting on its preference pages controlling whether added files are added one per track or along the length of the track one after another (which is what you want).

http://www.reaper.fm/download.php is the site. It's an unbelievable 1Mb download and takes seconds to install.

Edited May 25, 2006 by ozpeter

[dex Otaku]

Hulumau:

Combining tracks can be done after uploading from your recorder. Select multiple tracks in your library, in the order you want them combined, then go to the EDIT menu and select "combine". This deals directly with the PCM or atrac3plus files used by the library. You can export the combined results as WAV as usual.

Most nonlinear editors will allow dropping multiple tracks on their timelines [examples: audacity [free/open source], kristal audio engine [free], sony vegas, adobe audition, steinberg nuendo, cakewalk sonar, &c.]. Different editors behave different ways when you do, though.

Audacity's default behaviour is to drop each file into a separate track, which isn't what you want. [can't find an option to change]

Kristal AE - haven't got this installed anywhere here.

Vegas - puts everything on a single track in the order you selected, and puts the file you actually dragged [when selecting multiple files] first.

Adobe Audition - makes separate tracks [can't find an option to change]

Nuendo - asks whether you want separate tracks or on one track

...

As you can see, there isn't a consistent standard between editors for this particular function. I tend to use Vegas most often, so I was aware of its default behaviour and made the bad assumption that other NLEs would act similarly.

It would be worth checking out Reaper, and maybe finding out what Kristal AE's behaviour is, in any case. It can be found here: http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/

In the short term, using SS's combine function might serve you best.

[Hulamau]

Huge thanks Ozpeter! I jsut downloaded Reaper and was able to import all teh tracks and save them as one large WAV file which I can split up easily and edit with Goldwave. This is a very cool program and I look forward to learning what it can do.

I'll try to boost the level of the Mixer feeding the mini-disc player tommorrow to try and prevent the extra tracks, but at least I now have a way out if it still makes all the unwanted tracks.

Hulumau:

Combining tracks can be done after uploading from your recorder. Select multiple tracks in your library, in the order you want them combined, then go to the EDIT menu and select "combine". This deals directly with the PCM or atrac3plus files used by the library. You can export the combined results as WAV as usual.

Thnkas again dex-Otaku.

I've now got a few ways to fix the problem.

Aloha nui,

Julamau

[ozpeter]

Cheers, glad it helped.

Adobe Audition - makes separate tracks [can't find an option to change]

For this job in Cool Edit or Audition, use Edit View and use File > Open Append.

Actually, you could say that the easiest way to do this is to use "MediaJoin" from Mystiik Media, though it doesn't seem to be on their site as such - Google might find it. It's a little program dedicated to joining files up to make large ones. Actually, searching for mediajoin on Google, it looks like there is more than one program with that name - anyway, if anyone else is looking for something of the sort, Google for that name and you should come up with something worth a try.

(Do try to find time in due course fully to explore Reaper, julamau - it really is unbelievable - it's being developed by Justin Frankel who wrote the original Winamp, and I suspect that among the multitracking and editing community it will become as popular as Winamp became among mp3 folks. And dex - it was written originally to provide a Vegas-like environment for people who wanted a whole lot of extra functionality in Vegas and weren't getting it from Sony, so if you've not tried it, I'd recommend a look).

Edited May 25, 2006 by ozpeter

[raintheory]

The version of GoldWave that I use (5.13 I think) has a "File Merger" tool (under "Tools/File Merger") that can combine WAV files.

[dex Otaku]

And dex - it was written originally to provide a Vegas-like environment for people who wanted a whole lot of extra functionality in Vegas and weren't getting it from Sony, so if you've not tried it, I'd recommend a look.

DL'd and installed. This looks -very- promising. For basic editing this might already be better than Audacity [i'm not partial to Audacity's somewhat clunky interface].

Thanks, ozpeter.