Convert to FLAC

[councilman]

I have files that I have converted to 44k and I would like to do two things with them:
1. I would like to "clean them up" audio wise. Remove some hiss, static, bring up some vocals, guitars, etc. Is there a program that is easy to use to accomplish this that will work on Vista?
2. I would like to take my then "remastered" files and convert them to FLAC and post them here.

Is there a program out there will let me do both of the above?

I know it cannot be that difficult as I see so many torrents up on the boards. I just recorded three great performances last night in Detroit and I would love to share them.

Thanks

[direwolf-pgh]

it would be best to seed out the show unaltered..

then you/anyone can then 'remaster' for personal use.

cool edit pro/adobe audition - good progs to get your feet wet.

Audacity is highly recommended
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/

[councilman]

Okay,

I downloaded the audacity program. What I really need is something that I can easily get through. Every option in audacity is greyed out. All I can do is listen to the file and nothing else.

Should I use FLAC to convert the files? How can I break the files into individual tracks? Some of the files really need to be cleaned up. I see that audacity looks like it will work but everything is greyed out. How can I get them to open up?

adobe audition does not work with Vista. I have not tried cool edit pro. Is it better than audacity?

I would really appreciate anyones assistance.

Chris

[Five]

okay lets start from the beginning... you made it 44kHz, I think that should be 44.1kHz? did you get it correct? also, what is the source of the files did it come from a DAT tape or cassette or something? you're saying files, do you mean to say that it is already separated into tracks?

as for the "cleaning up" it is not recommended for 1st timers :disbelief , I highly recommend that you just seed the unmodified source
I will post back here with some instructions about cutting the show into tracks and converting to FLAC properly as soon as I can dig them up in past threads/write them myself if I have to.

If you want to learn about the things you asked about in #1 there's some specific information here:
Remove some hiss,
http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/showthread.php?t=8819

static,
(scroll down) http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/showthread.php?t=957

bring up some vocals, guitars, etc.
http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/showthread.php?t=3514

[Five]

also I should mention if you want the fx not to be greyed out in audacity load in the entire show and hit ctrl+a. if you need to delete portions, select the portion you want to delete using left click on the mouse, drag and hit delete. you can also do fades this way if necessary. always keep a backup of your original files in case of mistakes.

[councilman]

Five,

Okay. Here is what I have:

Foo Fighters (acoustic)
November 2, 2006
Palace of Auburn Hills, MI.

I have one large file that I converted to 44.1k using dbpower amp. I originally recorded the show on my digital recorder and then converted it to 44.1k. Here is the info from the file:

1 file
Length: 59:43
602.83MB
1-1 compression
2 channel
Sample rate: 16 bit
Format: Lossless
Encoder Setting: PCM

I would like to break the show into individual tracks, convert to FLAC and share with others. I would really like to know how the process works as I have 100's of shows I have recorded over the years just collecting dust.

Thanks,

Chris

[diggrd]

I'll fire up my Vista machinr tonight and check which of the tools I use work properly. It usually is something like

Audition (Audacity / CEP) .... audio editing
CDWAVE .... tracking .... http://www.milosoftware.com/cdwave/download.html
TLH .... converting/testing .... http://thor.prohosting.com/roh0205/
MakeTorrent .... torrent creation... http://krypt.dyndns.org:81/torrent/maketorrent/#dl

[GRC]

I downloaded the audacity program. What I really need is something that I can easily get through. Every option in audacity is greyed out. All I can do is listen to the file and nothing else.

Should I use FLAC to convert the files? How can I break the files into individual tracks? Some of the files really need to be cleaned up. I see that audacity looks like it will work but everything is greyed out. How can I get them to open up?

Chris

As a previous poster said, you need to 'select' the area of the track, or the whole track, that you want to apply the effect to, before Audacity will apply the effect.

In my experience, even the most recent stable version of Audacity (1.2.6) will NOT export a project as FLAC files; I detailed my experiences in a separate thread (http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/showthread.php?t=41175&highlight=audacity), and someone recommended there that I export my project as .WAV files, and then convert the WAVs to FLACs with another software application. Considering that 'Export as FLAC' is an option on the first menu in Audacity, I thought this was .. unusual, to say the least.....

To break a large file into individual tracks, you need to create a 'label' track in addition to your audio track, then define labels in the label track at the split points. Then when you want to export the audio to WAV files, you select the 'Export Multiple' option, and it should output a set of files split as per your labels. I found the label track frustratingly difficult to master, but I'm getting there.... :hmm:

There's lots of instructional material at various sites that answers the above questions and much more; I found most of my answers by googling the appropriate keywords, and useful resources were usually to be found in the first page of google results.

Regards, Graham

[Five]

okay go into Audacity's preferences menu (I think its ctrl+p) and set the export quality to 16bit, 44.1kHz (IMPORTANT!!). With this setting you can also change 48kHz (or whatever the wav used to be) to 44.1kHz using Audacity only if you feel like skipping the dbpoweramp step next time.

Then set snapping to CDDA sectors (see attatchment) to avoid Sector Boundary Errors (aka SBEs).

select from the beginning to where you want the first track to end, cut (ctrl+x), create a new file (ctrl+n I think, or from the menu on the upper-left), then paste into the new file (ctrl+v) and save as FLAC, set it to level 8. Continue until you get to the end of the show.

name the tracks something like this

ffighters2006-11-02t01.flac
ffighters2006-11-02t02.flac
...etc

or

foofighters2006-11-02t01.flac
foofighters2006-11-02t02.flac
...

run a len check on the files using TLH to be sure there are no SBEs
(scroll down a little ways for instructions... very easy ... http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/showthread.php?t=17951)

put the full fileset into your media player of chice (foobar2000/whatever) and listen carefully to every track transition to be sure you got them numbered correctly and no audio missing (headphones are best here). Then listen to the entire show on speakers or headphones if that's how you normally listen to make sure everything is as it should be.

you also need to write a lineage, something like:

your recorder > WAV (bit/kHz) > DBpoweramp (convert to 16bit/44.1kHz WAV) > Audacity vx.x.x (tracking only, add notes if you do any fades/etc using this program) > FLAC

generate ffp/st5 (either one) using TLH, also in the same tutorial linked above and save them to the folder with the FLAC files. put a text file with all your info (what you posted above + lineage).

so at this point you've got everything you need to compile the final seed... I would name the folder something like ffighters2006-11-02.flac16 (16 meaning 16bit) and give the txt and ffp files a similar name like ffighters2006-11-02.txt and ffighters2006-11-02.ffp

make sure only the files that should be in there are in there. you can also make coverart and put it in if you like doing that sort of thing. if you're a paranoid person you can also run "test" mode on the FLAC files one more time (I usually do :lol: )

now make a copy of the ffp and txt files on your desktop. make sure every file in the folder is not in use by any program, and the original txt file is closed. Don't touch anything inside the folder from now on.

I use maketorrent 2.1 to generate the torrent for the folder
http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/showthread.php?t=17953

go to the audio upload page and fill in the form ... open the copy you made of the txt file and paste the contents into the text file window, open the copy you made of the ffp file with notepad, copy the contents and paste it into the fingerprints section. st5 checksums are also okay (but not md5 for audio). use the dropdowns to fill in the date, type in the full name of the artist and venue in the appropriate places, type of files, type of show yada yada...

at the bottom click the attatch torrent button, and upload the torrent you just created.

check it over, hit submit

the new thread will be created. now in order to start seeding, you have to download the torrent from this thread you just created. don't use the one on your hd because our tracker has to "personalize" it to let you connect.

let me know if I missed anything etc ... I'm looking forward to checking out some of your shows! :thumbsup

[Five]

As a previous poster said, you need to 'select' the area of the track, or the whole track, that you want to apply the effect to, before Audacity will apply the effect.

In my experience, even the most recent stable version of Audacity (1.2.6) will NOT export a project as FLAC files; I detailed my experiences in a separate thread (http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/showthread.php?t=41175&highlight=audacity), and someone recommended there that I export my project as .WAV files, and then convert the WAVs to FLACs with another software application. Considering that 'Export as FLAC' is an option on the first menu in Audacity, I thought this was .. unusual, to say the least.....

To break a large file into individual tracks, you need to create a 'label' track in addition to your audio track, then define labels in the label track at the split points. Then when you want to export the audio to WAV files, you select the 'Export Multiple' option, and it should output a set of files split as per your labels. I found the label track frustratingly difficult to master, but I'm getting there.... :hmm:

There's lots of instructional material at various sites that answers the above questions and much more; I found most of my answers by googling the appropriate keywords, and useful resources were usually to be found in the first page of google results.

Regards, Graham
oops... okay, maybe it is better to export as wav then convert to flac using TLH!! I'm using the new beta and it seems to be okay.

can audacity cut a show correctly on the sector boundaries and save as multiple tracks? that would probably be a little more efficient than the "cut-new-paste-save", "cut-new-paste-save", etc method detailed above

[GRC]

can audacity cut a show correctly on the sector boundaries and save as multiple tracks?

I can't vouch for this, merely the split on labels as described. I have to say, like my Alesis Masterlink machine - it seems like I can define a split point anywhere and it automatically puts it on a sector boundary. It was good of Alesis to do this. :clap:

I spent a good few days getting used to Audacity, sorting split points, labels, etc., and at this point, it all seems a bit like a blind alley and time wasted; import the audio, set up fades, splits etc, and then try to export it, and IT DOESN'T EXPORT THE AUDIO IN THE FORMAT SPECIFIED ON ITS OWN MENU OPTION !!!

The last file I accessed was on 30th June; haven't opened the appln since then; in contrast, I've used the Alesis almost daily in compiling various 'projects'. A real 'dream machine'. I'll be torrenting on vinyl next, just wait and see.....

Regards, Graham

[Tubular]

http://www.milosoftware.com/cdwave/download.html

http://www.etree.org/cdwave.html

"CD Wave was designed to aid in tracking CD audio discs. CD Wave is simply the easiest way for Windows users to track CD audio discs because it automatically splits each track on sector boundaries. It also does a very nice job as a recording application, when performing DAT > hard drive transfers."

CD-Wave is very simple and easy to use. Then you can convert to FLAC with Trader's Little Helper, also easy.

[Five]

I didn't mention cdwave because its not free... it has an excellent rep, easiest and best prog for splitting shows

[Tubular]

This link has CD-Wave version 1.72 which is free:

http://www.etree.org/cdwave.html