H4N Want to divide long file into many short files

[Mr Fixit eh]

I recorded a 2 hour live gig on my Zoom H4N. Now I want to divide this into many individual song files.

Has anybody here done this?

Steve

[fazool]

I use an old and outdated software called Goldwave. It doesn't need installation and works fairly well for this.

[frankhond]

Not sure what you are asking. Most audio editors allow you to select audio and save that as a separate file, some will let you set markers and split file into several copies at the markers etc.

[Bob Womack]

Pull the file into a free audio software like Audacity. Find the first section or song you want and chop off the head and tail before and after it. You can add fade-ins and -outs if you like. Highlight and export that clip under a new name ("Song 1" or "I Dreamed I Could Play Guitar"). Now hit "undo" until you are back looking at the whole two-hour file again. Go find song two, lop off the head (song one) and tail, add fades, highlight and export with a new name ("Song 2" or "It Was Only a Dream"). Hit "undo" until the whole two hours is showing, lather, rinse, repeat, until all the songs are exported.

You can also just chop up the two hours into songs and add fades, then highlight each song as the export region and export them one after the other as new files until they are all out. Just don't save back onto the original file name.

Some parts of audio are simply repetitive work, requiring attention to detail.

Bob

[Mr Fixit eh]

Thanks Bob, that's a big help!

steve

[Mr Fixit eh]

I found the follow Audacity support document to be very helpful in 'fleshing out' Bob's very good summary

Exporting Multiple Tracks

Exporting Multiple Selections

It was a fast and efficient process.

Steve

[punkybub]

+1 for Audacity. Free, easy to use and pretty fast. I've got a legal, current Cubase w/dongle, etc. but I still use Audacity for simple jobs like what you're trying to do.

Good luck with your project!

[philjs]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

Pull the file into a free audio software like Audacity. Find the first section or song you want and chop off the head and tail before and after it. You can add fade-ins and -outs if you like. Highlight and export that clip under a new name ("Song 1" or "I Dreamed I Could Play Guitar"). Now hit "undo" until you are back looking at the whole two-hour file again. Go find song two, lop off the head (song one) and tail, add fades, highlight and export with a new name ("Song 2" or "It Was Only a Dream"). Hit "undo" until the whole two hours is showing, lather, rinse, repeat, until all the songs are exported.

If you add a title track, you can divide the long track into sections by where you place the split and the "head" of the title for each shorter track, set and apply all of your fades (in and out) by selecting the areas on either side of the track splits/dividers, open the metadata editor and input everything except the track name, then export the whole shooting match at once with the tracks already named. Q.E.D.

Phil

[Mr Fixit eh]

This is what I did, and it was pretty slick. I did not know that you could apply fade in/out BEFORE you export into individual song files. I'll have to do some research on how to do that!

STeve

[philjs]

Originally Posted by Mr Fixit eh

This is what I did, and it was pretty slick. I did not know that you could apply fade in/out BEFORE you export into individual song files. I'll have to do some research on how to do that!

You still have to apply each fade manually (ID the area, apply the fade) but using the dividers as end/start points (end of one track, start of the next) makes it pretty simple. Just go through the l-o-n-g track from start to finish, divide and title, apply fades as needed/wanted, then output. The only real difference from Bob's method is not having to delete from before and after each sub-track then having to undo back to the full l-o-n-g track before doing the next one.

BTW, my experience with this comes from dubbing old LPs, cassettes and mini-discs into MP3s. Rather than start and stop for each track it was easier to just dub an entire side/disc then split the tracks later.

Phil

[Bob Womack]

Yeah. Since I was writing for a person with little experience, I was torn between attempting to explain clipping, treating, highlighting, and exporting each song and just making the song the only thing visible on the timeline for simplicity. Some folks find having the other stuff still present distracting and don't understand the concept of highlighting and declaring a region for export. So....

One of those pedagogical things...

Bob