Audacity problem--wtf?

[Springheel]

Anyone else had this problem? I'm just finishing up the alternate noblewoman vocals, and what I've been doing is loading a file that has 6 or 7 barks in it, then I select one of them, and "export selection as wav".

 

I've done this many times in the past with no problems.

 

This time, however, I've noticed that most of the files I've exported have an extra 5 seconds stuck onto the end. This results in half of the next bark playing as well. I know for sure I wasn't sloppy with my selection, it's just that more than what I actually selected has been added.

 

This is a massive pain in the ass, as now I now have to go through and manually check and fix more than two hundred files.

 

Anyone know why this might be happening? Is there some setting I've inadvertently changed?

[OrbWeaver]

"WTF?" is pretty much my reaction to trying to do anything useful in Audacity. Unfortunately I can't give any more specific advice except "use something else", such as the fully-functional evaluation version of Reaper which I know can perform this function without issue.

[Springheel]

I'm not adverse to using something else, but I don't want to get comfortable with something that's only a 30 day trial.

[Aprilsister]

I think if you load a bunch of tracks into one session it makes them all as long as the longest

[ocn]

Had this occur to me once very recently. It wasn't as long as 5 seconds, though. It's a mystery to me as well, I don't think I had any other tracks loaded at the time.

Edited January 27, 2011 by ocn

[jaxa]

Using the beta? Depending on the circumstances the beta may work better.

[Aprilsister]

Yes, I'm sorry... I had just woken up and was reading Springheel's question from across the room; he never said anything about loading multiple files just a single file he was trying to cut up...

 

I have the 1.2.4 and 1.3.11beta and haven't had this kind of problem ever though. Maybe some more details along the lines of what Jaxa is asking: what version are you using, what bit and sample rates are you working with?

 

The beta does have a nice selection "tool bar" that gives you a chance to see and set the start and end using different measurement systems, plus, like I said, I've had no problem with it as far as anything goes; got the 1.2.4 moved to the once-was column...

[Springheel]

I'm not sure which version it is from memory...whatever I've been using for the past year or so. I've cut up a LOT of vocals with it and never had this happen before. I was just wondering if it was a known problem or something.

 

Had this occur to me once very recently. It wasn't as long as 5 seconds, though

 

I may have exaggerated. It's probably more like 2-3. I can't think of anything unusual that I've done with these particular files, other than lowering the bitrate. Could that have anything to do with it? Maybe when it exports it, it takes the length of time from the original bitrate but then fits more of the lower bitrate recording into that time? Don't know if that even makes sense.

[ocn]

I can't seem to reproduce this. So, I've no idea.

 

But while we're on the subject of Audacity and sound editing:

 

When adjusting the volume to the desired level (I'm using Audacity), I've always worked on a line by line basis. Meaning I extract one part of a larger file and adjust it's volume and save it. But this can't be the best way to do things as the volume level will vary more or less in relation to another. So, how do you do it?

[Springheel]

The only time I've adjusted the volume, I just imported all the vocal clips into a single project, normalised them, and then did a batch export.

[ocn]

Ah! Good one. Just thought there'd might be a magic compressor/normalizing routine, because the built in compressor is sort of confusing.