Subject:Breaking long mix into tracks

Posted by: djgonzo

Date:9/28/2004 11:49:50 PM

I'm a newbie here and found a few of the already posted questions quite useful....so, figured I'd add mine to the growing list....

I recently purchased Sound Forge 7.0, CD Architect 5.0, and Acid Pro 4.0. I'm also a newbie at using all of them and this is where help is requested.

Specifically I'm dealing and questioning the use of Acid Pro. I've added a few mp3 songs as tracks, building a megamix if you will. Everything sounds great with this megamix and I've created CDs that I can play through my home CD player after buring my CDs directly from Acid Pro.

What I would like to do now is break each of the songs I have in my megamix into their own seperate tracks that I can forward or reverse to through my home CD player. For instance....if you purchase a CD from a retailer, you'll get a few tracks that you can move to in order to hear a specific song of your choice. How can I break all of the songs I have listed in my megamix through Acid Pro into their own seperate tracks that I can move through on my home CD player?

Hopefully this is making some sort of sense to those of you who can help....

Thank you,
Mark "DJ Gonzo"

Subject:RE: Breaking long mix into tracks

Reply by: Ian Armstrong / A&L

Date:9/28/2004 11:57:39 PM

Studio mixes are fun :o)

If you don't have a Waves L1, L2 or L3... then put a Wave Hammer on the master channel. Some kind of maximizer limiter - it'll make your mix sound a lot louder.

Ok but that has NOTHING to do with your question...

<ol><li>Create markers on every track break including one at the start and one at the end</li>
<li>From the render menu (file--->render) make sure you check to box to include markers in the final file. I like rendering to WAV, if you don't have room then a good WMA or MP3 will do fine.</li>
<li>You're done in ACID... open the file in Sound Forge</li>
<li>Are you sure you have your start and end marker? If you don't you won't get the right result. Check all your marker positions, tweak them a bit if you like. Get them exactly where you want the track breaks</li>
<li>Menu: Special --> Regions List --> Markers to Regions</li>
<li>Menu: Tools --> Extract Regions<li>
<li>I like to burn with Nero, Sony CD Architect is kind of overkill for a do-it-at-home DJ Mix but will certainly do the job. Just make sure you set all your track spacings to zero instead of two seconds!</li>
</ol>

My work is done here. Enjoy :o)

(Yes, Acid 4.0 could have made this easier... its a request on everyone's wishlist for 5.0)

Subject:RE: Breaking long mix into tracks

Reply by: Ian Armstrong / A&L

Date:9/28/2004 11:58:35 PM

You'll have to excuse the total lack of formatting... I forgot HTML was limited on this forum.

<ol> = start ordered list (numbered)
<li> = new bullet/number

You should be able to work that out.

Subject:RE: Breaking long mix into tracks

Reply by: djgonzo

Date:9/29/2004 2:26:44 AM

Aeon, thank you for the prompt response on this one... ;-)

I've not yet attempted to tweak things the way you pointed out, but I'll be farting around with it later tonight.

Yes, hopefully v5.x will have all of this built in so you don't have to go from one program to another.

Oh, and if you know of any good tips/tricks/write-ups on using Acid Pro....could you please send the links my way? Always nice to have a few avenues to venture to for tips and tricks.....

Thanks again Aeon.

Mark "DJ Gonzo"

Subject:RE: Breaking long mix into tracks

Reply by: Waskel

Date:9/29/2004 10:00:22 AM

Actually, you have the solution. You said you bought CDA5. This is exactly what it's best at. The interface is very similar to ACID, you drag & drop the files you want, set the track points and away you go.
CDA5 is awesome for building mixes, as you can add volume envelopes and effects (such as compression) per track as well as on the main bus. You can also do crossfading between files.

Wask.

Subject:RE: Breaking long mix into tracks

Reply by: JohnnyRoy

Date:9/29/2004 12:05:10 PM

What you want is Disk-at-Once burning and ACID 4 only does Track-at-Once burning. This is why all your songs became one track when you burned the CD from ACID. If this is one big mix with no gaps between the songs than either of the two procedures suggested above will work.

If, however, you don’t mind having a 2 second gap between songs, you could set the first song as a loop region, then burn that track selecting Burn looped region only in the Track-at-Once CD dialog. Then select the next track as a region and burn the next track. In this way, you can build a CD track by track. Select the Close disk when done burning option after the last song.

~jr

Subject:RE: Breaking long mix into tracks

Reply by: Waskel

Date:9/29/2004 1:31:53 PM

What the....?
Gonzo, do these tracks crossfade? (Does one begin before the previous one fades out)?
If not, just render them one song at a time to WAV then burn the whole mess with (insert your fav burning software here). Or render then whole thing as a single file and use that copy of CDA5 you have. You can bring in a single file and put track points anywhere you like on it.
My point is, this kind of burning is not ACID's strong suit. If you had to spend money for more software, I would recommend JR's solution or maybe something similar.
But you already have CDA5, so why not use it for what it was designed? Authoring CDs!
If you have this megamix exactly the way you want it, from start to finish, then you can render it as one WAV file in ACID, then bring it into CDA5 and put track points wherever your heart desires.

Wask.

Subject:RE: Breaking long mix into tracks

Reply by: djgonzo

Date:9/29/2004 10:39:23 PM

Worked like a charm! ;-)

Got it all set up and I'm pleased now that I can send out my remixes with tracks that listeners can move to. I did notice though that the volume was a bit lower than when I burn directly from Acid...so I'll make the recommended option changes you pinpointed in your initial reply.

Yes, it sure would be nice if this was all built into Acid though.....

Thanks again for all of your help.

Mark "GJ Gonzo"

Subject:RE: Breaking long mix into tracks

Reply by: djgonzo

Date:9/29/2004 10:44:53 PM

Wow, I didn't refresh the screen when I made my previous reply.....

Nice to know that there is some great support from other users!

Thank you all so much for all of your feedback.

Yes, I do crossfade most of my tracks as I build some of my CDs that I play at the clubs I DJ at...makes it nice to be able to sit back at times and have a few cold ones. ;-)

Again, thank you all for the great feedback and I'll definitely take all your recommendations and toy with them. :-)

Mark "DJ Gonzo"

Subject:RE: Breaking long mix into tracks

Reply by: djgonzo

Date:5/1/2005 9:00:06 PM

Eeesh, it's been a while since I last attempted to do this...in adding markers, converting them to regions...and then burning them to CD.

Aeon, I know that I have done this a couple times in the past with your instructions, but I'm now at a halt this go round.

I have done all the instructions you've outlined up to the point of burning to a CD.

Am I going into Nero (which I have) and then selecting each of the files I've turned into regions and adding them all to the CD to be burned? Or?

I'm sorry if this sounds like a 'stupid' question, but I've been running into roadblocks on my road to success here.

Thanks gang,
Mark

Subject:RE: Breaking long mix into tracks

Reply by: pwppch

Date:5/2/2005 6:40:01 AM

ACID 5 lets you do this. Multiple tracks, all burned at once.

Hit "n" on your keyboard to drop a track marker. Repeat as desired.

You can then manipulate how the markers layout. Insert silence between tracks or not.

Then do a Burn Disk at Once. The workflow is very similar to CDA, but ACID doesnot include all the features of CDA.

Peter

Subject:RE: Breaking long mix into tracks

Reply by: djgonzo

Date:5/2/2005 5:45:19 PM

I am not ready to drop $150.00 on a product just yet when I can still get away with I currently own.

If anyone can further assist on this I would be greatly thankful so I can finish up many of my remixes.

Thanks,
Gonzo

Subject:RE: Breaking long mix into tracks

Reply by: JohnnyRoy

Date:5/2/2005 6:40:56 PM

In your original post you state that you have CD Architect 5.0. Just drop the songs into CD Architect, arrange / overlap as you want, drop your track markers where you want them and burn your CD. You have everything you need in CD Architect.

~jr

Subject:RE: Breaking long mix into tracks

Reply by: djgonzo

Date:5/2/2005 11:02:37 PM

Mmmm, within CDA 5.2 I did what you explained... Brought my mix into CDA and created 'Markers' on each of the songs. Then, created a CD....the CD ended up coming out with all the songs mixed together just as they were prior to bringing them into CDA.

Markers did nothing in breaking my songs apart after the burning.

Guess I'm missing something here.....

Thanks,
Gonzo

Subject:RE: Breaking long mix into tracks

Reply by: JohnnyRoy

Date:5/3/2005 5:14:42 AM

> Markers did nothing in breaking my songs apart after the burning.

If you truly used regular markers (i.e., used the ‘M’ key to drop markers), then that’s the reason. Makers do not designate tracks. Not in ACID Pro 5 or in CD Architect 5.0. Use the ‘T’ key to designate where you want your track breaks to be in CD Architect. The tracks are marked at the bottom of the timeline and as a grey line in the timeline. Don’t forget to create a 2 second gap between those songs that you don’t want to run into each other. Sorry if the use of the term "track marker" in my post wasn’t clear.

~jr

Subject:RE: Breaking long mix into tracks

Reply by: djgonzo

Date:5/4/2005 9:09:35 PM

Ahhhh, nice! ;)

Thanks for helping a knuckle-head like myself understand some of these features.