Subject:deleting audio within regions

Posted by: Phil Sayer

Date:2/6/2008 12:28:13 PM

I've searched for an hour through all the Help sections and drawn a blank - yet it seems so simple...

In a file containing 500 phrases, I've created regions from every fifth one, and extracted the audio. So far so good.

Now what I need is to delete the audio from all those regions, leaving me with 400 phrases.

And can I find a way to do it? No sirreee... driving me mad - can anyone help, please?

Subject:RE: deleting audio within regions

Reply by: Kennymusicman

Date:2/6/2008 3:31:34 PM

This depends on how you have worked. If your regions are the items you want to remove, and it's only the regions you want to remove - then you'll like this :)

1) Special -> Playlist/cutlist -> treat as cutlist.
2) View -> regions list
3) Select all regions by clicking on the box/column header above "1" in the far left column
4)Right click in the regions list, and add to cut-list
5) (Your regions should turn grey
6) Special -> Playlist/cutlist -> Delete cut regions.
7) Save, and relax :)



If you have regions for phrases you want to keep, and phrases you want to lose. It'll be script territory at best, or manual effort at worst. If manual...

Double click on the tombstone, this will select the region, then hit delete.

Hope that helps

Subject:RE: deleting audio within regions

Reply by: Phil Sayer

Date:2/7/2008 12:34:38 AM

Kenny! You are a genius... many thanks - that does the trick, and will help a great deal. While you're on the case (and if you and/or other forum members have the time to dwell on it) let me explain the project and see if there's a better way...

At first it looks straighforward, but read on!

I've recorded 934 multiple choice questions, each of which has four possible answers. Client needs numbering like this: Q1, A1, B1, C1, D1 through to Q934, A934, B934, C934, D934. (Still awake?) It's about six hours of audio, which I recorded in batches of 100 Q&As at a time.

It's actually the numbering that causes the difficulty.

It did occur to me before I was recording that the simplest way, from an editing viewpoint, would be to record all the questions first, then all the A answers, then all the B answers, and so on. I rejected that, because when the user listens back they will hear it in "linear" fashion - i.e., they'll hear the question, then each of the answers in turn. If I had recorded as just described, I couldn't be vocally consistent enough to be sure that say, B324 would sound close enough to C324 on playback, when the two had been recorded hours or days apart.

I had the foresight to leave gaps in the recording as an aid to editing largely visually rather than aurally, thank goodness...

I tried two methods:

Highlight Q1, drag it to a new window, trim/crop to length (using a k/board shortcut of my own) Save As (into a dedicated "Questions" folder, and changing the prefix in Settings to "Q" in place of "Sound" and setting the counter appropriately.) Close the new file, hit delete to remove the question audio. Repeat 99 times until end of file!

At this point, my "master file" now consists of 400 answers, so, changing the Save settings, I now go through a similar process and extract/save all the "A" answers, then all the "B" answers and so on.

Method Two:

Drop a marker between each chunk, so 501 markers per file. Convert markers to regions - thus 500 regions. Using extract regions, manually highlight every fifth one to pull out the questions (all numbers ending 1 and 6) then all the A answers (2 and 7) and so on. Again, I can re-set the Save prefix to Q, A, B, C, or D as appropriate, and set the counter to start at the right number. Then, batch process the files to trim them to length.

Each method is pretty tedious, and bear in mind that what I've described has to be done 9.34 times, so to speak!

I looked for a file-renaming utility that would be able to see a list of files numbered 1 to 4670 ( that's 5 x 934), extract every fifth one and sequentially number it, keeping to the original order, but I can't find one that can do it.

So here's the challenge - have I missed something blindingly obvious, and if so, what is it? Or is it just the nature of the beast that whichever method one uses, it's going to be a long, hard (and mainly manual) slog?

Subject:RE: deleting audio within regions

Reply by: Kennymusicman

Date:2/7/2008 6:42:52 AM

What I would do would be something like this, I think.....

Put a region around every phrase and question, by using autoregion since you have left gaps. That creates 4670 regions (5x934).

Then I would use a script, which would have to be written for this purpose since it's a bespoke job, to extract each region with a naming convention.
logically it would be along:

Store values a=1,b=2,c=3,d=4,e=5
if (a <935)
{
Ie, apend region a title to Q001, append region b title to A001 --> region e....
Then loop back append region (a+5) to Q0(a+1)
}


I'm not yet familiar enough with SF scripting to actually write the code for you though.. I can just think the logic..

Alternatively.
Extract all 4670 regions to a directory.
In windows explorer, view the directory as icons, with window wide enough to fit 5 icons. Select the far right column, then move to new directory. That's all your A4's
Then readjust window explorer to fit 4 icons wide. Select right column and move to new directory, that's all your A3's
That will give you 5 directories - Q1, A1, A2, A3, A4.
Then you could rename all files in directory with a quick batch file. (code for that escapes me atm - - I will come back once I have had some coffee)

Subject:RE: deleting audio within regions

Reply by: Kennymusicman

Date:2/7/2008 9:21:10 AM

http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Screenshots.php is a batch renaming utility that might sort you out if you work with the latter method - no need to make a command batch file -

Subject:RE: deleting audio within regions

Reply by: Phil Sayer

Date:2/8/2008 2:44:34 PM

Ken, that's spot on. I'm about to finish off the project using your second method, since I ran a test earlier today and it all worked - every last bit of it.

I am very grateful to you for your well thought out solution, and I tip my hat to your knowledge!

I've found a free file renamer called ReNamer (not exactly a witty or original name but hey...) which works well, or at least did so in my test - I'll report back.

Thank you again, Ken - your kindness is truly appreciated by me, the missus and our twin toddlers, who have forgotten what Dad looks like!

Subject:RE: deleting audio within regions

Reply by: Kennymusicman

Date:2/8/2008 3:50:43 PM

You're welcome :)

ps. the toddlers have grown up and start secondry school in a few months since you took so long!

:)

Subject:RE: deleting audio within regions

Reply by: Phil Sayer

Date:2/8/2008 4:20:08 PM

Hmmm - I thought it was quiet around here...!

I said I'd report back - the test success was repeated on the real project and it worked 100%, so thank you a million times.. you've saved me many hours of tedium on this project, and I'm sure I'll be able to apply the same lessons to future work.

I owe you a pint (and a lot more besides), but I'm 200 miles north of you...

:o)

Subject:RE: deleting audio within regions

Reply by: Kennymusicman

Date:2/8/2008 4:29:07 PM

Success is good enough :)

I use soundforge every day - and it has served me faithfully And it keeps getting better. Just got to pull myself away from the forums at 1am/2am somehow...

Have fun

[I'll say hi next time in in Lancs :) ]