Subject:idiots guide required

Posted by: Nivagnelg

Date:5/9/2012 7:34:33 PM

Hi guys, I'm a brand new user of the soundforge family. I bought soudforge 10 (having never used previous versions) for one reason:

I am a dj and record long sets live onto my pc. i have the follwing problem:

When i finish recording the program asks me when and how to save the file. I have no problem when i stop mixing and BEFORE I save the file i devide it into tracks and then save. The file then saves as seperate tracks which I can then burn as I please.

my problem comes when I save the mix as one long continuous file and then want to re-visit it and place tracks markers for burning.

I have tried to re-open the file and placed markers at each point I want but when I try to save the new file with markers attacked it still produces a single MP3 without the tracks marked.

Can somebody please provide an 'idiots guide' step by step on how I get the tracks to stick and stay for when I burn.

I haven't found the FAQ's particularly helpful and there are is not much in the way of palatable guides on how to do this. I'm not fantastically technical so just need a simple guide.

I hope someone can help - thanks for reading

Subject:RE: idiots guide required

Reply by: Geoff_Wood

Date:5/9/2012 8:08:05 PM

Are you initially selecting the "Save Metadata with File" ? Both Merkers and Regions should be preserved.

Also are you aware that MP3s are at best compromised audio quality over lossless files like WAV or FLAC. And opening then resaving altered MP3s (ie re-encoding) is pure poison ?

geoff

Subject:RE: idiots guide required

Reply by: Nivagnelg

Date:5/9/2012 8:16:56 PM

yes I have been saving the data along with the original files (assuming you mean the SFK's that are produced when I save?)

Also I'm saving the recording as WAV initially and store the WAVS no problem. But i'm having difficulties even when I try to re-open the WAV and mark it and THEN save it as an MP3 after inserting track marking (by pressing M at the required time throughout the mix).

As I say, I'm no expert and just require a layman's guide on how to do this successfully

Subject:RE: idiots guide required

Reply by: Geoff_Wood

Date:5/9/2012 10:49:26 PM

"yes I have been saving the data along with the original files (assuming you mean the SFK's that are produced when I save?)"

No, I mean on the MP3 or WAV Save As dialogue there is a tick-box for "Save Metadata with File" . The Metadata is the markers/regions, otherwise you just save the audio data.

Being a novice is no problem ;-)

geoff

Subject:RE: idiots guide required

Reply by: Nivagnelg

Date:5/15/2012 10:34:11 AM

Geoff, i see what you mean now. yes I am saving the meta data with the file. It produces a sperate document with the same name as the mix and puts it into the designated folder along with the WAV / MP3.

Just so I'm clear, if I mark and name each individual track BEFORE I save after recording the markers go in place and the file is automatically seperated (I can then play them thru i-tunes and mark them as gapless for seemelss play through). However IF i choose to save the long WAV without marking it, I then have to go through it and not only track mark it (pressing M) but also have to do regions???

Or is it possible to get the marking done without the need for regions?

Subject:RE: idiots guide required

Reply by: Chienworks

Date:5/15/2012 1:01:13 PM

There is no guarantee that any particular player software is going to recognize either the markers or regions you add in Sound Forge.

If you really want to accomplish having the tracks recognized separately then you will probably have to save each section as a separate file.

Subject:RE: idiots guide required

Reply by: Geoff_Wood

Date:5/15/2012 5:32:37 PM

If one file(track) , even with Markers/regions, it will be still just one file to iTunes (etc). iTunes does not read the SF markers.

You will need to save each track indivually, and configure them in iTiunes for gapless playback. Unfortunately other people will also need to do this manually.

Not sure if sets can be preset to gapless in the iTune store or not ....

geoff

Subject:RE: idiots guide required

Reply by: rraud

Date:5/16/2012 2:18:30 PM

You could encode the segments as separate MP3 files, then create an MP3 'Playlist', however that would create silent gaps between the songs, no good for continuous 'live' performance.
I suppose you could do sort of the same thing with iTunes.

Subject:RE: idiots guide required

Reply by: musicvid10

Date:5/17/2012 10:58:24 PM

I may be outdated here, but encoding each audio "track" as a separate file in a folder dedicated to your playlist, and then creating the playlist, is the only means I know of to do what you want, if your output is going to be .mp3 or .m4a

To do what you want with one long file, you would want to create an .m4v or .mkv file with audio only (no video) and apply named chapter points at the times you choose to locate your audio "tracks".

If you decide to go this route, Vegas markers in a .txt file, will export to Drax (from Codeplex), which will in turn export to Handbrake or other applications which support MP4Box or other types of chapter markers.

I haven't tested this exact route in Vegas, but out of curiosity I will do so 'time permitting" and get back to you.
;?)

Subject:RE: idiots guide required

Reply by: musicvid10

Date:5/18/2012 10:59:07 AM

I may have misread your question, however I'll leave the post up in case it is useful to others. I did test it and it works fine in VLC and Quicktime players, which support chapters.

Subject:RE: idiots guide required

Reply by: Chienworks

Date:5/18/2012 12:11:15 PM

"You could encode the segments as separate MP3 files, then create an MP3 'Playlist', however that would create silent gaps between the songs, no good for continuous 'live' performance."

Or save as WAV or any of several other formats that don't add gaps. Of course, it would still be dependent on how instantaneously the player switches from one to the next. Even with gapless recordings the player might still pause for a moment.

On the other hand, if the goal is a "live performance" sort of playback then i see no reason to have separate tracks since the whole will be played beginning to end, and if the goal is to have individually accessible tracks to flit between, i see no point in worrying about continuous playback.

On the other, other hand, i've been tinkering around with a DJ software package i'm writing that sits on top of Windows Media Player and has two separate playback streams. This allows crossfades so that the next song can start and fade in as the previous song is finishing and fading out. No gaps! It supports pre-programmed playback, random playback, or even cue up what you'd like next. This gives the best of both track addressability and gapless playback,