Mudpup Posted June 21, 2015 Share Posted June 21, 2015 I stupidly lost my Wavelab 7 disc and have bought a new laptop which i need to install a similar program on. It'll be used mainly for editing gig recordings made on my Olympus LS14 pocket recorder - normalising, fading and separating tracks etc.... Also converting between WAV, MP3 and WMA files probably. Any suggestions for anything simple to use and cheap (read FREE actually!)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HowieBass Posted June 21, 2015 Share Posted June 21, 2015 Audacity? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mudpup Posted June 21, 2015 Author Share Posted June 21, 2015 I'll check it out ta.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topo morto Posted June 21, 2015 Share Posted June 21, 2015 Audacity's good. Lots of tutorials and help on the web how to do things. For converting lots of files at a time I just use Foobar2000, which is basically just a player but has that and a few handy clever tricks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charic Posted June 22, 2015 Share Posted June 22, 2015 Reaper is free in a weird sorta way Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ras52 Posted June 22, 2015 Share Posted June 22, 2015 [quote name='HowieBass' timestamp='1434922540' post='2803931'] Audacity? [/quote] +1. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartelby Posted June 22, 2015 Share Posted June 22, 2015 For non mixing type audio work Audacity is definitely the one to use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dad3353 Posted June 22, 2015 Share Posted June 22, 2015 [quote name='Mudpup' timestamp='1434922144' post='2803926']... Any suggestions for anything simple to use and cheap (read FREE actually!)? [/quote] Yes, it sounds as if Audacity is about right for you. Reaper is a full DAW, and so has its advantages, and is free to try for an unlimited period (but also very inexpensive...), but if you're not using Reaper's extra functionality, Audacity will do a fine job, and is simple enough to use whilst being powerful enough to do what you need. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
51m0n Posted June 23, 2015 Share Posted June 23, 2015 Reaper is a far better editor than Audacity. Audacity doesn tlet you hear changes you're making until after a destructive edit. Which rules it out for serious work immediately. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topo morto Posted June 23, 2015 Share Posted June 23, 2015 Why would that be a problem? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dad3353 Posted June 23, 2015 Share Posted June 23, 2015 [quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1435076885' post='2805226'] Reaper is a far better editor than Audacity. Audacity doesn tlet you hear changes you're making until after a destructive edit. Which rules it out for serious work immediately. [/quote] I'm using Audacity 2.0.6; it has a 'preview' button for each of the effects, and a multi-level 'Undo' (not sure how many...). Reaper is not designed to do the same task. If one wants a DAW, I'd recommend Reaper. If one only wants to edit audio, I'd recommend Audacity. There's no downside to trying both, and choosing on the perceived merits of each. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HowieBass Posted June 23, 2015 Share Posted June 23, 2015 A destructive edit is only going to be a problem if you save the edited file back over itself - I would assume this not to be the case when splitting one recording into individual new separate files/songs. The same holds true when converting from one file type to another. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowdown Posted June 23, 2015 Share Posted June 23, 2015 (edited) [quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1435078386' post='2805249'] I'm using Audacity 2.0.6; it has a 'preview' button for each of the effects, and a multi-level 'Undo' (not sure how many...). Reaper is not designed to do the same task. If one wants a DAW, I'd recommend Reaper. If one only wants to edit audio, I'd recommend Audacity. There's no downside to trying both, and choosing on the perceived merits of each. [/quote] Now at version 2.1.0, with real time preview and VST support, I believe. [url="http://audacityteam.org"]http://audacityteam.org[/url] I am not an Audacity user, but it seems it will do the job for the OP. . Edited June 23, 2015 by lowdown Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dad3353 Posted June 23, 2015 Share Posted June 23, 2015 (edited) [quote name='lowdown' timestamp='1435085574' post='2805368'] Now at version 2.1.0, with real time preview and VST support, I believe. [url="http://audacityteam.org"]http://audacityteam.org[/url]... [/quote] Thanks for that; it's real time [i]VST [/i]preview, and that's good, too. Improved VST support and several other features, and it's still free..! What's not to like..? Edited June 23, 2015 by Dad3353 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
51m0n Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 [quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1435078386' post='2805249'] I'm using Audacity 2.0.6; it has a 'preview' button for each of the effects, and a multi-level 'Undo' (not sure how many...). [b]Reaper is not designed to do the same task[/b]. If one wants a DAW, I'd recommend Reaper. If one only wants to edit audio, I'd recommend Audacity. There's no downside to trying both, and choosing on the perceived merits of each. [/quote] Sorry Dad, I have to disagree with you there. Reaper is absolutely designed to edit audio, its a primary function of the software. You do all your editing non-destructively then render than edits to a new file, as opposed to editing the original file destructively. This is a hugely better solution than Audacity's for obvious reasons (if it turns out you didnt like what you did you can always always redo it) You can do all the same editing in Reaper and a whole lot more than you can in Audacity. Yes it can do a bunch of different things as well, but when it comes to editing audio it is miles ahead of Audacity. Its also far quicker to use. And yes I have used many wave editors in the past, none of them is better than Reaper either, although many can be considered better than Audacity (wavelab for instance lets you put fx on a track and hear what you are doing as it plays). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dad3353 Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 [quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1435841325' post='2812924'] Sorry Dad, I have to disagree with you there. Reaper is absolutely designed to edit audio... [/quote] I'll bow to your superior experience; it's odd that I've never used Reaper in that way before, but I'll look into it. I must be too set in my ways, I suppose. Still, I find Audacity (and Wavosaur...) very useful. I must admit that it matters little to me whether they're 'destructive' or not, as they ask politely if you want to save or not, and if I'm not satisfied, I reply 'No'. I'm simply an armchair buffoon, though, not a Master Mixer. Respect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topo morto Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 (edited) I think the point is that you can go back and 'edit your edits' if you've done a bunch of them, which must be great in some circumstances. Edited July 2, 2015 by topo morto Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
51m0n Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 [quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1435842916' post='2812942'] I'll bow to your superior experience; it's odd that I've never used Reaper in that way before, but I'll look into it. I must be too set in my ways, I suppose. Still, I find Audacity (and Wavosaur...) very useful. I must admit that it matters little to me whether they're 'destructive' or not, as they ask politely if you want to save or not, and if I'm not satisfied, I reply 'No'. I'm simply an armchair buffoon, though, not a Master Mixer. Respect. [/quote] Horses for courses, just dont underestimate the number of ways Reaper can help you get your audio right. I cant imagine begin able to edit drum tracks as well with something less capable, things like removing accidental stick clicks in the middle of tom fill sin a completely invisible way (hint, slice each track in the kit on either side of the click then 'slide' the click later than the right hand slice then move the edit boundaries to be equal power overlaps ) you actually cant do as quickly, easily or with anything like the certainty in Audacity or any other wave editor. So if you can do that you can definitely top and tail audio, get nice fades in place, denoise, declick, add all sorts of eq, compression, limiting, whilst using hugely superior metering software (voxengo Sapn is incredible free software to show you what is going on in your audio to name but one). 32bit to 64bit vst bridge in Reaper is second to none so you can use all the vsts on your 64 bit native Reaper software with no issues at all (in my experience). I do all my mastering in Reaper now too. Its simply brilliant at audio. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
51m0n Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 [quote name='topo morto' timestamp='1435843534' post='2812950'] I think the point is that you can go back and 'edit your edits' if you've done a bunch of them, which must be great in some circumstances. [/quote] Yup. On serious work I take this to another level using mercurial (a source control software solution) to track project files (not the audio, but that never changes!), whcih means if I decide I dont like a direction I went in I can always go back to a known point and try something else instead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ras52 Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 And yet.... it's a bit like Notepad vs Word. Word can do everything Notepad can, but for a simple edit on a text file it's usually simpler to fire up Notepad. Horses for courses, YMMV etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zenitram Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 [quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1435843802' post='2812956'] things like removing accidental stick clicks in the middle of tom fill sin a completely invisible way (hint, slice each track in the kit on either side of the click then 'slide' the click later than the right hand slice then move the edit boundaries to be equal power overlaps )[/quote] Could you explain that again? I'm getting a glimpse of something useful, and I might be seeing what you mean, but I'm not entirely sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dad3353 Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 [quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1435843802' post='2812956']...(hint, slice each track in the kit on either side of the click then 'slide' the click later than the right hand slice then move the edit boundaries to be equal power overlaps )... [/quote] I'm doing something wrong here, as I can't get this to work. When I pull the boundaries to cover the gap, the 'glitch' is still there..! Reaper hasn't 'really' cut out the slice, it seems. Any advice, please..? Here's my steps, from top to bottom... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
51m0n Posted July 3, 2015 Share Posted July 3, 2015 (edited) Ok Slice to the left of the click by about 25ms Slice to the right by the same amount Hold Alt and left click the audio with the stick click in it and drag it to the right until you can't see the click. Let go. Youve moved tge click until it can't be heard now. Then click the left boundary of the moved audio and pull it about 5 to 10 ms to the left. Reaper will automatically crossfade the overlap Repeat on the right side. Voila a perfectly hidden click with no audible artifacts. Edited July 3, 2015 by 51m0n Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dad3353 Posted July 3, 2015 Share Posted July 3, 2015 Sorry, 5i, but I rather think you'll soon be regretting having given this example..! Step by step, I get this ... [quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1435962940' post='2814101'] Ok Slice to the left of the click by about 25ms [color=#ff0000]Check (using 'S' keyboard shortcut...)[/color] Slice to the right by the same amount [color=#FF0000]Check (using 'S' keyboard shortcut...)[/color] Hold Alt and left click the audio with the stick click in it and drag it to the right until you can't see the click. Let go. Youve moved tge click until it can't be heard now. [color=#ff0000]Check. This slides the whole track in that cut piece to the right; if I slide too far, I see another, preceding waveform. If I play this track solo, the cut click is no longer heard...[/color] Then click the left boundary of the moved audio and pull it about 5 to 10 ms to the left. Reaper will automatically crossfade the overlap [b][color=#ff0000]Bugger..! In doing this, the original, cut, waveform now re-appears in the gap, as if there were no cut..! You can see it in the before last track, above...[/color][/b] Repeat on the right side. [color=#ff0000][b]Same here, dragging from the right. Damned..![/b][/color] Voila a perfectly hidden click with no audible artifacts. [color=#ff0000]Alas, no, not for me..![/color] [/quote] Is there something to set up (Edit mode..? Cut'n'paste parameter..? Summit spooky..?); I've a stock, vanilla setup.Anyone else done this..? 'Twould be very useful, but there's something in the air here stopping it doing the same as yours. What, though..? Apologies for being such a troublesome nincompoop... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
51m0n Posted July 4, 2015 Share Posted July 4, 2015 (edited) Make sure you don't have ripple edit on It's one of the standard icons on the top left near lock to grid and all that other good stuff. In fact, turn off locking to the grid as well since these edits are so small. Looking at your example that's definitely your issue!!!! Be careful when grabbing the boundary edge not to get both of them, watch the cursor carefully as you hover over the boundary! Edited July 4, 2015 by 51m0n Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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