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So I'm trying to break up a few songs to be uploaded for a grammaphone I had purchased using audacity. Sad to say, the person who said would help me with this has flaked leaving me to do it on my own and I'm not finding instructional guides to be any help for what I'm needing to do largely thanks to a lack of them regarding this specific project. (all I know is to cut it at the ninth second because SL counts 0 as the first for some weird reason). I know one song needs to be cut into 34 segments... Can someone walk me through this editing process please?

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  • 2 weeks later...

This is something I have struggled with as well. I have the files put into the right rate (44.1) in a wav file (another thing SL is fussy about) but then you need to chop the sound up into 10 second segments. You've already told me something I didn't know about "9 seconds". But try as I may, cutting this as I would on various other recorder programs, then going to "export" I can't seem to work it. It shouldn't be that hard. Hoping someone will reply.

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I started writing a reply when this question was first posted but then decided not to bother because I was hoping someone who knew more about using Audacity would chime in.
But they haven't as yet, so I'll give you the steps I use.

I'm by no means an Audacity expert though & there's probably a better way to do this (using some batch thing to automate chopping up & exporting for example), but these steps work for me.

  • Open the audio file in Audacity - File -> Open.
  • In the bottom left, set the "Project rate (Hz)" to 44100 - https://prnt.sc/jn7cnr
  • If your audio is stereo, you need to convert it to mono - click the down arrow on the left next to the name of the track and then select “Split Stereo to mono" - https://prnt.sc/jn7d54
  • Discard one of the tracks by clicking the X to close it: https://prnt.sc/js8ft5
  • Zoom in so it's easier to select 9 second chunks: https://prnt.sc/js8gip
  • Select the first 9 seconds of the track: https://gyazo.com/594bdc5c049b7d2dcbc83fa981a89b90
  • In the top menu bar, go to Edit -> Clip boundaries -> Split New - you'll then have the first 9 seconds split into its own track: https://gyazo.com/2a12f292fc7d264f1d238ca4fcbfb786
  • Select the new 9 second track by double clicking on it.
  • Top menu bar, File -> Export -> Export selected audio
  • In the file picker, name the clip & set "Save as type" to WAV (microsoft) signed 16-bit PCM
  • That track clip should now import into Second Life.
  • Carry on chopping up into 9 second segments & exporting.

Hope that helps for now.


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Thanks for doing this. I struggled and struggled with it, and it is still giving me the message "file too long". It's also very hard. Each individual step is really a bunch of baby steps that you just have to figure out. If I do, I will rewrite it. But I'm not there yet.

 

UPDATE

I finally got that to work. There are several "issues" that happen along the way. One is the "select by double clicking" which has to be done "just so" so that it is ready to go. It kept not working.

It is hella hard for dummies, as the thing keeps playing instead of highlighting. You keep not getting "Split New" as an option on the menu because you haven't done it right. You keep trying and get it. Then it keeps playing on you.

Then you try to cut it and export it -- it's a mess. All of it has to be done "just so". Just showing it on your screen grab -- which is great -- is not enough to "learn how to do it" with your own hands, struggling. Again -- we're talking dummies here. People who don't use these programs. People who don't know Photoshop, etc.

Next, what happens when you select file/export and then "file picker" "save as" -- you then get this menu with all this stuff on it -- metadata, etc. etc. They're all blanks. You have no idea what to put in them.

You don't mention that, maybe it's not in the version of Audacity you are using. But it pops up and is confusing -- I just pressed "ok" to get rid of it and that turned out ok.

 

Next, you have to find that exported file. Where is it? It's in the Audacity files. Where are those? They are in "documents" for some reason. Don't ask me why.

Then -- for dummies again -- when you are trying to upload into SL, make sure you have selected build/upload and then SOUND or you can't even find the file.

So I managed to get two 10 second files (actually cut off at the 9 mark because SL marks 0 as 1 as the above explains) -- and I'm exhausted.

 

Edited by Prokofy Neva
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5 hours ago, Whirly Fizzle said:

I started writing a reply when this question was first posted but then decided not to bother because I was hoping someone who knew more about using Audacity would chime in.
But they haven't as yet, so I'll give you the steps I use.

I'm by no means an Audacity expert though & there's probably a better way to do this (using some batch thing to automate chopping up & exporting for example), but these steps work for me.

  • Open the audio file in Audacity - File -> Open.
  • In the bottom left, set the "Project rate (Hz)" to 44100 - https://prnt.sc/jn7cnr
  • If your audio is stereo, you need to convert it to mono - click the down arrow on the left next to the name of the track and then select “Split Stereo to mono" - https://prnt.sc/jn7d54
  • Discard one of the tracks by clicking the X to close it: https://prnt.sc/js8ft5
  • Zoom in so it's easier to select 9 second chunks: https://prnt.sc/js8gip
  • Select the first 9 seconds of the track: https://gyazo.com/594bdc5c049b7d2dcbc83fa981a89b90
  • In the top menu bar, go to Edit -> Clip boundaries -> Split New - you'll then have the first 9 seconds split into its own track: https://gyazo.com/2a12f292fc7d264f1d238ca4fcbfb786
  • Select the new 9 second track by double clicking on it.
  • Top menu bar, File -> Export -> Export selected audio
  • In the file picker, name the clip & set "Save as type" to WAV (microsoft) signed 16-bit PCM
  • That track clip should now import into Second Life.
  • Carry on chopping up into 9 second segments & exporting.

Hope that helps for now.

  •  

You're really like Anne Sullivan, Helen Keller's teacher! I have been so frustrated with this for so long, and had to wait on other people or buy things that weren't quite what I wanted, now I can do it myself.

So I have to say that one key thing is that in the step "Select the new 9 second track by double clicking on it" -- this can be annoying because you click on it and it makes lines and it doesn't seem to be doing the right thing. And indeed, if you do not get this step right, when you try to upload what you see as separate files to SL, it will tell you they are too long.

So you have to click on it in such a way that it turns darker. That's how you know it's right. Try to click not making the line that seems like it might slice again, but to the side, where the "hand" comes out.

Then, the next step is different on mine -- there isn't "file/export" but only "file/export selected audio". But "export selected audio" will be greyed out and unworkable UNLESS you've clicked just the right way in the previous step.

 

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I've used WavePad in the past. It has the ability to automatically split an audio file into segments of specified length. I found it far, far easier than using Audacity.

http://www.nch.com.au/wavepad/index.html

ETA: Been years since I used it, but you just "Open" the file, then switch to the "Edit" panel and select "Split:Split at fixed intervals". Set the time to 9 seconds, 0 milliseconds in the pop-up window and click "Split". WavePad will split the file into as many segments as necessary, opening a window for each segment. When you quit, you'll be asked to confirm the save for each segment. The files are saved in the same place as the original, with segment numbers appended to the original filename.

Edited by Madelaine McMasters
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@Whirly Fizzle

@Zyke Dragoone

@Callum Meriman

In audacity, you can make a .txt file to use as tag for breaking up a long audio file into chunks. This method is called Label splitting

It's pretty easy, you create a .txt file first

  • in this file, you enter the seconds number you want as starting point for each exported chunk
  • hit enter at each label end, no extra spaces, no empty lines
  • save the txt file
  • in Audacity, go to Tracks menu --> Edit Labels
  • a new window appears, in there press Import button and select your file, then click OK
  • at this point you can export the labels by going to File menu --> Export Labels and follow the usual procedure to export WAV files for SL (what Whirly has explained in detail)

That's it =)

 

Edited by OptimoMaximo
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