[daverose808]

i have a lot of bootlegs of shows and i would like to quickly edit out the applause from the beginning and end of each track. so far, ive figured out how to cut the applause out manually with audacity and save the edited track as an mp3. the problem with that is 1) it seems there must be a quicker way, and 2) im sure there is some setting in audacity i dont know about which is causing the volume or quality of the original to be slightly off.

any suggestions, please.


also, i would then like to make the volume on all these tracks, from all the shows, a consistent volume (since i have to keep lowering or raising the volume manually in my car, since some shows are quieter than the others). with google's help, i found (but have not yet tried) MP3Gain (http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/) and wanted to check here for further recommendations or approval.

thanks!

[mtaki]

Mp3gain is a really good choice for this job.

As for your problem you can try using WavePad. A free alternative that is easier to use than Audacity.

[stantley]

The best way to edit out applause is to do it manually with a wave editor, but it is time consuming. When you use Audacity it converts the Mp3 to a wave file, you do your editing and it converts back to Mp3. Every time you do this it causes a drop in quality which may be what you're seeing.

You could try mp3DirectCut which is a freeware editor that works on the Mp3 file directly without conversion. It won't save you any time but the quality might be better.

Another option that would be a little quicker and preserve the quality is to use mpTrim. You listen to the song while looking at the run time, then you tell mpTrim how many seconds you want to trim from the front and back and you can select fade-in and fade-out. But the free version of the program has a limit on filesize so you might not be able to use it on longer songs.

MP3Gain is a good program to normalize volume on all your tracks. The default target volume is 89.0 dB which I find to be a little low. You might want increase it to 91.0 dB.

[daverose808]

great responses. thank you. i will gladly report my experience for others.

update: mp3gain worked perfectly. at first i was concerned that the louder songs would be too loud (like, the prog would just increase the volume of all the songs), but it worked perfectly.

i already had mp3directcut and i cant believe i didnt think to use it! thanks to all of u.

[daverose808]

What is clipping? Some of the songs i put in MP3Gain are coming back red, and say "Y" under the Clipping column. The FAQ on their website doesnt talk about it...
thanks

[Ratboy]

daverose808,

From MP3Gain Help:

This column has a Y if the mp3 file is currently clipping. “Clipping” means that when the mp3 file is decoded by your player, some of the sound samples will be too loud. The player will “clip” these samples so that they do not exceed the maximum allowable value. This clipping creates a sort of rough, “scratchy” sound during loud parts of the song.

Also be sure to check the following settings in Audacity:

Go to Edit > Preferences > Quality
Set your preferred Default Sample Rate

Go to Edit > Preferences > File Formats > MP3 Export Setup
Set your preferred Bit Rate

[stantley]

If you changed the target volume to 91.0 you can easily change it back to 89.0, enter 89 in the box and for tracks that you've already processed all you do is hit "Track Gain". The analysis is what takes the most time, changing the volume works very quickly.

At 89 you'll get less clipping but the volume will be lower. Many times some clipping will not even be audible. So you have to find a happy medium which depends on the music source and the equipment you use for playback. Music from newer CD's is louder than older CD's. Music from LP's and tapes are even lower. A larger amplifier can make up for lower volume.

If you're going to listen to these tracks on an Mp3 player then a lot depends on the player and the ear buds or headphones.

Do some testing. Take the same song and make an 89 dB version and a 91 dB version, put them on your player and see what they sound like. Try the same test with music from different sources.

Another type of test you can do is take some different songs at different level settings, load them into Audacity and you can see how big the waveform is. Too big you get clipping, too small not enough volume.

Here are some discussions on the subject:

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/...howtopic=29496

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/...howtopic=71832

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/...howtopic=62489

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/...hp/t20781.html

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/...showtopic=3274

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/...howtopic=12315

I can only read so much of this stuff before my brain starts to hurt.

[daverose808]

yes, i did make them all 91db, based on the original recommendation. if i will get less clipping with 89, it seems that is the way to go, bc i dont think its such a bad thing that the volume will be lower. my concern was that they would all be consistent, so i wouldnt have to adjust the volume knob in my car for each song. unless u are saying that at 89 it might be too low for even the maximum setting of my car's volume knob.

thanks for those posts. after reading them, it seems clipping might not even be noticeable.i would have to imagine that since i am not using store bought albums, and am instead using bootleg CDs, clipping might not be the biggest deal. i guess ill just try them both and see which sounds better.

thanks for all the responses!

[daverose808]

ratboy, what do u recommend for Default Sample Rate and Bit Rate?

[Ratboy]

In both cases, the higher the better but makes the file sizes larger.

I'd use the following settings:
Quality tab:
Default Sample Rate = 96000 Hz
Default Sample Format = 32-bit float
File Formats tab:
Bit Rate = 192 or higher

[daverose808]

thx! but i might be better of with mp3direct cut, especially if stantley is right and it causes a loss in quality in anyway.