File splitting for Dummies?

[Muff Diver]

I've wasted an entire afternoon dicking around w Audacity, trying to split a FLAC rip, and I can't remember how to do it.

Does anybody recall how to split the tracks?

Help me out, I'm shootin' blanks!

OR, perhaps you're feeling especially generous and you happen to have a LOSSLESS rip of SBH 3079 just lying around, feeling unloved, and you'd like to offer it a good home.

OR, perhaps you've got all day to spend on projects like splitting tracks and you're up for a challenge. More power to you!

Here's to vital details:

SBH 3079 - Recorded Music for Film, Radio & Television - T. Jackson, C. Bold (1980) - FLAC
Discogs:  hominahomina://discogs.com/Sound-Studio-Orchestra-Recorded-Music-For-Film-Radio-Television/release/10755316

I do NOT have the original URL for this download, so I can't say for certain which LMT incarnation it came from. This is a Retronic rip so far as I'm aware, downloaded by myself on 11 April 2016. I guess that would make it LMT v. 2 or 3?

That's the onliest info I gots for ya. I did take the liberty of reupping the original FLAC file:

Peckerwood://www105.zippyshare.com/v/8AaorMi5/file.html

Any file splitting tutorials will be welcome.

And if you're willing to split the files for me, that's even better!

Thanks for any info you can spare!

[Greta]

I'll try with my poor english. It will be difficult, also because my Audacity is in Italian.

1- open the long track with audacity
2- edit -> labels -> add label at selection (this way you add a label at the point your cursor is, in the track) (Ctrl+B on Win, Command+B on Mac, makes the work faster)
3- give the track name to every label you add
4- when you've finished labelling, file -> save other -> export multiple
5- choose the output format
6- save

Hope this is useful enough.
If not, give me a shout and I'll upload the splitted one.


*update*
I found a guide, it says the same, but it's probably clearer to you:
https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/splitting_a_recording_into_separate_tracks.html

[Mr]

(ante scriptum: I'm on Windows. "Ctrl" probably equates to 'command' on Macs. Dunno.)
Nothing revolutionary, but might as well let you know how I do it:
Now, I'm a fan of shortcuts - the default in Audacity is that File -> Export Audio... (the entire file) is shortcutted, but File -> Export Selected Audio... is not. I've inverted the two, moving the Ctrl+E shortcut from the prior to the latter through Edit -> Preferences -> Keyboard (just search for "Export"). I've found this greatly improves my flow.

- Now, load up the long file in Audacity. Zoom in to a comfortable view (try using Ctrl+2, adjusting with Ctrl+3 and/or Ctrl+1)
Press play at the start, and listen for when the first track starts. You can sometimes tell from the visualized sound waves, but not always - this being a good example, the track fades 'unreadably' in at about 0:05.7.
I then select the audio running up to before the track starts, and delete it, using the "Delete" button.


I find it's a good custom not to cut exactly at the start/end, but leave a little room at both ends of the track. Not too much, though. After deleting, play it back to make sure it sounds alright.
That's the 'front' of the track.
By now, I've already checked the track length in the tracklist:

2 minutes and 51 seconds. Got it. As the start of the first track is now the very start of the audio, I can then browse to approximately that length into the audio. (Mind you, this information is not always available - or correct!)
It checks out - track ends at about 2:52. I then click that part of the track...


Holding down shift and pressing the "home" key selects the entire track up until that point. Using the pre-programmed Ctrl+E shortcut (or alternately, File -> Export Selected)


You then get to the 'Save' prompt. Browse to a folder/location of your choice, and then change the "Save as type:" selection to fit your needs -

FLAC seems a good fit.

Give it a good, descriptive name. I tend to do all my tagging after this, so I often go with "1.flac", 2.flac" etc., only indicating the track position. Click "Save", enter metadata tags if you are so inclined, and press "OK". The selection will now export to your specified location.

Once it's done, it'll return you to the Audacity edit screen.
The track is now still selected at the points you used earlier, so just hit delete and repeat the process for the next track;
Delete 'dead air' at start of track, find and select end of track, shift+home, Ctrl+E, "2.flac", Save, OK.










.... not that I want to discourage 'learning by doing', but as a thanks for reading, here's the whole lovely new-agey river music thing, splitted and tagged:
chopchop://www67.zippyshare.com/v/bMc2NPHW/file.html

[Muff Diver]

Thanks for your assist, Greta. I've finished splitting the tracks, and tagging, etc.  And it only took me all day! 

Sorry, Mr, but I was busily at work and so I didn't notice your reply until now. Just because I didn't use your tutorial today, doesn't mean that your instruction can't help myself or somebody else the next time.

I'm always of the opinion that if somebody takes the time and effort to rip, upload, etc some music, it doesn't benefit anybody to keep the finished product to oneself. As it happens, I'm uploading the finished product now so that anybody else who had a single track can now benefit from my learning experience. I'll post the link, etc on a separate thread to save on confusion, etc.

Thanks to everybody who sent in some help.

[stackjackson]

I hate to admit this, Muff. But I have that LP split already from Retro's original file
Good, though, to learn Audacity and to have this info available for future reference.