Breaking up an audio recording into CD tracks.

[Harpmaker]

I have an ongoing situation where I need to break up an approximately 80 minute audio recording (a lecture) into individual .WAV files from 1 to 5 minutes each so they can be written to an audio CD as tracks for easy navigation of the disc. I have been doing this manually, but there must be software that will do this automatically, I just haven't found it yet. Freeware if possible. Anyone know of any?

Again, I want to take an 80 min. audio file and break it up into 1 minute .WAV files.

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

What is the recording medium?

Regards,
Wayne

[Harpmaker]

Wayne A. Pflughaupt wrote:

What is the recording medium?

Regards,
Wayne

I use a Zoom MRS4 digital recorder that records to SmartMedia cards (remember those). It records in a proprietary format which is converted to .WAV by the software that came with the recorder. I then edit the file using primarily Audacity, then convert the finished file into a 44.1KHz .WAV (it's natively 16KHz).

The single big audio file to be broken up will be a 44.1KHz .WAV file on my system hard drive.

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Ah, I see you’re already using Audacity.

Certainly, the ability to automatically insert track markers every few minutes is a glaring deficiency dating back to the first stand-alone CD recorders, if not before. Such a feature would be invaluable for churches and educational institutions.

I can only think of a couple of things that might help save you some time. One would be to use a USB mixer, like an Alesis Multimix, that would allow you to record directly to Audacity. However, you’d still have to manually insert track markers and wait for each track to be converted to a WAV.

Another alternative, probably the best, would be to record directly to an old stand-alone CD recorder. I have a Pioneer PDR-509 that allows you to insert track markers “on the fly” during recording. If you’re “babysitting” these lectures (i.e., operating the sound system), it would be easy enough punch the button every few minutes, and the finished recording would be "tracked," "WAV’d" and ready to go. You could get around the recurring costs of special music discs by using using CD-RWs, or a professional CD recorder like a Tascam (which should be able to use standard computer CDRs).

You might post your question one on the Tape Op message board for other (hopefully better) suggestions.

http://messageboard.tapeop.com/

Regards,
Wayne

[Harpmaker]

Thanks for the input Wayne.

I spent some time on Google and finally found a free program that does a magnificent job of splitting MP3 or WAV files into smaller files. If you need more than simply splitting the large file - say converting to another audio format, the program can be combined with other free software from the same group (NCH). In fact, when you install "Slice" (the name of the program) it will recommend that you install several other programs, which if you check them (they are checked by default) the installation program will go on the internet and download and install those programs for you. To be clear, you DO NOT need to install these programs for Slice to work.

I just tried this program and it works GREAT! It sliced a 375MB file (74:25 min:sec stereo WAV) into 15 tracks of 5 minutes each (except the last track that was not a full 5 minutes), and it did it in less that a minute! OK, I didn't time it (I will next time), but it WAS FAST! You also have control over where the output files are written and how they are named.

I recommend this program.



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

[Harpmaker]

For them what cares, I just used 'Slice' to break up a 400949KB 77:35 (min:sec) mono WAV file into 78 1min. WAV files. It only took 16 seconds to make those 78 files!

I used Burn4Free to make the audio CD (it converted the mono files to stereo on-the-fly) and the CD played just fine in a finicky player.

This CD was created so a vision-impaired person could easily skip forward and backward on the CD in 1 minute increments.

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Thanks for the great info, Don!

Regards,
Wayne

[bobdole369]

Alternatively you could build a .cue file and open that with foobar, then using foobars output modules, created separate waves. It works just the same for ac3 format and long .mp3s. Sometimes you see .flacs that are 1 file with a .cue as well. The .cue file tells software where teh track markers should go.

[Harpmaker]

Hi bobdole369,

For my application I needed a way to create a physical Audio CD with many tracks, but the foobar2000 player software sounds really cool!

http://www.foobar2000.org/