Frost* Forum Collab Song - the tech thread (TTT!)

[E.S.]

Yes, it can be altered, but of course the quality won't become better. It will just become compatible with a 16bit project. You'll need some kind of wave editor for that, maybe like Audacity- It's free. Haven't tried it myself, but I've heard it's good.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

[El_Mayonnaise]

Oh now see this is my level of sound engineering knowledge. I have audacity already but never realised it did stuff like that. I only use about 5% of it for arranging tracks and then converting to mp3  :lol:

[gr8gonzo]

Same here. I've used Audacity on a couple of projects and have been pleased with it, but haven't really scratched the surface of what it can do.

[EvilDragon]

Nobody commented anything about my suggestion about using FLAC instead of WAV? It's lossles and all that...

[E.S.]

My only question is why? Are we sure every DAW (or hardware recording unit) is compatible with FLAC?
Killer format though.

[gr8gonzo]

Shame we can't preview WAV files without downloading. They're little monsters. 19MB for a wee smattering of drums.

[EvilDragon]

Well, Reaper works with FLAC as if it were WAV... And it's small so everyone can download it and use within the trial time. And even after that, as it's uncrippled.

And, even so, your DAW doesn't have to support FLAC. There are audio converters out there (myself uses AIMP audio player, it comes with audio converter as well). FLAC transforms to WAV 1:1. So you can download the FLACs, convert to WAV, work in your DAW, export to WAV, convert to FLAC, upload. A bit convoluted, but you do end up with a lot smaller file for upload/download.

[El_Mayonnaise]

FLAC's that stuff they use to throw missiles of course isn't it?  

Well I had a go at recording some drums for this fine project and I'm quite pleased at what I did. I basically took Pedro's 12 string riff and repeated it over and over so thats what I had in mind at the time. It sounds quite uninteresting with just drums so I've uploaded what I was playing along to as well.

Is there an easier way than recording minutes of silence to make it all fall into place? Can someone with a DAW drag everything into the right place instead?

[E.S.]

Yes, in DAW-land, there's a function called "snap", at least it's called that in Cubase. Then you just need a bar of silence before your part starts (unless you can play so tight you're 100% dead on). Then it can be dragged into place without having to mess around to find the exact timing manually.
But that only works if the bar of silence matches the tempo of the project, of course.

[RWA]

Shame we can't preview WAV files without downloading. They're little monsters. 19MB for a wee smattering of drums.

One more reason to work in mp3 format as long as we're building this thing.
Just make sure they are 320 kbps (the highest quality)

1 - mp3's can be previewed on box.net before you decide to download them
2 - wav.files are the biggest format there is. I only need them when parts are truly done and ready to be mixed.

So please, don't bother to much about WAV.files at this stage. And therefore, don't upload to many WAV.files also.

[Pedro]

Yeah, I'll be putting mp3s up from now on.

[RWA]

Is there an easier way than recording minutes of silence to make it all fall into place? Can someone with a DAW drag everything into the right place instead?

I'm used to dragging stuff into place as long as I know where it is supposed to go.
My experience is the easiest way to do it this is like this:

- deliver the separate parts without all the dead space (so export them between the locators in your daw)
- also upload a full mp3 so I can hear where the parts should go.

I work like this all the time and a so called reference mp3 with the full song works 10 times faster then a full page of text trying to explain what you mend to do.

And once again, keep it to mp3 at this stage. It's all scratch book work we're doing at the moment.  

[RWA]

Well, Reaper works with FLAC as if it were WAV... And it's small so everyone can download it and use within the trial time. And even after that, as it's uncrippled.

And, even so, your DAW doesn't have to support FLAC. There are audio converters out there (myself uses AIMP audio player, it comes with audio converter as well). FLAC transforms to WAV 1:1. So you can download the FLACs, convert to WAV, work in your DAW, export to WAV, convert to FLAC, upload. A bit convoluted, but you do end up with a lot smaller file for upload/download.

I understand what you mean but that procedure only adds more work. I'll have to convert every file! No thanks.  
mp3 is our friend. WAV.files (packed with ZIP or WIRAR) are for later concern.

Let's make it a general rule to use mp3 unless I ask for WAV specifically, k?

[RWA]

Did I all ready mention anything about mp3 in here?!  

[Pedro]

Ok, I'm just reacting to it as things change....all part of the fun.
Oddly, Sonar doesn't export mp3 without some add-on wotsit but I'll convert my wavs to mp3-320 somehow (have to check how to do that in Audacity) and put them up without the leading silence.

I started sorting the organ part (double har!) but I'm too shattered to do any more tonight (curse this feeble carbon-based husk and its dependence on sleep!) so I'll do it tomorrow.