CD editing question

Paul Polish · Post by **Paul Polish** » 8 Jul 2004 2:25 am

I'm sure this has been covered before,but here we go again....humor me,please.....

I am looking for the easiest way to EDIT "LIVE CD'S" ie,Steel Shows, just to cut out the Dead air, so to speek, and to leave the tunes.
I have downloaded the FREE Protools,but I can't get it to recognise the CD's. I beleive it is something simple "I hope" but I just ain't got it figured out ,yet!!

Any ideas,suggestions or HELP, would be appreciated. Thanks... Paul

Ray Minich · Post by **Ray Minich** » 8 Jul 2004 3:43 am

You gotta turn the music CD audio files/blocks/segments into .wav files before you can edit them. Then ProTools oughta go right to work.

Johnny Baldwin · Post by **Johnny Baldwin** » 8 Jul 2004 8:34 am

Paul:

I am a devout Cool Edit Pro user. Ray is absolutely right that you have to convert sound clips to wav format before editing. Here's what I do. I play the CD on my computer while I am recording the track in Cool Edit Pro (CEP). I then save the recording to a wav file. I then simple cut the background noise or dead air that may exist before the song begins by highlighting that section with the cursor. Hit "cut" and its gone. I then go to the end of the song and utilize a CEP pre-set to fade the song when it ends. I then pass the file through the CEP noise reduction pre-sets. CEP is really simple to use and you are editing from a "picture" of the song (looks like a sine wave) rather than just the audio. When I have tweaked the tune all I want, I simple save again as the remastered wav file and burn the file to a CD. Takes about five minutes. CEP has recently been bought by Adobe so CEP is now known as Adobe Audition. Try a google search for Cool Edit Pro and you will be directed to their site. They offer a free 30 day trial. If you can get your hands on the original CEP by Syntrillium you will have loads of fun. P.S. I also use CEP in remastering old 33-1/3 vinyl recordings and convert those tracks to MP3 for easy transmission via the internet or email.
Good Luck

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Ole Dantoft · Post by **Ole Dantoft** » 8 Jul 2004 9:07 am

Paul,

I agree completely with Johnny above re. the use of Cool Edit Pro - that's my favorite audio editing tool as well - but it has become rather expensive now ! Recording your CD's to wav-files is a very time-consuming process though !

Here's an absolutely free and much faster way of doing what you wan't to do :
Get a trial version of any one of these many CD-to-WAV tools
http://www.mp3towav.org/cd-to-wav.asp

Download the free utility Audacity from here :
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

While not as comprehensive a tool as Cool Edit Pro, it'll do what you need to get this task done, and it's free !

Ole

Paul Polish · Post by **Paul Polish** » 8 Jul 2004 10:06 am

Hey Guys, thanks for the tips. I will try them out this evening when I get back to the house.
More questions; My CD player in the computer, automatically opens in 'Real Player'. Because I can't get protools to open CD files, as is. How do I save tracks to wav. files.And do I burn wav files to the new CD. Any playing problems on regular CD players i.e. car...
This trick is completely new to me.

Does protools have the same type of GRAPH for editing as Cool tool...

With the suggestions so far,I think I can get started in the right direction, but I may still need another push.
Thanks, Paul

Keep pushin'

Ole Dantoft · Post by **Ole Dantoft** » 8 Jul 2004 10:53 am

Paul,
Unless you're already familiar with ProTools I'd suggest staying away from it for now, 'cause it's known for having a VERY steep learning curve (and rightfully so !), so using something like Audacity will get you there SOOOO much easier !

As far as getting your sound-tracks from CD to WAV-files, get one of the converters I pointed you to, that's the quickest way possible !

Ole

Paul Polish · Post by **Paul Polish** » 8 Jul 2004 11:46 am

Thank You Ole.. I'll give it a try. Don't need to get too complicated..

Paul Polish · Post by **Paul Polish** » 11 Jul 2004 5:05 am

Thanks Ole.. I downloaded the trial versions from both sites. I believe they will do what I need them to do. The trial 'CD grabber' only grabs 1/4 of the CD so I will have to buy the full version. And I will just have to play with the audacity to make it work for me. Got most of it figured out but much more to learn.
One more time,Ole, thanks for the info.....

Ole Dantoft · Post by **Ole Dantoft** » 11 Jul 2004 6:44 am

Paul,
You're very welcome and I'm real glad to hear that it worked out for you !

You could try to download more than one of the CD-grabbers and see if one of them was limited in a different way e.g. it it was a fully working version, but with a trial period of say 30 days ? I also know that there ARE indeed completely free CD-grabbers out there, so try searching the Internet a while and you might find what you need !

Ole
<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Ole Dantoft on 11 July 2004 at 07:47 AM.]</p></FONT>

Carter York · Post by **Carter York** » 12 Jul 2004 3:17 pm

Hi Paul,

I would recommend using Exact Audio Copy (EAC) to extract the audio from your cds. This program is entirely free and performs a accuracy check that other 'rippers' don't. I've used it exclusively for years.

I would also encourage you to try our a program called CDWav. This is another free program that (in addition to other functions) will open up a single wave file and allow you to 'split' it into tracks. You get a nice big wavefile view, and can scroll the curser to the gaps in between songs. I use it all the time when I am transferring my vinyl to digital.

I'd be happy to offer more info on either of these programs.

Gene H. Brown · Post by **Gene H. Brown** » 12 Jul 2004 9:51 pm

I do all of mine through Windows Media Encoder, which is free from Microsoft and then I also downloaded and installed a free adio coverter which will convert to anything you want it too.
Gene

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If You Keep Pickin That Thing, It'll Never Heal!

Paul Polish · Post by **Paul Polish** » 13 Jul 2004 10:05 am

Gene, I looked at Windows Encoder - requirements- XP or 2000. I have ME.

Carter , do you have the websites for the two downloads you were talking about.
Haven't found them yet. But, will keep looking in my spare time. At work right now..
Thanks guys for the info.
Keep the ideas or suggestions coming. Looking for the easiest way to do this. PS, I can find my way around a computer [ eventually} but I am a long way fom being computer literate!!! hehe!!!

Tommy Mc · Post by **Tommy Mc** » 13 Jul 2004 3:06 pm

Here are the above mentioned links. http://www.cdwave.com (shareware with unlimited trial) http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/ (freeware)
also check out this one: http://www.cdex.n3.net/ (freeware)
Also, I don't know what burning program you use, but I use Nero which has a basic sound editor: you can 'rip' the tracks from a CD, and clean up the gaps, etc.

Paul Polish · Post by **Paul Polish** » 22 Jul 2004 10:23 am

Thanks , all of you for the info. Everything temporarily on hold. My wife says all of this extra stuff is slowing her "business" computer down........SOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Fixin' to get "another" puter.
More questions later.....hehe!!!