Extracting Audio from CDs and Editing Thread

[Pwner_2130]

I see. I guess the only real solution would be to cut and paste the audio track, unless you can afford to purchase some high quality audio editing software that could extract individual tracks and separate them to WAV

 

[MDS]

Avaserfi is using Sound Forge (audio editor). It extracts the raw PCM into a buffer and then you can save it in any format you want. A WAV file is just a header with information about the file followed by the pcm samples.

If I'm following correctly, the issue is that if you extract each track individually then save them (or just play them in SF), Shine On You Crazy Diamond for example will sound like it ends abruptly because as it fades out Welcome to The Machine gets louder. If you start playback of Welcome to the Machine it sounds like it starts normally but it is actually missing the long slow grumbling sound at the beginning - because it is at the end of the Shine On track. That's one of the things I'm talking about with continuous mixes.

I want individual songs, not one 'track' that is the entire CD. The process I described earlier is cross-fading. I'm fading out Shine on to diminish the part at the end that is actually the beginning of WTTM. But I now also need that part at the end of Shine on to be at the beginning of WTTM and it also needs to fade-in to lower the wind sounds that are the end of Shine On.

Doing a good job at this just takes time and practice.

 

[avaserfi]

Looks like I have quiet a bit of work to learn all this. It seems like play time!

Here is a specific question about sound forge. If I rip the whole disc as one file I am taking an exact copy of the disc, so no editing will need be done in this situation assuming I am attempting to get the same outcome as previously discussed, correct?

 

[MDS]

If you read the entire disc you will have one buffer with the entire disc contents.

You can then save the entire thing as one file or split it into tracks yourself and save individual songs.

Is your goal to have one track that is the whole CD or to have individual songs?

 

[avaserfi]

In the end I would like to have individual songs so I can actually browse and listen to a specific song without searching through one large file. So it sounds like I will need to do some listening and splicing to get everything right.

 

[MDS]

When you cut any part of a track make sure you do so at zero crossings. If you paste two waveforms together where either was cut at a non-zero crossing you will sometimes get a little discontinuity that will be audible.

Ctrl-Shift-d and then hit the button Snap Zero.

I don't know if it would matter to you but I also ensure that any file I am working with falls on CD block boundaries (588 samples=1/75 second=75 frames per second). This is so that if I ever burn a CD with those files the burning program won't add silence to pad it to a multiple of the CD block boundary.

The default frames per second (Status tab of the options dialog) is 15. You can change it to 75 but it is really hard to add a single frame or two of silence. I just leave it at 15 and ensure the total number of frames ends in .000, .200, .400, .600, or .800 which makes the number a multiple of 75 frames per second.

 

[Hawkeye]

http://www.cdrfaq.org/

Look in the faq for the shareware CDWave to cleanly split one big wave file into individual tracks.

 

[MDS]

Lol

The whole time I have been giving examples using Shine On You Crazy Diamond and Welcome to the Machine although avaserfi's original example was ripping DSOTM. Those tracks are on Wish You Were Here not DSOTM!

Someone shoot me, I'm losing my mind...

 

[avaserfi]

The whole time I have been giving examples using Shine On You Crazy Diamond and Welcome to the Machine although avaserfi's original example was ripping DSOTM. Those tracks are on Wish You Were Here not DSOTM!

Someone shoot me, I'm losing my mind...

I noticed that but figured you meant well and didn't want you to lose your momentum .

 

[MDS]

Pictures

Here is a screenshot of Shine On You Crazy Diamond just ripped from the CD. Where the cursor is in the waveform is where the next track - Welcome to the Machine - actually starts, although you still hear the end of Shine On too as it slowly fades. These two tracks were continuously mixed with the mastering engineer performing the crossfade. The CD index marker is placed after the actual beginning of track two so that when you play the CD from beginning to end you do not have a gap in playback. That's great for playing the CD but not so much if you only want to hear one track or the other.

Notice that the waveform goes right to the end and stops abruptly, it doesn't smoothly fade to silence. When you play this you will hear a pop at the end.

So...you either:
- Live with it and be happy.
- Fade the end of Shine On to eliminate the pop.
- Take that part of Shine On after the cursor and paste it to the beginning of the next track and fade-out the Shine On track and fade-in the next track.