Splitting files

[JimL]

Maybe this has been covered elsewhere, but here goes:

Some of the downloads (particularly of radio broadcasts) are all run together.  Is there any way to divide them into individual files for the separate movements?

[Dundonnell]

I know that when I embarked almost three weeks ago now on a pretty massive exercise of transferring well over 100 separate works from my British music collection from reel-to-reel tape to mp3 format I gave some consideration to the point you are making.

I soon, however, rejected the idea as impracticable. The compositions involved are in almost all cases pieces which have never made it to cd. There is a great deal more in my collection which has,  but I still intend to upload many of these  because of the historic value of the radio broadcasts. That is a pretty big exercise

Each piece has to be digitised and then uploaded to Mediafire. The uploading can be a difficult exercise for all manner of reasons. To split each piece of music into its separate movements and upload each in its own file would add considerably, I believe, to what is already a rather heavy workload.

I still hope to return to the transfers to see what I can do to improve the quality but that will be some months down the road.

One day, perhaps...........

So from my particular perspective..I don't see this being possible. Sorry.

[dafrieze]

I've been using Audacity for almost a year now.  It's a free download, and it's very good for splitting and combining audio files.  It takes a bit of trial and error to figure it out, but once you've got the hang of it, it's quite efficient.

[Dundonnell]

I can only speak for myself

I use Audacity too. I agree about its relative simplicity-once you have got the hang of it. I know how to split files. It's just that I am not prepared to do it...at the present time

[lechner1110]

  Hi, I use Audacity too.
  This software is easy to use separate.
  And also Audacity have many functions.  For example , fadeout ( I use this for applause ) , volume control, and radio broadcast recordings.

[eschiss1]

I tried to use it - (for a particular purpose, I think, can't remember what quite exactly?- and failed at it. Must needs try again soon if it still works with my Mac... )

[TerraEpon]

If you DO split it with audacity, make sure to do it with the WAV file and not the Mp3 file, or there will be quality loss.

Also, to solve the issue of multiple files being uploaded, just zip or rar (or 7z) it.

[albion]

I use Audacity too. I agree about its relative simplicity-once you have got the hang of it. I know how to split files. It's just that I am not prepared to do it...at the present time

This was a matter I discussed with Dundonnell when he was setting out on the project of digitising his reel-to-reel collection.

When uploading and handling a large volume of files that need to be titled consistently and stored in larger folders, from my viewpoint it's quicker, simpler and more economical in terms of both time and volume of files for me to provide a work as a single entity. These are also then quick and simple to download without having to extract at the other end.

I would make an exception for, say, an opera which is split into separate acts and not intended to be heard with uninterrupted continuity - for example I did quite a bit of work to get the three acts of Arwel Hughes' Menna into discrete files, each with the relevant interval discussion.

There are plenty of tools which the downloader can utilise in order to split (or join) files into constituent movements if they really want to. One which I use is the handily titled MP3 Splitter & Joiner -

http://www.ezsoftmagic.com/

which does an excellent job and is more transparent than audacity.

[Mark Thomas]

Yes, it seems to me that it's the downloader's job to split continuous files if that's what they want to do. It's what I do, certainly. I use Visual mp3 Splitter & Joiner because it does it losslessly. As TerraEpon has written, if you use Audacity or similar audio manipulation programs to split an mp3 file, the newly saved split files will not have as good  sound quality as the original because the mp3 format compresses the data and looses some each time you save. This is true even if you convert the original mp3 to WAV format before you split it back into smaller mp3s. What you need is a program which splits without recompressing.

[Dundonnell]

I think that Albion and Mark have said it all

As someone very heavily engaged currently in uploading I would love to be able to give more assistance to members but there are only so many hours in the day

[Christopher]

....but those who split should be strongly encouraged to put them back up on the site! Crowd-sourcing....

[Dundonnell]

I shall let Albion reply to this suggestion

[albion]

....but those who split should be strongly encouraged to put them back up on the site! Crowd-sourcing....

I disagree for several reasons -

Duplication and confusion: it would lead to a lot of messy duplication of the same basic material within the forum, and a totally unnecessary amount of messy and potentially confusing duplication of notification posts.

Time factor and workload: I for one would not wish to deal with that same basic material twice over (or maybe half-a-dozen times over depending on however many members variously choose to split longer works). If I had originally posted a file in BMB on behalf of a contributor, and then another member took that file and independently presented a split version of it, I should then feel obliged on behalf of the original contributor to check it thoroughly to see whether or not it was still representative of the original contribution and that no further editing had been carried out. I think you can probably guess what my reaction to having to do this would be.



Furthermore, such duplication would greatly increase the workload of the already hard-working forum administrators who conscientiously check and approve every download post.



Respect for the contributor: contributors might not wish their primary files to become the subject of public debate as to how they can best be 'improved' by splitting them.



The bottom line is: files are provided on this forum through a combination of generosity and enterprise. Other members can download those files in the format that has been chosen by the primary contributor or agent. Whether or not the downloading member then chooses to split, join or otherwise manipulate that file thereafter is entirely their own, private concern and that file should not shuttle back and forth within the forum or outside it.

[Dundonnell]

This is precisely and exactly the response I anticipated

[Mark Thomas]

FWIW I agree too.