Extracting SF Regions to MP3 -Sound Forge - PC - MAGIX Community Forums Archive

Subject:Extracting SF Regions to MP3 Posted by: SeniorCit Date:9/29/2004 3:03:38 PM First post to this forum and user of SF 6. I am working with a client that wants me to record narration of a number of scripts totaling 2-3 hours. (With other scripts to follow.) He further wants me to break up the script into estimated 20-30 individual .mp3 clips that could be emailed in reasonable sized packages. My plan is to record in long sessions, edit, equalize, clip etc. and save the entire file as an mp3. I would then like to create regions to match up with the planned individual mp3’s. If I then “Extract Regions”, SF will only save the audio data as a WAV format. Making a WAV of an MP3 obviously doesn’t make any sense. I have tried other "save as" approaches and end up with .sfk files or files that play the entire script and not individual regions. I have searched the forums and have “Sound Forge 6 Power” but can not find a simple solution. So far the only workaround that I have is to Double click the individual regions, Copy, and open a new work screen and paste. Then I can save as a separate .mp3 file. After all files are copied and pasted with new file names, I could start sending emails with attachments. With all the capabilities of Sound Forge there must be a simple solution. An additional solution might be to not save the original edited file, but after editing then create regions, and then save each individual region as an MP3. Any help or guidance would be appreciated. Senior Citizen
Subject:RE: Extracting SF Regions to MP3 Reply by: Chienworks Date:9/29/2004 4:16:47 PM As you've discovered, Sound Forge will only extract regions to .wav. This being the case what you are doing by double-clicking each region, copying, pasting, and saving, is probably the most efficient thing you can do with Sound Forge. With my normal work flow i usually want separate .wav files as well as .mp3 files, so i usually extract regions to .wav, then open all the smaller .wav files at once. This puts each piece in a separate window without having to highlight, copy, and paste. After that i do a Save As, type a new file name if necessary, select my current MP3 template, change any ID tag info if necessary, and save. It can go quite fast once you get into the swing of it. There are batch conversion programs. SONY sells Batch Conveter which can process a selection of .wav files into .mp3 files automatically. As a side note, make sure you save the original file as .wav instead of .mp3 in case you need to do any further editing. MP3 is a lossy format and each time you open and resave you degrade the recording. WAV is lossless so you can open and resave as many times as you wish without losing anything.
Subject:RE: Extracting SF Regions to MP3 Reply by: ATP Date:9/30/2004 11:05:04 AM instead of using Save As for each new segment you create, maybe what would make it slightly quicker is copying each segment to a new file and keep this file open in SF without saving. so in the end you'll have an x amount of windows, all containing another segment. then, go to File -> Save All, and specify a directory and format. when you save the first segment, SF will automatically go to the next segment and asks you if you wanna save it. from there on you can just press Enter all the time and the files will be saved in the dir you specified with the format you specified.
Subject:RE: Extracting SF Regions to MP3 Reply by: SeniorCit Date:9/30/2004 4:27:59 PM Thanks Chienworks and ATP for your timely comments. I have worked with the recommendations and my problems have been solved. SeniorCitizen

Subject:Extracting SF Regions to MP3

Posted by: SeniorCit

Date:9/29/2004 3:03:38 PM

First post to this forum and user of SF 6.
I am working with a client that wants me to record narration of a number of scripts totaling 2-3 hours. (With other scripts to follow.) He further wants me to break up the script into estimated 20-30 individual .mp3 clips that could be emailed in reasonable sized packages. My plan is to record in long sessions, edit, equalize, clip etc. and save the entire file as an mp3. I would then like to create regions to match up with the planned individual mp3’s. If I then “Extract Regions”, SF will only save the audio data as a WAV format. Making a WAV of an MP3 obviously doesn’t make any sense. I have tried other "save as" approaches and end up with .sfk files or files that play the entire script and not individual regions. I have searched the forums and have “Sound Forge 6 Power” but can not find a simple solution. So far the only workaround that I have is to Double click the individual regions, Copy, and open a new work screen and paste. Then I can save as a separate .mp3 file. After all files are copied and pasted with new file names, I could start sending emails with attachments. With all the capabilities of Sound Forge there must be a simple solution. An additional solution might be to not save the original edited file, but after editing then create regions, and then save each individual region as an MP3.
Any help or guidance would be appreciated.
Senior Citizen

Subject:RE: Extracting SF Regions to MP3

Reply by: Chienworks

Date:9/29/2004 4:16:47 PM

As you've discovered, Sound Forge will only extract regions to .wav. This being the case what you are doing by double-clicking each region, copying, pasting, and saving, is probably the most efficient thing you can do with Sound Forge. With my normal work flow i usually want separate .wav files as well as .mp3 files, so i usually extract regions to .wav, then open all the smaller .wav files at once. This puts each piece in a separate window without having to highlight, copy, and paste. After that i do a Save As, type a new file name if necessary, select my current MP3 template, change any ID tag info if necessary, and save. It can go quite fast once you get into the swing of it.

There are batch conversion programs. SONY sells Batch Conveter which can process a selection of .wav files into .mp3 files automatically.

As a side note, make sure you save the original file as .wav instead of .mp3 in case you need to do any further editing. MP3 is a lossy format and each time you open and resave you degrade the recording. WAV is lossless so you can open and resave as many times as you wish without losing anything.

Subject:RE: Extracting SF Regions to MP3

Reply by: ATP

Date:9/30/2004 11:05:04 AM

instead of using Save As for each new segment you create, maybe what would make it slightly quicker is copying each segment to a new file and keep this file open in SF without saving. so in the end you'll have an x amount of windows, all containing another segment.

then, go to File -> Save All, and specify a directory and format. when you save the first segment, SF will automatically go to the next segment and asks you if you wanna save it. from there on you can just press Enter all the time and the files will be saved in the dir you specified with the format you specified.

Subject:RE: Extracting SF Regions to MP3

Reply by: SeniorCit

Date:9/30/2004 4:27:59 PM

Thanks Chienworks and ATP for your timely comments. I have worked with the recommendations and my problems have been solved.
SeniorCitizen