How to auto select loop in audio track?

December 4, 2009 4:36 AM

Any way of automatically selecting an audio loop in Audacity or some other app?

I have a bunch of video game tracks (NES/SNES) that loop (obviously) but the tracks I have don't end at the loop's end (and they also fade out at the end). I would like to loop these tracks. But this is hard. These tracks are really good but I fear that once I'm done with the tracks I won't want to listen to them anymore.

So, I'm thinking it would save a lot of time if there was an quick way to get a rough cut of where the loop in the track is and just go from there.

I've used Audacity a little to cut and join. Commercial software suggestions could be good as a future reference but I'd prefer free.

posted by lmm to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

Best answer: Have a look at Recycle, or the beatslicer in Orion.
posted by pompomtom at 5:03 AM on December 4, 2009

Best answer: Yep, have a go at it with recycle.
posted by bigmusic at 5:41 AM on December 4, 2009

Best answer: Recycle costs $300. Audacity is perfect for your purposes. Commercial software won't loop a piece of audio any better. I still don't understand exactly what you're trying to do though.
posted by Aquaman at 7:37 AM on December 4, 2009

Response by poster: Thanks for the suggestions so far and sorry if I wasn't clear.

If I could use letters to represent the audio tracks, one of them might look like this: ABCDABCDAB
What I'd like to do is have a program automatically select the ABCD part for me since that is the loopy bit.

I've installed the (crippled) Recycle demo but I haven't had time to play with it yet.
posted by lmm at 1:25 PM on December 4, 2009

Best answer: wavosaur supports wav file cue points, audacity does not. If you are lucky, the files already have cue points defining the loop. If not, at the very least you can save a version with the cue points defined, after you find them.

Regarding automatically detecting loop points, someone else will have to offer a suggestion.
posted by idiopath at 9:28 PM on December 4, 2009

Also, for manually finding loops: "spectrum log f" or "pitch" view will help, because most loops will be visibly more evident in these views than the standard "waveform" or "waveform db" (the selector menu for the view type is the top menu on the left end of each audio track).
posted by idiopath at 11:31 PM on December 4, 2009

Response by poster: Recycle is very polished and was fun to play with, will need to look into that one of these days.

Wavosaur was a bit easier to work with than Audacity. I like the markers especially. I still had to use Audacity though; the copy/paste in Wavosaur is a bit buggy.

Thanks for the suggestions and help!
posted by lmm at 8:31 AM on December 6, 2009

Response by poster: Just to follow up now that I've had more time at this: Wavosaur is exactly what I needed. The loop markers and the ability to move the playhead as I'm previewing my loop makes things much much easier.
posted by lmm at 2:23 PM on December 11, 2009