Cutting up big audio files

[Jules]

This area seems to have become the place for music techie discussions so here goes. I've reocrded a gig on a Zoom H2, imported it into Itunes and now want to edit it down a bit. The problem I've got is that it's a 45 minute single stereo track and neither Audacity or SoundForge seem to be capable of handling a file that size (Audacity tried for a couple of minutes then crashes while soundforge will load the first 2 minutes and cut the rest off).
I can't be the first person to have this problem- anyone got any tips?

 

[oldcorollas]

Goldwave.

i have an old version (4.16) and it can handle files recorded for a few hours at CD quality, ie at least a few hundred meg. with some addition of codecs it can convert to mp3 as well.

the program is only 2 or 3 meg in size also, but more ram helps with loading large files into memory as opposed to disc space (it will decompress mp3 files to wav before processing)

http://www.goldwave.com/features.php

 

[U CAN CALL ME AL]

Have had a similar problem and had to resort to using a video program which allows trimming and exporting of the shortened audio clips. Nero wave editor did seem to cope well with longish files, but I haven't used it for a while since switching to Mac.

 

[Phil Edwards]

Jules, I've opened longer tracks than that (from Zoom H2) into Audacity. Takes a while to open but I'm only using the free copy and it handles it (PC, not Mac, if it makes a difference).

If you're really stuck let me know and I'll pick up the files on a stick, cut them up, and return to you.

Phil

Phil

 

[c9off]

agree with Phil, Audacity will open (eventually), I do 205 minutes of mp3 each week, takes about 10 minutes on the laptop to fully process (vista), plonk it in & go make some chilie!

 

[Jules]

thanks guys- mystery solved- my files saved as M4As (or is it AAFs?) which look like they're importing into Audacity fine but crash it, the problem seemed to be the size but it was actually the format. Save 'em as mp3s and it works fine.
Last Saturday's barbican gig now equalized and dissected