Loops

[donrandall]

How did you do it? (so I can do one as well)

Your original audio is not the same from beginning to end. That means you cannot join the front end to the back end without a noticeable "bump". There is a pitch change which makes it impossible to do that. So... I played around until I found an area of the track where the pitch was consistent. Now, that tells you what I did but not how I did it. So...

Go to Control Properties > Play > Yellow Play. Check the box for Loop. There are two fields. In the upper field, choose Selection. In the lower field, choose 1000. Now, pushing the Yellow Play button will repeat a selected portion of an audio track 1000 times (unless you stop it, which you can do).

With your audio track selected, I started by clicking the Yellow Play button which caused the entire track to loop continuously while I moved the start cursor and the end cursor until I got the result I wanted. That identified the best start and stop points, so I stopped the playback and left the start and stop cursors where they were. I then used Ctrl C from the keyboard (clicking on Save will do the same thing). The exact and precise bit of audio needed is now saved (temporarily) in the Windows "clipboard".

Open a new Sound Window , accessible from the toolbar: New > Initial File Length (I just chose 1 second because the window will automatically stretch to fit).

The next Step is to just keep clicking Ctrl V ( or Paste from the toolbar) as many times as necessary to get a track of whatever length you desire. Now, that can get to be a pain in the... Finger... So just click Ctrl V and hold the keys down while watching the lower left corner of Goldwave -- You should see a small display that shows the time, which will continue to change as the length of your file grows with the constant repetition caused by holding the keys down. Release the keys when you get as much as you decide is appropriate.

Okay -- Actually doing it took a lot less time than composing this note to explain it. From start to finish, I had the loop completed in a couple of minutes.

Give it a shot --- And be ready to experiment and try things. That's the best way to learn what works and what doesn't, and it can be fun!

[MaxSouthOz]

Sorry that it took me a while to reply. My ISP is blocking the emails from here. It took me a minute to realise that there is a page 2 to this thread, as well.
Anyway, thanks a million, Don. I'm really looking forward to having a play with it.
Max

[MaxSouthOz]

Hi Don
What I have got now from you is a really long .wav file made up of dozens of copies. All good. Now I need to chop a piece about 1 second long out of it to make my .loop file. It only has to play as a loop so long as the operator holds his finger on the button. If the operator just presses the button and releases it, the .int file plays, followed by the .loop file and then the .exit file.
I've been up and down the file, trying to find two points which will join seamlessly.
I'm back to my original problem. When I press the yellow loop button on my Goldwave panel, the sound still clunks as it goes back to the begining of the file. I've tried tapering the ends with the fade up/down to no avail.
Any help will be most appreciated.
Max

[donrandall]

I would be willing to help a bit more if I had any ideas to offer. At this point, I have told you everything I can.

If you are trying to make a loop out of what I have already done, it should be about as easy as anything can be. The variation in pitch that existed in the original is no longer a problem and the volume level difference in the beginning and ending of the original is not a problem. Without those problems, it should be very easy.

If you are trying to use the original file you provided ( which I then used in making a loop) you need only follow the directions I provided in an earlier note.

I suspect that what you must do now is slow down, think about what you are noticing, and weigh that against what you are trying to accomplish. Sometimes slowing down is faster because you need to let your mind consider and analyze the situation and work on it for a while. If you try to just force things to go quickly, you may not be giving your mind enough time to understand and weigh and measure what it sees and then determine what must be done.

You might want to zoom in on the file and get a look at it up close and see if what otherwise looked like a smooth continuous monolith begins to show wider openings that you were unaware of. Those would likely be the speed bumps that are frustrating you. Remember what I said about experimenting and playing around with things.

[Gord]

Hi, Max.

In the "horn_looped.wav" file that Don provided, choose

Edit > Marker > Set...

Click the "Sample based position" radio button, enter

Start: 8985
Finish: 15996

and choose "None" for "Finish marker alignment". Click "OK". Now choose

Edit > Trim

followed by

File > Save As...

and save the file with a new name. Open that file and play it looped and see if does the trick.

[MaxSouthOz]

Hi guys.
Don, I'm trying to make a file out of the file that you sent me. It needs to run for about a second when I press play and then run continuously when I press loop.
Gord, thanks for the reply. I'll give that a go. I didn't think it would be easy, but I know it's possible.
Cheers
Max

[Gord]

Hi, Max.

If you follow my procedure the resulting file will contain a single loop-able sequence of samples that runs for 0.159 seconds. You can stretch that out to ~1 second by using Don's instructions for copy-and-paste to create a file that has six (6) of those sequences in it.

Have fun!

[donrandall]

Max, you now have all the info you could possibly use. Perhaps some of my explanation wasn't as clear as it could have been but I'm confident that if you will go back and carefully and thoughtully read it all again, you will be able to accomplish your goal. There is nothing more that I can tell you and simply repeating what we've already covered doesn't take you anywhere.

I would suggest printing it and then keep it on the desk while you have Goldwave open and the sound loaded into the sound window.

By the way, a good idea whenever you are processing audio: Do not process your original. Make a copy and put the original away. That way if you permanently ruin the processed copy, you still have the original so you can start over again.

[MaxSouthOz]

Thanks. I have printed it off. I'll have another go at it.

[donrandall]

After a little experimentation you will get it all figured out - Then you'll wonder why it ever seemed to be difficult at all!

Hey -- don't forget to play around and have fun!

[MaxSouthOz]

Thanks, Don.

[donrandall]

There are many, many free sites that allow you to upload your audio file and send it to others. I particularly like You Send It dot Com, but I like to have several available to me.

Just use Mr. Google. Type in "Free FTP Sites" or some variation.