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Batch Combining sequential BWAV takes


nickreich

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When filming live music or theatre shows, I often have to provide the stereo mix track files (two tracks from the larger multi-track set of Mono time-stamped Broadcast WAVs created on Sound Devices 970s) to Music Supervisors or similar people for them to make edit notes from. This is similar to what many of you do for Transcribing - except I find they prefer the full BWAVs instead of timestamped MP3s as is usual for transcribers. More tech-savvy music types will spot all the takes onto the timeline of Logic or Pro Tools if they have the time, but for others, I set them up with the fantastic InqScribe transcribing player to do their notes. Often they get annoyed by having to load the files take-by-take rather than being able to work across a full shooting session as a single file. They are often having to make artistic judgements across takes.

I've tried several methods of dealing with this in the past - a separate recorder that doesn't start/stop with takes, or importing them into Pro Tools myself, spotting them to the timeline, and consolidating them then exporting. These are all too time-consuming for the tempo we're working at nowadays, where we are lucky to get 15mins between cutting the last shot and having to be clear of the venue on a multi-day shoot. Has anyone come across an app that can be given a folder of TC stamped BWAVs, and can join (concatenate) them in a single file based on their timestamps (filling the gaps between takes with silence, of course). I suspect this might be of interest to those who do Doco's using rec-run timecode from camera, too - before converting to MP3s using the Video Toolshed software being discussed in another thread at the moment.

Thanks, nick.

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an extra recorder is just another thing to distribute TC and Word Clock to, and to wrangle data from at the end of the day... most recently I've been using a laptop running Boom Recorder for that, but I'm always trying to streamline the setup. It's hard enough keeping up with four 970s and guide feeds / IFBs etc. Actually one consideration is the separate 'logging recorder' is capturing out-of-take audio for long periods. Sometimes there's rehearsal audio in there that can be confusing to the music supes. It also has concerned Orchestra Contractors in the past re what is and isn't counted as "recording" time. Combining the SD970 takes that I rolled with camera would have silence in those gaps, even though the overall duration would be the same when combined, so the TC is continuous. I've considered a mute box run off the Rec Tally from one of the 970s, like I do to create rec-run timecode for Movieslate. 

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Hi JackHenry. Yep - I'd prefer a Mac solution. Thanks for the tip - Myriad has certainly come on from it's predecessor Sample Manager, which I have used for years. I just downloaded the demo. It CAN concatenate files into a new single file, but can't space them out using their original TC timestamps which would be required for the user to log timecoded notes in my application. I'll suggest it to them as a future 'action'.

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Well, since my name came up...

It's certainly not hard to cat the files, but aren't you afraid of the 4 (Or sometimes even just 2) gig file size limit?  If so, an option would be to cat to a QT audio only file that has the same audio data but in a different container.

I don't know PT, but in Avid, you can AMA link them (Thus, no import time), then do an 'autosequence' on the clips, where you end up with a timeline with all the clips at the correct position.  From there it's just an export to Wave (Avid  will generate a BWF with the correct timestamp.), or QT. That takes close to no time.

Isn't there a similar function in PT?

 

If it's to spot, you can have a look at my Transcriber app. (Runs on both Mac and Windows), that can load an entire folder with wave files and play it as if it was one big file.

And if you do load a long file with silence, it also has silence detection so it auto jumps over those parts. (That was added for a poor fellow who has to transcribe air traffic communication, and had to sit out very long times of silence...)

 

But, if I have to write something custom, that will set you back 200 bucks.

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15 hours ago, nickreich said:

Hi JackHenry. Yep - I'd prefer a Mac solution. Thanks for the tip - Myriad has certainly come on from it's predecessor Sample Manager, which I have used for years. I just downloaded the demo. It CAN concatenate files into a new single file, but can't space them out using their original TC timestamps which would be required for the user to log timecoded notes in my application. I'll suggest it to them as a future 'action'.

I've suggested thing to them with Wave Editor (Now Triumph) and Triumph and they're very responsive to ideas. One of the reasons I like smaller companies. And although I have Myriad too, I still use Sample Manager for a few quick things.

 

Regards
John

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On 04/02/2017 at 6:35 AM, nickreich said:

 Has anyone come across an app that can be given a folder of TC stamped BWAVs, and can join (concatenate) them in a single file based on their timestamps (filling the gaps between takes with silence, of course). I

Hi Nick,

As I needed a better way to cat files anyways, I put in some effort and wrote the stuff, also made a GUI to do just (and alone) this. So, IOW, I just made the app. you're looking for :-)

Input is mono or poly BWF files, output is one big poly (can be 1 up to XXX tracks) BWF, where the timestamp is from the first file, and silence added to make all others fall in place. (I still think this is a stupid way of dealing with the problem, but hey, who am I to judge...)

Sample rate and bit depth is taken from the source. (I could customize that....). A bit of math is done and it will warn you if you go over the 4 gig file size limit.

Drop me a line if you want to toy with it.

Bouke

 

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Hi All,

Bouke at VideoToolshed has written this app in a couple of days, and already has a demo 'beta' version up on his website if anyone wants to have a try of it. 

https://www.videotoolshed.com/product/bwfsequencer/

As it is, it solves my problem straight away. We want it to be widely useful for other people too, and as my workflow filming live music and theatre is a little unusual, it would be great for people with a more typical Narrative or Documentary workflow to have a look and give Bouke their feedback on it and what it could be used for. For example, it might be useful for the Doco people to join a session's recorder takes together into a few longer sequences, before putting them through his other app, "Make Transcriber Files" to make a mono mixed TC stamped MP3.

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