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Audacity Instructions for breaking live recordings into tracks for CD's:

1- Download and install the Audacity application for your computer from
http://audacity.sourceforge.net
2- launch Audacity
3- Open a new audacity file, maybe call it TODAYSPROJ
4- AUDIO > IMPORT to IMPORT the large audio file
5- save your new project to disc
6- go to VIEW > SET SELECTION FORMAT > "CDDA MIN:SEC:FRAMES (75FPS)"
7- EDIT > SNAP TO > SNAP ON
8- EDIT > MOVE CURSOR TO > TRACK START
9- using the "maginifying glass" tool with the "+" sign on it, zoom in until you see the blank space at the beginning, then holding down the "SHIFT" key on your keyboard, click the mouse just before the start of the good audio.
10- EDIT > DELETE to remove the highlighted portion
11- find the end of the first track. You can either click on the green arrow or press the space bar to start playing. Use the magnifying glass icons with the "+" and "-" sign to zoom in and out.
12- Once you locate the end of the track, keep that on the screen while you move the cursor to the track start with EDIT > MOVE CURSOR TO > TRACK START
13- Holding down the "SHIFT" key, click the end of the track, to highlight the entire first track as you want to have it on the finished CD.
14- EDIT > SPLIT to separate track 1 from the large file
15- FILE > SAVE
16- find the end of the next track like in step 11
17- repeat steps 12-16 to separate each track!
18- When you get to the very end, you might have a section to delete after the end of the music. You might choose, like I do, to keep it and archive it, but not burn it for other people.
19- in the upper left corner of the first track, there is an "X" - click the "X" to delete the now-empty track from which you just chopped all the individual parts.
20- FILE > SAVE
21- EDIT > SELECT > ALL
22- FILE > EXPORT MULTIPLE to create one file for each track
23- Select a file format to export, I recommend WAV on the PC or AIFF on the MAC- these are uncompressed, full quality file types.
24- select a location on your hard drive where you want the files- I suggest creating a folder for each project's track files, and naming it BANDNAME-YYYY-MM-DD-DESC-FILES where BANDNAME is the band's name, YYYY is the 4-digit year, MM is the 2-digit month, DD is the 2-digit day, and DESC is an optional description of the source like "HI8" or "MEDIARECORDER" or the name of the microphone(s)
25- name the files using "NUMBERING CONSECUTIVELY, and pick a title which will identify them, using the same format as the folder you create for them. The "file name prefix" looks just like the folder name, but I put a "-t" instead of the word "FILES" to denote "track" number like "BANDNAME-YYYY-MM-DD-DESC-T"
26- click EXPORT and sit back and watch the fun!
27- Since you saved your file in step 20, you may now exit Audacity and burn the tracks using your favorite CD burning software!


Notes:
1- Once it is installed, you don't have to do this again
3- if you want to have multiple projects saved on your computer you should name them descriptively, like "BANDNAME-2007-05-05-SBD-PROJ"
7- This makes it so that when you select tracking points they will be perfectly suited to CD mastering. CD's must have exactly 75 frames per second, or there will be tiny dropouts between tracks when you play back the CD.
8- We will start at the beginning of your large file
9- The idea here is to select any blank space before you want the audio program to start, so you can delete it
10- here we delete the unwanted stuff from the start, I often ditch the chatter, but I usually keep the intro track and end up numbering it as track zero- that way I have it for my reference master, but I don't burn it onto CD's for other people.
11- You don't actually have to play tracks through to find the break points, but when you're starting out, you might find it easier to use your ears rather than your eyes. If you know that there is a quiet part (or a very loud audience clapping part) at the end of the track, you can find it visually and just jump there once you get the hang of the process.
15- SAVE YOUR WORK OFTEN! You don't have to save your work EVERY time, but it's a good idea to save after each 5 or 10 tracks you cut)
17- I hope you enjoy this, if not, get someone who does to do your editing!!! Once you get the hang of the process, you will spend most of your editing time doing this! This should be FUN!
18- do what ya like here.
19- if you don't delete the empty track it will be called track 1, and get in the way.
21- I use the keyboard shortcut, Control-A (Command-A on the Macintosh) I like keyboard shortcuts for everything, and Audacity lets you make your own- but I think that's a later lesson- let's get this job done first, then if you think you're going to keep using Audacity we can make your favorite commands into keyboard shortcuts in lesson #2! ;-)
22- Are ya ready? You have broken the whole show into tracks and you're ready to make individual files out of the tracks?!
24- I like to use "leading zeroes" to make the date look like 2007-05-05 rather than 2007-5-5, so all my projects have consistent-looking dates and will therefore alphabetize into date order!
27- You DID save the file after breaking the last track, right??? :-)