Can you shorten/speed up a file in cool edit?

[Just Allan]

Hi all... I've got a *.wav file that's about 82 minutes in length and
I want to squash it to 80 minutes - to fit on a CD-R.

It's speech only, so preserving pitch would be nice but not essential.
I've been opening then selecting the entire wav, then:

Transform >
Time/Pitch >
Stretch >

.... and then changing length to 4800 (60 seconds x 80 minutes?)

But when I click OK, it seems to be working - but once it's finished,
it is the same length!?

What on earth am I doing wrong - does Cool Edit even do this?

Thanks for reading...

Allan.

[Stu-R]

Yes, cool edit will do it. You may need to figure the ratio to change
it. The bitrate needs to be faster by that proportion. e.g. 82/80 =
1.025 or the time needs to be shorter eg .97 the original. However,
when I do this, which is nearly every week, I have to reduce the time
to about 79 or 79.5 minutes for a CD because space must be left for
some housekeeping data. But the correct length shuld be displayed
after you process the file. The simplest way is to just process the
time.

Cheers



On Sat, 23 Oct 2004 03:51:26 +1000, Just Allan
> wrote:

>Hi all... I've got a *.wav file that's about 82 minutes in length and
>I want to squash it to 80 minutes - to fit on a CD-R.
>
>It's speech only, so preserving pitch would be nice but not essential.
>I've been opening then selecting the entire wav, then:
>
>Transform >
>Time/Pitch >
>Stretch >
>
>... and then changing length to 4800 (60 seconds x 80 minutes?)
>
>But when I click OK, it seems to be working - but once it's finished,
>it is the same length!?
>
>What on earth am I doing wrong - does Cool Edit even do this?
>
>Thanks for reading...
>
>Allan.

[Just Allan]

On Fri, 22 Oct 2004 21:15:46 GMT, Stu-R > wrote:

>Yes, cool edit will do it. You may need to figure the ratio to change
>it. The bitrate needs to be faster by that proportion. e.g. 82/80 =
>1.025 or the time needs to be shorter eg .97 the original.

Hi - thanks for the reply. I tried changing the ratio this time,
instead of the time. It shows it as a "slower tempo" along the
percentage slider (shouldn't it be showing it's faster?) and the
completed file was still unchanged. Actually, the program doesn't
seem to even do anything, because it goes through it's "saving undo
data" stage, then you would expect it would start converting the file.
But it does nothing after "saving undo data". Yet if you then go to
the edit menu, it shows "undo stretch"!? Oh - and it still shows 82
minutes in the End and Length fields.

If I can please take some more of your time, am I doing the correct
steps? Here's exactly what I'm doing:

1. Open the file.
2. Hit CTRL-A to select the entire file.
3. Click on Transform.
4. Select Time/Pitch.
5. Select Stretch.
5. Divide original file size of 82:24.511 minutes (or 4944.511
seconds) by 79 (4740) = ~ 1.0432. So on the Contstant Stretch tab, I
enter 1.04315 into Ratio. Also, these settings are selected:

High Precision
Time Stretch (Preserves Pitch)
Choose Appropriate Defaults

6. Then click OK.
7. It starts saving Undo data. And once that finishes, it does
nothing else, but does show "undo stretch" in the edit menu.

I even just tried clicking on the "Speed Up" preset to see if that
worked. It does the same thing as at point 7. ("Completed" file is
still sitting on 82 minutes.)

LOL - I don't get it! : p

Allan.

[Just Allan]

On Fri, 22 Oct 2004 21:15:46 GMT, Stu-R > wrote:

>Yes, cool edit will do it. You may need to figure the ratio to change
>it. The bitrate needs to be faster by that proportion. e.g. 82/80 =
>1.025 or the time needs to be shorter eg .97 the original. However,
>when I do this, which is nearly every week, I have to reduce the time
>to about 79 or 79.5 minutes for a CD because space must be left for
>some housekeeping data. But the correct length shuld be displayed
>after you process the file. The simplest way is to just process the
>time.
>
>Cheers

Ok - found the problem [sigh]. I have two (old) versions. I loaded
the next version up and now it works - and all that time I thought I'd
just forgotten how to read help files.

Thanks!

Allan.

[Stu-R]

Glad you got it fixed.

Cheers


On Sat, 23 Oct 2004 14:32:28 +1000, Just Allan
> wrote:

>On Fri, 22 Oct 2004 21:15:46 GMT, Stu-R > wrote:
>
>>Yes, cool edit will do it. You may need to figure the ratio to change
>>it. The bitrate needs to be faster by that proportion. e.g. 82/80 =
>>1.025 or the time needs to be shorter eg .97 the original. However,
>>when I do this, which is nearly every week, I have to reduce the time
>>to about 79 or 79.5 minutes for a CD because space must be left for
>>some housekeeping data. But the correct length shuld be displayed
>>after you process the file. The simplest way is to just process the
>>time.
>>
>>Cheers
>
>Ok - found the problem [sigh]. I have two (old) versions. I loaded
>the next version up and now it works - and all that time I thought I'd
>just forgotten how to read help files.
>
>Thanks!
>
>Allan.