Merging sides (20-side limit)

[Not@Work]

After using/loving VinylStudio for normal LP recording/cleanup, I decided to try using it on a project that requires importing existing audio files.  Using "import sound file" for each prerecorded audio file works great except for VinylStudio's 20-side limit, as I need 30-40 "sides" to package these project files into a single album.  Ideally, I would like to import all the audio files at once into a single side file or to be able to merge multiple side files into a single side file (even if that required saving, deleting, and re-importing).   in one project, all the imported files are FLACs; in another project, they are all MP3s (so I don't need to merge different side-file formats). I normally work with a single "side" model for all my albums, and I'd like to do the same with imported sound files.  Am I missing something obvious to do this entirely within VinylStudio?

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

Hi,

No, you're not missing anything.  VinylStudio lacks such a feature I'm afraid.  I would try your luck merging the files in Audacity, which is a free download.  Then you will have one massive file to work with.  Please be aware of the following maximum file durations that VinylStudio can handle:

At 44 kHz: about 13 hours
At 48 kHz: about 12 hours
At 96 kHz: about 6 hours

You can download Audacity from here:

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/

[Not@Work]

Thanks for the speedy reply.  The tracks are not long, so the total time limit is not an issue.  I'll look to Audacity or similar tool to merge the prerecorded files before importing them into VinylStudio for subsequent processing.

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

OK, good.  I believe you need Audacity 1.3 beta to import Flac files.

[Not@Work]

I gave Audacity 1.3.14-beta a test run, but found a simpler solution for my needs: shntool (also free, open-source).

I used the command-line:

   shntool *.flac

to create a joined *.wav file and then imported that into VinylStudio as my only (side 1) audio file. 
The prerecorded flac file names began with the track number (01, 02, ...), so the correct track ordering was maintained
in the joined *.wav file.  Then in VinylStudio, all I needed was to Split Tracks and enter the track details (the only tedious
part of the process) for my single "Side" file album.

Hopefully, this work flow may be useful to someone else...

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

Yes, thank you.  That's a useful thing to know about for people who don't mind working from the command line.  Did you need any 'Helper Tools' to process your Flac files?  I'm assuming this is all on Windows.

Also, you can convert the merged file to Flac in VinylStudio if you wish.  If you do this and then delete the wav file, you will save some disk space.

[Not@Work]

I'm on a Mac and I didn't need any helper tools (beyond what homebrew did when I used it to install shntools), but there are many format helpers for shntools should they be needed.

Good suggestion about converting the *.wav side to FLAC.  I should have thought of that myself (but didn't)!

Thanks for a great product and support.