Splitting One 5.1 FLAC Album Into Individual 5.1 FLACs Per Song

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timothyemerson

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I'm an Audacity newbie and have question that I can't seem to find an answer to online:

1. I have a 5.1 album that is one FLAC and I want to split it up into individual 5.1 FLACs for each song.

2. I've downloaded Audacity (first time user) and added Labels at the beginning of each song.

3. When I File - Export - Export Multiple, it splits each song according to the Labels I positioned at the beginning of each song (which is good) but each FLAC is stereo instead of 5.1.

4. If I File - Export - Export Audio, I can see the 6 Output Channels but it just outputs the audio as one FLAC for the whole album.

I'm probably missing some simple step but can't seem to figure it out for myself. Can anyone let me know what I'm doing wrong?
 
Been awhile since I've tried parsing out a single multi-channel file into individual songs, but I think what you find is a limitation of Audacity. If I recall, what I had to do (and you won't like hearing this) is take the whole file, copy and paste the first song into a new Audacity window, export that single song. One, song at a time. If you know what I mean.
 
Been awhile since I've tried parsing out a single multi-channel file into individual songs, but I think what you find is a limitation of Audacity. If I recall, what I had to do (and you won't like hearing this) is take the whole file, copy and paste the first song into a new Audacity window, export that single song. One, song at a time. If you know what I mean.

You could also just highlight the space between your labels (make sure you get all six channels) and click "export selected audio" - no need to open a new window.

Audacity_Export.jpg
 
You can also use foobar2000. Just select one track and right click on it and then click on "Convert" and then "Quick convert". Select your output format (FLAC in this case) and adjust any parameters (bit depth or FLAC level) and click "Convert". The track will be written with the original album title with the track number in brackets at the end. This method requires you have defined the tracks with a cue file beforehand.
 
You can also use foobar2000. Just select one track and right click on it and then click on "Convert" and then "Quick convert". Select your output format (FLAC in this case) and adjust any parameters (bit depth or FLAC level) and click "Convert". The track will be written with the original album title with the track number in brackets at the end. This method requires you have defined the tracks with a cue file beforehand.
How does the cue file get associated with what you're explaining in Foobar2000, and I'll give it a try; I've also got some of these types of long albums to split and I've been dreading the work in Audacity?
 
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You associate the cue file with "Utilities"/"Edit cuesheet".

If the "FILE" parameter in the cue file points to the correct flac file, then you can just load the cue file in foobar2000 without associating it.
 
This method requires you have defined the tracks with a cue file beforehand.

I was going to suggest this as well. Cue sheets aren't necessarily all that easy to create, but they're probably a bit less work than the alternative.

You can also write commandline code to have SoX split things up, but unless you plan to do a lot of it, the learning curve is probably pointlessly steep.
 
I was going to suggest this as well. Cue sheets aren't necessarily all that easy to create, but they're probably a bit less work than the alternative.

You can also write commandline code to have SoX split things up, but unless you plan to do a lot of it, the learning curve is probably pointlessly steep.
Thanks guys, I've got some experience with writing Cue sheets, but was unsure how they associate. I'll definitely be trying that one.
 
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