https://github.com/kward/tracks
Tool to rename files written by Waves Tracks based on Avid VENUE channel names.
https://github.com/kward/tracks
avid cli daw golang pro-tools tracks venue waves
Last synced: about 2 months ago
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Tool to rename files written by Waves Tracks based on Avid VENUE channel names.
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/kward/tracks
- Owner: kward
- License: apache-2.0
- Created: 2017-07-06T19:38:53.000Z (almost 8 years ago)
- Default Branch: master
- Last Pushed: 2018-11-03T15:16:53.000Z (over 6 years ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-01-29T23:11:12.823Z (4 months ago)
- Topics: avid, cli, daw, golang, pro-tools, tracks, venue, waves
- Language: HTML
- Homepage:
- Size: 6.99 MB
- Stars: 1
- Watchers: 3
- Forks: 2
- Open Issues: 2
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- License: LICENSE
Awesome Lists containing this project
README
# tracks
Tracks is a tool to rename audio files generated by [Waves Tracks Live][tracks_live] based on channel or output names from an [Avid VENUE™][avid_venue] (version 4.5.x or earlier) patch file.
[avid_venue]: http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/Download/VENUE-Standalone-Software-Updates
[tracks_live]: https://www.waves.com/mixers-racks/tracks-live
## Overview
Waves Tracks is an invaluable tool for doing a multi-track recording during a live event. Unfortunately, once the event is over, getting those files into Pro Tools or another DAW can be a pain for several reasons.
- The file names by default have the format "Track XX-Y.wav" (XX=track number, and Y=session number), giving no indication of the original channel name.
- Tracks are sorted alphabetically by track number then session number, making it difficult to pull out all tracks relating to just a single session.
- The alphabetic sorting of 32 tracks looks like: 1 10 11 12 … 2 20 21 22 … 3 31 32 4 5. Dragging all the tracks sorted this way into Pro Tools requires manually resorting the tracks by hand.
This software is designed to solve the above problems.
- Files are renamed according to their original channel names, or the Pro Tools output patch names.
- Session numbers are placed before track numbers, which groups the sessions together.
## Project detail
[](https://godoc.org/github.com/kward/tracks)
[](https://travis-ci.org/kward/tracks)
[](https://gocover.io/github.com/kward/tracks)
[](https://goreportcard.com/report/github.com/kward/tracks)
The software is distributed as source code. To compile the code, the [Go programming language](https://golang.org/) must be installed, and the source code and relative libraries installed. See the [Installation](#installation) section below for the necessary steps.
:bulb: Waves Tracks Live is a heavily striped down version of the open source DAW software [Ardour](https://ardour.org/). If you are are on a budget, and need something that will do more than recording and playback, give Ardour a try.
## Usage
The example below will make a new copy of all files in a new location. You will need enough space in your destination location to hold these files.
:bulb: In the examples below, you will frequently see the character `~` used in paths. This character is a Unix shell alias for your home directory. On macOS (or Mac OS X), this is equivalent to your :house: folder, e.g. `/Users/kward`. On Windows 10 or Windows 7, it is very similar, e.g. `\Users\kward`.
### Saving sessions with Waves Tracks Live
Save your Tracks Live sessions as you normally would. The following screenshot shows that I have saved my session as `~/Music/Tracks Live/20170916 ICF Ladies Night`.
### Exporting a patch list from VENUE
Use the VENUE Patchlist export function, or the Info export function, to write your channel information to a USB stick.
**Export patch list**
**Export info**
VENUE normally writes the patch file to the root of the USB stick with a filename like `Avid VENUE Patch List Sep 10 2017, 4-51 PM.html`. Feel free to copy, move, or rename that file to a location useful to you.
:bulb: Consider moving the file off the USB drive to the same folder as the final location of the renamed files, and give it the name of the session. E.g. `~/Music/Sessions/20170916 ICF Ladies Night.html`
Perform a test run of renaming all tracks. These steps must be done from the Terminal.
:bulb: If you aren't at your console, you can use the standalone VENUE software (Windows only) to export the channel information as well.
### Copy the session files
In this example, we will make a copy of all the files into a newly created `~/Music/Sessions/20170916 ICF Ladies Night Stems` folder. Once we are sure the files are copied as we like, the original `~/Music/Tracks Live/20170916 ICF Ladies Night` folder will be removed.
:warning: The examples below assume that the `tracks` binary was compiled according to the [Installation](#installation)
:bulb: Why add the term `Stems` to the end of the new folder? This isn't required, but when a Pro Tools session is created later, the best name for it will likely be `20170916 ICF Ladies Night`. If that folder already exists, Pro Tools will complain, and require a different name to be chosen. Adding `Stems` allows a Pro Tools folder to be created with the session name, while keeping the stems separate. It is definitely an option to create the Pro Tools session *before* doing these steps so that the files can be copied directly into the appropriate Pro Tools session folder.
:warning: If you chose to rename the files in place by not providing a `dest_dir` flag, it is **highly recommended** that you make a backup of your files before running the software.
Create the new folder. (This could also be done in Finder or Windows Explorer).
```console
$ mkdir "~/Music/Sessions/20170916 ICF Ladies Night Stems"
```
Do a dry run of copying the files. :memo: No files will be changed because the `--dry_run` flag was given.
```console
$ tracks \
--dry_run \
move \
--src_dir "~/Music/Tracks Live/20170906 ICF Ladies Night/interchange/20170916 ICF Ladies Night/audiofiles" \
--dest_dir "~/Music/Sessions/20170906 ICF Ladies Night Stems" \
--patch_file "~/Music/Sessions/20170906 ICF Ladies Night.html"
```
Check the output produced. Below is some sample output (scroll to the right).
```text
Moving:
"/Users/kward/Music/Tracks Live/20170906 ICF Ladies Night/interchange/20170906 ICF Ladies Night/audiofiles/Track 01-1.wav" --> "/Users/kward/Music/Sessions/20170906 ICF Ladies Night Stems/01-01 Cajon (direct out).wav"
"/Users/kward/Music/Tracks Live/20170906 ICF Ladies Night/interchange/20170906 ICF Ladies Night/audiofiles/Track 02-1.wav" --> "/Users/kward/Music/Sessions/20170906 ICF Ladies Night Stems/01-02 Shaker (direct out).wav"
"/Users/kward/Music/Tracks Live/20170906 ICF Ladies Night/interchange/20170906 ICF Ladies Night/audiofiles/Track 03-1.wav" --> "/Users/kward/Music/Sessions/20170906 ICF Ladies Night Stems/01-03 aRuben (direct out).wav"
"/Users/kward/Music/Tracks Live/20170906 ICF Ladies Night/interchange/20170906 ICF Ladies Night/audiofiles/Track 04-1.wav" --> "/Users/kward/Music/Sessions/20170906 ICF Ladies Night Stems/01-04 aToby-L (direct out).wav"
...
```
Perform the actual copy by running the command again without the `--dry_run` flag (notice the trailing `\` character on the `--patch_file` line was also removed).
```console
$ tracks \
move \
--src_dir "~/Music/Tracks Live/20170906 ICF Ladies Night/interchange/20170916 ICF Ladies Night/audiofiles" \
--dest_dir "~/Music/Sessions/20170906 ICF Ladies Night Stems" \
--patch_file "~/Music/Sessions/20170906 ICF Ladies Night.html"
```
The output should be the same as above, but this time the files were actually copied.
### Get info about a file
If you are curious about what type of file information a `.wav` file has, you can use the `info` command.
```console
$ tracks info --file "01-64 Main R -23 LUFS (direct out).wav"
sample_rate: 48000 Hz, channels: 1 bits_per_sample: 24 frame_count: 307459072 duration: 1h46m45.397333333s
```
### Checking a file for silence
There are times when Tracks has issues talking to the audio device, happening more frequently than desired between Tracks and my Avid S3L-X. Luckily, Tracks doesn't break the recording off (like Pro Tools does, which is why I don't use Pro Tools for recording via AVB), and instead records only silence.
To test for silence, use the `check` command. The file below unfortunately has several blocks of silence, but now I can quickly document where they are, and don't need to listen to the full 1h46m to find them all.
```console
$ tracks check --file "01-64 Main R -23 LUFS (direct out).wav"
3m43s - 3m50s
6m50s - 6m58s
27m10s - 27m15s
27m15s - 27m23s
48m54s - 48m59s
49m0s - 49m2s
58m38s - 58m43s
58m44s - 58m52s
1h25m50s - 1h25m55s
1h25m55s - 1h25m57s
1h41m17s - 1h41m24s
```
## Getting help
To see a full list of available flags, request `--help`.
```console
$ tracks --help
NAME:
tracks - A tool for integrating Waves Tracks and Avid Venue
USAGE:
tracks [global options] command [command options] [arguments...]
COMMANDS:
help, h Shows a list of commands or help for one command
venue:
copy copy tracks with new names
link make links with new names, without removing original files
move move or rename tracks
wave:
check check wave files for known errors
info output info about wave file
GLOBAL OPTIONS:
--dry_run, -n do a dry run
--help, -h show help
--version, -v print the version
```
## Installation
_This section covers the installation of Go, required Go libraries, and the Tracks source code._
Download and install the latest version of Go using instructions from https://golang.org/doc/install. The Tracks tool works on all versions of Go starting at v1.6.
To test setup a Ubuntu 16.04 Linux machine, these commands were used:
```console
$ sudo apt-get install golang
$ mkdir ~/opt/go/{bin,pkg,src}
$ cat <~/.bashrc
# Golang
export GOPATH="${HOME}/opt/go"
export GOBIN="${GOPATH}/bin"
PATH="${PATH}:${GOBIN}"
EOF
```
Log out and back in to test that the new environment variables were configured properly.
Download the Tracks tool source code. This will automatically compile the code, and place a binary in the `$GOBIN` directory.
```console
$ go get -v -t github.com/kward/tracks
```
Test the installation.
```console
$ tracks --help
```
## Updating
_This section covers updating an existing installation._
To update the software, run the following command to download the latest source, and compile a new binary.
```console
$ go get -v -t -u github.com/kward/tracks
```
## Tested software and systems
- macOS (10.12 Sierra, 10.13 High Sierra)
- Waves Tracks Live 1.3
- Avid D-Show (3.1.1)
- Avid Profile (unknown version)
- Avid S3L-X (4.5.3.3)
- Avid VENUE Standalone (4.5.3)
- Avid Pro Tools (12.x)
:warning: This software is neither endorsed nor supported by either Waves or Avid.