SCRIPT REQUEST: Audiobook master project assembler

[mcarlssen]

When I record a book, I sometimes use a multitrack recording to capture 2 microphones in the booth, and mix these to create the sound I want (for example, combining a condenser and a ribbon mic). This has an effect somewhat similar to the old pultec EQ trick.

I always record each chapter as its own project for speed of editing for preview (like film dailies), and then copy the edited timeline into a comprehensive master project for final mastering and pickups.

The labor-intensive part of assembling dozens of individual projects is opening, copying, closing, pasting, making 64 tracks in the master project, naming them, nesting them, etc etc. So many steps just to move all the data into a single project.

It would be super cool if this could be automated, and if a consistent folder structure is maintained, I think it could be. A script could do the following:

1. recursively search all subfolders within the current location of the master project for *.RPP files
2. open each project and do any housekeeping necessary. For me this would include: disable any master bus FX; normalize each track to a set LUFS value for consistency (using Volume Pre-FX envelope); and if clipping is found post-volume staging, add a -1dB brickwall limiter to the offending track
3. in the master project, for each chapter project file found, create a new track and import the chapter project file as a subproject, at the last empty position on the timeline (this creates a tidy consecutive chapter waterfall, which is easy to scrub for pickups and review). Use subproject name as name of track
4. select contents of each track, set to selection, create region from selection, name region to match track name