---
title: "Add the audio of your recordings"
description: "Add the audio files of your recordings so each can be recognised from its sound, choose which recording each file belongs to, and see how much of the catalogue is covered."
image: "https://trackforge.studio/docs/img/trackforge-social-card.png"
---

> Documentation Index
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> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Add the audio of your recordings

A recording whose audio is on record can be recognised from its sound alone, even if its details are lost or changed. The Workspace also notices when the same audio is added twice. An exact copy is not kept twice. A copy that sounds the same, such as an MP3 made from a WAV or a file with extra silence at the start, is kept and shown as worth checking. A copy that has been sped up or changed in pitch is not noticed. As software begins to clear and pay for music, a catalogue whose recordings are tied to their sound is better prepared.

This is about the health of your catalogue, not about registering works. **You do not need any of it to register a work. It never holds up a file, it does not count towards a work being ready, and it is not part of the [catalogue rating](/docs/workspace/catalogue-rating) letter.**

When you add an audio file, TrackForge reads it once, makes a **fingerprint** (a short code that identifies the sound), and deletes the audio. A fingerprint identifies a recording, not a work, and it cannot be turned back into audio. [What is read, deleted and kept](#what-is-read-deleted-and-kept) has the detail.

## Where to find it

Owners and editors can add audio. Everyone who can see the catalogue sees the figure.

- **The figure.** The **Catalogue** page shows "Audio on record for X of Y recordings". Owners and editors also get the button **Add audio** beside it.
- **The menu.** In **Catalogue**, open **More** and choose **Add recordings from audio files**. The same choice reads **Close the audio files** while the card is open.
- **Under a recording.** Under each saved recording in a work, **Add the audio file** opens the card for that recording (the offer on a recording that already has its audio reads **Audio is on record for this recording.**). The same offer comes up after you add a recording, and after an import, where the result reads, for example, "3 recordings saved." with **Add their audio** beside it (**Add its audio** for one).

The card has a link to this page, **How adding audio works**. Each of these opens the card **Add recordings from audio files**.

## Steps

1. Open the card by any of the ways above.
2. The first time, tick the agreement, **I agree that TrackForge reads the files I upload to fingerprint and measure them, and deletes the audio afterwards.** Without it, **Upload recordings** stays off.
3. Choose whether to keep the fingerprints, below. It is ticked to begin with.
4. Drop your files on **Audio files**, or choose them. You can add up to 50 files at once.
5. Press **Upload recordings**. A bar shows how many files have arrived.

The list at the foot of the card shows each file's status: **Waiting for the file**, **Received, to be fingerprinted**, **Fingerprinted**, **Not kept** or **Not received**. **Not kept** here means the file could not be used, and the line says why: it could not be read as audio, it took too long to read, or its sound is the same as a file you added earlier. Upload a good copy again.

Once the agreement is given, the card shows the day you agreed and whether fingerprints are kept, instead of the ticks.

## Formats and limits

WAV, FLAC, AIFF, MP3 or M4A. The card states the largest size for one file (200 MB at the moment) and the limit of 50 files at a time. A file that is empty, or is another kind of file, is turned away with a sentence saying what to change.

## Keeping the fingerprints

**Keep the fingerprints for future checks of my catalogue.** is a choice, not a condition. With it on, the fingerprint is kept, so a recording can be recognised from its sound alone if its details are lost or changed, and the Workspace tells you when audio you have already added is added again: an exact copy is not kept twice, and a copy that sounds the same is kept and shown as worth checking. With it off, the fingerprint is not kept once the file is matched to a recording. The file's name, size, format, length, tags and header details remain.

Change it at any time in **Workspace settings**, in the card **Recordings**: see [Downloads and your data](/docs/workspace/help/your-data#audio-and-fingerprints) for exactly what happens to fingerprints already held.

## Which recording is each audio file?

When a file has been fingerprinted, the card **Which recording is each audio file?** asks you to say which recording it is. It shows what the file says about itself, its **Length**, **ISRC in the file**, **Title in the file** and **Artist in the file**, and lists the works of the catalogue it may belong to: works with a recording that has the file's ISRC first, then works with the same title.

1. Choose one of the recordings listed, a new recording on a work, or **Leave it unmatched for now**.
2. If the recording has no ISRC or no length yet, two boxes offer to add them from the file. They are ticked, and you can untick them. The file only ever fills a blank: it never replaces an ISRC or a length you already have. A new recording must take at least one of them from the file.
3. If the work is not listed, search for it by title under **Another work in this catalogue** and press its name.
4. Press **Save this choice**.

Nothing is written to a work until you save, and then only what you ticked. If the work was changed by someone else since the list was read, your choice is refused and you can try again. A file you leave unmatched can be attached later.

### Detach a file

If a file is attached to the wrong recording, press **Detach from this recording** (or **Detach the file** when its recording has since been removed from the work), then choose again. Detaching changes nothing on the work: an ISRC or length the file added stays.

## Notes on a work

Two things on a work's page are shown under **Worth checking**. They never stop you preparing a file, and each goes by itself once you have put it right.

- **The file disagrees with the recording.** The file's ISRC tag is different from the recording's ISRC, or its length differs from the recording's saved length by three seconds or more. A blank on either side is not a disagreement. If the recording is wrong, change it to match the file. If the file is the wrong one, detach it from the recording.
- **The same audio is on another recording.** Either an exact copy of a file you added earlier is tagged with the ISRC of a different recording, or two files that sound the same (an MP3 made from a WAV, or a file with extra silence at the start) are attached to two different recordings. The note appears on both works. If they are one recording, keep one ISRC and remove the other recording. If one file is a remaster or an edit and is meant to be a recording of its own, leave both as they are. If a file is attached to the wrong recording, detach it. The note goes once a file is detached or the recordings are merged. It never stops a registration.

When you choose a recording for a file that sounds the same as one you added earlier, the file says so, names the earlier file and, if it is attached, the recording it is attached to, and offers that work first. It is a prompt to check, not a finding: a remaster, a radio edit or another file of the same recording can sound the same.

## What "Audio on record" counts

The figure counts **recordings**, not works or files.

- The total, Y, is the recordings of the works now in the catalogue. A work with no recording adds nothing to it.
- X is the recordings that have a file attached whose fingerprint is still held.
- A recording whose file is attached but whose fingerprint was not kept is not counted in X. A line under the figure says how many there are.
- The figure is shown even when it is nothing, and it changes as you add and attach files.

## What is read, deleted and kept

The audio is read once and deleted, and the storage area removes anything older than three days. What is kept is the file's name, size, format, length and tags, and the other details written in its header (the date it was made, the program that wrote it and any recording or release code, with only the names of its other tags); the fingerprint and the codes made from the file and its sound (only if you keep them); and two measurements, the length with silence at each end left out and the highest frequency the file carries, which are shown nowhere and used in no rating. None of it can be turned back into audio. Nothing is compared with other customers' catalogues or sent to any outside service. [Downloads and your data](/docs/workspace/help/your-data#audio-and-fingerprints) has the detail, including how to withdraw the agreement.

## Related

- [Recordings](/docs/workspace/catalogue/recordings)
- [Fix problems on a work](/docs/workspace/catalogue/fix-problems)
- [Downloads and your data](/docs/workspace/help/your-data)

Source: https://trackforge.studio/docs/workspace/catalogue/audio/index.mdx