Here is what I can say:
1- Remember always that audacity is multi track. This is obvious but my
experience says that it is as easier to forget as it is to remember.
2- Because it is multi track, tracks can be selected or not. The track
selection has nothing to do with time range selections, these are two
different things.
3- Selected tracks are affected by whatever you want to do. Applying
effects, cutting, stuff that affect sounds will affect only selected tracks.
4- If more tan one track is selected, more than one track will be
affected by operations.
5- The time range is absolute, it does not depend on tracks. It starts
in 0 and go until the end of the very last track to finish.
6- To start a selection, use the [ key. If sound is playing, this marks
the time range where the selection begins. Similarly, use the ] key to
determine the end of the selection, in terms of time range.
6.1- When you are playing a sound, the time range advances accordingly
with what you are listening. This is why when you press [ to mark the
start of the selection and ] to mark the end of the selection these
markers are fixed on the time range corresponding to the exact moments
you pressed that keys and audio keeps playing.
7- The selection goes from start time to end time and all selected
tracks that have content within the selection range will be affected by
whatever operation is done to that selection. Tracks that have content
within the time range but that are not selected are not affected. Tracks
that either finished before the start mark or start after the end mark
are not affected, regardless of its selection state.
8- As you probably guess as of now, tracks can begin and end at
positions different than 0 and the last time range. They can start at
any moment in the time range. The full time range goes from 0 to the end
of the last track, the one that finishes the last.
9- The cursor runs through the absolute time range. There are commands
to put it at 0 (home), at the end of the last track in terms of time
range (end), to the begin of a given track (j), at the end of a given
track (k) and at a given moment you happen to be listening to (c)
10 Take care with j and k keys. These will put the cursor at the
beginning and the end of a given track, but if there are more than one
selected track, they will put you at the beginning of the track that,
among the selected tracks, begins first in the absolute time range.
Similarly, the k key will put the cursor at the end of the track that
finishes last among the selected tracks.
11- There are effects and other stuff in audacity that use the cursor
position. You have to learn what are these and you have to learn when a
cursor positioned somewhere is or is not important. The command shift +
r for example will start recording a new track from the cursor position
on, which is the start of the new track will be the absolute time range
where the cursor is positioned. The c command is your best friend to
place the cursor exactly where you are listening at a given moment.
12- The play operation does not advance the cursor through the time
range while it is playing. This is why when you hit stop and play again
it will start playing always from the same place. Neither does the
record operation.
13- When you place a start selection (time range selection) marker, then
the cursor is brought to that time range.
14- My experience says that for us, blind people, it is not easy to have
an overview of what tracks are and are not selected. This, by my
experience, is what usually trips us more. If you forget to let only one
track selected when you cut, delete or apply effects, very strange
things will start happening. Specially on cut stuff, more than one piece
of audio (not just that one you wanted) will be removed and pasted
elsewhere, which will let the project a mess.
15- There is a command called unsellect all. It was once bound to ctrl +
shift + a, but it seems that it is no more. I have found that this
command is extremely valuable because it will make sure that no time
range is selected and that all tracks are also not selected. So I always
perform an unsellect all when I will edit something and then start
selecting tracks and time ranges where I will make operations. This has
helped me a lot and since I started to use it my mysterious errors have
dramatically disappeared.
Hope that helps!
Marlon
On 04/04/2020 07:57, Adrian wrote:
Hi again.
Yes, it’s the pest.
Can you please suggest the best way of selecting a portion of the track I want to edit.
I have tried the options in the Select/Region submenu but I never seem to get it right.
Many thanks.
Adrian
*From:*audacity4blind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:audacity4blind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] *On Behalf Of *Andrew Downie
*Sent:* Saturday, 4 April 2020 8:06 PM
*To:* audacity4blind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
*Subject:* [audacity4blind] Re: Editting
Hi again Adrian
Thanks Robert for refining my process. But before following my drawn out process, here is another option which I should have thought of at the time. There is a wonderful plugin for Audacity called Panramp. It allows a selection to be panned and that can be moving from – say – left to right or being set in one position. By using Panramp, everything can be done on one track.
Here is a download link <https://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/idvk27> for panramp.ny. Put in into your C:\Users\[Adrian?] \AppData\Roaming\audacity\Plug-Ins folder. Before you can use it, select add/remove plugins in the Effects Menu and press p until you find it. Shift-tab until you find the Enable button and select it.
That plugin has made a huge difference for my use of Audacity and should be very useful for music creation.
Andrew
*From:*audacity4blind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <audacity4blind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> *On Behalf Of *Adrian
*Sent:* Saturday, 4 April 2020 4:40 PM
*To:* audacity4blind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
*Subject:* [audacity4blind] Editting
Hi,
I recorded a guitar solo on a track & now I want to use panning on parts of it.
For example, I want the intro on the left & the verse on the right & then the chorus in the centre.
I think I have to do some cutting & pasting from the main track to a new track but I have spent the best part of a week trying everything but I’m struggling.
When I have managed to select the right part & cut & paste, nothing is where it should be.
I checked youtube but most of it is visual & that isn’t good for me..
Any help is appreciated.
Adrian
