I have a recording where bad clicks appear on the right part of a stereo track at one point the entire right track disappears far a while. I want to paste the left track onto these clicks and missing bits to cover them up. I know this creates a slight shift in the audio but the click won’t come out any other way. How do I do this accurately, remembering I only want to do this to portions of the file not the whole thing.
Thanks,
Let me get this right - you have an audio recording that you are wanting to repair. The “damage” in the original recording is that there are some clicks in the right channel, and also some places in the right channel where the audio is missing altogether (silent).
If the clicks are short enough, you may be able to use the “Repair” effect (Audacity 1.3.x). Zoom in close on the click and select the affected samples, then select “Repair” from the effects menu. This is only available for repairing very short bits of damage (up to 128 samples), but can be very effective.
For larger areas of damage, then copying from the left channel to the right channel will as you suggest be an effective solution.
This is how you do it in Audacity 1.3.5
- Click on the name of the track and select “Split Stereo track”
- Select the affected area on the second track (the right channel)
- Press “Enter” - you will see that the track is no longer selected, but the selected region is still shown in the time line,
- press the “up” cursor key - this will move the focus to the upper track (the left channel)
- Press “Enter” - you will see that the selected area is now highlighted on the left audio track.
- Press Ctrl+C (to copy)
- Press “Enter” (to deselect the left track)
- Press the “down” cursor (to move focus to the lower track)
- Press “Enter” (to select the same region of the lower track)
- Press “Ctrl+V” (to paste)
You may find that there is a slight click at the beginning and end of the repaired section. Use the “Repair” effect if necessary to remove the click.
Other Tips
When you are selecting the area to be copied, use “Ctrl+Mouse Wheel” to zoom in close at the start and points. Try and select an area that starts where the amplitude is relatively low, possibly just before a beat, and the “join” is likely to be less noticeable.
When trying to locate a click, it can sometimes help to switch to the “spectrum view” (click on the track name and select “Spectrum” from the menu). Clicks will often show up as a vertical line.
Beautiful. Nice instructions. I’ll try this out later. If I have problems I write back but I doubt I will!
Thanks!
Even if it works beautifully, write back and let us know - it’s encouraging to hear a success story - mostly we just see problems on the forum. 
Almost a year later, but the directions worked fine for me with Audacity version 1.3.7 on XP Pro.
Thanks,
Mike in Sacramento
These instructions still work perfectly on 2.1.3. I know I’m posting to an ancient thread, but this software and the community support are great. I just donated $100 to the effort. Please contribute to this effort if you can. Great job people.
Thanks for the feedback - and thanks for donation
WC
Steve has since made a plugin to automate that process …
http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Nyquist_Effect_Plug-ins#Repair_Channel