a screenshot from my audacity project
http://i.imgur.com/RF3Ikhz.png
when i do a export multiple and import the tracks in another daw, they don’t keep in sync.
http://i.imgur.com/wmhe94t.png
I want to export the ful tracks, with silences, empty space, everything.
Thanks on advance!
Create a silent track longer than the longest part of the show. Select that track and your target track > Export Selected.
Koz
This is how I do it. The Mac version of the keyboard shortcuts are usually the same but with “Command” replacing “Ctrl”.
All tracks now start at exactly time=0, so when you Export Multiple, and import into another multi-track application, they will all line up correctly.
[@koz: this would be a good post to bookmark. Perhaps you could translate this into Mac shortcuts?]
Is there such a thing as having a patch of “nothing” in the middle of a line?
Koz
You mean an “empty” gap in a track?
Yes you can have empty space in an Audacity track, but no you can’t have “empty” space in an audio file. When exporting, empty space needs to be converted into “silence”. Silence is valid audio with zero amplitude.
I see steps 1 thru 4 are graceful housekeeping, but I don’t understand how step 5 solves the problem of exporting a correct track of a multi-track show if musical sync was achieved by Time Shifting the desired track, for example, several seconds to the right (later in time).
The global long silent track solves that problem in addition to ‘gaps in the middle,’ ‘making a mistake’ and ‘changing your mind.’
Koz
If you record one track, then record a second track without doing anything else, the second track is shifted a little to the left to compensate for latency, thus it is very common in multi-track projects to have some tracks extend to the left of zero.
When exporting (or Export Multiple), tracks are exported starting from the beginning of the audio to the end of the audio. If the track audio starts before zero, the audio before zero is included in the exported file. This will throw out the timing when the track is imported into another DAW (or into another Audacity project). What we want, is a common start time for all tracks, so the first thing we do is to delete any audio that is before zero. Steps 1 to 3 do that.
Step 4 moves the cursor to time zero, and note that when following the steps all tracks are selected, so when we generate a bit of silence in step 5, it generates the same amount of silence at the start of all tracks, This gives us the common start time for all tracks.
Yes that will work, but I’d not want to export a 30 track project that way.
a little to the left to compensate for latency
We assume it does that when the Overdubbing option is selected.
If you don’t select it?
We may be solving different problems, but correct me, that suite won’t help at all this this show.
The poster did mention exporting empty spaces.
Koz
In that show, steps 1 to 3 will do nothing except select all the tracks.
Step 4 puts the cursor position at the start (of all tracks)
Step 5 inserts a couple of seconds of silence at the start of all tracks. All tracks now have a start time of 0.000.
The empty space between the inserted silence and the start of the ‘real’ audio will be rendered as silence on export because it comes between the start and end of the audio in the track.
they will all line up correctly.
To each other, but not to your partner’s song which started at the “real” zero and not zero plus the silent insert.
So managing that insert is important. You need a really small one, or you need to share the chosen duration value before you shoot files back and forth.
~~ Or ~~
6a. They put the same offset value into their tracks before they import your work.
Koz
The common use case is that the Audacity project IS the song and the purpose of the exercise was to open the “project” in a third party DAW.
Also, standard practice in multi-track recording is to leave a couple of bars of “lead-in” (breathing space) at the start of the project.
Regardless of that. trimming off a couple of seconds from all tracks is trivial, but lining up 30 tracks with no common start time is not.
If working with others, I’d highly recommend inserting a whole number of seconds of silence (2 seconds is common), or if the music has strict tempo (electronic music), then an exact number of bars (2 bars is common).
In most cases there will be at least one track that started at time=0, so in practice it is usually pretty easy to work out how much “offset” (silent padding) has been added, even if the sender forgot to tell you.
6b) You add the amount of silence to match the offset that the recipient is using in their project.
The crucial thing is that all of the tracks that you send have a common start time.
This started out three documents. I refuse to condense the processes—I hate it when I have to juggle conditions inside instructions.
Koz
TITLE:
Track Sync Export
PURPOSE:
Export stand-alone sound files from a multi-track project in sync with each other.
If you use any of the time shift tools or processes, exported individual sound files can play out of sync with each other. This process guarantees all the tracks and exports from this show will match.
Ctrl + A (select all)
Shift + Home (move start of the selection to “time=0”)
Ctrl + T (trims off any sound outside of the selection — specifically, removes any audio that is before time=0)
Home (move cursor to start of project)
Generate > Silence (generates a predictable amount of silence at the beginning of all tracks)
Command + A (select all)
Shift + Home (move start of the selection to “time=0”)
Command + T (trims off any sound outside of the selection — specifically, removes any audio that is before time=0)
Home (move cursor to start of project)
Generate > Silence (generates a predictable amount of silence at the beginning all tracks)
Command + A (select all)
Shift + fn + Left Arrow (move start of the selection to “time=0”)
Command + T (trims off any sound outside of the selection — specifically, removes any audio that is before time=0)
fn + Left Arrow (move cursor to start of project)
Generate > Silence (generates a predictable amount of silence at the beginning all tracks)
Export stand-alone sound files as needed.
NOTES AND COMMENTS:
This suite of actions works from the regular I-Beam cursor not the Time Shift Tool (two sideways black arrows). If the last thing you did to the show was move tracks about, it’s easy to have the wrong cursor.
The silence you insert at the beginning of each track changes the beginning of the show. If you share your files and tracks with others, they all should know that silent duration value.
You don’t have to intentionally use Time Shift in your show to have a sync problem. If you use Musical Overdubbing, for example, some of your music tracks may export out of rhythm/sync with each other even though the project plays perfectly inside Audacity.
Production in WAV is recommended. MP3 files do not guarantee sound sync, even if you do everything right.
.
Works for me 
For completeness, the steps on Linux are identical to the steps on Windows.
That can be done.
What happens if you have a left-of-zero sound track with the Export-Selected Silent-Track method? you get too much sound, don’t you? You always have to trim off the “early” sound.
Let me guess. Nobody thinks this is a problem.
Let me advance a radical idea. Export exports the timeline, no magic portions even though magic portions remain available for production. If you can play it, it exports.
Further, Export exports everything if you select all tracks or no tracks. If you select a track, Export automatically Exports Selected.
Hands? Everybody who’s ever exported the whole show by accident? [forest of hands]
Koz
This is really useful. Thanks very much - I just registered purely to tell you this. A question though; couldn’t the latency correction function be adjusted such that it automatically deletes any portion of the track that is moved to the left of time zero? Or couldn’t the export function be customised to only export data that occurs after time zero?
It’s also obsolete.
With Audacity 2.4.2, all tracks should be automatically in sync by default.
