How do I add a silence of (X time) when combining tracks?

Kubuntu: 17.10
Audacity 2.1.2

I want to combine like 20 tracks together with a silence of 1.5 seconds between them, can anyone help me achieve this?

Can you outline the steps from scratch because i’m a real newbie?

Assuming that you are starting with a fresh empty Audacity project and 20 audio files all in the same directory:

  1. “File menu > Import > Audio” and select all of the files that you want to import.
    The files will be imported as separate tracks.
  2. Put the tracks in order by dragging them up / down (click on an empty part of the panel on the left end of the track and drag up/down. Take care not to click on the buttons or sliders).
  3. “Ctrl + A” to select all
    (if step 4 is not available in 2.1.1, skip to step 5)
  4. “Tracks > Align Tracks > Align end to end” (http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/tracks_menu_align_tracks.html#align_end_to_end)
  5. Use the Time Shift tool to nudge each of the audio clips to the right so that you have the required gaps.
  6. File > Export > Audio

Could add 1.5 seconds of silence to all the tracks in one step, (once they are imported),
Then align end to end. Thus avoiding 20 usages of time-shift to create the silent gaps.

Thanks steve and trebor, so helpful, instant reply!

trebor, how will your list of steps look? is it a quicker way than steve’s?

Once all are imported, Select all the tracks,(“Ctrl”+“A”), move the cursor to the start, (“J”),
then generate the silence which will be added to all the tracks …
silence added to the start of all tracks at once, then aligned end-to-end.gif

this is amazing. I’m so happy, thank you both!!!