Aligning labels to an audio clip doesn’t work

henrymy · January 19, 2024, 8:00am

I’m not sure whether it is a feature or a bug. The aligning of an audio clip to a label works perfect, but the other way round it doesn’t (label to an audio clip).

Following explanation in detail:
The following picture shows the alignment to a label when moving a clip (red arrow). That works perfect. The yellow guide shows the snap in. The yellow snap guide also appears, when hover the cursor around the “Marker 1” within a label track.

But often I want to align an existing label to a cut of 2 clips or at the edge of one clip, shown with the arrow in the next picture:

I move Marker 1 at the small white circle between Audio 1 and Audio 2, but no yellow snap guide appears. And the other negative: After having placed Marker 1 around the audio cut, I will no longer find the yellow snap guide when hover between Audio 1 and 2.

The workaround I found:
Make a copy of the label text (ctrl + C) → hover the cursor to the desired position within the label track until the yellow snap guide appears and left click the mouse → create a new label (ctrl + B) and insert the old text (ctrl + V) → select and delete the old label (ctrl + alt + K).

But the workaround can’t be a feature. So I tend to say: it’s a bug

I am working with V3.4.2 of Audacity and I tested this behavior also with 3.5.0-alpha-20240116

waxcylinder · January 19, 2024, 3:54pm

@henrymy

Hi Henry/Heiner,

ah yes, I see what you mean.

But rather than a bug I think this is a “design omission” - as far as I can tell this has never worked - I tested as far back as 2.4.2

I will however log this as an issue on Muse’s GitHub issues log as I think you have a very valid point.

Peter

waxcylinder · January 19, 2024, 4:45pm

logged on GitHub:

github.com/audacity/audacity

No snap guides when trying to align a lable with a clip boundary

opened 04:42PM - 19 Jan 24 UTC

petersampsonaudacity

bug Clips Labels

### Bug description There is no yellow snap guide when you try to align a label… with a clip boundary. This make precise re-positioning of the lable almost impossible In contrast when you try to align a clip with a label you do get the yellow snap guide. This does not appear to be a regression you get the same behavior all the way back to 2.0.9. It's more of a design omission/oversight. BUT is a a big inconsistency. ### Steps to reproduce 1. generate a 30 second chirp 2. make a split at 15 seconds 3. move the right clip so that it starts at 20 seconds 4. place a label at 15 seconds 5. Move either of the clips up to the label 6. Observe: yellow snap guide appears to aid accurate alignment 7. move the clip back away from the label 8. move the label up to either of the clip boundaries (use the little circle) up to either of the clips 9. Observe: **NO** yellow snap guide appears ### Expected behavior Consistency: a yellow snap guide should appear when you move a label up to a clip boundary ### Actual behavior **NO** yellow snap guide appears when you move a label up to a clip boundary ### Audacity Version 3.4.2 and latest 3.5.0 alpha - in fact all Audacty at least as far back as 2.0.0 ### Operating system Windows 10 - but assume all OS ### Additional context The STRs are a simple use case - but the same applies when you use a range label and move it up to a clip or extend its range up to a clip. Originally reported on the Forum by user Heiner Meyer (aka Henry): https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/aligning-labels-to-an-audio-clip-doesn-t-work/96296

Good catch Henry

Peter

henrymy · January 19, 2024, 7:36pm

Thanks, Peter.
“Design omission” might be an appropriate description of this behaviour

system · February 18, 2024, 8:01am

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