Audacity adds lots of silence on export at beginning

Audacity Help Forum Windows
1

I’m having a HUGE problem here. Every time I export audio, Audacity adds up to THREE MINUTES WORTH of silence at the beginning! I really need help with this, or I’m going to have to switch audio editors! And trust me, I really don’t want to do that. I’ve checked every forum page on this, every help center, and nothing works. HELP!

2

Please post a screenshot of your Audacity project (press “Ctrl + F” first, so that we can see the full project).
See: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/screenshot.html

To attach the screenshot to your post, see: https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/how-to-attach-files-to-forum-posts/24026/1

3

I think this problem is related to my question. I am brand new to Audacity as well as sound board stuff in general, so bear with me, as my terms may be incorrect. I have version 2.4.2, and I have imported a song, then cut it to the section I need to use. But it remains at the same spot in the timeline, making the beginning of the clip start at 2:42. I would like to have the clip be its own…song, for lack of a better description. I need the clip to start at 00:00, like the original full song. How do I make it do that? I suspect the originator of this thread has the same thing going on, so that when they exported the finished version, it had all the blank space at the beginning.
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4

You can either use the Timeshift tool to move the audio so that it starts at T=0

See: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/time_shift_tool.html

Or

In Export Preferences check “On” the checbox for “Ignore blank space at the beginning” (this is set to be “Off” by default in Audacity).

See:https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/import_export_preferences.html

WC

5

Unfortunately, I cannot get the selection to move anywhere, and I don’t want to leave that chunk at the beginning open, even if I set it to ignore it. I have tried and tried, but no matter what I do, I am unable to drag the selection

6

A workaround:

  1. Select the blank bit at the beginning with click&drag
  2. use Ctrl+K to delete that selection
    3)Observe: Audio shifts back to start at T=0

WC

7

YAYYYYY!!! Thank you SO MUCH, WC!!! That worked!