No, Audacity will start recording immediately.
Even if Audacity did have that feature it would be near impossible to get a really “clean” start to the recording.
I find the easiest thing is to add a label at the end of the track (END key, then Ctrl + B, then ENTER) before I start Append Record. It is then very easy to go back and delete the lead-in silence and get a really good join.
Audacity does have a kind of “punch-in” record, but it is not quite how some people expect.
The traditional punch-in record method was developed on and for tape based recorders where the number of available tracks was extremely limited (originally only one mono or stereo track). It was a form of “crash editing” that rarely gave clean joins, so was usually accompanied by razor-blade and sticky tape editing. As multi-track tape recorders became more common and more sophisticated, punch-in recording became more refined. The enabling/disabling of record/playback/erase heads was carefully timed so that the recording would just overlap the previously recorded material.
Early digital recorders were often closely modeled on the familiar tape based machines, so it was a natural progression to include “punch-in” record. However a intrinsic problem still remained - If you get the punch-in wrong, you have overwritten part of the “good” recording. To work around this problem, various methods were developed - one of the most popular on hard disk recorders being the idea of “virtual tracks”. Some software recorders use a similar approach by creating track “layers”. This can work reasonably well, but it can also get very complicated, especially if you want to edit the ends of the layers to neaten up the joins. To aid editing of multiple takes, it is often possible to move “layers” to new tracks, so that the “drop-in” is on a new track below the original track. Precise editing of the ends can then be performed to achieve a seamless join.
Can you see where this is going?
If “punching” into the original track was developed because of the limited number of tracks (not an issue for software recorders) and the new recording is being moved to a new track so that the ends cam be edited precisely, then what’s the point of punching into the original track? Why not “punch in” to a new track? This is the approach that Audacity takes.
To make a “punch-in” recording onto a new track:
- Silence the part that you want to “record over”. Either use the Envelope tool, Split Delete, or Ctrl+L (Silence audio)
- Place the cursor before the punch-in point - allow a good amount of “pre-roll” (count in).
- Start recording.
The new recording will be on a new track, and if you have the latency correction set up correctly it will be perfectly lined up with the first track ready for editing to create perfect, seamless joins.
Yes a “crash edit” may be a bit quicker, but highly unlikely to give a really good result.
