Initially I was able to select a short piece of an audio file, a language vocabulary word for example, select it using the “letter I” tool, click “Export Selected Audio”, rename it, and save it on the computer. This also allows the original sound file to remain unchanged. Now, both on the 10.7.5 Os X and the 10.9.4 OS X, I try the same thing as described, and even though I select new portions, the file will save as a previously saved word. For example I saved the audio portion “uchi (Japanese word for house)”: the subsequent words that are different save as “uchi”. I can find no rhyme of reason for this: the saved word isn’t always the same either. I tried uninstall and reinstalling according to the directions on this site, but the problem persists. The Audacity version is 2.0.6.
I am frustrated because Audacity seemed to work, but now it doesn’t, and I don’t know of another program that has audio editing as easily as this was.
even though I select new portions, the file will save as a previously saved word.
So even if you Export Selection and write a new name in the Save As: dialog, Audacity exports on top of a previous file with that file’s name? And the Mac doesn’t object to that?
The latest series of OS-X tools appears to be deprecating Save As:. What you’re supposed to do is either make a copy of the work and then Save, or rename the work and then Save. TextEdit works that way now. No more Save As:
So even if you Export Selection and write a new name in the Save As: dialog, Audacity exports on top of a previous file with that file’s name? And the Mac doesn’t object to that?
If I am understanding you, then yes: I select a new region, new name, but the “new” file with the new name is the previous file.
And yes, I get that dialogue box, plus a Edit Metadata box after that. I have saved the files as M4A since I could not figure out how to install LAME, but this did not seem to bother things at first. Also, it would work correctly on the first word the first time I open Audacity after restarting, but not subsequently.
Another quirk I noted was when I first downloaded Audacity, I could not export anything if I played the file portion: I had to minimize it, then maximize, and then I could export the file portion.
What audio format are the original files that you import into Audacity, and are you seeing a warning about “Files Missing” when you have to minimise Audacity? Perhaps you have not installed Audacity properly and/or the Audacity temporary directory cannot be written to properly.
Quit and trash Audacity.
Make sure Audacity has factory fresh settings as follows. Open Finder, choose Go > Go to Folder and type:
~/Library/Application Support/audacity/
Open the audacity.cfg file in TextEdit.
Select all the text and delete it.
Then type the following at the top of the audacity.cfg file:
