I’m working on a big song with a ton of tracks and trying to work non-destructively (have the original track above a copy where I apply effects). Every time I duplicate a track, it always puts the new one at the bottom of the project, which is tedious to scroll down, drag it up underneath whichever track I was duplicating.
Is there a workaround for this? a Preference I can change? I know it’s not impossible to rearrange the tracks, but it just adds so much unnecessary work and doesn’t seem intuitive. I would think that if I duplicate a track, the duplicate should be directly underneath that track, not defaulting to the bottom of the project.
Any insight would be appreciated, or maybe if enough people take issue, this can be addressed in a future release.
You could set a Keyboard Preference to “Track - Move Focused Track Up”. That might help a little - depending on how much a “ton” is…
I filed this enhancement request a while back:
Rationalizing where new tracks are created to aid usability and consistency #2392
opened 10:37AM - 08 Jan 22 UTC
Enhancement Request
Design / UX
minor feature
**Describe the bug**
Where new tracks are created has mostly been out of the co… ntrol of the user. Mostly these are placed at the end (bottom) of the project, which may not be ideal particularly for users with large multi-track projects.
Many Feature Requests have been received from users who would like to control where new tracks are placed in their project.
**To Reproduce**
Steps to reproduce the behavior:
1. Tracks > Add New > ...
2. Edit > Clip Boundaries > Split New
3. Transport > Recording > ...
4. Generate > ...
5. Analyze > ...
6. Observe: the new track is always created at the bottom of the project.
**Expected behavior**
This was fixed a while back for
a) Mix and Render where the new track replaces the last selected track
b) Mix and Render to New Track where the new track goes below the last selected track
So now the behavior is inconsistent across Audacity
Since this was changed For Mix&Render to be based on selection (and not on focus) it makes sense for consistency, that other commands that create new tracks should also position the new track:
1) based on selection - i.e. normally below last selected track,
2) IF no selection is present THEN at the bottom of the project.
### These commands should create the new track after the last (bottom-most) selected track
In these cases the commands act on the selection and not focus, so the new tracks will be relative to the selection.
* Tracks > Add New > Mono Track
* Tracks > Add New > Stereo Track
*Tracks > Add New > Label Track
** also applies when a label track is created as a result of adding a label when no Label Track exists
* Edit > Duplicate
* Edit > Clip Boundaries > Split New
* Transport > Recording > Record New Track
* Transport > Recording > Record}} - Append record when there are insufficient track channels selected
In cases where there is no track selected then the new track should be added at the bottom of the track.
Note that the selected track need not be an audio track, it could be a label track ''(where the command does not depend upon having audio selected)''.
### These commands should create the new track after the currently focused track
The behaviour would thus be the same for:
* Generate > ... when there is no selection
* Analyze > ... when no label track is selected
but would NOT apply to actions that require a track selection.
### This command always goes at the top of the Project
* Tracks > Add New > Time Track
### Focus
In all cases ''(bar the exception below)'' Focus should be transferred to the new track.
**Exception:** There is at least one use case where this should not be the case. If the '''Use dialog for name of new label''' option is checked in '''Tracks Behaviors''' preferences, and creating a label causes a new Label Track to be created, then when the new label dialog closes, focus is returned to the original track. This is for the benefit of keyboard users.
**Screenshots**
None
**Additional information (please complete the following information):**
- OS: all
- Version: Audacity 3.1.3 and earlier
**Additional context**
This was originally logged in June 2020 as a Proposal in the Audacity Wiki:
https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Proposal:_Rationalizing_where_new_tracks_are_created_to_aid_usability_and_consistency
Flagged for @Tantacrul as a UX issue
From the thread it looks like Miuse have accepted this as a valid Feature Request - but thus far it has not moved to implementation.
Peter.
system
April 23, 2023, 11:44pm
4
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