Can you move part of a track with Timeline?

Audacity Help Forum Windows
1

Hi,

Timeline is a nice feature, but I don’t want to move the entire track. I only want to move a portion of the track.

Is that possible? If so, how?

Thanks,

Jeff

2

To move part of an audio track, you need to split the track so that the part that you want to move is a separate audio clip.

Example:
If you have a 30 second track and you want to move the portion “20 to 30 seconds” so that it is at “25 to 35 seconds”, then:

  1. Position the cursor at 20 seconds (click on the track, or use the Selection Toolbar)
  2. Press Ctrl + i (or select “Split” from “Edit menu > Clip boundaries > Split”)
    You now have two audio clips, one from 0 to 20 seconds and one from 20 to 30 seconds
  3. Use the Time Shift tool to drag the second audio clip to the right.

Note that audio clips cannot overlap on the same track, so if you need overlapping audio clips then they must be on separate tracks. In this case you can:

  1. Select the part that you want to move (http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/audacity_selection.html)
  2. “Edit > Clip boundaries > Split New” (split the selected audio to a new track)
  3. Use the Time Shift tool to drag the new audio clip to where you want it.