have Audacity 2.0.6 on a Windows 7 Professional, I7 quad processor, 2 500 gb HD’s. 8gb Ram
I am a past Adobe Audition user all the way back to when it was Cool Edit.
my 3.0 version has crashed so many times it can no longer be used. And I am not interested in a monthly fee to use their “Cloud” deal.
I am now trying to use this version of Audacity.
I’ve figured out how to put a music bed behind a voice over file… But can’t see how to slide the audio file in the time line track
or how to use the same music bed more than once (in seperate tracks) so I can extend the music to the total length of the voice track.
Typically I would start with the music track at a low level, then at some point I will cross fade down the one track and fade up the second music track so that it ends with a few beats of music as the voice over ends.
Several ways of doing that. Here’s one way:
Double click on the track to select it.
Press Ctrl+D to duplicate the selection into a new track (“Duplicate” is also in the Edit menu).
Use the Time Shift tool to drag the new track where you want it.
Note that if you have lots of tracks, you can align them end to end automatically (quicker than dragging them individually - see: “Aligning Tracks” in the Tracks menu: Audacity Manual
Watch out for the next Audacity release (due in January). It has a “crossfade” effect that makes crossfading a whole bunch easier.
One reeely common mistake is to record Stereo Mix instead of the microphone or instrument pickup. If you do that, your new production track isn’t just your voice or guitar. Instead, it’s a mix between the old and new track. In that case, yes, you’re stuck and there is no way to slide one against the other. The Audacity audio input (Device Toolbar) is required to be a real device like Microphone or Line-In or maybe a USB Device, not Stereo Mix.