editing accuracy

Audacity Help Forum Windows
1

To start: novice Audacity user.

I have an mp3 file I’d like to cut and paste pieces so I can get a section to repeat and remove another section I don’t want at all. Obviously it all needs to flow smoothly as if it were unedited. I have been trying to do this by playing the audio and watching where the break point would be and noting the time. I have tried zeroing in on the appropriate break points but when I zoom in enough to see where I may want to start (or end) a delete, the visual of the playback is so fast I can’t really tell at what clock point the break point (as determined by the audio) was. There must be a better way.

Any help or suggestions would be very much appreciated.

2

Not an expert here, but one approach is to make a selection around the bit you want to cut, zooming to it with Ctrl-E, and playing just that section. That way it won’t scroll the bit you’ve zoomed to out of view.

Another tool is to use labels - you can adjust the ends of selection (range) labels however zoomed you are. Just be sure to select the label track as well as the audio track, or use Tracks > Sync-Lock Tracks, before doing any cuts, so the labels stay in place.