# Efficiency Advice on Generate Silence

**URL:** <https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/efficiency-advice-on-generate-silence/39477>\
**Category:** GNU/Linux\
**Created:** [August 13, 2015, 10:58pm UTC](https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/efficiency-advice-on-generate-silence/39477 "2015-08-13T22:58:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jbrock](https://forum.audacityteam.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/839c29/32.png) [@jbrock](https://forum.audacityteam.org/u/jbrock)\
**Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 10:58pm UTC](https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/efficiency-advice-on-generate-silence/39477/1 "2015-08-13T22:58:08Z")

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I teach Spanish. Every semester students submit an audio recording of them using the language.

Here is how I go about correcting their grammar and pronunciation:

1. I import their recording into Audacity.
2. I have set up a keyboard shortcut (Shift + L) for Generate Silence.
3. About every 5-10 seconds in the recording, basically between their sentences, I insert 5 seconds of silence using my keyboard shortcut. To do this I move the cursor line forward with the right arrow key. When I get to a small gap between sentences, I then hit Shift + L then Enter to insert 5 seconds of silence.
4. After inserting these gaps of silence, I then listen to the recording with my recording headset. In the 5 second gaps of silence I correct their pronunciation and grammar.
5. After this point, I export to .ogg and email the audio file with the corrections to them.

I have up to about 75 students every semester. Each recording is 3 to 5 minutes in length. As you would imagine the part where I insert silence every 5-10 seconds gets a little tedious and takes a long time.

I tried to make multiple cursor lines in the recording at once to then hit Shift + L then Enter once. However, I was unsuccessful. If anyone has any ideas on how inserting all of these silent segments could be made more efficient, I will be quite grateful. Thank you

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**Author:** ![steve](https://forum.audacityteam.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@steve](https://forum.audacityteam.org/u/steve)\
**Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 11:36pm UTC](https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/efficiency-advice-on-generate-silence/39477/2 "2015-08-13T23:36:40Z")

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You could copy 5 seconds of silence (Select 5 seconds of silence and **Ctrl+C** ), then to insert silence, all you need to do is place the cursor where you want the silence and paste it ( **Ctrl+V** )

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**Author:** ![jbrock](https://forum.audacityteam.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/839c29/32.png) [@jbrock](https://forum.audacityteam.org/u/jbrock)\
**Post date:** [August 27, 2015, 3:00pm UTC](https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/efficiency-advice-on-generate-silence/39477/3 "2015-08-27T15:00:36Z")

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> [@steve](#):
>
> You could copy 5 seconds of silence (Select 5 seconds of silence and **Ctrl+C** ), then to insert silence, all you need to do is place the cursor where you want the silence and paste it ( **Ctrl+V** )

Thanks so much for that input. I will try implementing that instead. It definitely sounds more efficient.