By carefully following the manual instruction, I have saved my Audacity editing project of 24 seconds. However, when I have exported my edited project as a wav. file or mp3 file, instead of my edited 24 seconds I get the entire 10 minute original mp3 file where I first began. The Audacity aup file has my correctly saved excerpt, but after exporting the aup file as a wav. or mp3 file, I end up once again with the entire original selection, not just the desired 24 seconds of my project. I have started over ten times before reaching out for help as to what I am doing wrong. Thank you for your assistance.
What version is your Audacity?
Audacity will try to export The Whole World unless you select something and Export Selected.
The only way to get straight, plain Export to be the desired 24 seconds is for there to be nothing else at all on the timeline except that 24 seconds.
A Project will contain all the original works, tracks, edits, etc, unless you expressly delete them. That’s what they do. Audacity Projects will not save UNDO and I don’t see a way to Save a segment or selection.So project will always contain The Whole World (as far as I can tell).
Koz
I am using Audacity 2.1.2 on Windows 10. Koz indicated that in order to obtain my project of just 24 seconds out of a total audio file (mp3) of 10 minutes, I must delete all of the unwanted 9:36 minutes of audio information. This makes sense, but Koz did not specify just how I go about removing the unwanted portions of the audio file, so that I am left just with the desired 24 seconds of my project for export as a mp3 file. Can anyone tell me how to eliminate the unwanted portion of the original audio file, so that I am left only with the desired 24 seconds of my Audacity 2.1.2 project file? I cannot find this information anywhere in the instructions manual. Thanks to everyone who can offer assistance.
It is a little magic.
If you want a Project of only 24 seconds, you can drag-select everything else, everything over 24 seconds and Delete (Attach 1). Then Save Project. Scroll the graphic to see the whole thing.
If you want to Export just 24 seconds, drag-select the desired 24 seconds and Export Selected (Attach 2). Scroll down.
You can tell Audacity where the beginning and end times are by using the time windows at the bottom (Attach 3).
Koz
That illustration was of a single, simple sound track. If yours is more complex with tracks stacked vertically, etc, then it’s going to be a little harder.
Koz
There is a better way if for example the part you want is in the middle of the track. Select the part you want then Edit > Remove Special > Trim Audio. That leaves you with only the part you want.
Space before the start of the audio will be ignored when you export, which in this case is what you want.
Gale