Graham wishes help with editing, thanks.

Hi I’m new to this forum and my knowledge of audio software is non existent. I’m using Windows XP Home edition, and the Audacity program was downloaded as an .exe installer and its version is 2.0.2.

What I want to do is record several booklets, but as I’m recording I’m also making mistakes, so how do I delete the mistake and
then continue recording.

I have taught myself how to record my speech but that’s all.

Hope someone can help

Kind regards

Graham.

Hi Graham. It is usually easiest to record the whole thing, or a whole section, and if you make a mistake, just add a “label” to mark where the mistake is, but keep recording until you get to the end of the section. After you have got to the end of that section, stop the recording, Export a backup copy as a WAV file, then go back and fix the parts that you messed up.

To create a label while recording, press “Ctrl+M” then “Enter”.

For tips about editing, see these sections in the manual:
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/audacity_projects.html
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/audacity_selection.html
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/audacity_tracks_and_clips.html
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/zooming.html
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/mixing.html

The front page of the manual is a good place to look for help on specific parts of Audacity: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/
Also note that there is a copy of the manual included in the Audacity Help menu.

Hi Steve, I am still having problems recording over my mistakes. I have recorded one of the booklets that I need and have also labeled all my mistakes that I need to correct. But how do I remove a mistake and record the correction?

Kind regards

Graham

I am still having problems recording over my mistakes.

This is a bit of a concept shift the first time somebody goes into recording their own work.

Nobody gets it right the first time, but very few people stop in the middle of a word to do it over. Audacity has no provision for “Crash Editing” – stop dead in the middle of a word and start talking again, covering up the mistake.

Another common misconception is you need to announce through hours of work fautlessly. Up until relatively recently, movies were shot in 11 minute chunks because that was the amount of film you could stuff in a camera. So all those 90, 100, and 120 minute extravaganzas were shot in 11 minute or less segments and pieced or edited together into a movie later.

The Car-Talk radio show is shot for two hours and they cut it down into the final 53 minute show in post production editing.

That’s what you should be doing. After you get done with one segment complete with labels where you made fluffs, press Control F to see the full show and click on the blue waves to the left of one of the labels. SpaceBar play. Do you hear the error? Spacebar Stop and Drag-Select the area around the marker and magnify it Control-E. Play it again. Can you see the blue waves where you made the fluff? Drag and magnify again until you can see your dialog. Select the error blue waves and press DEL on your keyboard. Play the segment. It should now play without the error. If you messed up the correction, Edit > UNDO and try it again.

There’s a touch to it. Nobody cooks spaghetti right the first time.

Control-3 will zoom out slightly and Control-F will zoom out to the full show. I live in those three zoom levels.

This is like the five volume set “How to Ride A Bicycle.” What you’re actually doing is far simpler than it takes to write it down. I’m going to produce a video one of these times…

Koz

Hi Koz,

I’ve been practicing what you advised, and I know how delete the muffs that I have make. Perhaps I didn’t explain myself
clearly enough, that when I have mispronounced one or more words, how do I place the correct pronunciation back into the
part that I have deleted? I hope this makes sense!

Kind regards

Graham

See if this post helps: https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/how-to-punch-in/22676/2