How can I use Audacity with a foot pedal?

I transcribe interviews using Word 2010. I am currently using Express Scribe Pro 5.69. I would like to use Audacity. I need to use a foot pedal. My foot pedal is Infinity IN-USB-1. How can I use Audacity with a foot pedal? This is the information I found on the Audacity website:

Foot pedals: Audacity has no built-in support for foot pedals, but if you can install a suitable driver so that the pedal delivers mouse clicks or key strokes, Audacity can be controlled by those. The pedal manufacturer might be able to assist, or some pedals (for example, Vpedal or X-keys) already come with software to map pedal buttons to specific keystrokes. Alternatively if your pedal is recognised by the computer as a Game Controller or Human Interface Device, you may be able to use third-party software such as AutoHotKey (Windows) to map pedal buttons to keystrokes. USB Overdrive can do the same on Mac for a USB pedal.

Thank you.

A foot pedal will only work with Audacity if the foot pedal can emulate key presses. Check your foot pedal documentation to see if your foot pedal can do this. If your foot pedal cannot emulate key presses, then it won’t work with Audacity.

I was unable to find my foot pedal documentation. I found Pedal Magic. Now I can use Audacity with a foot pedal. Is it possible to play a recording, stop, and automatically rewind three seconds? When I play a recording and stop, it automatically rewinds all the way back to the beginning of the recording. Thank you.

The shortcut for “Stop and set cursor” is “X” Transport Menu: Playing - Audacity Manual

For the full list of shortcuts, see: Commands and Keyboard Shortcut Reference - Audacity Manual

What’s the context? What are you trying to do?
Holding down the left cursor key moves the cursor (slowly) to the left. The speed that it moves depends on the zoom level, so to move the cursor faster you need to zoom out.

“Stop and set cursor” causes the recording to stop and begin playing again at the exact point where it stopped. This is not what I want. I want to be able to stop listening and automatically rewind back to three seconds before the point where I stopped. The context is I am transcribing interviews.

It doesn’t matter now because Pedal Magic does not do everything I need it to do. My application program (Audacity) must be in the foreground in order to work with Pedal Magic. I transcribe my interviews in Word. Therefore, Word needs to be in the foreground. This is obviously a problem with Pedal Magic and not Audacity.

Thank you for all your help.

You may be able to this with a short Macro and associating a shortcut to the Macro - see:
https://alphamanual.audacityteam.org/man/Macros

  1. Add Play/Stop and Set Cursor as the first command in the Macro

  2. add as the second command Cursor Short Jump Left
    the default jump is one second
    but the Manual tells us:
    Cursor Short Jump Left
    When not playing audio, moves the editing cursor one second left by default. When playing audio, moves the playback cursor one second left by default. The default value can be changed by adjusting the “Short Period” under “Seek Time when playing” in Playback Preferences.

Or you could justy add the default command 3 times.

  1. Assign a shortcut to the Macro - see:
    https://alphamanual.audacityteam.org/man/Keyboard_Preferences

WC

I think that to get all the features you want, you will need a “transcription player” that is designed specifically for that job. Audacity is primarily designed to be an audio recorder and editor, not an audio player, and not a transcription audio player.
Google comes up with some options if you search for “transcription audio player”.

I’m using Express Scribe as my transcription player, and I’m happy with it. I was just looking for something to eliminate background noise in some recordings. Is it possible to use Audacity to eliminate background noise and then save the file with a new name and play it in Express Scribe? That would solve all my problems. Thank you.

You can “reduce” background noise with Audacity, provided that the background noise is not extreme.
See these pages:
https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/noise_reduction.html
https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/alternative_noise_reduction_techniques.html
There isn’t any software that can eliminate severe background noise.

Thank you. I will do this as soon as I have time.

I finally figured out how to do noise reduction, save the file with a different name, and play it in Express Scribe. Thanks again for all your help and patience.

Thank you for your suggestion. I will do this when I have time.

Thank you. I appreciate your help. I will not need to do this because all I need to do is use Audacity to reduce the background noise, then exit out of Audacity and play my file in Express Scribe.