Win7 64 bit
Audacity 2.0.3 installed setup.exe
I want to delete loud music at the end of multiple podcasts. I will greatly appreciate advice as to how to align all tracks to the end of the longest track in order to delete the last 30 seconds of loud music.
Thank you.
I could not figure out where you were going with that.
Select a short track by double clicking inside the blue waves and the Time Shift Tool (sideways black arrows). Push the short track sideways toward the end of the longest track and it should pause when the two ends line up. The end points are slightly sticky.
Repeat for each short track.
Koz
Bulletin! Bulletin!
You should select each short track by clicking just above the MUTE button, not double clicking on the blue waves. The blue wave trick doesn’t work with the Time Shift Tool selected.
Koz
It works perfectly as you have suggested and I very much appreciate your comments.
I am slightly disappointed that there is no way to do this as a batch procedure with multiple tracks loaded but I can do well with what you have showed me.
You mentioned where I’m going with this. The entire Internet (Not to mention television) is overflowing with music that anybody can get at any time and
I’ve never understood why the authors of educational documentary programs feel the overwhelming need to put music (Some of it beginning with an explosion.) before and after the lecture that is louder than the voice component. Does anyone listen to a learned podcast for the music? But hey that’s just me – althoughI doubt I am totally alone.
Thank you very much. I don’t know how to marked this is a closed question.
Use the Time Shift tool to slide each of the shorter tracks so that the end lines up with the longest track.
Sadly the “Tracks menu > Align” commands do not provide an option to align the ends of the tracks.
“Tracks > Align Tracks > End to Cursor/Selection Start” and “Tracks > Align Tracks > End to Selection End” move all tracks together so that the end of the longest track is aligned, not the end of each track.
It would seem to me to be more useful if these two commands aligned the end of each track, so perhaps that could be a feature request.
You could reverse the tracks, align them with zero, delete the 30 seconds, reverse them again and do the alignement with zero a second and last time.
Yes, I thought of that too, but it could be rather slow with long podcast recordings.
Is there an actual use case for the Audacity functions:
“Tracks > Align Tracks > End to Cursor/Selection Start”
“Tracks > Align Tracks > End to Selection End”
It would seem to me that if these aligned the end of each track then that would be a good solution to the original question.
I expect someone will have a use case for the aligned tracks remaining synced so I don’t think you could just exchange functions.
Gale
It’s unfortunate that a useful feature with a clear use case should be blocked by a feature that may be useful but with no clear use case.
Perhaps at some stage we should review the design goals of the Align commands.
Or, you could add the two new functions.
Gale
Yes. Aligning one or more short tracks to fit into a selected gap. Perhaps not a common use, but a valid reason.
In Audacity 2.0.6 alpha, “Tracks > Align Tracks”, the first two options move tracks independently of each other. The other 5 commands (below the divider) move all selected tracks together.
Perhaps the commands that move tracks independently of each other could be a third sub-menu, so that we have:
Align tracks > sub-menu 1 (Move selected tracks together to align with …)
Align tracks > sub-menu 2 (Move selected tracks independently to align with …)
Align tracks > sub-menu 3 (Move selected tracks and the selection together to align with …)
Any ideas for snappy names for the three sub-menus?
You mean, do away with Tracks > Move Selection when Aligning and have e.g. Tracks > Move selected tracks together to align with > Each Other?
I don’t think we want more than one depth of cascade.
Can’t we just add these two new functions to each of the two current menu cascades (in a divider if it helps)?
Gale
No. That is “sub-menu 3”.
Yes, but you mean that you are removing “Move Selection when Aligning” as an item directly under the Tracks Menu, so we have
[…] ?
By “Sub-menu” I tend to think of a cascade.
Gale
I’m using the names “sub-menu 1/2/3” rather than actual names because the actual names are to be decided.
The “cascade” would be the same depth as now.
“Main” menu items being “File, Edit, View, Transport, etc”
“Sub-menus” being one level below:
Example 1:
Tracks > sub-menu 1 > Start to Zero
Example 2:
Tracks > sub-menu 2 > Align End to End
What items are in Tracks > Sub-menu 1 (Move selected tracks together to align with …) ? “End to End”, “Together” and the two new commands?
Gale
Unless we decide that some are not needed (in no particular order):
Sub-menu 1:
Start to Zero
Start to Cursor/Selection Start
Start to Selection End
End to Cursor/Selection Start
End to Selection End
Sub-menu 2:
End to End
Together
Start to Cursor/Selection Start (new)
End to Selection End (new)
any others needed?
Sub-menu 2:
As “Move Selection when Aligning”.
I’m not keen to add commands without there first being a use case. If there is a use case that is not currently covered (as in this topic) then someone is sure to ask eventually.