I haven’t been able to find a way to keep track of an effect I give to an audio track, mainly all my vocal tracks. If I put reverb on something, I don’t see anywhere where the reverb is stored, for me to have an option after the project is saved to come back and edit or delete the reverb if I wish. Is there a way around this?
Thanks!
Audacity is not a “real time DAW”. When an effect is applied to the audio, it processes the audio immediately. While the project is open, you can undo effects, but only in order starting with the last action performed. For example if you:
Record → Normalize → Noise Reduction → Reverb
then you can undo Reverb, then undo Noise Reduction, then undo Normalize, then undo Record.
The “Undo History” may be viewed in “View menu > History” (http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/view_menu.html#history).
The Undo History is NOT saved when you save the project. Once you close Audacity there is no going back - so it is highly recommended to keep backup copies.
If you require the ability to undo/change effects in arbitrary order at any time, then you need to use a “real time DAW” application (such as Logic Pro).
The best workaround - especially in conjunction with reverb - is to duplicate the track and to the reverb with “Wet only” checked.
This allows you to change the balance with the gain sliders or to delete the reverb entirely at a later stage in order to try another one.
What’s more, if you start with a mono track, you can duplicate the track twice (and make those two tracks stereo) in order to have a true stereo reverberation.
A different Pan position is of course also possible for the “Effect only” track.
Robert