Listening audio to and fro on Audacity

This question has probably been made, but I’m not sure how to look for it.

I wonder if there’s a way to play an audio part in Audacity to and fro, front and back, as if it was a tape recorder. Listening to the sound in both ways.

That is the best way to find specific sounds or parts on an audio track.

Let’s hope I’m making myself clear.

Right now I’m cleaning clicks and pops, and sometimes it’s hard to visualize the click, but if I can listen to it then I can find it. Going front and back is the best way to get there.

Thanks!

I think you’re asking for “scrubbing”: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/scrubbing_and_seeking.html

OK, that seems to be it. Thanks.

But I get noises that are not from the audio track.

Why is that and how do I control it?

What kind of noises? A click when playback starts or reverses direction? Or is the sound generally “choppy”?

You could try the latest 2.1.3-alpha development build from the top of gaclrecords.org.uk. Normally those builds might be unstable but as we are close to a new release, the topmost build should be quite stable. The scrubbing “engine” has been improved and should produce smoother playback in the latest builds.

You can also use Spectrogram View to visualize clicks better, and Spectral selection to apply filtering to a selected frequencies in the spectrum.


Gale