Macro - edit file adding silences of the same length as the sound that came before it

[robinlew]

Hi
I am new to Audacity macro writing, so I am looking for some guidance please to get me started. At the moment all I want to do is get some editing of sound files done. These are language learning sound files - MP3. At the moment the silences between phrases are not long - so I wish to change (mostly lengthen) them to the same length as the phrase that came before. Thus anyone listening to the sounds has time to repeat the phrase, before the next phrase. Any help or guidance would be very much appreciated.

[Trebor]

There’s already an Audacity plugin for that: “extend silences”.

Extend Silences

Topic split from https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/modified-silence-marker-to-insert-more-silence/29449/1 This plug-in was originally developed in response to a request for a way to “stretch” the pauses in a language tutorial recording so that the user has more time to repeat each phrase. The plug-in is not restricted to speech recordings - it may be used in any type of recording where there is a need to extend the silences within the recording. The plug-in code has copious in-line comments tha…

[robinlew]

gREAT. tHANKS.
hOW DO i FIND THAT AND HOW DO i RUN IT?

[Trebor]

Download the “ExtendSilence.NY” file attached to the end of that post.
Then install it via Nyquist plugin Installer tool … Nyquist Plugin Installer - Audacity Manual
Then restart Audacity, the “Extend Silences” plugin then appears in the “n/a” folder …

[robinlew]

Thank you so much. I had found the ny file and managed to run it once from the nyquist prompt, but this clarifies it and makes it workable.

I find I need to run truncate silence first, with 0.1 - the minimum - set for length of silence to look for. This is because extend Silences adds silence to what is already there. I want to replace the silence with the new one.
Then I run Extend Silences with the appropriate settings.
Thanks so much for your help.
So, the next question is… I presumably can do all this in a macro, i.e. calling these functions and passing the parameters, as well as highlighting the whole sound file to be operated on.
I have something like 150 mp3 files to work through.
Ideally, if it is possible, to run such a macro in batch, and just change all the sound files in one fell swoop.
But to load up each file in turn and run the macro wouldn’t be the end of the world.

[robinlew]

OK, so creating a macro is simple. Done that.
Can I ‘export audio’ and overwrite a file through a macro? (the macro executes export audio, but the file is not saved, as far as I can see. Not where it is supposed to be saved anyway.)
And then ‘close project’ without saving the project?

[robinlew]

I always thought audacity was good, but this capability, which I never knew about before, makes it yet another open source project that is really so very good.