Is there a way to ‘audition’ a sound whilst browsing files in Audacity?
I used to have Sound Forge (very old version, have lost the install CD) and, with that open, you could browse and play sound files (with ONE click or even using keyboard) to select the one you wanted, and THEN open and edit. Very very handy for finding the file you wanted to work on when working through a bunch of new samples, recorded audio loops, drum hits etc.
I’ve searched the manual, preferences, and also the forum but searches with ‘audition’ all bring up the app. I may be asking the question in the wrong way.
Does Audacity have a ‘Play without Opening’ function?
Macs have a terrific Preview function that’s quick and relatively compact and doesn’t try to open a massive app. After I find what I’m after, then File > Open With > Audacity.
Audacity uses “wxFileDialog” as the base for the file dialog window.
wxFileDialog has an option “wxFD_PREVIEW”, which show a preview of the selected files. I don’t know if this includes previewing audio files, or only a visual preview (I suspect the latter). In either case, the documentation says: “currently only supported by wxGTK” (Linux).
In short, this would be a nice feature, but it is not currently supported by wxWidgets, which is the GUI toolkit that Audacity uses for cross-platform support.