Razor or Cut Tool??

[oranur]

Using build 2.0.3 on Windows 8

Downloaded Audacity and have been going absolutely nuts just trying to do something pretty basic:

Cut a track at a certain, single point, dividing the single track into two, new segments. I understand this can be done, in some sense, by Selecting a section of the track in Audacity and using the Time Shift tool to move it around on that same track, but this not necessarily what I’m trying to do.

I want to cut small sections out of the original, single track and move them down into other tracks, as new ones. I need to do this several times and crossfade them all together.

SO, do I seriously have to select a section, isolate it, export it and then bring it back in???

Why is there not a razor tool or something?

Any help on this would be much appreciated. Thanks.

[Trebor]

@oranur

I want to cut small sections out of the original, single track and move them down into other tracks, as new ones. I need to do this several times and crossfade them all together.

Select the section , then press “Ctrl”+“D” to create a duplicate of the selection which will appear below on a new track. Then you could use Audacity’s envelope tool to do the fading in and out , or use crossfade.

Envelope tool in action …

[oranur]

I suppose that’s about as close as it gets to what I’m hoping to do. And with a free program, I’ve got no complaints! Thanks for your help!

[waxcylinder]

There is a Cut Tool, in the Edit Toolbar- see the Manual: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/edit_toolbar.html#cut

WC

[Robert_J_H]

@oranur

I suppose that’s about as close as it gets to what I’m hoping to do. And with a free program, I’ve got no complaints! Thanks for your help!

It depends on what you’re trying to do.
Firstly, you can use ctrl-alt-I to move the selected portion to a new track without duplicate it (produces a gap in the original).
Then, there are all the copy, cut and paste shortcuts you can use just like in a word processor.

[Trebor]

@Robert J. H.

… you can use ctrl-alt-I to move the selected portion to a new track without duplicate it (produces a gap in the original).

No opportunity for “crossfade” with that option as there is no overlap between the duplicated bit and where it came from. [“crossfade” was specified in the brief in the first post].

[steve]

@oranur

I want to cut small sections out of the original, single track and move them down into other tracks, as new ones. I need to do this several times and crossfade them all together.

SO, do I seriously have to select a section, isolate it, export it and then bring it back in???

Why is there not a razor tool or something?

No you don’t need to export it and then bring it back in.

There are several ways of accomplishing the task, and many tools available. You may find this tutorial useful: Audacity Manual

No there is no “razor” tool, but there are:
scissors: Audacity Manual
All the usual cut/copy/paste functions: Audacity Manual
A load of other edit commands: Audacity Manual

The way that I would approach this task is to add two new audio tracks (Tracks menu). If the original track is mono, then add two mono tracks, or if stereo add two new stereo tracks.

Then I would copy and paste each section that I want to use into one or other of the new tracks, alternating like this:

Each copied selection is a little longer than I want, so as to allow for crossfading.

Then, using the Time Shift tool, I would slide each section into position, and delete the original track:

Zooming in on where the sections meet, I would slide the audio clip on the right a little to the left to create an overlap:

and then apply fades to create the crossfade:

Then Export my finished masterpiece: Audacity Manual