Every time I press record 8 new tracks appear at the bottom of the previous 8 and Audacity records on the new 8 instead of the original 8. How can I stop these tracks from adding themselves?
What are you recording from? What are you trying to do?
You have not told us your Audacity version (see the pink panel at the top of the page) or what you are recording, but if you do have an 8-channel recording device that works in Audacity, try Append Record (SHIFT + R, or SHIFT-click on the Record button).
Append Record appends to the selected tracks, or to all tracks if no tracks are selected.
Gale
Sorry! I am using version 2.1.2, the latest, and windows 10.
I have uninstalled, tried to delete any files I could find, then re-booted and reinstalled Audacity.
I left everything at default. I skipped the 8 tracks and went total, new install, default.
I open Audacity
There is a blank page with controls on top. The blank is where the tracks are added.
I add a stereo track.
The tracks appear in the dark grey window, with the left side of the tracks (where Mute and Solo are) is a medium grey. Is it supposed to be a medium grey? Maybe right here is where I get lost and am missing a step? I am just guessing at this point.
I hit record, wait a second, then hit sop.
I hit rewind.
I make sure I have OVERDUB checked. I do.
I press record.
It does not record on the track I added.
It spawns another stereo set and begins recording on the new tracks.
If I repeat this rewind, record, it spawns new tracks every time.
The length of the new tracks keeps stretching. If I did this 5 times, the track length wold look like stairs, even though it is just 1 second of recording.
Overdub? Nope. All I am doing is trying to do the same overdub I did months back , when I used this program successfully.
Now, even a fresh download and new install, left on defaults seems to make this “multiplying tracks” thing happen.
Append?
Append does not rewind to the beginning, so how can I overdub? The whole point is to add to the whole 1 track at a time, so, I need to get to the beginning, hit record and overdub a vocal over the guitar. Basic
Yet.
I end up with multiple tracks.
When I had 8 tracks? Record would spawn 8 new tracks and record on them! So I did the re-install and default test.
If there is a step or 2 I am missing, please don’t ask me “Did you do …this?” Just lay out the steps to make it work, 1 by 1.
This is very frustrating and out of the blue.
Also, the spawned tracks are not this darkish grey, they are light grey on the left side, where the solo button is…
If I do not “add tracks” at the beginning, it still spawns new tracks every time I hit record, all in this lightish grey.
From what you have written, record your first track into the empty project, Stop, then if necessary press Skip to Start |<< to move the cursor to the start of the project, then click Record. Omit the step to open a new, empty track before recording, if that is what you are doing.
This will record in a new track, but that is what you want, so the new content is in its own track and can be edited separately from the previous track.
If you really want to open a new empty track before recording, click above Mute / Solo in that new empty track to select only that track (which makes it dark grey), then hold SHIFT and click on the Record button to record into that empty track.
Gale
I do not open new tracks every time. If I did, I would say I did.
What is happening makes no sense to you? It makes no sense to me.
Pressing record automatically adds tracks every time you press record! Plain and simple.
Should this happen?
Probably not.
I am not adding tracks!~!!! Your program is adding tracks. Like “record " also means"Duplicate tracks and record on the new duplicated tracks while ignoring the old tracks”
when I press record tracks automatically add themselves_
Of course I hit skip to the beginning of the track!
That’s what overdubbing is. Skipping to the beginning and recording again on on of the empty tracks.
Send me a “Help someone with windows” request and you can watch me on my computer in real time.
I will say it one more time.
The record button adds tracks every time you press it!
I start in stereo? It adds a stereo track.
I start with 6 tracks?
Hit record…BANG! Now it’s 12 tracks.
Why?
I start with 40 tracks - bang it’s 80 tracks just by hitting the record button.
We know that. What in plain English do you want to do? Do you want to record over the start of an existing audio track, replacing that content? That is not overdubbing, that is punch-in recording. Audacity cannot do that yet without creating a new track - however this is a flexible and accurate method and you can mix back to one track afterwards.
Audacity supplied by us could not even do that unless you actually had a multi-channel recording device that is capable of recording six channels. And almost no known device can record 40 channels as you claim. If you do have a multi-channel recording device, and you only want to record one or two channels, set Device Toolbar to 1 (Mono) or 2 (Stereo) recording channels (the third box).
Please check if you downloaded Audacity from us http://audacityteam.org/download/windows/.
Gale
Yes, pressing record starts a new track. That’s supposed to happen.
Pressing record does not start 8 new tracks unless you are recording 8 tracks at a time. If you are recording “1 channel (mono)” then a single (one) new mono track is created each time you press the record button. If you are recording “2 channels (stereo)” then a single (one) new stereo track is created each time you press the record button. This is the correct and intended behaviour and is required so that more than one track can be recorded at the press of a button (the “record” button or “R” key).
If you have an audio track in the Audacity project and wish to continue recording on the same track, you need to “append record”. To do that, hold the Shift key down while you click the record button, or, hold the shift key down and press the “R” key on your keyboard.
See here in the manual for more details: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/transport_toolbar.html#record
How about this. is there ever a condition where, when you push the record button it is supposed to automatically add the same number of tracks you started with?
Say I start with 1 stereo track if Left and Right.
What conditions does your program add another SET of L and R stereo tracks every time you push the record button?
How about that? Is there?
if there isn’t your program is doing something funny.
If there is, explain it to me.
No, but Ctrl+D will duplicate the selected audio, and if no audio is selected then by default Audacity assumes that you want to select everything, so Ctrl+D with all tracks selected or Ctrl+D with nothing selected will duplicate all tracks.
If you’re using custom keyboard shortcuts in Audacity then perhaps you’ve messed something up in there, in which case you could reset the keyboard preferences. See: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/keyboard_preferences.html
If you start with one stereo track and Audacity is set to record “2 channels (stereo)” in the device toolbar then clicking the record button will add one stereo track (so you would then have 2 stereo tracks in total). If you then stop the recording and click the record button again then Audacity will create another stereo track (so you would then have 3 stereo tracks in total).
Did you download Audacity via the Audacity website http://audacityteam.org/download/
If not, then it is possible that you have a version that has been tampered with in some way, in which case you should uninstall it, scan your computer thoroughly for malware, then download and install the official version.
You would save everyone’s time if you explained what you are trying to do.
Also if you see blue text, that is a link. Click the link to learn more.
Gale
Yes, there is. It’s default behaviour if you have an interface that does 8 channels and your setup is with 8 channels in the recording channels tab. If Audacity “sees” an interface with 8 channels, by default it will record 8 channels. Some 8 channel interfaces and some DAW’s can not be set to 1 channel, 3 or 5 channels, only to 2, 4 or 6 channels, others can.
But you still haven’t told us what interface you are recording from.
The default behaviour is like that in most DAW’s, unless you change it.