I don’t see a feature for this. I’ve noticed sometimes Audacity crashes during long recordings, and without manual intervention there doesn’t seem to be a way to catalog entire practice/jam sessions. What I’m thinking would be useful is a version of record that would allow you to create a folder for the session, and then let audacity auto-save what has happened so far while still recording. If it time stamped the save files it would be a great way to record jams so you don’t have to stop and record or write down every new idea you have.
Audacity Beta already has autosave of a project in the event of a crash (except for when you record to RAM instead of disk). The autosave is essentially the same as an Audacity .aup project file (one .aup file, not several).
So probably what you are asking for is some automatic export of a recording to a time stamped file? I’m not sure it makes a lot of sense except for scheduled recordings when you may be away from the computer. If you are recording your session you can always CTRL + B at any time to label a segment. When recording is over, File > Export Multiple to export a file for each segment. There is some automation in that the file will be named with the label name or according to a numerical sequence. There is no way in export multiple or normal export though to automatically name a file with a date or time stamp. Some people would like that.
What would you like to vote for in the light of the above?
Gale
Being able to stamp it would be nice, but if it broke itself down into manageable bits it might be useful. I guess if it’s already auto saving that takes care of some of the issue. The next step might be an option to save only a highlighted selection, so, for instance, when you are going back through a session recording and you find the part you are looking for you could quickly make a smaller file to email to people, without having to open up a new instance of Audacity to cut and paste to.
So if given a choice between exporting to a time stamped file, or maybe just having a time stamp button that shows not just how far you are into a track but what time it was recorded, the a time stamp button that just added the real time would be just as useful, especially if there was a quick way to save just a highlighted section.
Thanks for reading my post.
Select the portion and choose File > Export Selection, then choose the format. WAV, MP3, AIF, whatever.
– Bill
There are two ways to do it that would be widely useful (1) have a “timestamp” control like you suggest to add a string for system time in the file name; (2) if you enable a preference to do so, the timestamp is automatically included in the file name. Either (1) or (2) needs thinking about with Export Multiple, where there are already radio button choices to name files according to a numerical sequence.
Of course people who always want to use a time stamp will want a preference. No-one has asked for a control before, but even a preference would probably set a radio button in Export Multiple, so there might be a case for a control in normal export as well even if there was a preference. Would you vote for (1) or (2)?
Gale
1 I think.
Thanks, added to Wiki Feature Requests.
Gale