How to set track start and end point? And export tracks into files?
Dragging with mouse click and hold for a 45 minutes long track when zoomed in takes a lot of time.
In Audacity manual I couldn’t find any instruction nor keyboard shortcut.
I feel embarrassed because I have spent already 2 hours without success trying to solve this.
Purpose is to split 135 minutes Audacity recorded cassette 2 sided project into 2 tracks and import to mp3.
In project start, middle and end are unnecessary parts.
Is it possible to create 2 tracks without removing unnecessary parts?
Or do 2 tracks must be exported separately?
Thanks.
You may just have to listen… I assume you know about where you want to split it. With music files (like digitized vinyl) I usually zoom-in to where I can see about 5 or 10 minutes of audio at a time. If there is silence between songs I can see it, and I can zoom-in more to make a more-precise edit.
Or if there are gaps/silence there is also Analyze → Silence Finder.
Is it possible to create 2 tracks without removing unnecessary parts?
Or do 2 tracks must be exported separately?
Usually I select/highlight the part I want separate and then File → Export → Export Selected Audio. You can zoom-in on each the beginning & end separately and drag the start or end of the selection. Sometimes I export a little extra, then re-import and trim. I’ll do that for as many separate files I want to make. (It’s also possible to use labels and then Export Multiple.)
The question is I haven’t found answer is which tool to use to permanently mark start and end points of multiple selections.
Zooming in and out is clear but I can’t store more then 1 marker.
I’m attempting to work with project file, should I export whole project into mp3, close project and then re open as mp3?
Purpose is to create 2 selections (2 Tracks). Omitting part in the beginning, middle and end. 2. Export these 2 selections as 2 mp3 files.
A) Is there such function (keyboard key) to state - start of 1st track end of 1st track, start of 2nd track end of 2nd track etc?
B) Alternatively to split project into 5 tracks and export as separate 5 mp3 tracks? ( Later manually deleting unnecessary parts: start, middle and end)
C) Closest function I have found so far is Select menu “store cursor position” and select “cursor to stored cursor position” which requires all tracks exported one by one and also mouse navigation to submenu, since there doesn’t seem to be a keyboard shortcut. But now solution how to export this selected area only as different mp3 file.
D) With Ctrl+B how to turn labels into track (s) as now I can export only full length project file to mp3? When I use split clip and create several clips and select export multiple, I still receive single mp3 file.
No. Each time you export to MP3 you damage the audio. If you do this once, it is barely noticeable. But if do this two or more time, additional damage is done each time.
Lossless mp3 cut and trim is possible without re-encoding when Audacity may not support it.
When I select 3 audio parts and use “export selected audio” only 1st part of 3 selected parts is exported.
Some partial success with labels and selecting audio …
When in zoomed out 10 minutes view start label selections turns yellow end label doesn’t give any notification until zoomed in.
When zoomed in it takes a lot of mouse time to wait until track scrolls into other end.
It feels like not by design and that I have missed something.
So I’m not having any difficulty with this on 3.1.3 and on Windows 10. But if you are not getting the yellow guide lines, you could try making a very rough selection, zooming in and adjusting with the horizontal scroll bars, then grabbing and adjusting the selection start and end points.
I found a temporary workaround creating 2 custom keyboard shortcuts:
Store cursor position
Cursor to selected cursor position
Now I can export single selection of one side of full length audio cassette.
When I have also Windows 10 computer, I prefer so far Windows 7 because so far there is less problems.
If something doesn’t work in my GUI, I believe that it’s because I haven’t realized all functions properly.
