Is there a button/shortcut for re-importing a file into Audacity?
This is what I am doing very frequently for the moment: Let’s say I have generated an audio file from another software. I drag the file into the info panel of Audacity to import it. But after working with the track for a while, I see there needs an update in the audio file. So I generate the updated audio file from that other software again. I remove that track in Audacity and then I re-drag that updated file back to Audacity.
Imagine in one project, I have to do the procedures of “re-generating file > removing track > re-import file” for more than a hundred times. How hideous a task this would be for me, you may think.
I am writing here to see/inquire if there are any buttons/shortcuts in Audacity which will allow me to update the track by reloading its source file (assuming the file location did not change).
It would be even better if certain modification of the track is retained after reloading, for examples, the time shifted of the track, the modification by the envelope tool, etc…
Also, during my re-importings taken in my work, I noticed a bug in Audacity. When I have done certain actions on a track, the actions are affecting my newly imported file too. Let’s say I have muted a track by pressing Shift-U. I remove that track and then re-import a different file but of the same name into Audacity. The newly imported track is now muted! The wave data is shown grey and if I press play, the track is really muted. BUT the mute button on the left side of the track is shown up/unpressed! I have to press Shift-U to mute the track (mute button shown pressed), and then press Shift-U to unmute the track again to undo such action done during import.
No there isn’t, but if you press “Shift + Ctrl + i”, then the file browser for importing should open in the same directory that you imported from most recently.
Thanks! learnt something new, although I don’t think pressing Shift+Ctrl+I and selecting a file is any much quicker than directly dragging a file into Audacity.
Anyway, for my second point:
When I have done certain actions on a track and then delete that track, the actions are affecting the new track imported from file. Let’s say I have muted a track by pressing Shift-U. I remove that track and then re-import a different file into Audacity. The newly imported track is muted by default! The wave data is shown grey. If I press play, the track is really audibly muted. BUT the mute button on the left side of the track is shown up/unpressed! I have to press Shift-U to mute the track (mute button shown pressed), and then press Shift-U again for a second time to unmute the track (to undo such unintended action carried over during import).
Is this a known bug? or just an issue that is not addressed to be dealt with immediately?
This reminded me of a bug we had a while back - it still had a residual issue, but testing that today on the Release Candidate for the upcoming 2.3.2 I can no longer get the residual behavior - so I closed the bug as RESOLVED.
See: https://bugzilla.audacityteam.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1799
What vcewrsion of Audacity are you usiong (all three numbers please) ?
If I import a new audio track into a track that contains a soloed track, then the imported track is muted, but the mute button is not down (as shown here):
That is not a bug in itself. On muting the first track, the second track is soled (solo button is down), so it is correct that imported tracks should be automatically muted because when one track is soloed, all the other tracks are muted.
The bug is that the muted, re-imported track does not have it’s mute button depressed.
The bug is logged on the bug tracker.
Audacity 2.3.2 was so close very it’s release date when this bug was discovered, and the release manager did not consider the bug to be severe enough to justify delaying the release. (This bug has existed for many years without anyone noticing it).
Yes, you are right… It probably isn’t really a bug, technically speaking… It is rather a “flaw” in the UX design - allow me to put it that way.
I remember in older version of Audacity 2.X… that’s not how the “Solo” works. I am pretty sure because I took advantage of that old behaviour very often in my older projects long time ago.
In the old version, “muting all tracks except one” did not mean solo-ing that track… “muting all tracks except one” and “solo-ing one track” defintely mean different things/reasons in terms of user experiences of sound engineers. It is sad to see now they just mean the same thing/behaviour… I think I like it the old way… really.
For muting/unmuting tracks on a “very” frequent basis in sound editing projects, there are actually numerous advantages to separate the two behaviours (“muting all tracks except one” VS “solo-ing one track”)… For myself, muting is mostly used for overall project set-ups, but “solo-ing” is really for temporary use - just to re-examine that one track in a non-disturbed manner.
For a simple example, let’s just say I have three tracks for a project - A, B and C. Ultimately, I want only track A and B for outputing/exporting use. Track C is for arbitrary uses, e.g. synchronising other tracks, pitch references, etc. Track C is there for reasons but I would mute it most of the time and I will not output/export any part of track C into the final produced material. Now if I want to examine track A particularly, I may want to “solo” track A temporarily, and after that, I want to un-solo track A and I want the project to go back to how it was before - the problem is… the overall mute-setting of the project is not back to how it was earlier - Track C is now unmuted - after solo-ing and un-solo-ing of Track A!
It may not seems too much of a problem with just three tracks. Imagine in a real-life project, where I have tens of tracks like Track B and C… All I want is to solo track A for a few second just to re-examine something clearer, but that will mean losing the initial mute settings for all track B and C alike.
Personally, I don’t much like the default solo/mute behaviour either, but I think it’s better than what we had before because we see far less “help me” posts about it now than we used to.
I think I like it the old way… really.