Split, Copy, Paste, Sync — Help

JustinDSire · April 30, 2014, 9:19am

Windows 7, Audacity 2.03

My apologies if this has been answered, I can not for the life of me figure out how to perform the following task.

I’ve recorded a piece with multiple tracks. While tinkering, I realized a section from the first part of the piece would fit really nice toward the end. My question is how in the world do I shift the latter part of the song down (all of the tracks) copy a portion of the earlier song (all of the tracks) and paste them in before the part I moved down the timeline?

I’ve tried time shifting but was unsuccessful, and besides, I have yet to figure out how to copy and paste multiple tracks while keeping them synced.

I greatly appreciate any information regarding this maneuver. Thank you.

steve · April 30, 2014, 1:13pm

You seem to be asking about a few different operations, so I’ll describe a few things that can be done. Hopefully these will cover your question.

To move multiple tracks together:

Select all of the tracks that you want to move. (See here for how to select multiple tracks: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/audacity_selection.html)
If you want to select All tracks, there is a keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+A
Select the Time Shift tool.
Drag the tracks left or right to where you want them.

To collapse a track so that it takes up less screen space:
To collapse one track, click on the little black triangle at the bottom of the track information panel.
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/audio_tracks.html#collapse

To expand a collapsed track:
To expand one track, click on the little black triangle at the bottom of the track information panel.

To fit more tracks on the screen:
View > Collapse all tracks (Ctrl+Shift+C)

To expand all collapsed tracks:
View > Expand all tracks (Ctrl+Shift+X)

To duplicate a section of a track:
Edit > Duplicate (Ctrl+D)
This creates a duplicate copy of the selected audio.

To remove a section of audio without moving audio that is after the selection:
Edit > Remove Audio or Labels > Split Cut (Ctrl+Alt+X)

Note that the difference between “Cut” and “Delete” is that “Cut” also places a copy onto the clipboard so that it can be pasted. The clipboard contains a copy of the last selection that was copied or cut.

To paste from the clipboard into multiple tracks:

Select the tracks where you want to paste.
Edit > Paste (Ctrl+V)

To create a new track (below the other tracks):
Tracks menu > Add New > Audio Track (Ctrl+Shift+N
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/tracks_menu.html