Track Synch vs old double arrow tool

Programming and Development
1

I’m mostly using Audacity to edit multi-track files that come in from zoom sessions. I would like to keep the tracks aligned and the track-lock seems perfect but it forecloses editing of individual tracks. I’m curious about this design choice. In the older Audacity if the user just stayed away from the double arrow tool, they could be reasonably assured that tracks would stay aligned. I would like to keep tracks locked in time but allow every other form of individual editing. I find it is relatively easy for me to nudge a track out of alignment in the selection and editing process - so I could just be a klutz but I’m 70 and also a new user of Audacity.

Is it possible to lock tracks in time but allow all other forms of individual track editing?
Is there a work around?

It would seem to me that both track lock modes would be useful in some circumstances. In my younger days I might have jumped in and looked at the code but I think this is behind me now.

Thanks in advance for any tips ideas. If there turns out not to be an easy way to do this maybe I’ll put in a feature request.

2

I presume you are wanting to remove some audio. Here are some tricks I’ve learned.

If there are only two tracks that you have to keep aligned, you can convert them from two mono tracks to a stereo paired track, do the edits, then separate them when you are done.

If there are more than two tracks, sync lock them, and instead of deleting sections, select them and generate silence in their place. Before finishing, run the Truncate Silence effect to remove audio that is silent on all mixed tracks.

3

Thanks for the workarounds Wrecks0. I don’t think the second method will work with Synch Lock as I need to edit individual tracks and I can’t seem to select individual tracks with Synch Lock on. The feature doesn’t seem that useful - I personally believe the option to JUST synch the tracks together and allow individual selection of tracks etc would be more useful as a default.