Very simple help needed with mixing times

I am using windows 7 and the .exe version of Audacity. I would like to create an MP3 file of a song being played a few seconds after the same song starts… so I would have two copies of the same song playing at the same time but at different intervals. Here is a MS Paint artists interpretation of what I would like to accomplish:

I’m a complete noob at this and have tried to follow these instructions:
How do I mix two tracks together?

To mix two files, import both of them into Audacity. They will appear in separate tracks.

When you press the Play button, you’ll hear both tracks play together. Because this adds the sounds together, the end result may become too loud and distorted. To fix this, turn down the -…+ gain sliders on each track until you see no clipping light on the Meter Toolbar. Use the L…R pan sliders to adjust the spatial position of each track in the mix. You can also use View > Mixer Board to display the controls for each track together in a separate window.

When you use File > Export…, the tracks will be automatically mixed to an audio file for use in other applications. If you want to mix tracks together explicitly before export, so that they are replaced with a single mixed track, select the tracks, then Tracks > Mix and Render.

back to top

But I can’t figure out how to “move” one track relative to the other. Any help is appreciated, thank you!

Select the Time Shift Button (sideways black arrows), select the track you want to shift – double click the blue waves. Push sideways.

Koz

Thank you very much Koz! I’m now having trouble getting the two songs to “line up” properly so that the beat matches. Is there any way to get the beats to match easily?

Get the beats matched at the start of the overlap between the two songs.

If you select the song and Edit > Duplicate then you will have a second copy of the song where the beats must match.

If you must have different recordings of the same song and the beats are unmatched at the end of the overlap you can try a very slight Effect > Change Speed adjustment on one of the tracks.


Gale