Why does audacity stop recording at the end of the previously recorded track?

Audacity Help Forum Windows
1

2.3.3, win10

I must have accidentally clicked something because it wasn’t doing that before - the new recording stops at the end of the recording above it.

2

Probably because the recording above it was “selected”.
Most actions occur withing the current selection, if a selection is present.
If you want the recording to continue indefinitely, click the “rewind” button before you start recording the second track. That will place the cursor at the start of the track, so the recording will start from the start of the track, and will continue until you press the stop button (or press “spacebar”).

3

Okay cool thanks for the tip. Seemed like before I could start the next album side on the following line and even if I selected the recording right above it the new recording would start at the tidy beginning like the first recording and then continue until I pressed stop. Not very smart about tech stuff but will just stop selecting the previous recording prior to the next recording. Cheers

4

If you know the duration of the second side before you start recording, you can make a selection of the right length (plus a bit extra for safety), and the recording will stop automatically (very handy for those times when you get a long phone call just before the recording is due to end :wink:)

5

“If you know the duration of the second side before you start recording, you can make a selection of the right length (plus a bit extra for safety)”…

How do I do that?

6

You probably shouldn’t. It works in some versions of Audacity but not others. I don’t think it’s ever been an official “feature”, though it’s been useful to me in versions where it has worked.

The more reliable way to set a timed recording is to use the “Timer Record” feature: Timer Record - Audacity Manual

7

If you have an existing track of the right length (or longer) you can:
a) select the required time period in the existing track
b) use Shift+Record to record on a new track
This will record on the new for just the length of the selection.

This is an officially supported Audacity feature - it didn’t use to work properly but we fixed that bug you may recall Steve - in fact its the basis of your mini-tutorial on punch-in repair:
https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/tutorial_punch_in_repair_of_recordings.html

Peter.

8

Thanks for mentioning that waxcylinder. I thought we had agreed on this behaviour, but it is broken again in the current development code (tested on Linux). Does it still work on Windows?

9

Yes, just tested on W10 with latest 2.4.0 alpha Audacity 2.4.0 windows-2019_2803bc3 - and yes it works on Windows.

And tested on macOS 10.15.2 - works fine still there too.

You’ll need to log this as a Linux P1 regression, Steve.

Peter.

10

I’ve re-tested. I’m not sure if something has changed, or whether it was user error (on my part), but it’s working correctly for me now. I’m guessing it was user error.