Hi, I’m new at Audacity. I’m using it to edit my own recordings. Whenever I use the Split function (ctrl + I), it doesn’t just make a split, but leaves a big gap. Well, actually, not every time, and I can’t figure out what conditions cause it to leave a gap, sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t. I don’t want it to take any automatic control of how much comes out, just to make a split, and of course, I will be the one to decide how much I’m cutting out. What I do is zoom in and set the cursor at the place I want to split. I don’t highlight a section or anything; it’s just the cursor on the spot I want to split. But when I press “ctrl+I” or split from the edit menu, it leaves this gap (but strangely, only sometimes). What’s the gap for? Should I not worry about it, since the gap is not even .001ms? But why any gap at all? I want the places where I cut and joined to sound seamless, to have control over what comes out, obviously.
Also, suppose I’ve made two split lines and then cut out the section in between because I want what was on the right side of the right split line to move to the left and join up with what was on the left side of the left split line. Well, when I’ve cut the section out, I zoom in and see that it hasn’t moved what was on the right side of the right split line all the way over to what was on the left side of the left split line, but has also left a tiny gap there. When I click on either split line (on the left or right side of the gap), it joins the two waveforms, but I’m not sure if it’s joined them by moving the right waveform over a little more left until it joins to the left waveform, or if it’s doing something else, like extending the left waveform.
Finally, suppose I want to cut out a section of a song, while leaving the rest (everything to the left and right of the cut section) in place. Then I want to replace the cut section with a piece that turns out to be slightly longer than the cut section. How do I move everything to the right of it over out of the way (especially if everything to the right is all pieces that have cuts and are together temporarily, but not “joined” and so they don’t move as one), and then when I paste the new section, bring what is to the right of it over to join?
Sorry if these questions are answered somewhere and I didn’t see, or if this is pretty basic stuff. I’ve been reading the “Navigation Tips” and am not finding the answers.
***NEW PROBLEM (started after posting this question on the forum): Now when I set the cursor at a spot and hit “ctrl I” it doesn’t even make the split (well, gap) at the place where the cursor is, but away to the left in a totally different place! What?! How do you use this?
****Sorry, but there’s one more thing that is just really confusing the hell out of me: At the Navigation Tips wiki, it says:
“Split lines disappear when you click on them to merge clips together, but you can use current Audacity’s Cut Lines feature to place a vertical line at which audio was cut out. Click on the line at any time to restore the cut audio. Cut Lines are enabled on the Tracks tab of Preferences.”
Well, I followed these instructions and enabled Cut Lines so I can keep track of where I’ve cut out audio, but I’m seeing no vertical lines at places where audio was cut out and merged. I’m confused, isn’t the “Enable Cut Lines” feature so that I can see where there was a cut, even after merging? If not, what’s it there for?