Zoom Indicator and Saved Spot

Special Interest Groups Audio Processing
1

Feature request in regards to zoom.

  1. It would be nice to see some sort of gauge that would display the current zoom state.
  2. It would be great if you could save and then either hotkey or button press a specific zoom setting.
    a. I always zoom in to the time showing in increments of 10 clicks per second (4:01.1 - 4:01.5 - 4:02.0) then I zoom out to “normal”
    b. It would be nice to always zoom in and out to those positions without double checking the time each time


    Thanks,

WeirDave

2

Doesn’t the “Timeline” do that? (just above the track window).

There is a feature in the Edit menu: Region Save / Region Restore. Audacity Manual
This allows you to temporarily “save” the positions of a selected region.
After restoring the region you can use the “Zoom Selection” button to make the selected region fit in the track window. Audacity Manual
You can also mark multiple regions using labels: Audacity Manual

One of the easy ways to zoom in to a specific range is to select the range that you want to see, then click one the “Zoom Selection” button (shortcut Ctrl+E)
See here for different ways of “Selecting” Audacity Manual

3

okay let me do a better job of explaining myself. When you record audio in my example I’m recording off of the turntable the track itself is assumed in where the timeline shows whole numbers and the halfway hashmarks in between those whole numbers so (11.0 - 12.0 - 13.0). After making the recording and doing some other processing stuff I then get to the point where I’m going to divide the track up. In my case I zoom out to see as much of the entire track as possible I then eyeball my cursor on the beginning of the track. I then hit control am to start my labels I drag that label over to where it looks like the visible break is in between the tracks and I repeat that process until all the tracks are labeled then I do control one and zoom in so that I can see the timeline as (5.0 - - - - 5.5 - - - - 6.0 - - - - 6.5 - - - - 7.0). I would like to be able to save those to zoom “locations” or push some sort of hot button to be able to toggle between the two. I hope this makes more sense.

Thank you for your quick reply,

WeirDave

4

Not exactly what you are asking for, but this is how I do similar tasks.

  1. Ctrl+F (Zoom to fit the entire recording)
  2. Eyeball the approximate position for the next label and click on the track at that point.
  3. Ctrl+Mouse Wheel to zoom in on the place that I clicked. This can take a little practice but is extremely fast when you get the hang of it.
  4. Click on the exact point where I want the label.
  5. Ctrl+B to create the label.

Repeat steps 1 to 5 as required.

Does that help?

5

The Ctrl+f and the CTRL+Mouse Wheel functions help A LOT!!! The Ctrl + mouse doesn’t really work for the start of the track but really helps in between tracks! Over Much faster. Thank you!

6

For the start of the track, use Ctrl+Mouse Wheel to zoom in a bit anywhere on the track, then press the Home button to move to the start of the track.

7

Exactly what I did! Thanks for the quick reply. I appreciate that. :slight_smile:

WeirDave