basic editing of MP3 doesn't work

[joethall]

I am totally new to Audacity but I have used other audio and video editing programs. I can open the MP3 file and it will play from Audactiy. However, I can't seem to move the cursor (the green triangle) and if I select (with the I-beam) a select and then click on CUT nothing happens. So, I guess I need some basic help with editing. The system is Vista.

[steve]

I am totally new to Audacity...

There are some good tutorials in the Audacity wiki (see "Tutorials" link at top of page).

[kozikowski]

You know it's an MP3 because you have your Windows set to show you File Extensions, right, and you right-clicked on the file and the Properties > Extensions or Properties > Formats confirms that it's an MP3?

A lot of the time you get magic like you have because the file you're playing with is not an MP3 and Windows is determined to keep you from finding out what it is. Did you get the file from Windows Media?

Koz

[joethall]

The file was created from a CD using the "CD to MP3" conversion program and Windows Vista Explorer properties thinks it is a .mp3 file. It is 49,434KB in size.

Which tutorial is recommended. In each that I've tried they have not mentioned the green triangle cursor or how to move it along the track. I found it hard to locate the area I wanted to excise, but when I did and got it selected, I couldn't get CUT to delete it.

joethall

[steve]

Which tutorial is recommended.

All/any of them. Just find one that looks interesting and try working through it - you will learn a lot about using Audacity by working through any of them. The Audacity 1.2 tutorials are probably the easiest to start with: http://audacityteam.org/manual-1.2/tutorials.html

The green triangle is simply the current play position. It should move along the track automatically while Audacity plays. You can select the position for play to begin by clicking on the track.

Import a file into Audacity and press the play button > Audacity will start playing.
Press the "Stop" button and play will stop.
Click somewhere on the track > You will see a vertical line at the position where you clicked.
Press the "Play" button and Audacity will start playing from the position that you selected.

[joethall]

Thanks! I got enough from the previous posting to get done what I needed. Curious question, is there a way to save the position of the cursor an then get back to it easily?

[kozikowski]

<<<save the position of the cursor>>>

Sorta. You can set a label at the cursor position by pressing Control-B. The label becomes sticky or magnetic as you go over it later.

Nobody uses the Play and Stop buttons. Spacebar will start and stop play. If you Drag-Select some of your show and press Control-E, the view will snap zoom into the selection. Control-F will zoom back out to the full show. There are a bunch of those shortcuts in Edit > Preferences > Keyboard.

Koz

[steve]

Curious question, is there a way to save the position of the cursor an then get back to it easily?

In Audacity 1.3 there is an option at the bottom of the Edit menu called "Play region" with which you can lock/unlock the play region to the currently selected region. This is useful if you are doing several little edits in a particular track area. You can select the appropriate region and select "Play Area > Lock", then zoom in and do some edits, but when you press play, the full locked play area will play. To then play a different part of the track you would first unlock the play area (Play Area > Unlock).