marking edit points / scrub function?

[jhecht]

Hi - I'm new to Audacity, but was a recording engineer for about 20 years, so it's not all new to me (grin).

I'm trying to find a way to mark edit points in a file, so I can check the accuracy of an edit point, by starting playback at exactly that point. Other programs allow you to place a non-destructive 'marker' at any given point in the file. Then you line up your playback to the marked point, and see if that's what you want, before making the edit.

Audacity does seem to allow 'labels' to be created, but only 'on the fly' when recording or playing back. And even that, I can't seem to get working - any tips? But what I really want is a way to place a mark/label when the file is NOT playing/recording, if you see what I mean. This would be a VERY useful feature for editing if it does not already exist.

Another really cool tool, would be the ability to 'scrub' the file - to rock the playback back and forth across a given point to find an exact edit in or out point. Think of rocking the reels of an analog tape recorder across the playback head, to find a drum hit, or other identifiable edit point. Is this possible in Audacity?

My heartfelt thanks to the Audacity developers and community - it's an amazing program!

[Transcriber]

I'm new to using Audacity, too, but I can answer one of your questions, and make a stab at the other:

You can use <ctrl>B to make time/edit marks on the label track when tracks are stopped.

Clicking on an edit mark itself will put cursor at that point, and <tab> & <shift><tab> will sort of move to next/previous, IF they happen to be in the display window! You can also use the space-bar to start/stop playing from (and re-start from) the cursor position.

And with regard to "scrubbing", I'm not sure if this would accoumplish what you want, but you can select some portion of a track, then hit the space-bar, and it will just play that selected portion of the track.

HTH,
TSC

[kozikowski]

<<<I'm not sure if this would accoumplish what you want>>>

What he wants is scrubbing and so do I, divorced from any other problem. That and Easy In and Easy Out markers are in my Feature Request further down the forum. This list look familiar? Post a "Hazaa" down there if you agree.

This Feature Request has been moved to the Audacity Wiki: http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... e_Requests - WC

Koz

[Transcriber]

Sorry, I didn't read jhecht's post carefully enough to notice the word playback.

After I searched for "scrub" & read various posts, I finally understand that scrub means, apparently:
"to manually move the cursor while the track is playing".

I guess your "I(n) mark" and "O(ut) mark" request is just a variation on that idea?

TSC

[sfchuck]

As another old "mag tape era" audio engineer, I would also kill for the ability to scrub the sound back and forth to find the exact edit point...as a previous poster said, like rocking the tape back and forth on the playback head.

This is such a natural I'm surprised it's not already included.

[kozikowski]

<<<"to manually move the cursor while the track is playing".>>>

That's not quite it. You sorta have that now. Under certain conditions, you can play the work and poke at the timeline and the playback will pick up at that point. That's not it.

Having the cursor play at any speed in either direction with one key click. No, that's not enough. See, if I can't define it in terms that don't involve things like "Play Head" (whatever that is) the programmers will never hit it.

Yes, I know what a play head is. Jooooooooowit, Jooowit, wit, wit. wit. Right there.

<<<This is such a natural I'm surprised it's not already included.>>>

It's a natural for the old audio editors, the exact people who did not design the software. Every time I ask for this I either get a blank look (why would you want that?) or a very long list of work-arounds which is frequently more difficult than dubbing the work to linear tape, cutting it, and dubbing it back.

Virtually all the video editor's do this, by the way, so it's not unheard of. They have the advantage of a natural time chunk to work with--the picture frame size. If you stop Final Cut in one place on the timeline and don't move the cursor, it will repeat 1/30 of a second of sound forever. Always forward, by the way, so it's not strictly scrubbing either.

And that snaps us right into all the Feature Request postings of needing Audacity to edit video...

By the way, some versions of Audacity do not coordinate the motion of the cursor with the playback, making it even more fun to actually edit.

Koz

[steve]

For Linux there is a program called "Sweep" - they make a big deal out of the fact that Sweep has a "scrub function", and I'm guessing that they are making a big deal out of it because its probably very difficult to implement with digital audio.
http://www.metadecks.org/software/sweep/

Although not the same, I find that CTRL+Mouse Wheel to zoom in and out is very useful when locating play positions. Also in Audacity 1.3.5 the is a feature to "lock" the play region which can be useful for selecting precise regions (the locked play region can be adjusted by dragging the ends with the mouse).

[sfchuck]

Maybe we're not being clear on exactly what we're asking for:

We want the ability to drag the cursor back and forth along the timeline...across a particular point on the waveform...and hear the sound reproduced as a function of the direction and speed of the cursor. This will allow us to zero in on the beginning of a plosive syllable or other distinctive sound as an edit point.

It is precisely analogous to rocking the tape back and forth on the playback head of a recorder. And it very closely approximates the jog wheel in video editing that permits forward and backward frame-by-frame viewing for the purposes of marking an edit point.

[MDOC]

Well, would it help if you apply soap to the scrubbing area?

[waxcylinder]

We want the ability to drag the cursor back and forth along the timeline...across a particular point on the waveform...and hear the sound reproduced as a function of the direction and speed of the cursor. This will allow us to zero in on the beginning of a plosive syllable or other distinctive sound as an edit point.

It is precisely analogous to rocking the tape back and forth on the playback head of a recorder. And it very closely approximates the jog wheel in video editing that permits forward and backward frame-by-frame viewing for the purposes of marking an edit point.

sfchuck,

I have added your explanation quoted above to the FR on scrubbing that I transferred to the Wiki a while ago (I voted for it myself on there). It recently squeaked onto the list of most requested FRs when it accumulated 10 votes - and now yours makes it 11. You can see the FR at: http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... hest-rated

WC