Editing: how to restore after trimming too tight?

[maartenhagg]

Hi,

I've been working with audacity for some months now - I'm using 1.3.11 beta - and I'm repeatedly facing a problem while editing a complex project. When I trim an audio part it might be not before I've made 100+ edits that I realize that I trimmed it too tight. e.g. an interview with someone; they say something like "I totally disagree with John. I don't share his opinion, at all." Let's say I trimmed only the second part. Then I realize Johns name isn't mentioned there. So I want to retrieve the first sentence. But the only way I seem to be able to do that -without having to undo all the 100+ edits I made since the trimming - is to import the whole source file again, and do the trimming again. Is there a better way to do this in audacity?

I know other audio editing programs have the possibility to 'unroll' the trimmed part to the right or to the left. Is that possible with audacity as well? Or can it be developed?

kind regards, Maarten Hagg

[billw58]

What you're asking for is non-destructive editing. Audacity doesn't do that. There has been some discussion about moving Audacity in that direction, but I have a feeling it will be a long way off.

-- Bill

[steve]

I'm using 1.3.11 beta

That's confusing - you've posted in the 1.2.x (Mac OS X) section of the forum.

1.3.11 has some known bugs that are now fixed - I'd recommend updating to 1.3.12.

When I trim an audio part it might be not before I've made 100+ edits that I realize that I trimmed it too tight.
...
But the only way I seem to be able to do that ... is to import the whole source file again, and do the trimming again. Is there a better way to do this in audacity?

Yes there is, or Yes and No, depending on how you look at it.
I presume that you have back-ups of the raw WAV file.
If you are making a lot of complex edits to a track it is a good idea to Export regular back-ups of the tracks. This not only insures against computer crashes and other such catastrophes, but also offers some insurance against this type of issue.

In the simplest case you can just import the most recent version of the track that does not have the problem.

In a more complex case that might involve going back a long way. In this case it may be better to import the old back-up version, but rather than using all of it, just trim it down to leave the missing bit and use that with your current track.

In multi-track projects, to make a backup of a single track (rather than a mix of all tracks); Select the track then use "Export Selection".

[steve]

What you're asking for is non-destructive editing. Audacity doesn't do that.

Audacity 1.3 does actually have a little bit of non-destructive editing built in.
Edit menu > Preferences > Tracks > Enable Cut Lines"

This allows "Cuts" to be made that can then be undone by clicking on the cut line.
Note that this only works with "Cut" (Ctrl+X) and not with "Delete" or "Split Cut". Also, it only works "within" a track (not at the end of a track), so if you are trimming the end off a recording you would need to first add some silence to the end of the track so that you can then remove the desired section using Cut inside the track.

There are a lot of ways to get messed up using this feature (which is probably why it is off by default), so in most cases I would recommend the method described in my previous post rather than this method.

[maartenhagg]

Thanks guys for your advice. I hope 'they' will add non-destructive editing asap. I really miss it. Who would I have to turn to?

grtz Maarten (& sorry for posting in the wrong category)