Audacity Forum

me again, I try to clarify my problem:

1) I set the curser at the position where I want to begin my selection and press Shift+A
2) then i keep playing the interview and press stop with p in oder not to loose Shift+A
3) Now I have to keep p in order not to loose the rough (!) point where I want to end the selection. And I immediately need to press ] to set the end of the selection.
4) Is it possible to keep Shift+A and play around to find the end of the selection - without loosing the Shift+A position? Is there a "partner" for Shift+A to markt the end of the selection?

I realize I have a problem expressing myself clearly.
i hope someone understands my problem.

Marla

1) Use "Pause" ("P" key)
2) Select the region that you want to mark and press Ctrl+B
3) "[" and "]" just set the start and end of the "selection" (the highlighted region of the track). They do not set "markers" (also called "labels").
4) Press Stop. (spacebar)
5) Place the mouse pointer on the track before or after the selection (do NOT click), and press "B". (this also works inside the selection - The B key will make Audacity play the region between the mouse pointer and the closest edge of the selected region.

6) Press the "C" key to play from just before the selection to just after the selection (missing out the selected region) - this is a convenient way to test the effect of cutting out a section.

1) Also you can press SHIFT + A to stop playback and leave the cursor at the stopped position.

3) Use [ and ] to set the selection while playing. Then after you stop press CTRL + B to put a label over that selection.

-- Bill

Traditionally, Audacity didn't support "Edit Markers," the subject of the original question. Audacity "Labels" only make it so you can manually select a portion of music later with the mouse by being sticky or magnetic. Did that change?
Koz

What's the difference between an Audacity label and an "edit marker"?

Dave

Unless they've changed, Audacity Labels are very light-weight compared to Edit Markers.

If you video edit, you can pick an In Point on the timeline and press "I," pick an Out Point and press "O" and then delete, enhance, or other wise manipulate the area between the two markers -- the selected area. You can be at any zoom value including frame by frame to select the markers and take the action or effect.

-- Audacity labels are placed at the first note of songs to allow File > Export Multiple to create accurate, convenient individual sound files from a long timeline. Like from a vinyl record...

-- Audacity Labels are magnetic or sticky and they attract the mouse cursor allowing you to select a portion of the timeline when you can't zoom in to see where you actually are. For example, selecting a three minute portion from an hour long show. Or much more of a problem, note accurately selecting fifteen minutes out of an hour show.

Unless it changed, that's it. You don't automatically "select" the area between the labels. You can use labels to assign written words to portions of the performance.

I'm hoping I'm missing something. This has been a serious shortcoming in the Audacity editing toolset.

Koz

You can alos lay down a marker while playing (or recording) at the current position - just type CTRL+M

The marker is actually just a point label - so you can type text into it to identify it (though you would probably have to be zoomed out to do this, otherwise your current section will quickly be off the window).

WC

kozikowski wrote:Unless it changed, that's it. You don't automatically "select" the area between the labels. You can use labels to assign written words to portions of the performance.

But if you have used range labels rather than simple point labels - then you can select the labelled region with a single click in the label's text box.

WC

Here's another trick using labels.

While playing or recording:
1) Press [ to mark the in point
2) Press ] to mark the out point - this creates a selection in the track
3) Now press CTRL + B (yes, while playing or recording!) - a range label is created spanning the selection
4) Type a name for the label if you have time, or just press ENTER and you're ready to go back to step 1

Then, as waxcylinder points out, you have range labels and you can just click on the label to select the audio spanned by the label.

-- Bill