Audacity Forum

ok, here is what i want to do.

i want to take notes on crap im reading or watching. but i don't want a 3 hour long audio file. i came here thinking that audacity may have some kind of function where i hold down a button thats unassigned in another program, talk, it records, let go or press it again, it stops.

i realy have no idea where else to go to ask this, as most other places i have been have told me to just pay the 100$+ for a real one, and not a computer software solution.

If you are recording in a reasonably quiet room you could use the "Sound Activated Recording" function in Audacity 1.3.12
(see the bottom of this page http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Transport_Menu )

Alternatively, to use "hotkeys" with Audacity, Audacity must have focus, so that would mean bringing it to the front window - you can then use:
R = Record
Shift+R = Append Record (continue recording from the end
Spacebar = Play / Stop
P = Pause/Resume (works with Play and Record).

would sound activated recording work when its not the front thing?

honestly both are ok solutions, ill just use the one that works better.

Sound activated recording works even when in the background on my machine. Try it - it's free.

one last thing,

can i set sencitivity? so things that are quiet dont get recorded?

and also can i just start talking? or do i have to make a noise than wait few seconds?

after tweaking the setting a bit, i managed to get it to not record at all when its silent in my room (as in just the ambient noise and typeing, but if i so much as make a sound, it picks it up and records.

now i have no idea how good this will be long term for me as i tend to have so much shit running that my computer locks up randomly for a second or two, but barring those situations, this is great. lucky me i was looking for this at the right time.