Audacity Forum

I accidentally removed one track in an audacity recording. No problem as I had made a backup of the file. I selected the track, copied it, went to the file w/ the missing track, added a new audio track, placed my cursor in it, hit contr+V, and an error message said, "pasting one type of track into another is not allowed." Since they are both audio tracks, I'm baffled. Maybe it has something to do w/ not also adding the requisite data files? But if it did, how would I know which ones they are, easily and quickly?

Is one a stereo track and the other a mono track?

-- Bill

Bill, thank you so much for your quick reply. No, they are both mono, as one was an exact copy of the other. I did go and check, and they are mono.

I had the same problem just recently. I eventually figured out my error but cannot recall the solution.

What I would suggest is to save each correct segment a a separate audio file (in the same lossless format -- like WAV) then use menu File > Import > Audio on each to bring them both into the Project where you should be able to edit them together as needed.

There are 14 tracks in the file I'm working on and 15 in the copy (because I accidentally removed one). And except for the one that is lost and some work I am doing on one other track, all the other tracks are identical. So are you saying to only select the track that I lost as a wav and then import it into the project? Can we only save one track in audacity?

DrDebH wrote:There are 14 tracks in the file I'm working on and 15 in the copy (because I accidentally removed one). And except for the one that is lost and some work I am doing on one other track, all the other tracks are identical. So are you saying to only select the track that I lost as a wav and then import it into the project? Can we only save one track in audacity?

In the picture below, there is a single Project with 4 mono tracks, a stereo track and a Label track. The stereo track is a (make believe) rip from a CD which has 3 tracks--song 1, song 2, and song 3. If by "track" above you ask if this whole mess can only be saved as one track, the answer is a qualified "Yes", it can be saved as either a mono or stereo track which is composed of all the audio. If however you are asking if song 1, song 2 etc. can each be saved separately then the answer is again a qualified "Yes". Unfortunately, the real answer depends on the meaning of "track" and "save"! Audacity has a very narrow definition of both "track" (a GUI combination of a Track Control Panel plus the associated waveform box) and "save" (Audacity "saves" only in its own internal format--a format which can NOT be played by any other application nor CD player). If you want to "save" a few "tracks" such that they are suitable for creating a CD or playlist then you must Export in the appropriate file format (WAV, MP3 etc.).

So, now the questions become, are your "tracks" a bunch of mono tracks stacked one on top of the other (as in the mono tracks above) or more like the stereo track with a bunch of labeled sections; and, are you trying to create a single file with them all meshed (as a bunch of instruments playing one song at the same time) or a bunch of separate tunes like a CD?