Instantly adding envelope points

[ConstantOne]

After searching around the forums for a bit, I haven't been able to find another post that answers my question, so I pose it to you here:

Is there a way to insert envelope control points based on the current position of the scrub-line on the timeline? If I'm using the wrong terms here, forgive me. I mean the vertical selection line that shows your current working area within the timeline.

I realize you can click on the border between the light middle row and the darker top/bottom rows to insert envelope points with your mouse, but this is A) tedious and B) inexact, forcing you to reposition the pixel-perfect envelope points more often than not. When performing a lot of envelope work on larger projects, this becomes a chore.

Put another way, most envelope work involves 4 (or more) points -- the two outer, stable points, and the two (or more) inner points that allow you to adjust the sound between them. Generally speaking, I want the outermost points to remain at the border between the light/dark rows (leaving their audio unchanged), while then clicking and dragging the inner points to adjust the fading up and down.

Is there a way to insert envelope points at the position of the vertical selection line with the keyboard or some menu option? That way, you could click anywhere within the audio (except the dark/light border) to simply *click* *insert* *click* *insert* *click* *insert* *click* *insert*, and immediately start working with the inner envelope points.

Sorry I wrote so much! I wanted to make sure people understood, so I didn't just get replies like, "You're already clicking, you might as well just click to create envelope points at the light/dark border!" because that is what I'm trying to get away from.

Thanks for any help you can give!

[steve]

A good question, but sadly no good answer. The Envelope Tool is very useful, but it is fiddly and as you said "a chore". There are no keyboard shortcuts for adding envelope points (Just F2 to select the Envelope Tool).

I am currently working on a new plug-in that can produce custom fade shapes. Although such a plug-in lacks the benefit of "non-destructive" editing (a major benefit of the Envelope Tool) it does allow much faster and less fiddly shaping of the track dynamics. If you're interested in having a look at the type of thing there are some earlier versions in these topics:
http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 42&t=40836
http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 42&t=40900
http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 42&t=29964