Question regarding looped playback

[vertigoelectric]

I'm somewhat of an indie video game designer, and when I work on music for my game, I need to use tracks that loop. I was working on one earlier today, but I ran into a bit of an annoying issue.

Say I've got a track that's about a minute long. I want to cut off the ends of this track at just the right places so it loops perfectly, but this requires frequent testing. I have to keep listening to make sure it loops seamlessly. Well, the issue I ran into is that I couldn't figure out a way to start playback near the end of the track and still have it loop back to the beginning. Whenever I try to start looped playback, it automatically starts it from the beginning. Because of this, I'm forced to listen to the entire track every time, when really I only need to test out the end matches up with the beginning.

I'm sure there's a way, but I haven't figured it out.

Thanks in advance!


(Oh, and you might think "hey, a minute's not that long", but if I have to test it 10 times, that turns into 10 minutes. Also, that's just an example. I sometimes work with much longer tracks that I want to loop).

[kozikowski]

It's a little devious, but copy the work and paste it onto a second track. Audacity will play both of them at once unless prevented. Then change only one track by sliding with Time Shift Tool (sideways black arrows) and editing until there is a perfect hand-off when Audacity rolls over the boundary between the end of one and the start of the other. You can drag-select the area around the "edit" and rapidly try new variations. Remember to only change one track, not both.

The track you changed should be able to be copied and pasted to itself forever and stay in sync. Or looped.

Koz

[vertigoelectric]

It's a little devious, but copy the work and paste it onto a second track. Audacity will play both of them at once unless prevented. Then change only one track by sliding with Time Shift Tool (sideways black arrows) and editing until there is a perfect hand-off when Audacity rolls over the boundary between the end of one and the start of the other. You can drag-select the area around the "edit" and rapidly try new variations. Remember to only change one track, not both.

The track you changed should be able to be copied and pasted to itself forever and stay in sync. Or looped.

Koz

Thanks. Yeah, I already knew I could do it that way, but I was really hoping that I could just have loop mode turned "on" and just start playback from wherever I choose. I don't recall using an audio editor that didn't have such a thing. You're suggested method is next best, I suppose.

Thanks again.

However, if there IS a way to do what I asked, I hope someone posts how.

[steve]

I was really hoping that I could just have loop mode turned "on" and just start playback from wherever I choose

That is currently not available in Audacity.
I remember it being discussed previously and I think that it would be a useful feature, but I don't see it listed on the Feature Requests page of the wiki: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Feature_Requests

I would suggest that you make a new post in the "Adding Feature to Audacity" section of the forum: http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewforum.php?f=20
After everyone has had chance to discus the idea it will be transferred to the wiki page for consideration by the developers.

What I do as a workaround for testing loops is to use the "Repeat" effect.
1) Select the loop
2) Effect > Repeat (about 3/4 of the way down the list of effects)
3) Set the number of repeats to 1 and click OK.
4) Play across the "join" (the loop position)

If I'm happy with the loop position, Ctrl+Z (undo) to remove the repeat.

If I'm not happy with the loop position;
5) Ctrl+Z to undo the repeat
6) Adjust the length of the loop
7) Ctrl+R to repeat the last effect (the "Repeat" effect)
...

[Edgar]

vertigoelectric, check out this topic:
http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... hilit=loop

It is a bit long but might give you some thoughts about how others have wanted similar operations to function. Also, in the thread is a patch I wrote which gives Audacity an ability similar to your request.

I have transferred the main gist of the FR conversation from this thread to the Pending Feature Requests of the Wiki. I have retained the full thread here so as to retain access to Edgar's patch.

WC