Export Selection produces tracks out of sync./ wrong length

[steve]

I can deal with these issues now.

Yipee

But what about the tens of thousands of folks that don't have the technical proficiency or the patience to figure all this out.

Most of the multitude do not do multi-track recording. Probably the most widespread use of Audacity is in transferring vinyl to CD, probably followed by making podcasts (one music track + one voice track - timing not critical). We are in a minority TSM, and more so because you want to do part of your production in Audacity, and part of it outside of Audacity. If the shw stayed in Audacity the issue would not have appeared - you would have simply exported your finished show as a WAV or MP3 and it would have all been mixed together perfectly (and truncated at t=0)

the software should start recording at 0:00 and any latency correction should not appear before the start

The behaviour in Audacity should ideally be consistent in all situations, and it is certainly a useful feature that files can be dragged to positions earlier than t=0 without being automatically truncated.

OR there should be some way of navigating over there to get to it.

Well there is... sort of.
In programs like Cubase, it is usual to have the beginning of the song some way after the start of the time line - typically starting a couple of bars after t=0. You do a similar thing in Audacity by recording all of your tracks, then press Ctrl+A (select All), then with the time shift tool, drag the whole lot to the right (and any bits that were "hidden" behind the start of the time line will now be revealed.

The developers of Audacity have to try and walk a difficult line that keeps Audacity simple for casual users, but provides features and flexibility for people that need more. I don't think they always get it right first time, and sometimes things just do not work the way that they should (bugs), but mostly I think they do an amazing job - and it's free

You may have noticed there is a section on the forum for suggestion features that you would like to see in Audacity. Posting a request there does not guarantee that the feature will be included, but those ideas gradually work their way to the developers, and all help to forge the future shape of the program.

[TSMusic]

Most of the multitude do not do multi-track recording.

I beg to differ with you there. There are a LOT of folks using Audacity for multi-track recording. I have been answering Audacity questions over on the one forum on Ultimate-Guitar.com for well over a year now and it's a first stop for people who what to get into recording on a low budget. Same for other forums as well.

We are in a minority TSM, and more so because you want to do part of your production in Audacity, and part of it outside of Audacity. If the shw stayed in Audacity the issue would not have appeared - you would have simply exported your finished show as a WAV or MP3 and it would have all been mixed together perfectly (and truncated at t=0)

That I will agree with. Most folks kinda think I'm a bit touched in the head for doing so, but then most folks think I'm kinda touched in the head to begin with so it don't much matter none.

The behaviour in Audacity should ideally be consistent in all situations, and it is certainly a useful feature that files can be dragged to positions earlier than t=0 without being automatically truncated.

I still do not understand why. Cubase, everything starts at 0:00, and I'm pretty sure Reaper and all the other DAW software does although I haven't looked any of the others in a while

You do a similar thing in Audacity by recording all of your tracks, then press Ctrl+A (select All), then with the time shift tool, drag the whole lot to the right (and any bits that were "hidden" behind the start of the time line will now be revealed.

I just tried that and it works..thank you. That solves everything from the get-go. The problem I have with the Mix & Render approach is it moving the mixed track down to the bottom of the list. Dealing with 3 or 4 tracks, that's not a problem, dealing with 8 or 10, that get's to be a royal pain. I did some fooling around with the latency issue on the system I use for recording and got nowhere fast, but as I said, that's not really a big issue for me. I use the first track as the reference track, record the 2nd track, mute it, record the third track, mute it, etc. Things go a lot easier that way and I'm only dealing with one set of mistakes, not several tracks worth simultaneously.

The developers of Audacity have to try and walk a difficult line that keeps Audacity simple for casual users, but provides features and flexibility for people that need more. I don't think they always get it right first time, and sometimes things just do not work the way that they should (bugs), but mostly I think they do an amazing job - and it's free

Believe me I appreciate what they have done and continue to do. I have written software, specialty business applications, in complied Basic (yeah, back in the Dark Ages, try dealing with 16K RAM limitations for applications..)

You may have noticed there is a section on the forum for suggestion features that you would like to see in Audacity. Posting a request there does not guarantee that the feature will be included, but those ideas gradually work their way to the developers, and all help to forge the future shape of the program.

Yeah I have a few things and when I get some time, I'm gonna make a list or 2

Thanks again

Tony

[Gale Andrews]

Most of the multitude do not do multi-track recording.

There are a LOT of folks using Audacity for multi-track recording. I have been answering Audacity questions over on the one forum on Ultimate-Guitar.com for well over a year now and it's a first stop for people who what to get into recording on a low budget.

Yes, but you are on a forum dealing with one specific type of recording. This Forum, which is what I think Steve is basing his judgement on, deals with all types of queries, and users posting here who are digitising recorded media and podcasting greatly outnumber users doing multi-track recording. It could be though that a slightly lower proportion of our users are recording LPs and cassettes than might appear, because such a high proportion of these people are complete novices - to computers, digital audio and Audacity - so come here with problems.

The behaviour in Audacity should ideally be consistent in all situations, and it is certainly a useful feature that files can be dragged to positions earlier than t=0 without being automatically truncated.

I still do not understand why. Cubase, everything starts at 0:00, and I'm pretty sure Reaper and all the other DAW software does although I haven't looked any of the others in a while

Recordings in Audacity start at the cursor position as they do in Cubase, so start at zero if your cursor is at zero. We debated very strongly what should happen to recorded audio that has to be pushed back behind zero to keep it in sync, and the choice is truncate it behind zero, so you lose it, or allow it to be behind zero and exported. Another possibility I suggested which was judged too complex to code for the benefit, was to not allow the recorded track to go further backwards than zero, then shift the other tracks forward in sympathy. But ultimately this is about documenting the latency adjustment, and deciding if we warn about the audio behind zero with a message box and "don't show me again" checkbox, or just with arrows which people may not see or understand. Many of the developers don't like littering the GUI with messages and signs, so we didn't.


Gale

[steve]

This Forum, which is what I think Steve is basing his judgement on, deals with all types of queries, and users posting here who are digitising recorded media and podcasting greatly outnumber users doing multi-track recording. It could be though that a slightly lower proportion of our users are recording LPs and cassettes than might appear, because such a high proportion of these people are complete novices - to computers, digital audio and Audacity - so come here with problems.

That's true, although I am also basing my judgement on the number of people that I know who use Audacity - and most of them use it for relatively simple recording tasks. I LIKE questions about multi-track recording and odd-ball processing questions as that's the type of thing that I mostly use Audacity for.