Audacity Forum

I'm new to Audacity. I tried 1.2.6 to start but I had some trouble getting it to export to mp3 format correctly for some reason so started using 1.3.6 which seemed to go fine. However, I seem to be a little confused on how the copy, paste and trim commands are supposed to work. I thought I could highlight a section of a track and copy it then paste it to another track without affecting any other tracks. However, it is time shifting some tracks and adding a section of "silence" to other tracks. This behavior stops at a label track I have above the last track. When I tried to use the trim function it "trimmed sound on the track above the track I was working on.

Is this normal behavior? Is there anyway to set this up so it just acts on one track when you want it too?

<<<I tried 1.2.6 to start but I had some trouble getting it to export to mp3 format correctly for some reason>>>

So the trouble started way back there. I'm terribly tempted to solve that one first.

Defragging your hard drive is important and never out of line, but this time I think Error Checking your drive may be in order.

My Computer > C: > Properties > Tools > Defragment & Error Check

This would be done on a hard drive under 90% full. Audacity and Windows both need room to put stuff while they're working. Audacity will start getting crazy while running on a badly fragmented hard drive.

Koz

JohnR wrote:I'm new to Audacity. I tried 1.2.6 to start but I had some trouble getting it to export to mp3 format correctly for some reason so started using 1.3.6 which seemed to go fine. However, I seem to be a little confused on how the copy, paste and trim commands are supposed to work. I thought I could highlight a section of a track and copy it then paste it to another track without affecting any other tracks. However, it is time shifting some tracks and adding a section of "silence" to other tracks. This behavior stops at a label track I have above the last track. When I tried to use the trim function it "trimmed sound on the track above the track I was working on.

Is this normal behavior? Is there anyway to set this up so it just acts on one track when you want it too?

One thing with the copy and paste, if you copy a section, and then just put your cursor at the start of where you want it copied to, it will do an insert there, meaning that everything beyond get's right shifted. You have to highlight the same area on the track being copied to and the Paste will do a Replace rather than an insert.

I ain't EVEN gonna guess how many hours I spent a'cussing till I got that figured out

Tony

The problem is due to the "Link tracks" function. It is a known problem in Audacity 1.3.6

Look for a button with a picture of "chain links" and switch it off. You will need to do this each time you start a new project.

stevethefiddle wrote:The problem is due to the "Link tracks" function. It is a known problem in Audacity 1.3.6

Look for a button with a picture of "chain links" and switch it off. You will need to do this each time you start a new project.

That fixes it Steve. It now copies into other tracks without changing anything else. Thanks