Point Labels vs. Region Labels

[danitaz]

Using Audacity 1.3.9 on OSX (10.5.8)

If I roll back to 1.3.7.1 then this works as I've described below. So is something "broken" in 1.3.9 (and last night's nightly build as well!), or has functionality changed and I need to do something differently?

I've used Audacity for a couple of years now, mostly for one task: I record an entire LP in one sitting, and then I go back, find silence, label the tracks (sometimes cutting out dead space), and export multiple to get the tracks all out to AIFF and MP3.

In the past if I've needed to cut out some audio (like dead space and the like), I would select the area, making sure that I also select down into the "label" area at the bottom of the track. This would move the track label, keeping it at the same spot in the audio as it was before - like if we were to have seconds 1-9 as track one and then another this:

1234567890L1234567890
1234L1234567890

So, if I were to cut out seconds 56789 before the label, those would go away, and the label would still be fixed to second "1" of what in essence is the next track.

Now, no matter what I do, the label stays at the same "time" marker and does not move with the cut - so I get this:

123412345L67890

(Hopefully this is making sense). So, in other words, each time I do a "cut" of audio out of the large file for the entire LP, the tracks all get skewed because they stay at a "fixed" time in the waveform and do not move forward.

So, if this is supposed to still work, it's not working. If this functionality has changed, what would I need to do to get the same results? I didn't actually try to find and download 1.3.8 to see which way the wind blows there.

Thanks.

Danita

[waxcylinder]

I think this may be down to a problem that the developers are currently struggling with, with the Link Tracks functionality.

The track linking is controlled by the icon with the little chain-links in the Edit toolbar. Turning it on is supposed to link all the tracks above the label with that track so that modifying the track will modify the label track at the same time (and IIRC linking is set on by default). In some versions of Audacity the linking may have been removed bty the developers or may not function correctly (I believe thay are planning to temporarily remove Linking for the upcoming 2.0 release - and re-introduce it for testing on the next generation of betas that follow 2.0).

You should be able to work around this : when making your selection in the music track to delete extend your selection downwards (by clicking & dragging) to include the label track too - and then press CTRL+K to delete the piece to bre cut out. I can't test this on a Mac - I have Windows XP: but 1.3.7 and 1.3.9 on XP both work doing this.

WC

[danitaz]

I do suspect that it has to do with the Link Tracks functionality. However on the Mac, the Command-K (typically the equivalent to a Control-K in Windows) is not a reserved keystroke that I can tell. A Command-X (basically a cut) is what I always use, and it simply doesn't keep the label aligned to the point in the track that I want in 1.3.9.

I will also note that on the Mac, in 1.3.9, the "Link Tracks" functionality is very squirrely. If it is turned on, it seems to randomly delete past the right end point of a selection. For example, if I select from 10:15:04 through 10:15:09 and try to cut it, it will cut from like 10:15:04 through 10:15:15. Turning "Link Tracks" on or off also doesn't help my issue with the track labels. In 1.3.7 neither of these is an issue. And it doesn't matter if I have the link tracks on or off in 1.3.7, by selecting down into the labels track I always keep the tracks where I want them in 1.3.7.

So, for now I will use 1.3.7 and hope that the next build fixes this.

Thanks!

Danita

[billw58]

Danita:
You are correct in all your observations.

The "cuts too much audio" bug is fixed in 1.3.10.
Linked tracks is disabled in 1.3.10.

I have never relied on labels to stay in sync with tracks when editing an LP. Instead I used the Edit > Split command to create a clip for each track. Further editing will move the clips, preserving the definitions of the tracks (i.e. the clips). I add labels to mark the tracks - in preparation for Export Multiple - as the very last step.

-- Bill

[danitaz]

Thanks Bill. I shall give the Edit > Split command a go and see how it works for me! Old dogs and so many new tricks

Danita