Put Handles on this.

[kozikowski]

I got several sound clips for a theatrical film production that needed minor out-patient surgery. Local pain killers, not a big deal.

One of the tasks was to put 15-frame handles on a specific piece of dialog. That just means 15 film frames worth of silent time before and after the cut. The supplied cut already has well over 15 frames of silence before and after, so I didn't have to add anything.

One film frame in the US is .04166 seconds, so I need to retain .6249 seconds of the existing silence before and after dialog.

I have no trouble at all selecting .6249 seconds of silence before and after the cut, but that's the work I need to keep. That's when I got stuck.

This task is six or seven keystrokes in a video editor and I was considering moving the work to one of them to get it out the door, but I decided to stick with it. Audacity has neither Edit Markers nor cursor offset tools and those are both indicated here.

Click end of dialog.

+ 1 5 [Enter] (moves the cursor forward 15 frames)
I (sets the In point)
END (moves the cursor to the end of the piece)
O Delete. (delete everything between the in and out points.)

I understand I need to enter the time offsets manually since Audacity doesn't speak film frames. Got that covered. Correct me, but you can't place labels after you select a chunk of time? That and Labels aren't Markers.

I did it by guess and by golly and knowing that errors smaller than a film frame don't count. Good to know that when you're editing in the .0002 seconds area.

Koz

[kozikowski]

Sorry.
Audacity 1.3.7
OS-X 10.5.8 Leopard
Intel Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro
Glossy screen
Tasteful Brushed Aluminum
Koz

[steve]

One of the tasks was to put 15-frame handles on a specific piece of dialog. That just means 15 film frames worth of silent time before and after the cut. The supplied cut already has well over 15 frames of silence before and after, so I didn't have to add anything.

New/improved feature in 1.3.12 !

Region labels can be moved, retaining their length by SHIFT + Click on circle at end of marker and drag.

Your task, to trim the track leaving 15 frames each side of the required selection?
That's at 24 fps ?

1) Enable "Snap To" and set time units to "film frames (24fps)"
2) Drag select 15 frames (doesn't much matter where - Snap to makes this dead easy)
3) Ctrl+B (make label) and type a name (example: "in handle")
4) * SHIFT + Click on circle at end of marker and drag the region label so that it ends at the begining of the required section.
5) Repeat to create an "out handle" marker.
6) Click on one of the labels and press Ctrl+I (split)
7) Repeat on the other label
8) Delete unwanted sections.

If you want to rejoin the remaining splits, Ctrl+A (select All) then Ctrl+J (join)

Lots of alternatives to this, for example:

1) Select the region that you want to keep, then with Snap to enabled and SHIFT key held down, tap the right cursor key 15 times (extend 15 frames to the right)
2) Then SHIFT+ left cursor key - tap 15 times (extend to the left).
3) Ctrl+T (trim to selection).

(requires new 1.3.12 alpha)

[kozikowski]

I really do need to upgrade to 1.3.11.

While you were doing that, I discovered the Silent Generator would generate in even, correct frames at 24.

Create a second track. Generate, select, copy, and paste (after making darn sure the original didn't have any DC Offset.) The job expanded since I wrote (as these jobs are wont to do) and I need to generate several other different time values.

This is me writing all that down...

Koz

[steve]

I really do need to upgrade to 1.3.11.

For the improved label and snapping behaviour you need 1.3.12 nightly - these enhancements were only added yesterday !
There are still a couple of minor inconsistencies with label dragging, but it's a huge improvement,

[kozikowski]

It makes me really nervous when I ask about version numbers and you say, "What time is it now?"

Koz

[steve]

A relatively safe way to try out new versions is with a "portable" set-up.
"Audacity Portable" does not have to be on a USB stick, it can be in a folder on your hard drive - easy way to safely experiment with an alpha version without messing your production version.
http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php? ... e_Audacity