Easiest way to reassemble wav files after export?

[thickage]

Hello! I'm using Audacity 2.0.5 and I've created a tune with about 10 different tracks.

If I export all tracks as wav files, how can they be reassesmbled? Some are over 3 minutes, some are 25 seconds long, so they won't all line up if I simply just drag these wavs back into Audacity.

So, for instance, one track is my solo. It's about one minute long and starts two minutes in. It's exported as a minute-long wav. Same for all of my other pieces.

Is there a way to make all tracks the same time length so each track will align properly when I export and then reassemble? Basically, I'm sharing these with a friend, so he doesn't necessary know that my lead starts at 2:03:12 for instance and it would be impossible for him to realign each track efficiently.

[steve]

I'll move this to the "feature request" board, as it relates to a proposed feature that may be of interest to you.

When exporting from Audacity, any "white-space" before the start of a track is ignored.
Is my use of the term "white-space" clear? (we will need to call it something in the documentation, but I'm unsure what the best description would be).

What I mean by "white-space" is "empty track" before the start of the audio in that track.
The current behaviour is:

For normal Export: The beginning of the exported file is the start of the earliest audio track start, but not earlier than time=0 in the Timeline).

For Export Selection: The beginning of the exported file is the start of the Selected audio. Selected leading white-space is ignored.

For Export Multiple: The beginning of the exported file is the start of whichever audio track starts first (irrespective of whether the start is before or after time=0 on the Timeline)

If you are using "Export Multiple" to export your tracks, you need to ensure that all tracks start at time=0.
The easiest way to do that is to:
1) "Select All" (Ctrl+A)
2) With the Time Shift tool, drag all of the tracks a little way to the right.
3) Press the Home key so that the cursor is at the start (time=0)
4) From the generate menu, generate a short bit of silence (example 1 second).
Export Multiple will then export each track, starting from the start of the generated silence.


We realise that this is inconvenient for many users, so we would like to improve this, but there are many different user cases to consider. If you have suggestions of how this could be improved, here's your opportunity to say

[thickage]

Steve,

Thanks for the well-crafted and timely reply! This is exactly what I was attempting to do.

The only suggestion I would have to improve the process is to have some sort of option - select track or tracks - and then have the ability to "add silence from time = 0 to start of track(s)". That would be extremely useful.

Thanks again. Rock on.

[Gale Andrews]

Thanks for the well-crafted and timely reply! This is exactly what I was attempting to do.

The only suggestion I would have to improve the process is to have some sort of option - select track or tracks - and then have the ability to "add silence from time = 0 to start of track(s)". That would be extremely useful.

Do you want that for its own sake? Tracks > Mix and Render used to do that in some older versions of Audacity.

Otherwise it would be better in my opinion to simply have an export option to render the leading white space (before the audio starts) as silence.


Gale

[thickage]

No, I just want the most efficient way to export 12 tracks at a time in wav format so I can hand them to other musicians to collaborate on. If there's a way to do it during the export, that would be great.

===

Do you want that for its own sake? Tracks > Mix and Render used to do that in some older versions of Audacity.

Otherwise it would be better in my opinion to simply have an export option to render the leading white space (before the audio starts) as silence.


Gale

[steve]

I think there should be consistency between "Export" and "Export Multiple".
We could have (for both) a choice between:
a) Export from start of audio.
b) Export from start of track.

For "Export Selection" (called "Export Selected Audio" in 2.0.6) we may want a choice whether to include selected leading / trailing white space.
Personally I'd be inclined to make it so that it always exports the entire selection (rendering white-space as silence). If the user does not want to include leading white space they can chose not to select it. Is there a compelling reason to not include white space?

[Gale Andrews]

I think there should be consistency between "Export" and "Export Multiple".
We could have (for both) a choice between:
a) Export from start of audio.
b) Export from start of track.

Yes I think at least us two are agreed that would be good, and better than a preference to handle that.

I originally thought it should be a checkbox, not a drop-down, to prevent verbosity of options (unless we want to add other options to it later). But see the next paragraph, and "audio before zero" has to be considered too.

For "Export Selection" (called "Export Selected Audio" in 2.0.6) we may want a choice whether to include selected leading / trailing white space.

Perhaps. Currently we export leading white space in the selection, but not if the leading white space comes before the audio. So there is also the potential choice of "export from start of track" or not as well as "leading/trailing white space".

Personally I'd be inclined to make it so that it always exports the entire selection (rendering white-space as silence). If the user does not want to include leading white space they can chose not to select it. Is there a compelling reason to not include white space?

That may be reasonable, but there may be an expectation the leading white space before the audio starts is excluded because that happens now with "Export".

Excluding leading white space does mean you can be sloppy about what you select and "get away with it".

What about the default choice for export from start of track or not for Export? Making the default to be as current behaviour (excluding white space) does make it easier to time shift tracks rightwards from zero by mistake and "get away with it".

Also, given the space before the audio starts is presented visually as "white space" rather than silence, it could be thought unintuitive for default behaviour to include that space (or unintuitive not to have an option to exclude it in the case of "Export Selected Audio").


Gale

[steve]

That may be reasonable, but there may be an expectation the leading white space before the audio starts is excluded because that happens now with "Export".

The behaviour would be easily discoverable, without even looking in the manual (just by trying it).

Excluding leading white space does mean you can be sloppy about what you select and "get away with it".

The user could also accidentally not select the intended start, so I don't think that we should encourage sloppiness.
We currently have two measures available to help select the start/end of the audio; there is the "yellow line" snap behaviour and the keyboard shortcuts Shift+J and shift+k.

What about the default choice for export from start of track or not for Export?

Pros and cons either way, so I'd probably go for "Export from start of audio" as the default for both Export and Export Multiple (most like now).

Also, given the space before the audio starts is presented visually as "white space" rather than silence, it could be thought unintuitive for default behaviour to include that space (or unintuitive not to have an option to exclude it in the case of "Export Selected Audio").

It is "unintuitive" to me to not export the full selection, particularly with the current name of "Export Selection", but less so with "Export Selected Audio".
I'd rather have the ability to export leading white space than not have that ability, and I can't think of any compelling reason to complicate the issue by having two options rather than one simple behaviour. (I don't see "sloppiness" to be a compelling reason, especially as we have ways to easily achieve precision).

[Gale Andrews]

What about the default choice for export from start of track or not for Export?

Pros and cons either way, so I'd probably go for "Export from start of audio" as the default for both Export and Export Multiple (most like now).

I think so too, which still makes me think Export Selected Audio doing the opposite is "unintuitive".

Perhaps a single option for Export Selected Audio would do "Always render leading/trailing space as silence" so that includes space before the audio starts, if there was any. I do tend to think such an option should be off by default - the option is still discoverable before you export.

Gale

[steve]

Perhaps a single option for Export Selected Audio would do "Always render leading/trailing space as silence"

Do you mean "Always render selected leading/trailing space as silence" ?