Newbie help needed!

[ettathecat]

Hi
I need to fade out one music track to lead into the next track so I get a bit of a cross-fade and no dead air. Is this possible? Also, how do I get the "playing line" to just go across one track instead of both? Hope this is clear - this is all new to me!

[steve]

Audacity 1.3.x recommended.

You've not said if you are recording or importing these tracks, but let's say you have imported 2 tracks.
Use the Time Shift tool (double headed arrow -F5 key) to drag the tracks left/right so that they are overlapping by the amount that you want cross-fading.
Switch back to the Selection tool (F1 key).
Click and drag across the section of the track that you want to fade out and select "Fade Out" from the Effects menu.
Click and drag across the section of the track that you want to fade in and select "Fade In" from the Effects menu.

Select the whole of the cross-faded area and play it - adjust the track positions if necessary. If you are not happy with your first attempt you can use Ctrl+Z to undo.

Audacity 1.3 also has "Cross-Fade" effects which are similar to the normal cross fade, but a different shape fade.

For finer control you can use the Envelope tool instead of the Fade effects, but it is a bit more fiddly.

See the Audacity wiki for lots of help http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=Tutorials
And here is the 1.3 manual http://manual.audacityteam.org/

[ettathecat]

Many thanks! Downloading 1.3 as I write and will work my way through the process!

[waxcylinder]

Switch back to the Selection tool (F1 key).
Click and drag across the section of the track that you want to fade out and select "Fade Out" from the Effects menu.
Click and drag across the section of the track that you want to fade in and select "Fade In" from the Effects menu.

Select the whole of the cross-faded area and play it - adjust the track positions if necessary. If you are not happy with your first attempt you can use Ctrl+Z to undo.

The video editor in my Nero 9 does this much more simply and seamlessly. With two abutting scenes I just place my cursor on the join position and then select a crossfade (or other fade type). Nero then moves the second piece (and all subsequent pieces on the timeline) forward by a small overlap amount and applies the cross-fade. Two clicks.

Pity that it can't be this simple in Audacity - I can feel a Feature Request coming on - I will transfer this to the FR request section if this post attracts any support. Any takers?

WC