Audacity Forum

Well, all, I've been away for a while, but have still been using Audacity 1.3.5 to remove the commercials from downloaded podcasts.

I've been able to refine the process, and except for one thing where Audacity won't cooperate, this process is WONDERFUL!
I've already described where Audacity doesn't cooperate...that I can't click in certain places on the timeline because Audacity prevents the quick-play pointer from displaying.

Here's my process now.

1-load file to be edited
2-load pre-built label which indicates approximate locations of commercials
3-highlight/expand an area a bit larger than the last label indicating basic location of last commercial
4-click on label-name. this causes a gray highlight of the label area, which extends into the waveform area (VERY HELPFUL!)
5-click on the time-line close to the beginning of the highlighted label area to hear if I'm at the beginning of the commercial or if I need to refine the beginning location. refine if necessary. (this is where Audacity is un-cooperative.)
6-click on the time-line close to the end of the highlighted label area.......same as step 5
7-repeat steps 4-6 for each of the pre-established label areas
---after refining all the label/commercial relationships, it's time to remove the commercials
8-starting with the last label/commercial, while in the waveform area, click/hold above the right edge of the last label/commercial. If you're close enough, the highlight will snap to the right edge of the label and indicate successful snapping by creating a yellow line. drag from right-to-left while sweeping the pointer down into the label area, then back up into the waveform area till the pointer snaps to the left edge, creating another yellow line indicating success again. release the mouse button.
9-hit delete
10-repeat highlighting/deleting process on the next label/commercial to the left
11-continue repeating till all commercials are gone

IMHO, this process is about as effecient as can be. If/when the quick-play capability allows me to click anywhere on the timeline to start playing, the process will be perfect IMHO.

Thanks Audacity people for a wonderfulwonderful program.
miker

oops.
i neglected to mention that sweeping the pointer from the waveform area down into the label area is helpful because it allows one to delete the commercial and the label in one step as opposed to highlighting the waveform area, deleting it, then highlighting the label, then deleting it........

miker wrote:oops.
i neglected to mention that sweeping the pointer from the waveform area down into the label area is helpful because it allows one to delete the commercial and the label in one step as opposed to highlighting the waveform area, deleting it, then highlighting the label, then deleting it........

You can do the deleting a lot simpler than that.

1) Click in the label
2) Up arrow
3) Delete

If it was me I still would not use Quick Play - even if you could click where you wanted you still have to make that a selection region to delete it. I would

1) click in the label
2) up arrow
3) use SHIFT + left/right arrow to expand left and right edges of the region respectively.
CTRL + SHIFT + right will contract the left edge (move it right), and
CTRL + SHIFT + left will contract the right edge (move it left).
4) Spacebar to play.
5) When you have the correct region, Delete.

Alternatively to 3), use [ or ] to set the left/right boundary of the region to an exact point (click the downward-pointing arrow to choose a milliseconds format for greater accuracy).

Gale

Hi Gale,

I realy like your "deleting a lot simpler" method...works great!
That's the way I delete now!!

I've tried to use your suggestion for identifying the beginning and ending of a group of commercials (NOT using quickplay).
Using your method for identifying the beginning seems workable, but not the ending (unless I don't understand something).
After clicking in the label, up arrowing, then shift-LeftorRight-arrow or ctrl-shift-LeftorRight-arrow, then space-bar to start playback, I can refine & listen to the location of the left edge of the group of commercials.
BUT, I can't see how to do so with the right edge effeciently.
The problem is, if the group of commercials is 5 minutes long, and I use your method to try to identify/refine the right edge...the end of the commercials...when I'd hit the space-bar to listen to see if I've accurately identified the right edge, the playback starts at the left edge and I'd have to listen for 5 minutes each time to see if my refining effort was accurate or not.
I don't see a way to listen to just the last few seconds of the identified commercial area unless I use quick-play by clicking on the timeline.

Seems to me the quick-play is much more effecient.
Just click on the timeline where you think the end of the commercials is located and listen.
If you've misjudged, click somewhere else till you find the end, then drag the right edge of the label to that spot.

Am I missing something?

miker wrote:Seems to me the quick-play is much more effecient.
Just click on the timeline where you think the end of the commercials is located and listen.
If you've misjudged, click somewhere else till you find the end, then drag the right edge of the label to that spot.

You can press the "C" key to preview the "cut". It will play a preview of the section before the selected area, then jump to the end of the selected area, thus allowing you to hear if the end position of the selection is correct.
If you need to adjust it, press Shift+Right cursor to adjust the end of the selection to the right, or Shift+Ctrl+Left to adjust it to the left.

Thanks Steve, for pointing out my typo when expanding the selection edge. I corrected it in the original post. To me though, using CTRL + SHIFT + *right* (and vice-versa) to contract the *left* edge seems unintuitive, even though it's a right-moving direction. I still do it the other way round by mistake now. Anyone else feel this, or is it me?

Miker, as well as the "C" Cut Preview, you can use "B" to play from the mouse cursor to the end of a selection region. The "B" works in 1.2.x versions of Audacity, too, but "C" does not. Personally, I find QuickPlay as it is now very hard to use for defining an exact cut region, not just because you can't click close to the playback cursor, but because the QuickPlay region disappears after play unless you

* go through the extra step of Edit > Play Region > Lock
* have a selection region in the first place.

Nor is there a way to snap a selection region to a play region with sample accuracy.


Gale

Gale Andrews wrote:To me though, using CTRL + SHIFT + *right* (and vice-versa) to contract the *left* edge seems unintuitive, even though it's a right-moving direction. I still do it the other way round by mistake now. Anyone else feel this, or is it me?

When you put it like that, yes it seems a bit odd, but I think that it would be more odd to use CTRL+SHIFT+Right to move the right end of the selection to the left.

Gale Andrews wrote:you can use "B" to play from the mouse cursor to the end of a selection region

I'm having trouble with that in 1.3.6 on Linux. It does not play all the way to the end of the selection. It starts at the cursor, plays for a bit, but stops well short of the end of the selection.

Ctrl+Left Mouse Button, clicked onto the track, will play from the position clicked up to the end of the selection.

stevethefiddle wrote:

Gale Andrews wrote:you can use "B" to play from the mouse cursor to the end of a selection region

I'm having trouble with that in 1.3.6 on Linux. It does not play all the way to the end of the selection. It starts at the cursor, plays for a bit, but stops well short of the end of the selection. Ctrl+Left Mouse Button, clicked onto the track, will play from the position clicked up to the end of the selection.

Is it an especially long selection with many tracks on screen? I tried putting short clips underneath but it still played here on Windows XP to the end of the region. And you know of course that if the mouse cursor is closer to the left edge than right, B plays from start of selection to the cursor?

Gale

Gale Andrews wrote:Is it an especially long selection with many tracks on screen?

No, just a 30 second track, about 10 seconds selected, and only one track.
(also the same with more tracks, mono or stereo tracks).

Having reread your post, I think that you mean the same as what is happening on my computer. I assumed that the behaviour that I see in Audacity was what was supposed to happen, but I now think that I just misunderstood (misread) your previous post.

When the mouse pointer is within the selected region, but closer to the left edge, it appears to play from the left edge, up to the place where the mouse pointer was when the "B" key was pressed.

Here's the full run down:
1 audio track, 30 seconds long, area selected from 10 seconds to 20 second.

a) Mouse pointer below 4 second mark: press "B"
track plays from 4 seconds to 10 seconds.

b) Mouse pointer below 12 second mark: press "B"
track plays from 10 seconds to 12 seconds.

c) Mouse pointer below 17 second mark: press "B"
track plays from 17 seconds to 20 seconds.

d) Mouse pointer below 26 second mark: press "B"
track plays from 20 seconds to 26 seconds.

stevethefiddle wrote:[When the mouse pointer is within the selected region, but closer to the left edge, it appears to play from the left edge, up to the place where the mouse pointer was when the "B" key was pressed.
Here's the full run down:
1 audio track, 30 seconds long, area selected from 10 seconds to 20 second.

a) Mouse pointer below 4 second mark: press "B"
track plays from 4 seconds to 10 seconds.

b) Mouse pointer below 12 second mark: press "B"
track plays from 10 seconds to 12 seconds.

c) Mouse pointer below 17 second mark: press "B"
track plays from 17 seconds to 20 seconds.

d) Mouse pointer below 26 second mark: press "B"
track plays from 20 seconds to 26 seconds.

That's all working the exactly as you describe for me, and since this is "Play to Selection" I think they're the right decisions. Works too when the selection region is behind zero, except that playback is when appropriate from zero, not from the start of the region. All OK here?


Gale