Can we mark different sections on the same track with different colors?

[LeeX]

Hi,

Would it be possible to mark different sections on the same track with different colors in Audacity Windows 2.3.0? This feature would be very helpful when edit a big track.

Thanks & regards,
Lee

[steve]

No, Audacity can't do that, but you can mark sections with "Labels". See: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/label_tracks.html

[LeeX]

Thanks you for the information.

Labels help too. But color is probably more intuitive and quick for editing. Not sure if future version could add it (don't know how difficult though )

Regards,
Lee

[steve]

I doubt that it would be "quicker" overall.
Labels can be created extremely quickly (Ctrl + B), or during playback / recording you can mark the current play position on the fly with Ctrl + M. How did you envisage setting the colour of a section of a track?

[LeeX]

Thank you for the information on the hot keys. It helps.

The way I envisage setting the colors of a section of a track is like this:

- click and hold left mouse button, and move mouse cursor along the track to highlight/select a section of a track
- click right mouse button to pop up a quick menu that lists a few different colors
- click left mouse button to select one of the available colors from the pop up menu
- now the highlighted/selected section on the track is marked by the color being selected in the above step
- repeat the above steps to use different or the same color to mark other sections in the track

Thanks & regards,
Lee

[steve]

- click and hold left mouse button, and move mouse cursor along the track to highlight/select a section of a track
- click right mouse button to pop up a quick menu that lists a few different colors

That would be pretty efficient for selecting colors.

Some things that would need to be considered:

What happens if you paste a clip into a clip of a different color? Should it retain its original color, or take on the new color?
What happens if you crossfade two clips that are different colors? (https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/cro ... clips.html)
What happens if you set the track color when it contains clips with different colors?
What happens if you change the tempo of a track, does the color region expand / contract with the audio, or does it retain its original start/end times?
If you have a clip from 5 s to 10 s that is red, and another clip from 15 s to 20 s that is also red, and you join the two clips. Does the section from 10 s to 15 s also become red?
If you have a clip from 5 s to 10 s that is red, and another clip from 15 s to 20 s that is blue, and you join the two clips. What color is 10 s to 15 s ?
If you duplicate a track that has colored clips, does the duplicate track also have the clip colors?
If you join two mono tracks that have different colors to make a stereo track, what happens to the colors?

Currently we don't have right click functionality, but if/when we eventually do (and I hope that does happen at some point), I expect the priority will be to provide basic editing commands, such as cut, copy, paste, delete.

[LeeX]

Lol, I have to admit I didn't consider so many potential scenarios

What I considered was just to edit one track. But give it a second thought, maybe we can do...

What happens if you paste a clip into a clip of a different color? Should it retain its original color, or take on the new color?
[Lee] A pop-up warning message with buttons (Yes, No, Cancel). Let users choose what to do (override the color in target track or not)

What happens if you crossfade two clips that are different colors? (https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/cro ... clips.html)
[Lee] Again, pop up a warning message box

What happens if you set the track color when it contains clips with different colors?
[Lee] Either change colors by following color mix rule, or give a warning message

What happens if you change the tempo of a track, does the color region expand / contract with the audio, or does it retain its original start/end times?
[Lee] Pop us a warning message box and give uses options (Yes, No, Cancel)

If you have a clip from 5 s to 10 s that is red, and another clip from 15 s to 20 s that is also red, and you join the two clips. Does the section from 10 s to 15 s also become red?
[Lee] Can we leave section from 10 s to 15 s un-marked as neither track makes this section?

If you have a clip from 5 s to 10 s that is red, and another clip from 15 s to 20 s that is blue, and you join the two clips. What color is 10 s to 15 s ?
[Lee] Why don't/can't we leave section from 10 s to 15 s un-marked?

If you duplicate a track that has colored clips, does the duplicate track also have the clip colors?
[Lee] May use a message box with buttons to give users options.

If you join two mono tracks that have different colors to make a stereo track, what happens to the colors?
[Lee] Either use color mix rule to create a "mixed" color, or pop up a warning message to give users options.

Currently we don't have right click functionality, but if/when we eventually do (and I hope that does happen at some point), I expect the priority will be to provide basic editing commands, such as cut, copy, paste, delete.
[Lee] Something like the menu below?

pop-up-menu.JPG (16.74 KiB) Viewed 921 times

[steve]

Lol, I have to admit I didn't consider so many potential scenarios

I'll admit, I've had loads of "great" ideas, only to find that it becomes much more complicated when considering implementation details.

I expect that colored clips would be "possible", but prompting to ask the user what to do in different scenarios is likely to significantly slow down the editing process (the opposite of the original intention). Perhaps one of the developers will decide to add something like this proposed feature, but I think you will agree that as well as the technical aspect of writing the code, there's also a lot of behavioural considerations to take into account.

On the Audacity wiki "feature requests" page, there is a request for: "Assign different colors to individual tracks, clips or regions".
I'll log your interest (your "vote") for that feature, but to be honest, I'd be very surprised if it gets implemented any time soon.

[steve]

I'll log your interest (your "vote") for that feature

Done. https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Feat ... oredtracks

[LeeX]

Thank you.

With some basic programming background, I understand sometimes (if not most time) even a simple feature may require many lines of code. Some enhancement may even need architect changes.

Regards,
Lee