Selecting part of a track to make a re-recording of it

[eager to learn]

Well, once I have created the beginning of the piece by Shift/A how do I mark the end of the portion I want? I could hit the stop button - could I then choose File > Export Selection and it would save the portion from Shift/A to where I hit the stop button?

Or must I somehow mark that stop position so that it's saved for Audacity to then export?

Thank you.

[Gale Andrews]

Well, once I have created the beginning of the piece by Shift/A how do I mark the end of the portion I want? I could hit the stop button - could I then choose File > Export Selection and it would save the portion from Shift/A to where I hit the stop button?

Or must I somehow mark that stop position so that it's saved for Audacity to then export?

There are numerous workflows to do what you want to do, but there is no single shortcut to get the result you want.

SHIFT + A is convenient to set the cursor to where you stopped, but it does not save that cursor position. If you move the cursor after that you cannot guarantee to go back to the exact same place where you were.

You don't have to save any selection to export that selection. It's only important if you want to go back to that selection after having changed or removed the selection.

If you like SHIFT + A to set the cursor at the start point, try this. After SHIFT + A, start playing or recording, depending what you want to do. When you hear the place you want to stop, press ] (right square bracket) on your keyboard. That marks a selection from the cursor to the point on the Timeline where you pressed ]. Press Stop.

If you want, do CTRL + B to label that selection in case you need to click in the label to make that selection again.

Now press Play which plays the selection.

I think you know how to use SHIFT + LEFT to move the left edge of the selection back to the left, or SHIFT + RIGHT to move the right edge of the selection a bit to the right. When the selection is correct, File > Export Selection.


Gale

[eager to learn]

Hi Gale,

What a wonderful work-around!

I can hit Play and when I find the exact place to star the new redoring hit SHIFT/A hit play and listen to where I would like the new recording to end and hit ] - the bracket key 2 away from the letter P and hit the Stop button simultaneously and it creates a "first draft" of a new recording.

From there, if I want o shorten or lengthen the new recording's "first draft" I can either move the finger left to start at an earlier beginning or right to end it later or go down to the digital counter and type in new numbers for the beginning in the middle counter and/or new numbers in the last counter to extend or shorten the ending.

Then, play that and if it's perfect then choose File > Export Selection and I can then save that new recording as an MP3, .amr, .wav, etc.

Thank you so very, very much for all your help and great patience.

My best to you for a relaxing weekend.

[Gale Andrews]

It sound like you have solved the problem. Well done

Since most of this was nothing to do with FFmpeg I split the posts about selecting audio to a new topic.


Gale