Optimally zooming on a selection [SOLVED]

[SaxBlaCussionIzer]

Hey, another question about how to optimize my workflow. Using Audacity 2.2.1 and MacOS HighSierra 10.13.6. I've got a big long raw recording containing a bunch of single-hit samples and i want to basically cut/paste each of the hits into it's own selection that i can then export. I'd like to optimize this process in any way that i can. At first pass, i can select a hit (making kind of a rough cut) but then, when i start zooming in to find the EXACT beginning of the hit, the zoom feature is really kludgy, and i'm hoping there's a way to have it go to where i want.

So, when i zoom in after i've made a selection, i'd love, Love, LOVE it if the Zoom would zoom in on the beginning (or the end) of my selection. However, if i center my selection in my screen and start zooming, the zoom point moves further and further to the left of my selection, as i zoom in. Then, i have to move my cursor further and further back to the right to find my initial selection point that i wanted to zoom in on in the first place. It's pretty cumbersome, i'm used to using SoundForge back in the day and it would automatically zoom in on the left edge of my selection.

Is there any way to use Zoom to zoom in EXACTLY on say the starting point of my selection? And also the ending point of my selection, although that is less critical. If anyone has any ideas on how to further optimize this process that i might know about, i'm all ears!

thanks!

[steve]

Is there any way to use Zoom to zoom in EXACTLY on say the starting point of my selection?

In Audacity 2.3.0:
Position the mouse pointer to the left of the start of the selection.
Zoom in using Command + Mouse Wheel (I'm guessing that it's the Command button - On Windows and Linux it is Ctrl + Mouse Wheel).

To zoom out, keeping the left end of the selection centred, position the mouse pointer slightly to the right of the left edge of the selection, then Command and Mouse Wheel (in opposite direction).

Personal view: I find that scrolling with a "Magic Mouse" is terrible compared to my $5 "Advent" mouse. Your mileage may vary

[steve]

Audacity 2.3.0 is available via the Audacity website: https://www.audacityteam.org/download/mac/

[SaxBlaCussionIzer]

Thanks for the tip, installing now, will advise. As a note, when i run the 2.3 version, the Mac OS is saying "Audacity is not optimized for your Mac. - This app needs to be updated by its developer to improve compatibility".

[SaxBlaCussionIzer]

Downloaded/installed and YES! This is EXACTLY what i was looking for, thank you for pointing this out to me. I really appreciate it!

cheers,
jim.

[SaxBlaCussionIzer]

Thanks for the tip, installing now, will advise. As a note, when i run the 2.3 version, the Mac OS is saying "Audacity is not optimized for your Mac. - This app needs to be updated by its developer to improve compatibility".

I clicked on "learn more" and it appears to be that there's a 32-bit/64-bit issue here, maybe i installed the wrong version? I only saw one possibility for Macs on version 2.3.....

[steve]

when i run the 2.3 version, the Mac OS is saying "Audacity is not optimized for your Mac. - This app needs to be updated by its developer to improve compatibility".

You can safely ignore that for now.

Apple are abandoning support for 32-bit software and 32-bit Macs, so they want everyone else to do the same. Mojave is the final version of macOS to support 32-bit software. To date, we have released 32-bit versions of Audacity which work on both 32-bit and 64-bit machines, but the next Audacity release will by 64-bit (we will no longer be able to support 32-bit Macs).

[SaxBlaCussionIzer]

Gotcha, thanks for the information, i do have the right version then. You may close this thread. Thanks for the help!

cheers,
jim.