Arrows pointing left at start of tracks

Audacity 3.2.2
Ventura 13.0.1

Please can you tell me why there are small arrows at the start of my tracks?

See image:
Copy of Arrows pointing left at beginning of tracke.png
I assume this means that the tracks have rolled backwards (not sure of official terminology) so that the start of the audio is not at the beginning of the track.

Please can you tell me how I can align the very start of the audio with the start of the track so that these arrows disappear?

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It means there is audio hidden before time=0
See: Audio Tracks - Audacity Manual

Yes, exactly that.


You can drag the audio clips. See: Audio Clips - Audacity Manual
or use “Tracks Menu > Align Tracks > Start to Zero”. See: Tracks Menu: Align Tracks - Audacity Manual

Thank you!

I have also gone into ‘track behaviours’ in preferences and unticked “Enable dragging selection edges” - hopefully this means it will stop this from happening!

It won’t.
When “Enable dragging selection edges” is enabled, it is possible to resize the “selection” (highlight) by dragging (or “Shift + drag”) the edge with your mouse. Normally this should be enabled because it comes in very useful. See: Selecting Audio - Audacity Manual

Ah yes, I see now - I need this enables to be able to drag the highlighted selection with the finger pointer icon to the left left or right


In that case, are you able to tell me how this could have happened (the start of the audio not being aligned with the track at 0) so that I can keep an eye on it?

Exactly right.


You must have accidentally dragged the tracks, like this: Audio Clips - Audacity Manual

Also, there is a bug in Audacity that could have caused this to happen: Copied clip with envelope points starts before zero. ¡ Issue #4035 ¡ audacity/audacity ¡ GitHub :wink:

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Lol thank you - Yes, I have a feeling it could be to do with a bug as it’s happened on a few of my tracks alongside the envelope bug and haven’t come across this issue when using Audacity in the past

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Hi Jademan - could this bug also be affecting the noise levels? I am pretty sure that my EQ filters and noise filters are not working properly. Do you know if anybody else noticed this along with the other issues?

Anna,
Here is another issue possibly affecting you: Paste shifts Envelope Points elsewhere in track ¡ Issue #4250 ¡ audacity/audacity ¡ GitHub

Do you see others reporting “pretty sure” filter problems?

If you have a specific issue, please post repeatable steps. I’ll take a look at it.

Great, thank you

If you have a specific issue, please post repeatable steps. I’ll take a look at it.
[/quote]

So I am not sure if it’s the bugs I have, or just that the changes are so minute that I cannot see/hear them, or, if I am doing something wrong…
but I don’t notice any changes in the audio at all when I apply a filter curve EQ, or when I use “noise reduction”.

Applying Filter Curve EQ:

I have kept the original track (track 1) and the track which has had a Filter Curve EQ applied (track 2 - this is the filter I have used: https://drive.google.com/file/d/163aSM4c-I6REKDqIzD9IzwiyDR4cXqma/view?usp=sharing)

Audio: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kkSA-lqMTyESqJ6mVhRxk2Mdf_W5ngoT/view?usp=sharing

STEPS:
1: duplicate track
2: highlight track 2
3: apply filter curve EQ
RESULT - No change (I don’t think?)

Thanks jademan!

Yes - that is exactly what it appears to be. Your filter is essentially a flat line, so I would be hard pressed to find anything but subtle audio changes:


In fact, if you invert the audio in track 2, (Effect > Special > Invert), then add it to your original track you can see that a minor change has been made to your audio (Mix 1, below):

And if you select this third track and do Analyze > Plot Spectrum, you will see a Spectrum that exactly matches your filter:
Anna Spectrum.png
So if you expect to be able to hear any differences, you are going to have to make much larger changes in your filter.

Ah, I see. Okay thank you for checking and letting me know!

In your opinion, are these settings in Filter Curve EQ suitable for a male voice on a podcast?

Also, do you have any recommendations for how / where I might be able to find or produce more suitable settings for Filter Curve EQ?

Thanks again!

I don’t have enough experience with filtering to give advice to anyone else. Perhaps someone else would like to comment. :smiley: