Easy way to advance the cursor

[tinker123]

Linux Mint 14 Nadia
Audacity 2.0.1


I have a number of long recordings I want to break up into multiple tracks/MP3s. Part of the job is jumping around the records deciding where I want to split things. I often want to move forward or backward in the recording by a very small degree, but the GUI cursor often will only move in much larger chunks. Is there an easy to go to the exact numbered (time) spot I want to go to in the recording?

[kozikowski]

I think that's what Snap To and the time windows at the bottom of the main window do.

http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/se ... olbar.html

Koz

[Gale Andrews]

The editing cursor moves 1 px in response to LEFT arrow or RIGHT arrow when you are not playing or recording. So if you are zoomed in, it makes smaller time movements.

Would you find it useful to have a shortcut that nudges the editing cursor by the same small amount irrespective of zoom level? It's a feature request, but we could add your vote for it.


Gale

[tinker123]

The editing cursor moves 1 px in response to LEFT arrow or RIGHT arrow when you are not playing or recording. So if you are zoomed in, it makes smaller time movements.

Would you find it useful to have a shortcut that nudges the editing cursor by the same small amount irrespective of zoom level? It's a feature request, but we could add your vote for it.


Gale

Sounds like a good idea! Thanks!

[Gale Andrews]

The editing cursor moves 1 px in response to LEFT arrow or RIGHT arrow when you are not playing or recording. So if you are zoomed in, it makes smaller time movements.

Would you find it useful to have a shortcut that nudges the editing cursor by the same small amount irrespective of zoom level? It's a feature request, but we could add your vote for it.

Sounds like a good idea! Thanks!

What time distance would you find useful, assuming we did not provide a way to customise the distance?


Gale

[tinker123]

I wrote in out of frustration using audacity while trying to decide at which spots to break apart a track on.

I would listen to the audio, hear a point that I would think would be good to break off on, let the audio go for a tiny bit more to make sure and then have a hard time navigating back to my break off spot so I could read the numbers for where it is at.

I kept trying to drag the line/cursor back, then I tried double clicking the with the mouse/cursor but it wouldn't "register" until I got very far away and with many clicks.

It would be nice just to place the cursor on the vertical line and drag that back.

[steve]

I would listen to the audio, hear a point that I would think would be good to break off on, let the audio go for a tiny bit more to make sure and then have a hard time navigating back to my break off spot so I could read the numbers for where it is at.

Try this:
Set the audio playing.
Ensure that you are zoomed out far enough so that the screen is not scrolling too fast (perhaps around 1 minute of audio on screen). As the cursor gets toward the end of the screen, use the scroll bar at the bottom of the tracks window to move the display along so that the cursor remains well within the visible part of the track.
When you hear a part that you think will be good to "break off", click on the audio track and drag a short distance so as to select a short region that encompasses the "break off" point.
Press spacebar to stop playback.
Use the "Zoom to Selection" button to zoom in on the highlighted region.

It should now be simple to select the exact point that you want.

[Gale Andrews]

I've come to the same conclusion as Robert J.H. that it was a mistake to not be able to move the editing cursor with the keyboard when playing. I find this much easier than using the mouse, and more important, much easier to react quickly.

You can use CTRL + B to label the region or the editing cursor point, even while playing.


Gale