Audacity Forum

OS: Vista

Kudos on two changes in this build (didn't look into when they first appeared):

Audio format/sample rate moved to bottom of TCP:
Good - lets one shrink tracks so only the MUTE/SOLO status and Gain settings are shown, which is all one usually needs to see when concentrating on some other track(s).

Dropdown menu for selection boundaries:
Particularly useful to me is the option of showing the time at center of selection. We have a video projector hanging from the ceiling right over the pulpit with two rather loud variable-speed fans. I spend a lot of time searching for the speed changes so I can partition the notch filter zones, and I do this with a half-interval search. I mark two spots where the frequencies are different, select the region between them and check the frequencies at the center of that region, then repeat the process in the side of center that now contains the change. I use the flip of the finger cursor to find the center, but have hitherto used mental approximation to get close to it. Now I can just read the center time from the screen.

Question: Is there a quick way to move a selection boundary to the mouse cursor while stopped when the resulting selection will be less than half the length of the original? So far the quickest way I've found is to start playback from a point just before the intended position (keyboard '1') and use '[' or ']' to set the boundary, then shift-click to correct it. Seems like there ought to be a more direct way of doing this, but I've never found it.

What else would be useful:
1: A way to save/restore the focus. Sure, there's a shortcut to the first and last track, but not to e.g., previous focused track. Focus changes autonomously whenever an effect is applied, and usually must be moved back with the arrow keys.
2: A command to move the focused track (or the bottom track) to the top. When one has just used Duplicate, Split New or Add New, the new track is always outside the sync-lock range and needs to be moved at least above the label tracks. With a small screen and many tracks, moving it to the top with the mouse can take a while.

DickN wrote: Is there a quick way to move a selection boundary to the mouse cursor while stopped when the resulting selection will be less than half the length of the original?

Of the original selection?

DickN wrote:So far the quickest way I've found is to start playback from a point just before the intended position (keyboard '1') and use '[' or ']' to set the boundary, then shift-click to correct it.

That doesn't appear to do what the previous sentence says that you want to do. Perhaps an example with actual time positions would make it clearer what you are asking.

DickN wrote:2: A command to move the focused track (or the bottom track) to the top

There's a command to do that in the track dropdown menu.
It is now possible to add a keyboard shortcut. Search in keyboard preferences for "move focused"

steve wrote:

DickN wrote: Is there a quick way to move a selection boundary to the mouse cursor while stopped when the resulting selection will be less than half the length of the original?

Of the original selection?

Right.

steve wrote:

DickN wrote:So far the quickest way I've found is to start playback from a point just before the intended position (keyboard '1') and use '[' or ']' to set the boundary, then shift-click to correct it.

That doesn't appear to do what the previous sentence says that you want to do. Perhaps an example with actual time positions would make it clearer what you are asking.

OK -

Let's say your select region is initially from time=30s to time=60s, and you've been using 'B' near the end of this region to find the exact point where you want another selection (e.g., for a fade down) to start. You have the mouse cursor at the right spot, at time=55s. 'B' plays to the nearest boundary, so you know <shift>+<left click> will shrink the region from that boundary instead of from the left.

I use this method to avoid moving the mouse cursor:

I poise a finger over '[' and hit '1' to start playback just ahead of where I want the new left boundary to be, and then hit '[' when playback is close to the mouse cursor.
Then <shift>+<left click>, without moving the mouse, sets the left boundary exactly at the mouse cursor.

steve wrote:

DickN wrote:2: A command to move the focused track (or the bottom track) to the top

There's a command to do that in the track dropdown menu.
It is now possible to add a keyboard shortcut. Search in keyboard preferences for "move focused"

Thanks, Steve I see those have been around a while and I never noticed them.

OK, I see what you mean now.
I'm not aware of a more direct way of doing that, but I don't recall ever being in that situation. Generally what I would do is to drag the left end of the selection somewhere around the 55 second mark before I zoomed into the end of the selection, then rather than using "B" to test the play position I would use Space.

Alternatively (depending on the job and what I was doing before), I might abandon the original selection and just create a new selection from 55 to 60 seconds. If the 60 second position was critical (and not such a convenient number), I may have made a split at that position (Ctrl+i), or added a label at that position, so that I could easily select up to and from that position.