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Rename multiple tracks at once

Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2013 11:06 am
by voiceofjaybritton
Hi All,

I have a customer who requires me to record lots of sentences as individual tracks and for these tracks to be named in a certain fashion. As you imagine renaming 100 tracks takes quite a bit of time, is there any way I can copy / paste a list of track names? Or is there another of doing this that would be quicker?

Thanks in advance!

Jay

Re: Rename multiple tracks at once

Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2013 5:29 pm
by steve
Perhaps "Export Multiple" can be used: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/ex ... tiple.html

Re: Rename multiple tracks at once

Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2013 5:58 pm
by voiceofjaybritton
Unfortunately that doesn't help as the names of the tracks are not sequential

Re: Rename multiple tracks at once

Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2013 6:41 pm
by steve
How about recording them all on one track, then adding labels for each part (which will become separate files), then use Export Multiple and take the file names from the Labels (see here for a similar procedure: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Spli ... ate_tracks)

Re: Rename multiple tracks at once

Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2013 7:00 pm
by voiceofjaybritton
That would work but is still dependant on me inserting 193 separate labels! Ideally I'm looking for a way just to copy a paste a track list

Re: Rename multiple tracks at once

Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2013 7:08 pm
by steve
Label tracks can be imported.
See here to find out more about labels: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/label_tracks.html

Re: Rename multiple tracks at once

Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2015 4:44 pm
by Steve Bender
I would just like to add my support to the OP's idea.

It would be AMAZING if I could rename all the tracks in a project in one fell swoop. I think some kind of pop-up interface (existing name in left column - new name in right column, which defaults to whatever the left column is if you don't change anything) would probably be the most useful and intuitive for the "average" user. People could learn how to do that in literally seconds, and get back to workign rathe than learning a more involved process. But I could also see this working really well as some kind of Nyquist prompt, which would allow users to just dump a track list in from Excel, text file etc.

I realize there are workarounds for this already, such as adding a label track, using time shift to change vertical tracks into one long single track by snapping to label borders, Export Multiple, reload tracks etc. But that's actually a fairly cumbersome process overall.

A feature that makes it much faster and easier would be soooooooo helpful. Because, honestly, I don't think the averge user will go the the trouble of learning and doing the label/multiple export method. Pretty high learning curve.

Re: Rename multiple tracks at once

Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2015 4:48 pm
by voiceofjaybritton
Wow, forgot I asked this lol!

In the end I just wrote a very simple Excel file, I copy and paste the filenames I want into the Excel file and it produces a script I can just copy and paste into a dos command window to rename all the files after I've exported them from Audacity, works a treat!

Re: Rename multiple tracks at once

Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2015 4:54 pm
by Steve Bender
voiceofjaybritton wrote:In the end I just wrote a very simple Excel file, I copy and paste the filenames I want into the Excel file and it produces a script I can just copy and paste into a dos command window to rename all the files after I've exported them from Audacity, works a treat!
I'm glad that it worked out for you. But this solution is an example of something that the "average" user will just never do. You're clearly above average in computer literacy!

Re: Rename multiple tracks at once

Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2015 5:34 pm
by Gale Andrews
Moved to "Adding Features".

But what are the renaming requirements exactly? It's not rename all tracks to have the same name is it?

Gale