Audacity Forum

I'm trying to use 'cut preview' with split stereo audio tracks. It won't play both tracks and further, I've found that if I test various selections in the single tracks, I get varying results from working correctly in the individual track to not working at all.
Thanks much. I'm a first time user and this looks like a great app!
Version 2.0.3 on Win7 Professional. exe installer.

Cut Preview is designed to preview only the first of multiple selected tracks.
I agree that it would be more useful if it previewed a mix of all selected tracks.

There's three main options that come to mind:
A) Preview the first selected track only (as now).
B) Preview a mix of selected tracks.
C) Preview a mix of all tracks (whether selected or not.

There is then a follow-on question, whether "Mute" and "Solo" states should be honoured - that is, if a track is muted, should it be included in the preview mix?
My choice would be to only preview non-muted tracks.

I'll move this topic to the "Adding Features" section in case anyone else wants to contribute their thoughts or vote for what they would prefer.

D) Preview the mix (thus respecting Mute and Solo, and ignoring track selectedness).

Didn't we discuss this a year ago, and didn't the discussion get onto the -quality mailing list?

-- Bill

billw58 wrote:D) Preview the mix (thus respecting Mute and Solo, and ignoring track selectedness).

Didn't we discuss this a year ago, and didn't the discussion get onto the -quality mailing list?

Don't know about that, but it's already logged on bugzilla http://bugzilla.audacityteam.org/show_bug.cgi?id=231 . I ended up supporting Bill's point of view.



Gale

I agree that previewing the mix and respecting solo/mute would be by far the best implementation.
That's how it works in Audition, which I'm hoping to switch from.
Audacity already has Adobe beat on one aspect of this feature: setting the pre- and post- playback values in the prefs.
Thanks.

steve wrote:My choice would be to only preview non-muted tracks.

I'm going to change my vote.
"Cut Preview" is intended to preview the effect of cutting. I'm changing my vote for it to work in the same way as Preview in other effects - that is, to preview a mix of the selected tracks regardless of mute/solo status.

steve wrote:

steve wrote:My choice would be to only preview non-muted tracks.

I'm going to change my vote.
"Cut Preview" is intended to preview the effect of cutting. I'm changing my vote for it to work in the same way as Preview in other effects - that is, to preview a mix of the selected tracks regardless of mute/solo status.

I see it as a playback preview (cut is not an effect), so like other playback you choose the selection region but the tracks the selection plays in are determined by mute/solo status. You cannot change mute/solo state while previewing an effect.

If you still end up at your current position perhaps you should add a comment to the bug report.


Gale

Gale Andrews wrote:I see it as a playback preview (cut is not an effect

I thought about that, and yes, strictly speaking "cut" is not an "effect", but equally "Preview" is not "Play".

Gale Andrews wrote:You cannot change mute/solo state while previewing an effect

More to the point, you can't change track solo/preview state while previewing.

Preview creates a temporary mix of the preview region - in this case, two preview regions (before and after the selection. It then plays that mix. Changing the state of Mute and Solo track buttons during preview can have no effect on what is played because it is not the tracks that are playing, it is the "preview mix" that is playing.

So that is the technical reason, then there is the user perspective:

"Preview" should show what is going to be done. If the selection includes muted tracks, then the muted tracks will be cut along with the tracks that are not muted. If the user does not want them cut, then they must not be selected. Not including muted tracks in the preview is dangerous as the user will not hear what is going to be done to those tracks. If, for example, the user has accidentally selected a muted track along with a number of not-muted tracks and then preview the cut, they will be blissfully unaware of their mistake until some point in the future when they un-mute the track and discover to their dismay that there is a section missing.

Gale Andrews wrote:If you still end up at your current position perhaps you should add a comment to the bug report.

If I don't change my mind again, I will

steve wrote:

Gale Andrews wrote:You cannot change mute/solo state while previewing an effect

More to the point, you can't change track solo/preview state while previewing.

Preview creates a temporary mix of the preview region - in this case, two preview regions (before and after the selection. It then plays that mix. Changing the state of Mute and Solo track buttons during preview can have no effect on what is played because it is not the tracks that are playing, it is the "preview mix" that is playing.

I did not know that was the case. I assumed it was something like two queued Quick Plays, and the fact that you could not audibly change mute/solo state during Cut Preview was the same issue that causes Cut Preview to fail to stop if the track is muted.

I would expect to be able to audibly change Mute / Solo during a cut Preview. If you can't and that's regarded as a "feature" it may (or may not) cause me to rethink my vote.

steve wrote:"Preview" should show what is going to be done. If the selection includes muted tracks, then the muted tracks will be cut along with the tracks that are not muted. If the user does not want them cut, then they must not be selected. Not including muted tracks in the preview is dangerous as the user will not hear what is going to be done to those tracks. If, for example, the user has accidentally selected a muted track along with a number of not-muted tracks and then preview the cut, they will be blissfully unaware of their mistake until some point in the future when they un-mute the track and discover to their dismay that there is a section missing.

Perhaps, but I think many users will assume the behaviour is like Play and find it confusing. The feature is in the "Playback" Preferences. Perhaps they explicitly don't want to hear the muted selected track that is going to have a piece cut from it (because they muted it).


Gale

I'd suggest looking at simple example:
Say I'm editing a conversation between two people and I need to remove a section. I select the section and use cut-preview to tweak the selection. I need to hear both tracks. If there is a music track, I'll probably mute that while making the edit.