Audacity Forum

Great software! Thank you to everyone who works on it.
I have searched the Forum and the documentation, but cannot find an answer.
Version 2.0.4. Windows 7.

Is there any way to have Audacity automatically generate the track names as new tracks are created?
Similar to how the Export Multiple naming process works (really nice).

Example:
Define the first track name, something like “1.0” and have each successive track name generate accordingly: 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0 . . . 100.0 ?

PublicWorksTraining wrote:Is there any way to have Audacity automatically generate the track names as new tracks are created?

No there isn't. That would be a feature request so I'll move this to the "Adding Features" part of the forum.

The biggest problem that I can see with implementing such a thing is devising a naming scheme that everyone will be happy with.
Would users prefer "Track 1" or "Track1" or "Track 01" or "01-Track"?
If you manually name the 4th track, should the next track be numbered "4", "5" or go back to "1"?
Would the text part of the name be customisable? Could I have "Vocal 1", Vocal 2", "Guitar 1" "Guitar 2" ?
There would also need to be an option to turn the auto-numbering off,
Where would the options go?
In many ways I think it is a lot easier to just let users have whatever track naming scheme they want by entering the track name manually.
Just my 2 cents

Like most questions that prompt a new feature, they lead to dozens of additional questions.
Naming isn't a big deal if you have a dozen tracks, but naming tracks takes time and clicks and disrupts the speaker flow, especially if you have 150 tracks. Then, if you had to insert 20 new tracks in post production, that would take a few hundred clicks of Move Up. Or go in and name every track.

Since the Export Multiple has such a great tool for naming the files, maybe this process could be replicated. Make the naming process just a command, like the Export Multiple. The names wouldn't be created as the tracks are created, but when you have 120 tracks you could use the Apply Track Name command, just like the export, and it would fill the track names accordingly. New, insert tracks could be named manually to fit the existing name scheme, then Tracks, Sort, by Name would put everything in order.

PublicWorksTraining wrote:The names wouldn't be created as the tracks are created, but when you have 120 tracks you could use the Apply Track Name command

That sounds feasible.

I can't visualise your working process though and how you would have 120 tracks, I presume that you mean in the same project, of a speaker. Perhaps you could describe what you are doing.

We are building online training and presentations from PowerPoint slide decks. Since the record functionality and interface in PowerPoint is so poor, we want to use Audacity to record the narrations.
Our work flow is:
1. Record one track per slide
2. Record next track from the end of the previous.
This allows us to play from start to finish for review against the slides.
3. Edit run in and out
5. Export back into PowerPoint through the iSpring plugin
6. Compile to html5 with the iSpring plugin and send out for review.
7. If additional slides are needed, we have to go back into the AUP project and record.
8. Then shift those new tracks, sitting at the bottom, to their correct position.
This is where the need comes in. If there are 120 tracks, and 20 additional slides.
9. Export again, import, etc.
It’s working great.

Better identification of the problem and possible solution.
This track naming issue results from not being able to insert a new, empty track between two existing tracks. If it could do that, the need for consecutive naming goes away. The Export Multiple would take care of the consecutive naming.

PublicWorksTraining wrote:7. If additional slides are needed, we have to go back into the AUP project and record.
8. Then shift those new tracks, sitting at the bottom, to their correct position.
This is where the need comes in. If there are 120 tracks, and 20 additional slides.

It sounds like you need a bulk file renaming tool (batch renaming).
As an example, if you have 120 tracks and you need to insert a track between 10 and 11, use the file renaming tool to rename the tracks 11 to 200 so that their new names are 12 to 201. Then open Audacity, fresh project, record the new slide 11, name it, export it, done.

Another approach could be to record all of the slides on one track and label each slide (http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/label_tracks.html)
If you need to insert a new slide, just record it on a new track, then cut and paste it into the first track in the appropriate place. "Export Multiple" can then handle the numbering of the exported files.

Labels are a solution, but the narrator would have to take to time to isolate every track and name it. Kinda kills the flow of the narration. Which makes a difference.

Bulk renaming would require a new feature for minimal users.

The more I think about this, I go back to the root of the problem -- not being able to "insert" a track, they way you would insert a row in a spreadsheet.

An INSERT TRACK feature would be beneficial to all Audacity users, like INSERT is in other applications.

I can "insert" a clip into an existing track and the rest of the show moves forward out of the way. Insert a five second clip into a 50 second show and you're left with a 55 second show.
Koz

kozikowski wrote:I can "insert" a clip into an existing track and the rest of the show moves forward out of the way. Insert a five second clip into a 50 second show and you're left with a 55 second show.

As I understand it, we are talking about Audacity tracks stacked on top of each other. The OP doesn't want to record on one track and use labels (because the labels don't generate themselves). You don't have to name the labels, though, if you can live with 01-untitled, 02-untitled and so on as names.

Also you can't punch-in record in the middle of a track.


Gale

PublicWorksTraining wrote:Bulk renaming would require a new feature for minimal users.

Bulk file renaming tools are already available (look on Google for one for your operating system).

PublicWorksTraining wrote:An INSERT TRACK feature would be beneficial to all Audacity users, like INSERT is in other applications.

I agree, though perhaps it would not need to be a special "insert" command.
I think that the following slight change to the current behaviour would provide equivalent functionality:
"Tracks > Add New > Audio": Inserts a new track below the currently selected track, or adds a new track at the top of the project if no tracks are selected.
(When working with large projects, always adding new tracks to the bottom has always seemed to me to be the least convenient place to put the new track).
Pressing "Record" would still create a new track at the bottom, as now.

It still seems to me that working with a stack of over 100 sound clips is a cumbersome approach to the task.