White Space

[steve]

Are we reacting to that one time in 1993 when one person needed an edit to not include leading silence?

I don't think the reason for excluding leading silence has ever been explained. Someone obviously thought at some time that it was a good idea, and made it so.

[kozikowski]

Someone obviously thought at some time that it was a good idea, and made it so.

Or more likely, it was easier to code.

So it's Reason Number 7.

"We've always done it that way."

I can't find the full list. I need to find somebody who used to work at the same company.

Koz

[steve]

Or more likely, it was easier to code.

No. Go back to an old enough version (early 1.3.x perhaps), white-space was included in the export.

[kozikowski]

That just begs the question then. Why did someone think it was desirable to produce a new feature that so obviously violates natural production flow?

It could be a "B Word." The damage just wasn't evil enough to ring bells. It certainly produces (possibly) unintended, undesirable results and it happens to multiple people on multiple different computers and can be replicated at any time by anyone.

Koz

[Gale Andrews]

Audacity should provide an option to render leading "white space" as silence in exported files.That empty space at the start of tracks in the exported file. Would make it so much easier when sending vocal tracks out for mixing and mastering.

If you don't mind empty space at the end of tracks, you could export as one multi-channel file by enabling "Use custom mix" in Import / Export Preferences. That will preserve the leading white space.

I've updated your "vote" and that of others on Wiki Feature Requests, so now we have 19 votes for an option or preference to "preserve start-time relative to time zero when exporting".

Clearly the users we have had lately who want to string multiple tracks end-to-end then export multiple would not appreciate silence at the start of the files. Why not add it as an enhancement issue on Bugzilla to provide the choice of white space or not? Other related options have been suggested too, if I recall.


Gale