Protecting a Track

[tfolster]

Is there anyway to protect a track from accidental edits? I use Audacity sometimes doing live audio. One scenario I use it in frequently is working with a choreographer who is rehearsing a new piece or teaching it to new dancers. The choreographer will want to skip around in the music quite often and will have specific points that he or she will want to return to over and over again. To keep track of all of these different points I create a label track. Sometimes I accidentally grab a handle on a label and move it where I didn't want to. Being able to protect the track would help to avoid those types of mistakes. I could also see where protecting a track might be handy when editing multiple tracks at once. By protecting a track that I did not want to edit, I could select all others above and below it by still clicking and dragging across the multiple tracks I want to edit. I haven't been able to find any sort of track protect option though.

[kozikowski]

You can lock tracks to each other, but not lock everybody out. Ganging tracks will just create more damage. You're looking for a theatrical media player, maybe?

You can quickly UNDO a move. Control-Z in Windows.

Koz

[Gale Andrews]

I could also see where protecting a track might be handy when editing multiple tracks at once. By protecting a track that I did not want to edit, I could select all others above and below it by still clicking and dragging across the multiple tracks I want to edit.

You could use the Audio Track Dropdown Menu to move a track up or down out of the way (or click and drag on the Track Control Panel outside the controls to move a track).

Or, after the drag-select, use UP or DOWN arrow to move the yellow focus border to the track you want to exclude from the selection, then press ENTER on your keyboard.


Gale

[steve]

Is there anyway to protect a track from accidental edits?

Backups. Lots of backups. Backups are your friends, your allies, your salvation.
I've done a lot of this type of work, (really interesting and enjoyable, but often hectic with a lot of pressure to make complex changes "instantly"). Work out a good, effective system for backing everything up regularly, and backup as you go.

If making a recording is part of the project, the first thing to do when the recording is complete is to export a backup copy of the track.

"File menu > Save Project As" to backup a complete project.
"File menu > Export Audio" to backup an individual track.

Be organised in your folder structure.
Don't use a Mac (modern versions of OS X are terrible for organising folders and tags don't have the flexibility).
Develop a scheme that works for you and fits with your workflow.
If a pencil and notebook helps, use that (some sound designers swear by such "old technology"). If a database works for you, use that. If using organised folders is enough for you, use that. The important thing is that you have a system that works efficiently for you.

One little "trick" that I would often use was to make duplicates of important tracks, shift the duplicates to the top of the project, name them clearly, mute them and collapse them. It's then a kind of "in-project backup" of that track, (but is in addition, not a replacement for a proper backup).

Make a full backup of everything, including your backups, to at least one external device at the end of each days work (external hard drives are useful for this).

[Robert J. H.]

I think that this topic is a feature request for freezing tracks.
Gale, do we have already something along this lines where votes could be added?

[Gale Andrews]

I think that this topic is a feature request for freezing tracks.

I agree, I've moved the topic to adding features.

do we have already something along this lines where votes could be added?

I don't think so. There are a couple of votes to prevent a track from moving horizontally.

Do you want to vote for edit protection on a track?


Gale

[waxcylinder]

Question: what happens if you have edit protection for a track - and that track is part of a sync-locked track group and a selection is made in one of te other tracks and than a deletion is made?

What takes precedence - the track-lock or the sync-lock?

Similarly if the user makes multi-track selects and then makes a deletion with a locked track present in the selection.

Peter.

[steve]

For the purpose described by tfolster, "protected" would have to mean "locked against any change to the track contents". By inference, that would mean that a locked track could not be part of a Sync-Locked group. While locked, the only operations allowed would be to move the track up/down the track order, mute, solo, and possibly track pan / track gain.

A minor concern that I would have, is that it may give an overly optimistic impression about the robustness / security of a track. Users might assume that if the track is "locked" / "protected" then it is guaranteed to be "safe", but what if the track has dependencies? Unless "protecting" the track automatically copies the track data into the project, then there is nothing to stop the track being altered by actions to the external "dependency" files. Even if the track is copied into the project, how safe is it in the event of catastrophic computer failure? I would still have to advocate extensive use of backups for tfolster's use case.

Good point waxy. If we have a proposal to "protect" tracks, we need need to have a clear idea what that means.

[Gale Andrews]

I think the Track Lock takes precedence over Sync-Lock.

You could argue that you should not even be able to change the track order. If you had tracks 1 to 3 and 2 was track-locked, dragging track 1 downwards did nothing until you reached track 3. The track can be seen and heard but does not exist for purposes of any manipulation.

Gale

[steve]

You could argue that you should not even be able to change the track order.

I don't think that works...

The track can be seen and heard but does not exist for purposes of any manipulation.

Say you lock the first track, then you use the track drop-down menu to move a track to the top - either this moves the locked track down, or the locked track "exists and affects" the manipulation of other tracks.

Similarly, if mute / solo are disabled. then the usefulness of locked tracks is crippled (severely restricted).