Playback start position cursor missing on 3.1.2

Running Audacity 3.1.2 on Win 10 21H1.

I hadn’t used the program for years and I was surprised to no longer see the playback start position cursor

. I checked the manual reference here and it is still mentioned.




During playback, the unpinned-head playback cursor

is here. It’s here as long i use P to pause playing. If I press the spacebar to stop, there is no playback start position cursor

. The one I’m really missing.

I made a clean install and untouched any settings for testing. Sounds like a bug unless this feature has been removed although the manual doesn’t mention such a thing.

The little leftward pointing triangle was removed for 3.1.0 and onwards - but you should still see a black vertical line indicating the play start position - but only if you have a point cursor position and not a selection:
play position.png
If you have a selection present there is then no indication in the Timeline - this is a known bug that should be fixed for the upcoming 3.1.3:
Selected region is not shown on Timeline #2067
https://github.com/audacity/audacity/issues/2067


The manuals for 3.1.0 through 3.1.2 were not updated for this change, this was an oversight AFAIK. I (I used to be the Manual editor before Muse tool over Audacity) have updated this for the upcoming Manual for 3.1.3
https://alphamanual.audacityteam.org/man/Playback#regions

Good to know. Thanks.

Thanks :sunglasses:

I’ve also combed through the manual to mark up other pages that also need images updating with editor-notes so that the current manual editor will hopefully make those changes.

Peter

How do you know at what times a selection starts and ends?
For example, in this screenshot, what time does the selection end? Previously I could see it in the Timeline.

Since 3.0.x there is no “move tool” symbol (5) anymore, instead there’s just an empty place between the zoom tool (F4) and the multi-tool (6).

Whose idea was this? It just makes no sense. I only registered here - and can’t open a thread yet - to report this greatly missing option. For this reason alone I have to stuck to older versions because I DO NEED (!!!) the option TO MOVE TRACKS.

See this announcement: Time Shift Tool (F5) removed

lol it’s easier to move tracks with 3.1.2 because no specific tool is required but yes you needed to register to complain.

If I want to align MULTIPLE TRACKS at once - so they are synched when moving, how am I supposed to do this.

That empty space and removing a BASIC function is not a good design decision. I have no idea how to move multiple tracks now, the program doesn’t explain anything.

As you did before, by selecting all the tracks / clips that you want to move. Only difference is that you now drag on the “Clip Handle” rather than switching to the Time Shift Tool.

I understand now. Thanks, steve.

But wouldn’t you agree it’s not a good design choice? Now there’s an empty space in the toolbar - noone asked for that - and every single track is losing space to display the waveform because it now has to show that “clip handle” at the top, so they are all smaller in aspect ratio. The smaller the aspect ratio for multiple tracks, the less comfortable gets a comparison.

I would like to have the old option as an alternative. Let people use the “clip handles” if they want to enable them and give others more room for each track and please give us the “move tool” (F5) back.

I think that would be much more appreciated - not just by me.

This is an issue acknowledged by Muse

Selected region is not shown on Timeline #2067

They have committed to fix this for 3,1,3 - it has been assigned to Paul Licameli

Peter

I’ve been using this new feature for a while, and now that I’ve got used to it I find it “OK”. I don’t see it as a ‘necessary’ change, or even as an ‘improvement’. Audacity already had the “Multi-tool” for anyone that prefers to use one tool for everything rather than switching tools for different tasks.


Pretty sure that’s just a temporary issue. I expect that the “Tools toolbar” will be completely overhauled at some stage.


I don’t like that either. I find that it makes working on large multi-track projects significantly less easy.


Personally I prefer the old “Time Shift Tool”, which I see as analogous to the “Move” tool found in graphics programs (such as Photoshop / Gimp).
I think that the ability to name clips can be useful in some situations, though in most projects it’s clutter that adds nothing useful.

^ Whom would I have to reach out, so they might re-consider giving us the old option, too? I’m not a fan of unnecessary changes. IMO it’s comparable to the same mistakes Microsoft have been doing for decades, like when they removed the entire start menu with Windows 8 and claimed “our analysis showed that noone used it” → LOL.

I think the removal of the Time Shift tool is unlikely to change, but you could try posting to the Audacity Discord channel (which is seen by the development team): Audacity