What is the moving red line and caret while recording?

[andr0id]

Looked at the docs, but I don't even see a screen shot of what I'm seeing. Maybe it's been there, but I haven't noticed.

In 2.2.2, I see red caret in the timeline and a vertical red line trailing my waveform being recorded. (It's moving, it's not clipping)

What does that indicate?

Thank you!

[steve]

When you play a track, there's a green triangle in the Timeline, symbolising the "play head" position. Below this triangle in the audio track, is a black vertical line, which is the "play position cursor".
During recording, you have the same, except they are red.
http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/timeline.html

[andr0id]

thanks for the info.

The weird thing is normally the head of the waveform chases the record marker.

left to right
Wave > slight gap > record line


in this case it was backwards and the record line was about 5 seconds behind the front of the wave.

record line > 3..5 seconds of wave > head of wave

[steve]

normally the head of the waveform chases the record marker.

Yes, that's normal, because the record position doesn't wait for the waveform graphic to be drawn, so the drawing is always catching up with the actual recorded audio.

in this case it was backwards and the record line was about 5 seconds behind the front of the wave.

Yes, that sounds weird. Are you able to reproduce that or was it a one-off?