Hi Marlon
What a valuable summary. One correction: the default command to stop
playing and set the cursor to that position is x, not c. The c command
plays material before and after a selected portion, which can be very useful
too.
On my machine the shift-control-a command still deselects everything. In
Keyboard under Preferences choose the Name radio button and put none into
the search field and see what is assigned.
Andrew
From: audacity4blind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<audacity4blind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Marlon Brandão de Sousa
Sent: Sunday, 5 April 2020 8:17 AM
To: audacity4blind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; Adrian <ado58@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [audacity4blind] Re: Editting
Here is what I can say:
1- Remember always that audacity is multi track. This is obvious but my
experience says that it is as easier to forget as it is to remember.
2- Because it is multi track, tracks can be selected or not. The track
selection has nothing to do with time range selections, these are two
different things.
3- Selected tracks are affected by whatever you want to do. Applying
effects, cutting, stuff that affect sounds will affect only selected tracks.
4- If more tan one track is selected, more than one track will be affected
by operations.
5- The time range is absolute, it does not depend on tracks. It starts in 0
and go until the end of the very last track to finish.
6- To start a selection, use the [ key. If sound is playing, this marks the
time range where the selection begins. Similarly, use the ] key to determine
the end of the selection, in terms of time range.
6.1- When you are playing a sound, the time range advances accordingly with
what you are listening. This is why when you press [ to mark the start of
the selection and ] to mark the end of the selection these markers are fixed
on the time range corresponding to the exact moments you pressed that keys
and audio keeps playing.
7- The selection goes from start time to end time and all selected tracks
that have content within the selection range will be affected by whatever
operation is done to that selection. Tracks that have content within the
time range but that are not selected are not affected. Tracks that either
finished before the start mark or start after the end mark are not affected,
regardless of its selection state.
8- As you probably guess as of now, tracks can begin and end at positions
different than 0 and the last time range. They can start at any moment in
the time range. The full time range goes from 0 to the end of the last
track, the one that finishes the last.
9- The cursor runs through the absolute time range. There are commands to
put it at 0 (home), at the end of the last track in terms of time range
(end), to the begin of a given track (j), at the end of a given track (k)
and at a given moment you happen to be listening to (c)
10 Take care with j and k keys. These will put the cursor at the beginning
and the end of a given track, but if there are more than one selected track,
they will put you at the beginning of the track that, among the selected
tracks, begins first in the absolute time range. Similarly, the k key will
put the cursor at the end of the track that finishes last among the selected
tracks.
11- There are effects and other stuff in audacity that use the cursor
position. You have to learn what are these and you have to learn when a
cursor positioned somewhere is or is not important. The command shift + r
for example will start recording a new track from the cursor position on,
which is the start of the new track will be the absolute time range where
the cursor is positioned. The c command is your best friend to place the
cursor exactly where you are listening at a given moment.
12- The play operation does not advance the cursor through the time range
while it is playing. This is why when you hit stop and play again it will
start playing always from the same place. Neither does the record operation.
13- When you place a start selection (time range selection) marker, then the
cursor is brought to that time range.
14- My experience says that for us, blind people, it is not easy to have an
overview of what tracks are and are not selected. This, by my experience, is
what usually trips us more. If you forget to let only one track selected
when you cut, delete or apply effects, very strange things will start
happening. Specially on cut stuff, more than one piece of audio (not just
that one you wanted) will be removed and pasted elsewhere, which will let
the project a mess.
15- There is a command called unsellect all. It was once bound to ctrl +
shift + a, but it seems that it is no more. I have found that this command
is extremely valuable because it will make sure that no time range is
selected and that all tracks are also not selected. So I always perform an
unsellect all when I will edit something and then start selecting tracks and
time ranges where I will make operations. This has helped me a lot and since
I started to use it my mysterious errors have dramatically disappeared.
Hope that helps!
Marlon
On 04/04/2020 07:57, Adrian wrote:
Hi again.
Yes, its the pest.
Can you please suggest the best way of selecting a portion of the track I
want to edit.
I have tried the options in the Select/Region submenu but I never seem to
get it right.
Many thanks.
Adrian
From: audacity4blind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:audacity4blind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
[mailto:audacity4blind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Andrew Downie
Sent: Saturday, 4 April 2020 8:06 PM
To: audacity4blind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:audacity4blind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [audacity4blind] Re: Editting
Hi again Adrian
Thanks Robert for refining my process. But before following my drawn out
process, here is another option which I should have thought of at the time.
There is a wonderful plugin for Audacity called Panramp. It allows a
selection to be panned and that can be moving from say left to right or
being set in one position. By using Panramp, everything can be done on one
track.
Here is a download link <https://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/idvk27> for
panramp.ny. Put in into your C:\Users\[Adrian?]
\AppData\Roaming\audacity\Plug-Ins folder. Before you can use it, select
add/remove plugins in the Effects Menu and press p until you find it.
Shift-tab until you find the Enable button and select it.
That plugin has made a huge difference for my use of Audacity and should be
very useful for music creation.
Andrew
From: audacity4blind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:audacity4blind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
<mailto:audacity4blind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
<audacity4blind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Adrian
Sent: Saturday, 4 April 2020 4:40 PM
To: audacity4blind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:audacity4blind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [audacity4blind] Editting
Hi,
I recorded a guitar solo on a track & now I want to use panning on parts of
it.
For example, I want the intro on the left & the verse on the right & then
the chorus in the centre.
I think I have to do some cutting & pasting from the main track to a new
track but I have spent the best part of a week trying everything but Im
struggling.
When I have managed to select the right part & cut & paste, nothing is where
it should be.
I checked youtube but most of it is visual & that isnt good for me..
Any help is appreciated.
Adrian
