[advice] Audacity Editing Tricks

[Oxenhandler]

(You can export - and import - labels separately. I sometime make up and import files of labels in advance as cues for play editing.)

Interesting. What sort of cues? I see file-import-labels on the menu. I created a test file in notebook which creates txt files and imported it into an audacity file. This generated a label track titled as I titled the txt file but none of the paragraphs were imported and no labels were created.

[ToddHW]

Here is something I sometimes do to simplify assembling a play, and which might be useful for some folks. I prepare a file of "cue labels" for Audacity that tells me where everything goes in the master file for each act.

I do this by
* downloading the script to Excel,
* massaging to add in the disclaimer and the "narrated by" lines,
* creating "labels" with character names and the first few words of each line by editing the text,
* adding time numbers at the front of each line at a convenient spacing, say every 10 seconds. (That gets adjusted by later editing),
* copying the result to notepad,
* saving as UTF-8 format,
* and then importing the labels into a blank Audacity file (Go to Import, Select Labels, Import the label file).

Add a blank Audio Track in the same file along with the labels and you can start cutting in reader parts with the labels telling you where each part goes.

Now, rather than having to wait for all the parts and narration to come in and juggling 20 open files at one time to create the play, as each part arrives I PL it and put it where it belongs. Then when all the parts are in, just do a final grooming to adjust the spacings to get a smooth flow and you are all done.

You can see an example of this process at https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_TQp1hwvQQpbm82N1ZkVWJTRGs/edit?usp=sharing

One possible complication - you want the labels and audio "synchronized" together. That way as you cut in reader audio that is larger or smaller than the 10 second spacing I set up, all the labels will expand and contract to fit. On my Audacity that is the default, and you will see a little clock face in the naming info for the two tracks over at the left. There is a little clock face icon command you can press to turn synchro on or off.

By doing this I have a play that is essentially done when the last part arrives - and you don't have to wait on the narration track to be submitted to start.

I'll be glad to answer questions....

Thanks, Todd

(I will confess that I don't always do this cuz it is a buncha work. BUT it is work that can be done in advance of the mad panic of getting a play done.)

[Oxenhandler]

Todd,

Very cool.

How do you get the label to expand and contract, i.e., to sync with the track when the track is larger or smaller than the label? If I snap to the start and end point of the label and paste a wave that is smaller than the space between the end points of the label, the label closes to match the wave but when the wave is larger, the label does not expand. I see that the next label in line is pushed to the end of the large track which keeps the tracks synchronized with the labels and is probably all that is necessary to maintain order.

In your excel spread sheet the numbers in column A and B are the same but I see that when they are different, the start and end points of the label are separated by that difference in seconds. When do you use the one point label rather than the two point label?

What exactly is the clock, sync track on/off, clock wall paper, telling us about what Audacity is doing differently with the labels and the tracks when sync-lock is on or off? What is the difference when the clock wall paper is behind the wave track and when it is behind the label track?

[ToddHW]

I always only use the one point labels - no separate start and stop points - in other words the two numbers in the file are the same - to mark the beginning of the insert point for a reader line. As you saw, inserting something after a label will cause later labels to move in or out to make room (if sync locked - see below). I have never played with the two point labels and so don't know how they behave.

The little clock face icon and background say that the tracks are synchronized - an insert in one track will expand the other. (I don't recall that the clocks are just behind one track - I thought they were behind all tracks. But I am using Audacity 1.13 or something like that which might be different from the latest version - can't check here from work.)

Sometimes I turn off sync - for example when I have parts for a chorus that I want to stack up on different tracks and then adjust to be spoken at the same time by editing in gaps or cutting pieces out of a track to align with the others. For this I turn sync off (so the adds/cuts I make in one track won't happen in the others) and the clockface background goes away. I just have to remember to turn sync back on before I do an edit to the main track after that!

(I think I remember it is possible to stack lines so that some do not sync - no idea why you would want to do this. In that case you put the audio track you do not want to sync below the label track: the label track and any audio above the label track will be synced. Might have been only in 1.13 though....)

Audacity is a pretty powerful tool for its price!

Thanks, Todd

[Oxenhandler]

Audacity is a pretty powerful tool for its price!

[carteki]

For PL'ers and editors I LOVE the "show clipping" option under view. It shows clipped areas of sound with red stripes

I prefer editing the files all at once, rather than dropping them in singly. Buy using the cut and paste commands between the different tracks I build up a sample of audio which I then listen through and edit for timing etc. Where there is a missing line I include a DTMF track (under generate) and a label so that it is clear what is missing.

Anon

[carteki]

Also forgot about the "show track names" on the waveform (edit / preferences/interfaces) - which makes identification of the different tracks very easy as the name is there in the track! (Esp when more than one track is open at a time.)

[Oxenhandler]

Also forgot about the "show track names" on the waveform (edit / preferences/interfaces) - which makes identification of the different tracks very easy as the name is there in the track! (Esp when more than one track is open at a time.)

Very interesting, Kim. By dragging and dropping label tracks so that each character has its own named label track you can edit each part, synced to its own label track without altering any of the other characters' tracks. But if two or more tracks are stacked, a label track at the bottom of them is synced to all of them and a deletion to one audio track will cause a deletion to the others.

One might edit a short, multi-part dramatic project to experiment with these alternative methods, yours and Todd's.

[Oxenhandler]

EDIT: SEE TONY123's POST BELOW - MY CONCLUSIONS, BASED ON MY OBSERVATION OF THE POINTING HAND, WERE MISTAKEN. THE POINTING HAND DOES NOT CONTROL THE KEY-STROKE COMMANDS AS I DESCRIBE IN WHAT FOLLOWS:

Some observations regarding Audacity selection tools and the pointing hand:

Inserting into a recorded track to remove a segment of the wave form and dragging from left to right or from right to left will determine the direction of the pointing hand to which the pointer will change once the selection has been released.

Once the selection is made, moving the pointer to the left or right of the selection will reverse the direction of the hand.

The pointing hand will determine which edge of the selection is affected by the key stroke commands Shift + right arrow (->) or left arrow (<-) and Ctrl/Shift -> or <-.

If the hand is pointing to the right, Shift -> will expand the right edge of the selection to the right and Ctrl/Shift -> will contract it from right to left.

Depending upon the direction the hand is pointing, the key stroke commands described above will expand or contract one edge or the other. That is, the same key stroke commands will expand or contract one edge or the other depending upon the direction the hand is pointing.

Used in conjunction with space bar and C key commands, fine adjustments can be made easily.

The advantage of using these tools is that it is no longer necessary to zoom the wave form in and out and precise edits can be made in normal view. Knowing the direction of the hand determines which edge of the selection will be effected by the key stroke commands is not intuitive.

[tony123]

The pointing hand will determine which edge of the selection is affected by the key stroke commands Shift + right arrow (->) or left arrow (<-) and Ctrl/Shift -> or <-.


In my version of Audacity, 2.1.0, the commands work irrespective of which direction the hand tool is pointing. All I have to do is to use the key stroke commands you describe. The hand can be pointing to the right, and I can press Ctl/shift -> or <- without needing to worry about the hand. The hand doesn't even change direction. The same applies to Shift + Arrow, either direction regardless of the hand tool. I don't know if that's the case with other versions or not.

[Oxenhandler]

tony,

You're absolutely right. I must have been hallucinating.

[Oxenhandler]

I have changed the key stroke from wonderful 'Shift+A" to just an 'r' to continue recording where I stopped. Which (in my mind) makes it even smoother an easier. Anyone can reprogram what the keys do in Audacity to make editing easier and quicker. Naturally I have a video on how to do this but can't find the link now. Anyway, anything to make your editing easier helps a lot because we spend sooooooo much time doing it, eh?

Thanks for this suggestion Phil. I changed my Shift+A to the X key and am using it all the time now, in conjunction with shift right arrow/left arrow and Ctrl+Shift right arrow/left arrow, Z key (for nearest zero crossings) and C and Spacebar to check. With this method, I don't have to insert and drag or zoom-in unless I want to. Very nice. I found Shift+A too difficult to finger in a timely enough manner to be useful. Much better to have it on a single key.

[carteki]

Use a tablet / 2nd screen that has the text on when editing. Made my life sooo much easier than having to flip between windows to follow who should be speaking when.

[redaer]

Here is something I sometimes do to simplify assembling a play, and which might be useful for some folks. I prepare a file of "cue labels" for Audacity that tells me where everything goes in the master file for each act.

I do this by
* downloading the script to Excel,
* massaging to add in the disclaimer and the "narrated by" lines,
* creating "labels" with character names and the first few words of each line by editing the text,
* adding time numbers at the front of each line at a convenient spacing, say every 10 seconds. (That gets adjusted by later editing),
* copying the result to notepad,
* saving as UTF-8 format,
* and then importing the labels into a blank Audacity file (Go to Import, Select Labels, Import the label file).

Add a blank Audio Track in the same file along with the labels and you can start cutting in reader parts with the labels telling you where each part goes.

Now, rather than having to wait for all the parts and narration to come in and juggling 20 open files at one time to create the play, as each part arrives I PL it and put it where it belongs. Then when all the parts are in, just do a final grooming to adjust the spacings to get a smooth flow and you are all done.

You can see an example of this process at https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_TQp1hwvQQpbm82N1ZkVWJTRGs/edit?usp=sharing

One possible complication - you want the labels and audio "synchronized" together. That way as you cut in reader audio that is larger or smaller than the 10 second spacing I set up, all the labels will expand and contract to fit. On my Audacity that is the default, and you will see a little clock face in the naming info for the two tracks over at the left. There is a little clock face icon command you can press to turn synchro on or off.

By doing this I have a play that is essentially done when the last part arrives - and you don't have to wait on the narration track to be submitted to start.

I'll be glad to answer questions....

Thanks, Todd

(I will confess that I don't always do this cuz it is a buncha work. BUT it is work that can be done in advance of the mad panic of getting a play done.)

Thanks for sharing this, Todd. Seems to be very efficient.

[ToddHW]

The only thing wrong with the process is that lately I have been finding gems in the scanned dramatic stuff at Archive, and if there is no good text file this process does not work.

Thanks, Todd