Audio Tracks

Each audio track containing digital audio presents from left to right:

• a Track Control Panel
• a vertical scale with units (except in the Pitch view)
• a visual representation of the audio (by default this is the Waveform view as in the images below).

New tracks are created whenever you import an audio file, record (except for Append Record) or generate audio when there is no selection. Tracks > Add New lets you explicitly add a new, empty mono or stereo audio track.

Gale 06Aug11: The large images below the intro really get in the way for me and obscure the message and flow of the page. I'm not sure if the below solution putting smaller images side-by-side helps. If not, I think it might help to have only an image of a stereo pair, but annotated with arrows to TCP, vertical scale and waveform.

• Peter 9Aug11:I agree with Gale here. Audacity's default mode is stereo, so the single stereo image would be good for me. I also find the dual images somewhat distracting. This would be a good place to link to the new "Waveform" page once it is published.

Stereo Audio Track

Gale: add arrows to image for L and R channel

• Peter 24Nov11: changed the image to add L & R arrows to image (but I had to bludgeon it into the uploaded images - the new one uploaded but the original image was retained as current, so I had to create a new revised name for the image and upload that).

The image below shows the parts of a typical Audacity stereo track: the Track Control Panel, the Vertical Scale and the audio track itself. As per convention, the upper waveform represents the left channel and the lower waveform represents the right channel. The waveform is displayed as linear, the default display.

See Audacity Waveform for further details of the waveform display.

Track Control Panel

The Track Control Panel at the left of the audio track has controls and status indicators for this track. Clicking and dragging other than on a control moves the track up or down in a project containing multiple tracks (to do this with the keyboard, use one of the "Move Track" commands in Track Drop-Down Menu).

Controls

• Close Button:
  

Clicking this button will close the track, removing it from the project.

• Track Drop-Down Menu:
  

Clicking on the track name shows the Track Drop-Down Menu giving various options that affect this track only. Newly created tracks are named "Audio Track". Options in the drop-down menu include changing the name, sample rate how the track is displayed and options for converting from stereo to mono.

• Mute Button:
  

Click to silence this track when playing. Click again to unsilence. Muted tracks are not exported.

• Solo Button:
  

Click to play just this track. Click again to cancel. Solo takes precedence over mute - the mute buttons usually have no effect whilst any solo button is down. There are three options for exactly how the solo button operates, described in Tracks Preferences. One of the options is not having the solo button at all.

• Gain Slider:
  

Set the gain for this track. Hold down the shift key while dragging to adjust the slider in finer increments. Double-click the slider to bring up a window where you can make precise adjustments or enter a gain value.

• Pan Slider:
  

To make signal stronger on left or right earphone. Hold down the shift key while dragging to adjust the slider in finer increments. Double-click the slider to bring up a window where you can make precise adjustments or enter a pan value.

• Track Collapse Button:
  

Click on this to make the track 'fold up' into a smaller size. Click again, or drag the lower edge of the track to restore the size.

Status Indicators

• Track Information Area:
  

Gives in order, Stereo or Mono, the sampling rate in Hz and the manner in which samples are represented.

• Sync-Lock Indicator:
  

When present, indicates that this track is part of a Sync-Locked group.

Vertical Scale

The vertical scale displays amplitude when showing the waveform, frequency when showing the spectrum or is empty when displaying pitch. The amplitude scale shown here is linear and ranges from 0 to 1.0 positive and negative, this is the default waveform display. The waveform display can be changed to a dB scale if required, in which case the vertical scale changes to a dB scale. When the mouse pointer is over the scale it changes to a magnify icon. Left-click in the Vertical Scale for any Waveform or Spectrogram view to zoom in. The range displayed on the scale will be centered at the value you clicked at. Left-click and drag a region up or down then release to zoom into that region. SHIFT-click (or right-click) to zoom out. This is a zoom in the vertical direction, as opposed to a horizontal zoom on the Timeline. See Zooming for more details of vertical and horizontal zooming.

Display

Click and drag between the two waveforms to change their relative height.

Changing the height of the channels in a stereo track: Click and drag between the channels.

Changing the height of a track: Click and drag between the tracks.

See Audacity Tracks and Clips for more details on using the waveform display.