Edit Menu: Labels

Items in the Labeled Audio  cascading Edit menu offer a time saving way of performing Edit Menu operations on the audio of multiple fully selected labels. The labels themselves are not affected.

For example, if you have used Analyze > Sound Finder... to label all very loud sounds in a piece of audio (such as unwanted beeps or advertisements in a radio broadcast) you can use a Labeled Audio command to remove all those sounds in one go.

Mac users: CTRL = COMMAND and ALT = OPTION. So, for example, CTRL + ALT + V = COMMAND + OPTION + V

Click, or hover, on any menu item in the image to read about that command.

Edit Labels Submenu

The Edit > Labels commands apply to all labeled audio regions that are fully inside a selection drawn in a label track. The selection may extend beyond the label boundaries, but audio that is not labeled and audio whose region label is only partly within the selection will not be acted on.

• Region labels that touch each other without overlapping are treated as separate labeled regions.
• If two or more region labels overlap, they are treated as one labeled region.
• Labeled Audio Split can mark audio splits at point labels as well as at region labels.

To enable the Labeled Audio commands in the Edit menu, the selection must be made in the Label Track and must fully include (or extend beyond) at least one region label, or must touch (or extend beyond) at least one point label.

If none of the audio tracks are included in the selection, the Labeled Audio commands apply to all audio tracks in the project. However if you include only certain audio tracks in the selection, the Labeled Audio commands will only affect those selected audio tracks. See the examples below for a demonstration of the difference between selecting in the label track only versus selecting in the label track and one or more audio tracks.

When Sync-Lock Tracks is on, the menu commands Labeled Audio > Cut and Labeled Audio > Delete are disabled.

Cut ALT + X

Removes the selected labeled audio data and puts it on the Audacity clipboard. Any audio data to the right of the selected labeled audio regions is shifted to the left. Only one item can be on the clipboard at a time, but it may include multiple audio tracks and multiple audio clips.

Note that the audio associated with "Label 2" and Label 3" has been cut, but the audio associated with "Label 1" and "Label 4" remains because Labels 1 and 4 were not fully inside the selection.

Delete ALT + K

Removes the selected labeled audio data but does not put it on the Audacity clipboard. Any audio data to the right of the selected labeled audio regions is shifted to the left.

Split Cut SHFT + ALT + X

Same as Cut, but none of the audio data to right of the selected labeled audio regions is shifted. Gaps are thus left behind in the audio track which split the existing audio clip into multiple clips that can be moved independently using Time Shift Tool.

Split Delete SHFT + ALT + K

Same as Split Cut, but the audio is not copied to the Audacity clipboard.

Silence Audio ALT + L

The selected labeled audio regions are replaced with silence.

Copy SHIFT + ALT + C

The selected labeled audio is copied to the Audacity clipboard.

The image below shows the result of selecting as in "Silence Audio" above so that Labels 2 and 3 were fully inside the selection, choosing Labeled Audio Copy, then creating a new audio track, pressing the Skip to Start button and pasting. The two audio clips associated with Labels 2 and 3 were pasted starting from the start of the new track, separated by blank space.

Gale 10Jun13: The image above was a little confusing because naive user may think the selection used for the copy was the one that appeared after paste. I've adjusted the text but you may want to consider a new "before" image. I think it's acceptable now.

Split ALT + I

The audio track is split into multiple clips; a split is created at the boundaries of every fully-selected label.

Note that "Label 2" and "Label 3" are touching but not overlapping, so they are still treated as separate labels and the boundary between them is marked with a split line.

Join ALT + J

Clips within the selected labeled audio regions are joined into one clip by removing the split lines.

Detach At Silences SHFT + ALT + J

In a labeled audio region that includes absolute silence and other audio, creates individual non-silent clips between the regions of silence. The silence in the region becomes blank space between the clips.

If the labeled audio region is entirely silence, it becomes blank space between the audio either side of the region.

Examples

Example 1 - selection in the Label Track only

The selection shown above was created by clicking and dragging in the label track. Applying the Edit > Labeled Audio > Split Cut command results in this:

Result: Audio has been cut only in the regions where the labels are fully inside the selection. Part of the first label is outside the selection so its audio is not affected by the Split Cut operation. The final two labels overlap each other, so are treated as one label.

Example 2 - selection in the Label Track and some Audio Tracks

If instead the selection is made in the bottom two audio tracks and the label track, applying the Edit > Labeled Audio > Split Cut command results in this:

Result: Audio has been cut only in the selected tracks and in the regions where the labels are fully inside the selection.

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