Playing and Recording
- 'Peter 21May15: In the absence of any "thoughts" on breaking this long page up - and in the fact that I will shortly introduce an H2 section on Scrubbing and Seeking which would otherwise end up lost in the middle of the page - I have decided to add a custom TOC.
Contents
- Controlling Playback and Recording
- Controlling and monitoring Playback volume
- Playback
- Scrubbing and Seeking
- Recording
Controlling Playback and Recording
Transport Toolbar
The easiest way to control Audacity playback and recording is with Transport Toolbar:
This offers buttons (from left to right in the image above) for Pause, Standard Speed Play/Loop-Play, Stop, Skip to Start, Skip to End, Record/Append-Record.
Clicking Play plays from the cursor point to the end of the project, or from the start of the selection region to the end of that region.
The alternative Loop-Play action for the Play button is activated by holding SHIFT while clicking Play. The button changes to display two circular green arrows to indicate Loop-Play.
The alternative Append-Record action for the Record button is activated by holding SHIFT while clicking Record.
Clicking Play when the track is already playing or paused is a quick way to restart playback without first pressing Stop.
When you get more used to Audacity, it's often easier to use keyboard shortcuts for repetitive actions like playing, pausing and recording. Below is a list of the equivalent keyboard shortcut for each of the Transport Toolbar buttons, with a description of what each button and its shortcut does.
Button Shortcut What it does Pause P Press once to pause playback or recording then once to resume. Play or Stop SPACE Press once to start playback then once to stop. Starting playback again starts from its original starting position at the cursor. Loop-Play SHIFT + SPACE Play the entire selection repeatedly (or the entire track if no selection) until stopped. Skip to Start HOME Move the cursor to start of project. Skip to End END Move the cursor to end of project. Record R Record in a new track starting from the cursor position or start of the selection. Append-Record SHIFT + R Record starting from the end of the selected track(s).
There is an additional command which has the shortcut SHIFT + A. This acts exactly like SPACE when starting playback, but when used to stop, the cursor or start of the selection is set to the position where playback was stopped. Using either SPACE or SHIFT + A will then start playback from that stop position.
All the above shortcuts can be changed if desired in Keyboard Preferences.
Playing at slower or faster speeds than normal
Using the Play button in Transcription Toolbar plays at a constant speed but slower or faster than normal. Envelope Tool on the Tools Toolbar, when used in conjunction with a Time Track, allows a speed envelope to be drawn which can increase or decrease playback speed over the length of the audio.
Controlling and monitoring Playback volume
You can adjust the playback volume using the output level slider in the Mixer Toolbar.
The Playback Meter will show you the overall volume of all of your tracks when mixed together.
Playback
To be provided with link to Playback
Scrubbing and Seeking
Scrubbing is a playback interaction in which user drags a cursor across a segment of a waveform to hear it, a convenient way to quickly navigate an audio file and find particular pieces of audio. Scrubbing mode in Audacity is initiated with CTRL + left-click, Audacity will remain in scrubbing mode until you return it to normal pay mode. Clicking the Stop button 
(or its shortcut Space) at any time will stop scrub play and return you to normal play mode.
The term comes from the early days of the recording industry and refers to the process of physically moving tape reels past the play-head to locate a specific point in the audio track. This gave the engineer the impression that the tape was being scrubbed, or cleaned.
Please see Scrubbing and Seeking for details
Recording
Setting up
- Connect your input source to your computer and verify that you are getting sound into your computer using your computer's sound input control panel or the custom mixer application that came with your particular soundcard.
- Tell Audacity which source you have selected to record from.
- Set the recording level using the input slider on the Mixer Toolbar while watching the indications in the Recording Meter. Try to aim for a maximum peak of around –6.0 dB (or 0.5 if you have your meters set to linear rather than dB). Tip: enlarging the Meter Toolbars by clicking and dragging them helps with this task.
To listen to what you are recording you have two options.
- If you computer's sound control panel supports sending the audio input to the computer's audio output then make this setting there.
- If that is not possible, click on so that it is checked.
Alternatively, if you are using an external soundcard or mixer you may be able to monitor the signal directly from that device.
For further information on setting up see: Audacity Setup and Configuration.
Detailed step-by-step instructions for setting up for recording are provided in the Your First Recording and the Copying tapes, LPs or MiniDiscs tutorials.
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As soon as you have made a recording it is strongly recommended to it immediately to WAV or AIFF (ideally to an external drive) as a safety copy before you start editing the project. |
Recording a new track
Every time you click the Record button on Transport Toolbar, Audacity will create a new track and begin recording on that track from the current cursor position (or from the left edge of a region on the Timeline). There is no need to create a new track before starting to record. If you want recording to start from the beginning of the project, click the "Skip to Start" button on Transport Toolbar or press the HOME shortcut.
Recording a region in a new track
If there is no Timeline region, Audacity records until you stop the recording. To record only the Timeline region in a new track, use to create a new track if there are no tracks yet, select the region required in any track and ensure is enabled (on) which is its default setting. Overdub may also be enabled in Recording Preferences. There is no need for the track containing the region to be selected.
Continuing recording in a new track
Instead of stopping the recording with the Stop button or SPACE, you can stop the recording with the Play / Stop and Set Cursor shortcut SHIFT + A. When you record again, recording will start in a new track at the end-position of the track above.
Continuing recording in an existing track
There are two methods to continue recording on an existing track instead of starting a new track:
- Instead of stopping the recording, click the Pause button to pause recording, or use the P shortcut. Click to release the Pause button or press P to continue recording. Note you cannot edit while paused.
- Select the track you want add the recording to and, while holding down the SHIFT key, click the Record button. Alternatively, use the SHIFT + R shortcut. This is called "Append Record".
Overdubbing
You can record a new track while listening to previously recorded tracks. This is called overdubbing. To set up for overdubbing, make sure that is enabled (on) which is its default setting.
If there is a region in the Timeline, that region will be recorded in a new track. After stopping recording, Audacity will push the recorded track backwards by 130 milliseconds by default to attempt to align it with the previous tracks(s). Left-pointing arrows will appear at time zero when any of the recorded track is pushed behind zero (standard Export ignores audio before zero but Export Multiple includes it). It is recommended to perform a latency test to determine the optimum backwards correction then set that value at Latency correction in Recording Preferences.
Timer Recording
Yet another way to record is using the Timer Record dialog, found in the Transport Menu.
Use it to start recording later, or to record for a certain duration before stopping.
Sound Activated Recording
If you turn on you can make recording pause until the input level exceeds the specified threshold level at .
