Status Bar

On-Demand Loading

The percentage of the waveform that has been computed is displayed on the Status Bar, as shown at bottom left of the image above. When multiple files are being imported, the Status Bar will display the overall percentage of the multiple tracks that has been computed. To make the Status Bar display the percentage completion of a particular track, move the mouse over that track.

Recording length

When recording, the audio data is written to your hard disk. For example, if you just press the red Record button without having yet saved a Project, it's written to Audacity's temporary folder. Therefore, the amount of time you can record for is limited by the available disk space on the drive you are writing to. Audacity lets you know the amount of time you can record for based on that remaining space, giving a clear indication in the Status Bar at the bottom of the screen as to how much time you can record for:

The time remaining depends on the current space on the drive, and on the quality (sample rate and sample format/bit depth) you are recording at.