Tracks Menu

Ed 10 August 2013 ToDo-2 I think this page needs some kind of context menu

• Peter 12Aug113: do you mean a Custom TOC like we have elsewhere Ed?
  • Ed 12Aug13 : Probably, a standard TOC is fine organizationally but too long. I suspect that we need to revisit all of the menu pages with this in mind.
• Peter 12Aug113: I'd be happy to pick this up (for all menu pages)as a mini-project, but I'd like to see what Gale thinks first.
  • Ed 12Aug13 : +1
• Gale 12Aug13: I'm not totally convinced by a custom TOC. Would it really make sense to have a custom TOC for the Edit Menu now we have made that a landing page? I think the custom TOC would have to be at H2 level, but would be thin on some menu pages. We've toyed several times with having an image of the menus so user can see the groundplan, but always decided against.

  I think it may be better on pages that are "too long" if we hive off any sections that are making it too long. For example on this page we could make a split off page for Aligning Tracks - Examples but we would have I think to move the list of commands to the split off page or have no more than the blue and white table we used for Edit Menu There is a strong case for an examples page since some users shy away from the align commands as they are thought to be complex.

  Mix and Render could possibly be trimmed a little given we have a Mixing page.

• Ed 12Aug13 : By the time I get the manual open to the page for the menu I remember that it is in any given menu but I do not recall how far down the menu structure (nor how embedded). IMHO, it would be much easier if there was an alphabetical index at the top of the page.
• Peter 13Aug13: If we had a custom TOC I would opt for retaining the menu order (and the page order) rather than using alphabetical order - and I would only have the H2s as entries in the custom TOC and not the H3s.
• Peter 13Aug13: I agree with Gale that "Mix and Render could possibly be trimmed a little..." - see my comments below in an ednote in the section.
  • Peter 13Aug15: I made my suggested trimming - moving some detailed text to Mixing.

Gale 18Aug13: I think note inside intro looks even sillier. Does changing to an advice help? Main Wiki would probably handle the second div as italicised indented text - see http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Template:Intro . Do we want that template here? Perhaps in this case we can lose the bullets for TDDM and keep it in the intro?

• Peter 18Aug13: I think it looks fine with the advice note and draws good attention to what you can't do with Tracks Menu. It looked silly before only because of the similarity of the colours of the intro div cf. the note div.

Tracks Menu provides commands for:

• Creating and removing tracks
• Applying operations to selected tracks such as mixing, resampling, converting from stereo to mono, aligning or muting
• Adding or editing labels.

To change properties of individual audio tracks, such as gain and pan, View Mode (such as the default Waveform view) and channel display, use the Track Drop-Down Menu in the Track Control Panel.

Add New

See Tracks for details of the different kinds of tracks.

Audio Track  CTRL + SHIFT + N

Creates a new, empty mono Audio Track. This command is rarely needed, since importing, recording and mixing automatically create new tracks as needed. But you can use this to cut or copy data from an existing track and paste it into an empty track.

Stereo Track

Creates a new, empty stereo Audio Track. You may need this if you start with a set of mono tracks and want to export a stereo mix.

Label Track

Creates a new, empty Label Track. When a label track has the yellow focus border you can create a label just by typing. Labels can be used for textual annotation and are commonly used when exporting multiple files from a single track.

Time Track

Creates a Time Track that can progressively increase or decrease playback speed (and pitch) of all audio tracks in the project. The range of possible speed warp is set in the Set Range (upper and lower) option in the Time Track drop-down menu to left of the track. The amount of and direction of warping within that range is controlled using Envelope Tool.

Stereo Track to Mono

Ed 16May13: "Stereo to Mono" was brief and catchy and because of that almost acceptable; now we have lost both the brief and the catchy and the result is clunky <grin>. I think if we are going to make this kind of a change it should read more like "Stereo Track to Monaural Track" or if we must insist on abbreviation "Stereo Track to Mono Track".

Converts the selected stereo track(s) into the same number of mono tracks, combining left and right channels equally. Not available with stereo tracks split into left and right channels, or where the start or end positions of the channels are different.

If you have a split stereo track, you can use the Track Drop-Down Menu to join the channels into a single stereo track before converting to mono. This menu also lets you convert a stereo track to a mono track containing only one of the channels:

1. Choose "Split Stereo to Mono" from the Track Drop-down Menu if your stereo track is not already split into separate tracks
2. Close the unwanted track using the [X] at the top left of the Track Control Panel.

Mix and Render

Gale 07Dec11: ToDo There is no mention here or in Mixing of how render handles white space before the audio begins or audio before zero. Should there be? Current behaviour following r11248 is to preserve the clip length by no longer rendering white space between time zero and first audio as silence, and to preserve audio before time zero instead of discarding it. So people who want to export tracks with silent lead-ins preserved now have to generate silence after rendering. I think that tip at least should be in Mixing.

• Peter 13Aug13: I copied this ednote (suitably edited) to Mixing and upgraded the Px there to a P2. I think the "how render handles white space..." really belongs in Mixing and not here - accordingly we could remove that from the ednote here; agree/disagree?
• Peter 13Aug13: I agree with Gale's comment in the ednote at the top of the page that this section can be trimmed. I suggest that we move the section "The channel of a track being mixed affects..." to Mixing - possibly also remove the note div re Ctrl+shift+M as that information is already on Mixing.
• Peter 15Aug13: I moved the section "The channel of a track being mixed affects..." to Mixing. I also tried moving the Ctrl+Shift+M advice up into the body of text rather than encased in the note div.

This command mixes all of the selected tracks down to a single mono or stereo track and simultaneously applies all real-time transformations for the track, such as gain, panning or resampling. Alternatively you can use the shortcut SHIFT + CTRL + M to create a new track containing the resulting mix, preserving the original tracks.

Your tracks are implicitly mixed whenever you hit the Play button on the Transport Toolbar and whenever you select Export. This command "fixes" that mix by rendering the mix to a new track and deleting all the tracks that were selected.

Note that if you try to mix two very loud tracks together, you may get clipping (it will sound like pops, clicks, and noise). To avoid this, you should use the track gain controls to reduce the amplitude of all of your tracks.

See Mixing Audio Tracks for more details.

Resample...

Allows you to resample the selected track(s) to a new sample rate for use in the project, leaving the length (and hence playback speed and pitch) unchanged. To resample for export, change the Project Rate in Selection Toolbar.

Remove Tracks

Removes the selected track(s) from the project. Even if only part of a track is selected, the entire track is removed. You can also remove a track by clicking the X in its upper left corner.

To remove only the selected audio in a track (without adding it to the clipboard) use Delete, Split Delete or Silence Audio at Edit > Remove Audio or Labels.

Mute All Tracks  CTRL + U, Unmute All Tracks  CTRL + SHIFT + U

Mutes or unmutes all the audio tracks in the project, as if you had used the mute buttons from the Track Control Panel on each track. If a track is muted, it can't be heard in the project and is not exported from it. Note that how the mute buttons affect other tracks depends on your Solo button preference setting. Sometimes it can be as easy to change the mute setting on all tracks (or all but one) by using the mute or solo buttons.

Align Tracks

These commands provide an automatic way of aligning the selected tracks with the cursor or selection, or with the start of the project. Each track is moved along equally so they remain synchronized with each other. You can also align the starts of the tracks together, which moves them unequally.

When there is a selection, the commands that align tracks with the cursor will align with the start of the selection, and when there is a cursor, the commands that align tracks with the selection will align with the cursor.

Align with Zero

Aligns the start of selected tracks with the start of the project.

Align with Cursor

Aligns the start of selected tracks with the current cursor position.

Align with Selection Start

Aligns the start of selected tracks with the start of the current selection.

Align with Selection End

Aligns the start of selected tracks with the end of the current selection.

Align End with Cursor

Aligns the end of selected tracks with the current cursor position.

Align End with Selection Start

Aligns the end of selected tracks with the start of the current selection.

Align End with Selection End

Aligns the end of selected tracks with the end of the current selection.

Align Tracks Together

If you select multiple tracks, this command moves the tracks so that they all start at the same time, so audio within them changes its synchronization. The resultant start time is an average of all of the tracks' original starting times. To adjust the starting times of tracks with complete flexibility, use Time Shift Tool.

If a track contains multiple clips and one of the Align commands is applied to that track then all the clips move and maintain their relative positions to each other within the track. The start of the first clip is the "start of the track" and the end of the last clip is the "end of the track".

Align and Move Cursor

These commands are identical to the first seven "Align Tracks" commands that move the tracks equally, but also move the cursor (or selection) so that the same audio will play after the align that played before. For example, Align and Move Cursor > Align with Cursor will align the selected tracks with the current cursor position, but then also move the cursor along so that it remains at the same position relative to the new position of the tracks.

Sync-Lock Tracks

The Sync-Lock Tracks feature ensures that length changes occurring anywhere in a defined group of tracks also take place in all audio or label tracks in that group, even if those tracks were not selected. This lets you keep existing audio or labels synchronized with each other, even when carrying out actions like inserting, deleting or changing speed or tempo. You can turn this feature "on" or "off" (default is unchecked "off") by clicking this menu item. See Sync-Locked Track Groups for more information.

Add Label at Selection  CTRL + B

This menu item lets you create a new label at the current selection or cursor position. You can title the label by typing with the keyboard and then hitting "Enter" when you're done. The label saves your current selection - so when you click on the label later it will return the selection to the state it was in when you created the label. See the discussion on Label Tracks for more information on how to use label tracks.

Add Label at Playback Position  CTRL + M

Like Add Label at Selection but the label is added at the current position during playback or recording.

Edit Labels...

Brings up a dialog box showing all of your labels in a keyboard-accessible tabular view. Handy buttons in the dialog let you insert or delete a label, or import and export labels to a file. See Labels Editor for more details.

Sort Tracks

By Start Time

Sorts all tracks in the project from top to bottom in the project window. After the sort the top track will have the earliest start time and the bottom track will have the latest start time.

By Name

Sort all tracks in the project alphanumerically by track name. Numbers precede letters, and upper-case letters precede lower case letters. It doesn't use natural number sort, so "10" comes before "2" (but after "02").