Transport Menu

Play

Standard-speed playback. If a region of a track is selected, only that selection will be played. Otherwise, playback begins wherever the selection cursor is. Same as clicking the Play button in the Transport Toolbar.

Loop Play

Plays the selection over and over again. Same as holding the SHIFT key while clicking the Play button in the Transport Toolbar.

Pause

Temporarily pauses playing or recording without losing your place. Same as clicking the Pause button in the Transport Toolbar.

Stop

Stops playing or recording immediately. Same as clicking the Stop button in the Transport Toolbar.

Skip to Start

Moves the cursor to the beginning of the project. This is useful if you want to play everything, or record a new track starting from the beginning. Same as clicking the Skip to Start button in the Transport Toolbar.

Skip to End

Moves the cursor to the end of the project. Same as clicking the Skip to End button in the Transport Toolbar.

Record

Recording begins on a new track at either the current cursor location or at the beginning of the current selection. Same as clicking the Record button in the Transport Toolbar.

Timer Record...

Brings up the Timer Record dialog for scheduling when a recording ends and optionally, when it begins. Pressing "OK" starts the process of recording, or waiting for the recording to start.

"Start Date and Time" shows the current live time on opening the dialog, meaning that the recording you schedule will start immediately unless you change this control. You can set the end of the scheduled recording either by specifying this at "End Date and Time", or by choosing the length of the recording at "Duration". The digits in the time spinboxes are interlinked, so that typing on a digit or incrementing it forwards or backwards with keyboard <up> or <down> arrow updates the preceding digits. The time controls themselves are also interlinked, so that "Start Date and Time" updates the "End Date and Time", and changing the "End Date and Time" modifies the "Duration" (and vice-versa).

• If you need to change a date forwards, incrementing either hour digit in the time spinboxes with keyboard <up> arrow will always increment the date automatically.
• If you want to start an immediate recording, changing only the Duration is often the simplest method because this changes the End Date if necessary as well as the End Time.

There is no default "Duration". When you open Timer Record next time, Audacity remembers the duration that was used for the previous scheduled recording.

It isn't currently possible to undertake any other activities in Audacity while recordings are running or waiting to start. To work in other computer programs while Timer Record is running, use the Task Switcher utility on your system, usually ALT + TAB.

Waiting to start recording

Once you have set the required start and end times for your recording when you press the OK button the Timer Record setup dialog box will be replaced with a Waiting for Start message box.

Peter 28Apr12 ToDo-2 This is an XP image it needs replacing with a W7 image.

This message shows the elapsed time since tou requested the Timed recording and the remaining time until it starts. Should you for any reason need to abort this recording before it starts simply press the Cancel in the messge box.

Timer Recording in progress

When the start time for the timed recording arrives the recording will start and the Waiting for Start message box will be replaced by the Progress message box.

Peter 28Apr12 ToDo-2 This is an XP image it needs replacing with a W7 image.

While the recordinding is in progress you can stop the recording at any time by pressing the Stop button in the message box. This will halt the recoring and leave in place the recorded material up to the point wher you invoked the Stop.

If instead you need to abort a timed recording that is in progress the press the Cancel button in the message box. Note carefully that this will not only stop the recording but it will also delete the audio that had been recorded in the Timer Record session.

If you press the Cancel button by mistake and see your precious recording diasppear, dont panic just go to the Edit memenu and select Edit > Redo Record and this will restore the audio track.

Append Record

Starts recording at the end of the currently selected track(s). Append Record can also be started by holding down SHIFT while clicking the Record button in Transport Toolbar.

If no tracks are selected, recording will be appended to all the visible tracks. An error will be thrown if this attempts to record to more simultaneous tracks than your sound device supports.

Overdub (on/off)

Toggles on and off the Overdub option in the Recording Preferences dialog.

Software Playthrough (on/off)

Toggles on and off the Software Playthrough option in the Recording Preferences dialog. This menu item should be unchecked when recording computer playback because it will create feedback echoes.

Sound Activated Recording (on/off)

Toggles on and off the Sound Activated Recording option in the Recording Preferences dialog. Sound Activated Recording records and pauses automatically according to the volume level of the input received. It can be useful to save disk space when recording an intermittent input, such as a call recording system. This option can also be used with Timer Record to set the start and end time of a Sound Activated recording.

Sound Activation Level...

Sets the activation level for sound activated recording. See the Recording Preferences dialog for details.

Rescan Audio Devices

Rescan for audio devices connected to your computer, and update the playback and recording drop-down menus in the Device Toolbar.