Q for Audacity Users

[graylocks]

i'm doing some very basic cassette to computer transfers using Audacity. i'll admit to having a certain amount of resistance to learning audio technical stuff but i am by no means a total idiot. i can push/click buttons and change a few simple parameter. i can't for the life of me figure out how to fast forward/backward in Audacity. there's a skip to the end or beginning arrow. you can click and drag the waveform but you can't tell how many minutes you've moved.

i want to be able to 'scrub' around to different parts of the recording. there's probably an obvious way to do this but i don't see it. and yes, i've checked the manual though maybe i'm not looking in the right section.

help...

[colonel panic]

You can use the arrow keys to fast forward and rewind while in play. Not a true scrub like in professional apps such as Pro Tools, but it's free.

[graylocks]

colonel panic wrote:
You can use the arrow keys to fast forward and rewind while in play. Not a true scrub like in professional apps such as Pro Tools, but it's free.

nope. those arrows aren't doing anything for me during playback.

[deckeda]

Take a look at their screenshot as an example: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/about/im...macosx.png

See the vertical line at about 1:15? You've probably seen one moving along when playing a file, so it's like a "cursor" that shows you what part of the file you're hearing.

Up there where the numbers are (the 55 through 1:35) I think you can click to place the "cursor".

But to edit and cut something out, or select a portion to effect a fade, try dragging within the waveform area.

Can't really help more, nor do I know if the above is true since I don't use Audacity but that's roughly how many editors work. I bought Amadeus Pro for basic 2-ch audio editing and recording years ago and find simple edits pretty easy to do with it.

[colonel panic]

graylocks wrote:
[quote=colonel panic]
You can use the arrow keys to fast forward and rewind while in play. Not a true scrub like in professional apps such as Pro Tools, but it's free.

nope. those arrows aren't doing anything for me during playback.
Just so we're on the same page, I'm talking about the arrow keys on your keyboard.

[graylocks]

deckeda -

seems a workaround relates to what you posted. you can zoom the entire waveform to fit the screen then click into a time on that scrunched accordion and pause. then you zoom out to do whatever editing one hopes to do.

CP- thanks. i'll try your arrow key suggestion later tonight. i have a recording in progress at the moment.

[Black]

deckeda wrote:
Take a look at their screenshot as an example: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/about/im...macosx.png

See the vertical line at about 1:15? You've probably seen one moving along when playing a file, so it's like a "cursor" that shows you what part of the file you're hearing.

Up there where the numbers are (the 55 through 1:35) I think you can click to place the "cursor".

But to edit and cut something out, or select a portion to effect a fade, try dragging within the waveform area.

Can't really help more, nor do I know if the above is true since I don't use Audacity but that's roughly how many editors work. I bought Amadeus Pro for basic 2-ch audio editing and recording years ago and find simple edits pretty easy to do with it.

I'm pretty sure you can grab and move that line.
I use Audacity from time to time but very much dislike it.

[graylocks]

colonel panic-

the arrow keys do forward/reverse the track while in play and that helps a lot.

deckeda - i do have Amadeus Pro 1.5.5. it's supposed to work through Lion though I was just able to at least open it in ML. the work i'm doing is on a different computer which is also ML. the upgrade to the latest version which is ML ready is $40. why do you like it better than Audacity?