Tracks Menu
From Audacity Manual
- 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.
Add New
See Tracks for details of the different kinds of tracks.
Audio Track
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 to Mono
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:
- Choose "Split Stereo to Mono" from the Track Drop-down Menu if your stereo track is not already split into separate tracks
- Close the unwanted track using the [X] at the top left of the Track Control Panel.
Mix and Render
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.
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.
The channel of a track being mixed affects whether it will be mixed into the left channel of the resulting track(s), the right channel, or both (mono). For example, if you have four tracks:
- Track 1: left channel
- Track 2: left channel
- Track 3: right channel
- Track 4: mono channel
and you select them all and perform a Mix and Render, you will end up with one stereo track: the left channel will contain a mix of tracks 1, 2, and 4 and the right channel will contain a mix of tracks 3 and 4.
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.
The CTRL + SHIFT + M shortcut will mix and render to a new track, leaving the selected tracks undisturbed.
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 Track(s)
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 from the Edit Menu.
Mute All Tracks, Unmute All Tracks
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 move them unequally. When there is a selection, the commands that align tracks with the cursor will align with the start of the selection.
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. 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.
Align and Move Cursor
These commands perform the same actions as "Align Tracks" but also move the cursor (or selection) as appropriate. 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. See Sync-Locked Tracks for more information.
Add Label at Selection
This menu item lets you create a new label at the current selection. 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
Like Add Label at Selection but the label is added at the current position during playback.
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").
