Transport Menu

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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 Image of 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 Image of play button in the Transport Toolbar.

Pause

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

Stop

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

Timer Record...

Timer Record dialog


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.


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 Image of record button 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...

Sound Activation level dialog

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.

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