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Gear / Technical Help => Post-Processing, Computer / Streaming / Internet Devices & Related Activity => Topic started by: detroit lightning on January 15, 2026, 02:23:59 PM

Title: Mac Audacity question
Post by: detroit lightning on January 15, 2026, 02:23:59 PM
Ok, not sure if this is just a brainfart or what - but I'm having a fairly simple problem with exporting tracks via audacity.

I switched to Mac, and therefore, audio editing on Mac a few years back - and previously used cd wav editor for that on PC.

With Mac, I've been splitting tracks in audacity. For whatever reason this time around, I couldn't figure out how to export all of the tracks (split clips) at once, and could only figure out how to do it clip by clip. Very tedious.

Did I just forget how to do this? Is there a better way to split tracks in audacity, or another cd wav editor type program I can use?

Thanks!
Title: Re: Mac Audacity question
Post by: dyneq on January 15, 2026, 02:37:12 PM
I believe that it's the same on all platforms (or used to be)?

https://support.audacityteam.org/audio-editing/splitting-a-recording-into-separate-tracks
Title: Re: Mac Audacity question
Post by: detroit lightning on January 15, 2026, 02:56:54 PM
The “export all tracks” option was grayed out and I couldn’t select it. Read a few things about setting labels, but couldn’t seem to figure out how to make that work.

I definitely remember this being a fairly easy thing to do, but???
Title: Re: Mac Audacity question
Post by: morst on January 15, 2026, 03:09:31 PM
I’m not at my computer now, but from memory go to file, export, multiple and then from the window there you should be able to choose by tracks


On my old version 2.4.2 the sample rate is chosen in the lower left corner of the window before you try to export. Newer versions might be different. I don’t know.
Title: Re: Mac Audacity question
Post by: dyneq on January 15, 2026, 04:15:24 PM
The “export all tracks” option was grayed out and I couldn’t select it. Read a few things about setting labels, but couldn’t seem to figure out how to make that work.
Yes, you must create labels for this to work so it knows the beginning and end of each track for the export operation. On Mac, Command + B will place a label at the insertion point. If you name it with the LMA standard (bbyyyy-mm-dd etc), the exported file will use it.
Title: Re: Mac Audacity question
Post by: morst on January 15, 2026, 04:42:02 PM
The “export all tracks” option was grayed out and I couldn’t select it. Read a few things about setting labels, but couldn’t seem to figure out how to make that work.
Yes, you must create labels for this to work so it knows the beginning and end of each track for the export operation. On Mac, Command + B will place a label at the insertion point. If you name it with the LMA standard (bbyyyy-mm-dd etc), the exported file will use it.
There are lots of ways to skin a cat, but the cat is against all of them.


If you break the long file into separate tracks, you can export as tracks.
If you choose as I do, to use Command-B to leave markers, you can export based on those.
Title: Re: Mac Audacity question
Post by: detroit lightning on January 16, 2026, 12:47:16 PM
The “export all tracks” option was grayed out and I couldn’t select it. Read a few things about setting labels, but couldn’t seem to figure out how to make that work.
Yes, you must create labels for this to work so it knows the beginning and end of each track for the export operation. On Mac, Command + B will place a label at the insertion point. If you name it with the LMA standard (bbyyyy-mm-dd etc), the exported file will use it.

Great, thank you. I’ll give this a shot.
Title: Re: Mac Audacity question
Post by: RyanJ on January 19, 2026, 01:24:33 PM
I know you may not like it, but I use Fission just to track out shows. It's a nice replacement for CD Wave. Got to pay for it. But I think worth it.

https://rogueamoeba.com/fission/
Title: Re: Mac Audacity question
Post by: grawk on January 19, 2026, 01:38:20 PM
I also use fission.  I use it to generate the cue sheet, then use xld to do the transcoding, because fission only does 16bit out
Title: Re: Mac Audacity question
Post by: mccordo on January 19, 2026, 01:44:11 PM
Fission user as well, just for tracking. I think it's $40, but well worth it as RyanJ said.
Title: Re: Mac Audacity question
Post by: morst on January 19, 2026, 02:14:31 PM
When I do break points I just use the song names, then export with numbers at the start


I rename tracks to entree standards using xACT


If I start with a cassette there might be blank flips in the middle