stupid questions about audacity and matrix mixing

[crossthreaded]

I'm finally learning my way through audacity and making some progress with processing shows in it.  Here is my question-

1. When I have the 2 filesets open (audience and sbd) and I'm playing around with the sliders to get the sound the way I want, how do I lock in that sound?  If I have the sbd at +6 and the aud at -3 on the sliders do I then need to go into the amplification option and set the peak at whatever level I want to set it at or can I just adjust it on the sliders and then save the files and the levels will be locked in then? 

2. I was reading on the wiki and it said that if I have multiple tracks open the amplification will be applied to all tracks, so I'm assuming I need to close one, amplify to my desired level, then close that and open the other and amplify, then open the first one back up and export as one file to mix them together?  That seems like the very complicated way to do things but like I said I'm still trying to figure out audacity.

thanks for any tips or help

[page]

I'm finally learning my way through audacity and making some progress with processing shows in it.  Here is my question-

1. When I have the 2 filesets open (audience and sbd) and I'm playing around with the sliders to get the sound the way I want, how do I lock in that sound?  If I have the sbd at +6 and the aud at -3 on the sliders do I then need to go into the amplification option and set the peak at whatever level I want to set it at or can I just adjust it on the sliders and then save the files and the levels will be locked in then? 

Either. You can just set the adjustments on the left with the +/- numbers and then when you do a mix/render task it will adjust the amplification and then mix, or you can do individual amplification tasks on each and set the left adjustments to 0. A lot of the time I'm lazy and use the ones on the left and let mix/render sort it out.

Just make sure you don't use a positive value that is greater then the peak otherwise it will amplify into clipping and then render that so make sure you know what sort of headroom you have first. 

I've compensated by saying "ok, I want a 4db split", but whether it's -3, +1 or +1, +5 doesn't make any difference if you're bumping up against headroom.

2. I was reading on the wiki and it said that if I have multiple tracks open the amplification will be applied to all tracks, so I'm assuming I need to close one, amplify to my desired level, then close that and open the other and amplify, then open the first one back up and export as one file to mix them together?  That seems like the very complicated way to do things but like I said I'm still trying to figure out audacity.

thanks for any tips or help

You can do individual track selection to mitigate a task from affecting everything in the workflow window. Just highlight audio and run, in this case, highlight the entire track and run the desired task.

[crossthreaded]

cool, thanks page

[runonce]

cool, thanks page

Selecting audio when multitracking can be confusing....

Use the "Select > From Cursor To End" or "Select > Start to Cursor" to work on each track set or track.

Also use the purple FF and REW transport buttons to put the cursor at the end or beginning of a track.

Also - be sure your using the 1.3.13 edition - much better feature set.

And watch for overs (red) in your meters - levels grow when you combine tracks...

Anyone use the new "Sync Lock" feature?...I think it keeps tracks from getting out of sync when you start working with effects. I've been turning it "on" once I have everything lined up timewise...maybe it has nothing to do with that, but it doesnt seem to hurt.

[crossthreaded]

hmm.  I have 1.2.6

way to update or should I just download the new version. Don't see an update option in the menu

[page]

hmm.  I have 1.2.6

way to update or should I just download the new version. Don't see an update option in the menu

just download the new one, the 1.3 branch is safe to use for most stuff after 1.3.8 or so. I thought you'd heard my raving about 1.3.x already so I didn't even ask. I think I got after Jason a while ago about it. 

Anyone use the new "Sync Lock" feature?...I think it keeps tracks from getting out of sync when you start working with effects. I've been turning it "on" once I have everything lined up timewise...maybe it has nothing to do with that, but it doesnt seem to hurt.

I haven't yet, where's the setting for it? I just looked and couldn't find it. I only have stuff move after using selective/specfici VST/AU effects, while the main audacity ones have never given me grief.

[runonce]

hmm.  I have 1.2.6

way to update or should I just download the new version. Don't see an update option in the menu

just download the new one, the 1.3 branch is safe to use for most stuff after 1.3.8 or so. I thought you'd heard my raving about 1.3.x already so I didn't even ask. I think I got after Jason a while ago about it. 

Anyone use the new "Sync Lock" feature?...I think it keeps tracks from getting out of sync when you start working with effects. I've been turning it "on" once I have everything lined up timewise...maybe it has nothing to do with that, but it doesnt seem to hurt.

I haven't yet, where's the setting for it? I just looked and couldn't find it. I only have stuff move after using selective/specfici VST/AU effects, while the main audacity ones have never given me grief.

Its in the tool bar - its the little clock looking icon.