Tutorial - Copy and paste a section of audio



Copy and paste a section of audio

Copying and pasting a section of audio from one track to another is a useful way to paste the good sections of one take over the bad sections of another take. In this example the track with the "good" section is the "Source" track and the track with the "bad" section is the "Target" track.

Use the Selection Tool to select a section of audio from the source track (the source and target tracks are labled Source and Target in the examples.)


 * [[image:SelectSectionSource.gif‎]]

To make sure your selection includes exactly the section of audio you want, you can use the zoom tools under the View menu to zoom in to the beginning and end of your selection and select the exact samples you want. To prevent "popping" sounds in your final audio track, try to select a section of audio that starts and ends at the 0.0 line.


 * [[image:AdjustStartOfSelection.gif‎]]

You'll want to select a section of audio that ends at the 0.0 line as well.


 * [[image:AdjustEndOfSelection.gif‎]]

Now that you have a well-formed selection, you can copy and paste it to the target track.

Zoom out so you can see your entire selection.

Bill 08Dec09: The image below is not convincing. If we are indeed pasting a good take into a bad take of the same passage I'd expect the waveforms to be virtually identical. The Source track should have focus if we are following the steps in the text. The target track has the latency-correction arrows in it, and these are not explained so may confuse readers. Gale 15Apr13: Why not mention Find Zero Crossings since this is a mono track?


 * [[image:ZoomOutSelectionForCopy.gif]]

Click on Edit > Copy or press CTRL + C.

Hold the Shift key and click in the Track Control Panel of the target track with the channel, rate and format information. This selects the target track without changing any of its controls and extends the selection into the target track. Then shift-click in the Track Control Panel of the source track to deselect it.
 * [[image:SelectTargetTrackForPaste.gif]]

Select Paste from the Edit Menu or press Ctrl-V.

NOTE: You can also get "popping" if the target track hops from 0.0 before and after the audio you paste, so you may want to write down your Selection Start, End and Audio Position so you can adjust gaps before and after your pasted audio, with either the Draw Tool or Fade Out from the Effect Menu.


 * [[image:AdjustGapWithDrawTool.gif‎]]