Bugzilla – Bug 723
Recording does not stop at end of selection.
Last modified: 2019-04-28 15:02:50 UTC
According to the manual: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/playing_and_recording.html "Clicking Play plays from the cursor point to the end of the project, or from the start of the selection region to the end of that region." This used to happen on older versions of Audacity, and still works on Linux, on Vista and Windows 7 the recording fails to stop at the end of the selection.
(In reply to comment #0) The original diagnosis appears to be incorrect. On further examination, the issue does not appear to be specific to Windows or any Windows version, and may be the same in older versions of Audacity (I've not tested). The issue seems to depend on whether "Overdub" is enabled or not. Testing on Linux, Vista and XP. If Overdub is enabled then the recording stops at the end of the selection. If overdub is disabled then the recording continues beyond the end of the selection. This behavior does not appear to be documented, but I assume that it is not an intended behavior, or is it?
CLOSED INVALID (In reply to comment #1) > This behavior does not appear to be documented Please see http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/faq_recording_how_to_s.html#timer . > but I assume that it is not an intended behavior, or is it? Please see http://audacity.238276.n2.nabble.com/Bug-recording-over-selected-time-period-Windows-XP-HE-SP3-td3794655.html . The agreed bug is at bug 480.
I'm reopening this bug because: 1) A user raised this question on the forum, so after 4 years the question is still not "resolved" 2) The behaviour has been inconsistent across different version of Audacity. * Audacity 2.1.2 on Linux does stop at the end of the selection if there is another track present. * Audacity 2.3.2 alpha does not stop recording, even if another track is present. 3) The current behaviour is not as described in the manual: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/recording.html#duration 4) It is certainly useful to be able to define the duration of a recoding. Timer record is not an adequate substitute because it does not support recording from the cursor position, and it is a lot of extra steps. Marked as P2 because this really needs to be resolved.
In the manual it says: >Drag-select a region in an existing audio track - >or choose the >time range to be recorded in Selection Toolbar. I tested following a recent Forum post: 1) Open new project 2) turn overdub off (not essential) 3) use the Selection Toolbar to select from 0-2 seconds 4) Press R or Shift+R 5) Recording does *not* stop at two seconds, but just carries on until the user intervenes with a Stop It does work if you do already have an existing audio track and then use the Selection Toolbar to create a two second section (which can even be beyond the end of the existing audio) See the Forum post:https://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=104621&p=367961
Curiously if, following The Steps to reproduce, at Step 3 instead of just pressing Record you press Shift and Record - the the recording starts in a new track at the start time of the selcttion and stops at the selection end. This is what the Manual tells you to do, I believe. Remember that when this bug was first logged a simple R/Record would record onto a new track (we changed that default behavior long after this bug was logged By Steve and closed by gale in 2014).
(In reply to Peter Sampson from comment #4) This is where it is documented in the manual: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/recording.html#duration and it *explicitly* says to use Shift+Record. There is no mention of plain append recording into an existing empty track or empty space in a track. And certainly no ability to use this to record over an existing audio selection in a track (that would be punch in - and that requires more complexity than just simple over-recording).
On Linux we have inconsistent behaviour: Case 1: 1) Add a mono audio track to a new empty project. 2) Make a selection in the empty track 3) Shift + R to record to a new track Recording starts at the start of the selection, and stops at the end of the selection, in a new track. Case 2: Set the number of recording channels to 2 (stereo), then: 1) Add a mono audio track to a new empty project. 2) Make a selection in the empty track 3) Press "R" to record to a new track Recording starts at the start of the selection, and it is in a new track, but recording does not stop at the end of the selection. Case 3: 1) Add a label track to a new empty project. 2) Make a selection in the label track. 3) Shift + Record button to record to a new track Recording starts at the start of the selection, and stops at the end of the selection, in a new track. Case 4: 1) Add a label track to a new empty project. 2) Make a selection in the label track. 3) Click the Record button to record to a new track Recording starts at the start of the selection, and it is in a new track, but recording does not stop at the end of the selection. This difference between "Record" and "Shift + Record" is unintuitive, inconsistent, confusing, and unhelpful. My preference would be that when there is a selection, Audacity will consistently start at the beginning of the selection and stop at the end. Ideally that would also happen even if another audio clip exists later on the track, but that is going beyond the scope of this bug report.
(In reply to Steve Daulton from comment #7) For W10 and Mac Use Cases 1-3 stop at the end of the selection so UC-2 is different on Linux. Use Case 4 (append Record) does the same, carries on recording. Note that Use Cases 4 & 4 depend on havif "Type to create a label" pref turned off (the new default) - don't ask me how I know ... >My preference would be that when there is a selection, Audacity will >consistently start at the beginning of the selection and stop at the end. >Ideally that would also happen even if another audio clip exists later on >the track, but that is going beyond the scope of this bug report. Your use casees 1-4 are all edge cases in that they involve an empty project into which a user wants to make a recording for a specific time - a valid use case though as the original Forum poster wanted to do just that. The varying behavior between Shif+Record and plain Record is interesting. I am not sure that making simple Record do the same or similar as Shift+Record is entirely straifghtforward. Simple Record is now Append Recor onto the end of an existing track. I can see that making a selection beyond the end of an existing selected audio track and then pressing Record could record just ionto that selected space (provided no. of channels matches - else a new track is created below) - but what about a selection a) of existing audio in a track b) between clips of audio in a track. I am not convinced that the behavior with the Record button is not what we require - an appended recording. It can't record into the label track and thus it does have to create a new track.
(In reply to Peter Sampson from comment #4) Actually now retesting on W10 and on Mac - if I follow exactlty what the Manual explicity tells me to do (which is to use Shift+R) 1) Open new project 2) turn overdub off (not essential) 3) use the Selection Toolbar to select from 0-2 seconds 4) Press Shift+R 5) Recording *does* stop at two seconds It's only if I use Record (append record) at step 4 that the recording carries on.
(In reply to Peter Sampson from comment #8) >For W10 and Mac Use Cases 1-3 stop at the end of the selection so UC-2 is >different on Linux. OOPS sorry - no it's the same. I was mistakenly using Shift+R (it's habitual) - usring plain (append) R - then the recording does carry on - and I think that is correct current behavior. Audacity has to create a new stereo track as the selection is in a mono track - and as it's an append recording it just carries on recording
I have added an advice div to the Manual to tell folk not to use the plain (append) Record. https://alphamanual.audacityteam.org/man/Recording#Recording_for_a_specific_length_of_time I note too, Steve, thain in your punch-in tutorial https://alphamanual.audacityteam.org/man/Tutorial_-_Punch-in_repair_of_recordings at Step 4 you also explicitlty tell the user to use Shift+R
I have updated the Steps to Reproduce to say use Shift+R When this was first logged unmodifire Record used to Record on a new track by default - we subsequently swapped the behaviors around after thei bug was logged. This mow tests OK for me on W10 and Mac Mojave, so I have added flags to the end.
Confirmed works fine on Ubuntu Linux too.
