Tracks

Audio tracks

Audio tracks contain digitally sampled sounds. In Audacity, two stereo channels are represented by two stereo tracks. Each audio track has a sample rate: common values include 8000 (telephone), 16000 (speech), 44100 (CD Audio), and 48000 (DAT).

From Audacity 1.2 on, you can specify a different sample rate for each track. You can import audio of any sample rate or it depth and Audacity will sample rate convert it to the project rate and bit depth on the fly, as well as upon Export. You can choose different sample rate conversion qualities for playback and Exporting.

However, in Audacity 1.0, all tracks must be at the same sample rate as the project.

Note tracks

Note tracks display data loaded from a MIDI file. They are currently not editable or playable.

Label tracks

Label tracks can be used to annotate a document and later save these annotations in a text file. To create a Label track, select New Label Track from the Project menu. To add a new label, select some region of your audio using the Selection Tool, and then select Add Label At Selection from the Project menu (or use its keyboard shortcut). Now you can name your label: anything you type will go into the current label. You can use the backspace key to edit the current label.

Press Enter or Return to finish editing a label.
Use the left and right arrow keys to move from one label to another.
To select a label, click on it in the Label track. To remove a label, select it, then use backspace to get rid of it, then press Enter or Return. Alternatively, you can select a range of labels using the Selection Tool and then select Silence from the Edit menu.

Labels remember selections! When you create a label, the current selection gets "saved" into the label - and you can recall it again by clicking on the label.