Is there a way to copy & paste a set of manual timing marks?

[danj]

I am setting some manual timing marks because the song I am doing has some really "light" sounds in it that are on the order of 16 beats per measure; I don't know how to get Audacity to grab these.   So I figured I would manually time one set of beats then copy & paste those throughout the song.  But I don't see a way to do this (?).   Thanks in advance!

[Gilrock]

That would be an enhancement.  You currently can't copy/paste timing marks.  For now create the timing track in Audacity.  You can cut and paste in there.

[flyinverted]

You could also play the audio back in Nutcracker at 3/4 or 1/2 speed so you can find that audio you want a beat at.
While the audio is playing, press "T" to add a timing mark there.

Also if the audio waveform looks a little thin in Audcacity and Nutcracker, you can amplify with Effect>Amplify in Audacity. . Use 2.0db per pass until the waveform looks full. You should now be able to see the peaks you're looking for.

[danj]

THANKS!!!!   I will try both of those ideas--I think if I expand the waveform AND use cut/paste I can accomplish what I am looking to do. I really appreciate the help!

[jnealand]

If you ever look at a timing file from audacity it is very simple, just 3 numbers per line.  I have even created my own timing file manually by just typing my numbers in.  But then I was only trying to make a simple timing track like every 10 secs or every 20 secs.  Did not need to get on a beat.

[danj]

Thanks Jim.   I am trying to pick up a bunch of "little" sounds.   I think the song maybe is done with steel drums or something--angels we have heard on high by sufjan stevens (thanks Pandora--on my TSO station...).  Anyway, I am going to pick up a bunch of "sub beats".   Might end up a big moot point.   There is so much going on that I might just let some of elements "twinkle" on & off kind of randomly.   

[danj]

I have set click tracks in audacity but can't figure out how to save the click track file as a label file so I can export to xlights and see the timing marks.   Audacity keeps saving the click track file as a .wav...   
Any advice?  Thanks in advance AGAIN.

[maffeirw]

I have set click tracks in audacity but can't figure out how to save the click track file as a label file so I can export to xlights and see the timing marks.   Audacity keeps saving the click track file as a .wav...   
Any advice?  Thanks in advance AGAIN.

Make sure you rename the Label Track excluding any non-alpha-numeric characters - I always get caught by the colon when I use Analyze and generate a 'Beat and Bar Tracker: ...' label track and then don't rename it.  It's strange that it doesn't generate an error and instead of bringing up the 'Export Labels As:' screen to select a name and directory, it just seems to ignore the click. Once it's renamed(if that was necessary): click  File>Export Labels and make sure you put the file extension .txt in the filename field as the program seems not to add the txt extension unless it is incuded as part of the filename.

[gerry]

Yes... Label name must be changed else it won't work.
Export labels... Not save !

[danj]

Will that work with click tracks also?   Audacity actually treats the click track as a WAV file; apparently people use that for "real" music sessions or whatever...   So, last night I opened up a label track immediately below the click track and duplicated the clicks.   The song wasn't long so that wasn't too bad...    Worked quite well.

[maffeirw]

I hadn't played with click tracks before but if you generate a click track and then use the analyze>Bar and Beat Tracker: (vamp plugin) it will automatically generate a label track which can be exported (don't forget to change the label track name). When I tested it the results were pretty close (about 0.031 sec early).
Ron

[danj]

Thanks for all the responses!

[danj]

I ended up manually parsing each major beat into four separate beats in audacity.   That worked pretty well but didn't import into xlights correctly for some reason.  I am thinking the 50 mSec time blocks goofed this up somehow when pulling in from audacity.   The song is short, so I am just setting manual beats inside xlights.   

[Gilrock]

Timing marks will get rounded to the nearest interval.  So if you have 50ms as your minimum then you can't place timing marks inbetween them because it wouldn't make any difference to the final result anyways because the effect data is quantized to that duration.

[danj]

Yepper.   Does it make sense that some of my timing marks wouldn't have been pulled into xlights at all because they were too close together?   Thanks.