Transport Toolbar
From Audacity Development Manual
- Transport Toolbar has buttons for controlling playback and recording and for moving to the project start or end.
- These buttons can also be controlled with keyboard shortcuts.
Pause or P
Temporarily pauses playing or recording without losing your place. Click Pause a second time to resume.
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You cannot edit a track (for example, run effects on it) while it is paused. Use (or its shortcut SHIFT + A) to stop and set the cursor at the stop point, then after editing you can click the Play button to restart playback from that stop position. |
Play or SPACE
If an area of track is selected, only that selection will be played. Otherwise, playback begins wherever the editing cursor is.
- To loop-play (play the track or selection over and over until you stop), hold down SHIFT while clicking Play. This causes the button image to change to loop-play
. You can use the SHIFT + SPACE shortcut to start loop-play instead.
- You can press Play when there is already playback or when playback is paused to restart playback immediately from the editing cursor or selection.
Stop or SPACE
Stops playing or recording immediately, and releases Pause if depressed. You must stop playback or recording before you can use the "Skip" buttons below and before you can edit any audio.
Skip to Start or HOME
Move the cursor to the beginning of the project. This is useful if you want to play everything, or record a new track starting from the beginning.
Skip to End or END
Move the cursor to the end of the project.
Record or R
Clicking Record or using the R shortcut always begins recording in a new track at either the current cursor position or at the beginning of the current selection.
Alternative button order
The default "ergonomic" order of buttons on the Transport Toolbar can be unchecked in Interface Preferences to give this alternative order: