# Playing and Recording

### From Audacity Manual

## Toolbars

The easiest way to control Audacity playback and recording is with the Control Toolbar:

This offers buttons (from left to right in the image above) for Pause, Standard Speed Play/Loop-Play, Stop, Skip to Start, Skip to End, Record/Append-Record (record at the end of a track).

Transcription Toolbar allows a constant playback speed to be set which is slower or faster than normal. Envelope Tool on the Tools Toolbar, when used in conjunction with a Time Track, allows a speed envelope to be drawn which can increase or decrease playback speed over the length of the audio.

## Keyboard Shortcuts

There are several keyboard shortcuts you can use that work exactly the same as the buttons in the Control Toolbar, listed in the table below.

Key | Action
--- | ---
P | Pause
Spacebar | Play or Stop
L or SHIFT + Spacebar | Loop-Play
Home | Skip to Start
End | Skip to End
R | Record
SHIFT + R | Append-Record

## Play Regions

The current region being played is indicated by arrows in the ruler - for example in the figure below, the play region is from 15 to 45 seconds. During playback, a green triangle indicates the current playback position - in this example, at about the 25 second mark (second figure below).

You can play simply by clicking and dragging in the Ruler to create a play region! That's a great way to play without modifying the selection. Also, if you do modify the selection or the play region after playback has begun, it does not affect the active play region. The audio will stop whenever it would have based on the play region when playback began.

## Special Playback Keyboard Commands

There are three extra keyboard commands that let you play a few seconds of audio without changing the selection. They can be really useful during editing, such as when you're trying to find the exact spot to cut and paste (below).

Key | Action
--- | ---
1 | Play One Second
B | Play To Selection
C | Play Cut Preview

### Play One Second (1)

Press 1 while the mouse is pointing to a particular time, and you will hear 1 second of audio centered at that time. For example, position the mouse at 1.0 seconds and press 1 , and you will hear the time range from 0.5 to 1.5 seconds (below).

### Play To Selection (B)

Suppose you've selected a range of audio (above), and you want to make sure it's exactly what you want to cut out. In order to determine whether you've selected exactly the right range of audio, you can not only listen to the selection, but you can listen to the audio before and after the selection. If you press the spacebar, you'll hear the whole selection (indicated by the playback region shown in the ruler) (below).

The "B" key lets you play the audio from the mouse to the selection - what you get depends on where the mouse pointer is. Move the mouse to a part of the audio you're interested in hearing, and press B, without clicking the mouse button (the first through the fourth figures below).

If the mouse pointer is to the left of the selection and you press B, you'll hear the audio up to the selection.

If the mouse pointer is inside the left side of the selection and you press B, you'll hear the first part of the selection up to the mouse pointer.

If the mouse pointer is inside the right side of the selection and you press B, you'll hear from the mouse pointer to the end of the selection.

Finally if the mouse pointer is to the right of the selection and you press B, you'll hear from the selection to the mouse pointer.

### Play Cut Preview (C)

Press the C key to hear 1 second of audio before and then 1 second of audio after the selection - as if the selection was deleted (below).

All keyboard shortcuts are customizable! Change using the Keyboard tab of the Preferences.

## Timer Recording

Yet another way to record is using the Timer Record dialog, found in the Transport Menu.

Use it to start recording later, or to record for a certain duration before stopping.

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