Moving audio to beginning.

I'm a little surprised, as this one is so easy, that you haven't figured it out lol.

Just select all tracks (CTRL-A), then select the time range that you want to delete. Then go to EDIT-> Delete and also check delete whole.

Another approach is to select all (CTRL A) and literally drag everything to the left.

ORIGINAL: liv4ree

Recorded a song today. There is roughly 30 seconds of silence at the begining, then a flute starts playing. How do I move all of the recorded tracks forward so that the flute starts playing at 0:00:00?

Example: I burned a cd of the song, and there's about 30 seconds of silence prior to the start of the song. Thanks..

ORIGINAL: liv4ree

Thanks. I tried selecting all, and dragging to the left, but it didn't work. I'll try the other method.
When you say select the time range, where is this done at?
Thanks..

Heh, you obviously don't like spending time with manuals or help files

So you don't know how to select a time range? Hmm... you click and drag in the timeline in the track view.

But I'm curious - what exactly happens when you try to drag things to the left? Are you sure you don't have something in that first 30 seconds ??

When I selected all, and tried to drag to the left, it looked as though it was going to the left. However when I got all the way to the left and then released, it didn't move.
Sorry for the basic question. I was in the studio for 13 hours today, and when I stumbled upon this problem, I decided the smart thing to do would be to shut down and call it a night.
I came back into the house and decided to jump on here and post the question. Thanks again guys.

ORIGINAL: liv4ree

When I selected all, and tried to drag to the left, it looked as though it was going to the left. However when I got all the way to the left and then released, it didn't move.
Sorry for the basic question. I was in the studio for 13 hours today, and when I stumbled upon this problem, I decided the smart thing to do would be to shut down and call it a night.
I came back into the house and decided to jump on here and post the question. Thanks again guys.

If you started recording entire audio clips at the beginning of the project (30 seconds before the flute intro) you still have "audio" as SONAR (or any other DAW) sees it even though there's silence. You're not going to be able to drag the entire clips to the beginning because they think they're already at the beginning.

Being a PITA, I want to finish the thread with semantics:

I've seen it here before, that someone calls moving clips to the left going forward.
It's surely not a big thing, but it may turn a question impossible to understand if such basic things are understood differently.

English isn't my native tongue so I ask you guys/gals.
According to my logics moving the clips left is moving backwards (to where you started) and moving right is forwards (to where you're going to).

Or does forward mean towards the front/frontwards.? If so, it still doesn't sound right.

Hi Kalle,
Moving a clip forwards (in time) means making it play earlier, which is the achieved by moving it left on the time-line.

Liv4free, I too had a hell of a time getting "delete hole" to work. Drove me nuts till I figured it out.

In addition to the selection methods already mentioned, make sure the area you want to delete is COMPLETELY empty, i.e. no left over or stray envelope nodes

Sorry - I Disagree - if I move clip to the left, I call it "back" - if to the right "ahead" or "forward" - I think the clock example is perfect. But - I can see the other point.

Okay, let's look at the "physics" side of things. Consider the beginning (0:00:000) of your project as a vertical concrete wall. If you begin recording an audio track/clip at that point there is going to be .wav file information recorded into that clip. Even silence is recorded. Your audio track is on the horizontal plane. You're not going to be able to move the horizontal object past the vertical concrete wall.

In other words, SONAR (nor any other DAW) knows how to differentiate between tacit measures and measures with performance content. To them (the DAW programs) an audio track is an audio track regardless of when the performer actually starts playing his/her instrument.

Does that make sense?

ORIGINAL: ba_midi
Another approach is to select all (CTRL A) and literally drag everything to the left.

Hi Billy -

Just thought I should post a follow-up to this particular point, as I've seen the behavior the original poster is describing.

I've had projects where I have empty space (or at least what I think is empty space) before any clips start, and I want to move everything to zero. If I select all with Ctrl-A, SONAR also selects the blank space, and refuses to move anything to the left - as far as the program is concerned, it can't more zero earlier than zero. You have to only select the clips themselves.

ORIGINAL: RTGraham

ORIGINAL: ba_midi
Another approach is to select all (CTRL A) and literally drag everything to the left.

Hi Billy -

Just thought I should post a follow-up to this particular point, as I've seen the behavior the original poster is describing.

I've had projects where I have empty space (or at least what I think is empty space) before any clips start, and I want to move everything to zero. If I select all with Ctrl-A, SONAR also selects the blank space, and refuses to move anything to the left - as far as the program is concerned, it can't more zero earlier than zero. You have to only select the clips themselves.

Ah, good point. You're right that if the user selects ALL, it will include the space lol.

ORIGINAL: gdugan

This would all be unnecessary if Cakewalk would simply let you define which measure is Measure 1. It's unbelievable to me that at version 8 you still have to jump throught hoops for such a simple operation.

Hmm, I tend not to agree. I don't have problems deleting things - though I did before I understood how it worked.
And, defining Measure 1 is already done. It's MEASURE 1

I personally have trouble understanding why some others struggle with this, but I suppose there's a reason beyond my comprehension at this time.

There are options. Use Markers, for example. Then one can select a range from marker to marker as the export range or mixdown range, etc.
There are other ways too.

ORIGINAL: papa2004

ORIGINAL: MatsonMusicBox

So here's a question - if you have no clips starting until say 20 seconds in, and you want to "Delete" the first 20 seconds - how do you do that? As I remember (not in front of it now), while I can select the time on the timeline, the "delete" option isn't even available in this case? Sure. I could grab clips and drag - but this is both a PITA and dangerous when you have many tracks and many independent clips on those tracks.

Use the split tool at the exact same point to delete the silence. Then drag all of your tracks/clips. Or you could simply export the entire project and use a "dedicated" audio editor to trim the heads & tails of your projects. I believe that can be accomplished using the free Audacity program. I use Sound Forge and Adobe Audition for that purpose.

I'm gonna wait until I get home to test this before I stick my foot in my mouth, but I'm sure I have struggled with this before. Let 's say I have one track and one clip. That clip does not start until measure 17 let's say. There is no data - silent or otherwise before measure 17. I now timeline-select from bar 1 through the end of bar 16. To my recollection, the delete menu item will be grayed out and unavailable in that example.

Like I said - I'll test when I get home, but if someone can verify or debunk in the mean time, I'd appreciate it.

I find that sliding multiple tracks horizontally becomes increasingly cumbersome as track count and project complexity increases. Throw envelopes into the mix, and buses, and it can become a major operation. The same can apply to inserting and deleting time during the song. Even when these procedures work, confidence that they HAVE worked the way you want isn't terribly high until proven innocent. I can only imagine how it is when tempo changes are involved. I'll often elongate or shorten measures by a beat or two, after I've already done recording, creating 1-measure meter changes, and it's always something I dread and that I've never been able to just do. (Though I know that it CAN be done.)

It could be so much easier. For one, Sonar could let you define Regions in addition to or as an extension of Markers. These would be useful generally, independent of the OP's original concern, eg for selecting ranges. (This is just one example of how the Marker system, which dates back unchanged for 15+ years, needs to be updated.)

'Ripple' editing would also help when deleting and/or inserting multitrack time.

Thanks for all the help. I'm going to check it out tonight.