Silly question but...

When I export audio is there a way to eliminate time at the beginning of the song? For example, I want to get rid of some space at the beginning and have the mixed down CD start at measure 2 on the time ruler.
 
Ordinarily it would be as simple as editing out the offending noise but no matter what I try it's still there. I cropped the clip to not hear me breathing before an acapella vocal began with no luck. I then highlighted that part of the clip and did an EDIT>DELETE, but the sound is still there. I've soloed the clip and all other tracks and know 100% for sure which track it's on but the noise is still there.

Several things can be done.

You can use Process> Audio to mute the noise or envelopes. I have been using the mute function in process audio..... move the track to the top of the track view. then click in the TIME LINE at the top and drag the mouse a distance then release. The timeline should be showing a darker gray where you just dragged... kinda like what Greg pointed out.  Now click to select the track as highlighted. then process the audio and choose MUTE from the list in the drop down. click OK.  By zooming in you can become extremely precise in these edits. 


Second thing... after you have done the process above to eliminate the noises and breaths from the tracks.... I use this for all sorts of noises like guitar hum or whatever....

Once the project is "right". export it with the count in and dead space at the beginning and end. Open it in an audio editor and remove the silence there. Save it and it's generally ready at that point to burn or convert. 

Wavepad and Audacity are 2 free editors that many here use for that purpose. Plus in the editor, you can see the wave to see how compressed it is. 

Gcolbert makes a point. 

When editing a track...solo it so you can hear the details and you can also be sure the noises you are trying to edit, are in fact in that track. 

More than one time in the early days I would hunt for a sound that I heard the hard way.... 

You didn't mention which version of MC you have. Putting pertinent info like that, OS, computer stats and sound card/audio interface permanently in your signature can keep us from having to ask about those things over and over again when trying to help.
 
In earlier versions of MC, you can press M on the computer keyboard to bring up the Track Manager, which you can use to hide or show tracks. If you have the Track Manager with your MC, open it and select all tracks to be shown. You may have a hidden track with those noises in it. The tracks will/may play/export even if they're not shown.