Labels Tips

This page provides tips on how to use Audacity's labels, which appear in their own label track underneath audio tracks.

Related article(s): Other pages in our Tips Category

Label Features and Documentation

Labels are added underneath an audio track at the cursor or selection position by using the CTRL + B shortcut. When playing or recording, CTRL + M adds a label at the playback position. Note: Use Command instead of CTRL on Mac.

You can type in the label to annotate it. Use TAB to move to the next label or SHIFT+ TAB to move to the previous label.

Labels documentation for Audacity 1.2 is at Help > Contents in the program or online.

Labels in current Audacity have several improvements see this page in the manual.

• Labels can be more easily moved around, and changed from a point to a region label by dragging
• Visually impaired users can edit or move to a specific label using the Label Editor at Tracks > Edit Labels
• Exported labels can define a region as well as a point

Audacity doesn't have permanent markers in the waveform itself, although, split lines can be used to mark clips within a track, and cut lines to mark where a cut has been made and restore it.

Label Import and Export

Labels can be imported and exported as tab-delimited plain text files using the appropriate Project > Import Labels or File > Export Labels menu commands. In Audacity Beta the import command is at File > Import > Labels.

• In Audacity 1.2, each line should have the start time and the label text, separated by a tab. Labels can only describe a point, not a region.
• Audacity 1.3 can import a label file formatted for 1.2 as above, but when a label is saved in 1.3 both the start time and end time of the labels are recorded as well as the label text. Start and end time are identical if the label represents a point. The values should again be separated by a tab.

Here is an example of a text file for Audacity 1.3 that denotes a region-label called "Speech" extending from 5.5 seconds to 11.8 seconds, and a point-label called "Clap" at 13 seconds:

5.500000 -> 11.800000 -> Speech 13.000000 -> 13.000000 -> Clap

Here is a file suitable for Audacity 1.2 with two point-labels at 5 and 10 seconds respectively:

5.000000 -> Speech 10.000000 -> Clap

In both cases, the -> denotes a tab mark which would be visible in some text editors.

Importing text files from other aplications:

• Audacity 1.2 and 1.3 ANSI versions (for Windows 98) will expect an ANSI-encoded text file with only numbers, Latin characters or accepted European accented characters. However, such accented characters may not necessarily display correctly.
• Audacity 1.3 Unicode versions (all versions except for Windows 98) will correctly import any ANSI-encoded text file defined as above, or any UTF-8-encoded text file. UTF-8 will ensure support for all Unicode characters.
  • If a labels file fails to import, make sure the application that created it supports UTF-8 (for a Windows application, you may have to use "Save As" and look for a specific option that saves with UTF-8 encoding).