How to Add Track Markers in Audacity

Written by Nicole Levine, MFA

Last Updated: December 28, 2023

This wikiHow article teaches you how to add label markers to a track in Audacity. A label marker, also called a track marker, is a feature in audio editing apps used for adding notes or annotations at a specific location in a file. You can use label markers to store editing notes, transcribe voice, to name segments that you want to break into separate files, or for any other purpose. When you add a label marker to a track, Audacity creates a separate label track in the project in which the labels will be stored.

Steps

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1
Open your project in Audacity. You can label virtually any audio track in Audacity.
- If you haven't installed Audacity yet, you can get it from https://www.audacityteam.org/download.
2
Click or select the location you want to mark. You have two options:
- To mark a single moment in the track, just click the mouse where you want to add a marker. This is called a point label.
- To label a longer segment, use the mouse to highlight that region. This is called a region label.
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3
Press Ctrl+B (PC) or ⌘ Cmd+B (Mac) to add the label marker. This inserts a label track into the project and places a marker at the selected location.
- Alternatively, you can click the Edit menu, select Labels, and choose Add Label at Selection.
- If you want to add labels quickly during playback, press Ctrl + M (PC) or Cmd + M (Mac) to add a label at the current playback position. This is especially handy when making transcription notes.
The marker's label should not exceed 260 characters to avoid performance issues in the editor.^{[1]
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5
Press ↵ Enter or ⏎ Return. This saves the text to the label track.
- You can edit a label at any time by right-clicking it and selecting Edit label.
- To remove a label, right-click it and select Delete label.

Community Q&A

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Question

When moving clips around, how do I keep the labels attached to the clips?

Community Answer

Once you have your tracks lined up for timing, go to Tracks > Sync-Lock Tracks (on/off). A clock icon appears on all the tracks and they are now synced to each other.

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Tips

You can turn a point label into a region label by dragging either of the two rounded handles until you've selected the region you want.

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To move a region label, hold down the Shift key while dragging either of the handles to the desired position.

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To move a point label, drag it from the center circle, making sure not to drag from either of the rounded handles. If you accidentally drag one of those rounded handles instead, you'll turn the point label into a region label.

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