Removing Labels - Examples - Audacity Manual

# Removing Labels - Examples

From Audacity Development Manual
This page contains five examples of how to remove labels:

- Delete Label using the label dropdown menu
- Removing labels without moving any following labels - Split method
- Label text removal method
- Removing labels (or regions of label track), moving back any following labels - Delete method
- Removing labels together with their associated audio

| Edit > Delete (shortcut Ctrl + K), Edit > Remove Special > Split Delete (shortcut Ctrl + Alt + K) or their Cut/Split Cut alternatives cannot be used to remove point labels because there is no audio region associated with them.

## Delete Label

The simplest way to delete a single label is to right-click inside the label's text box, then choose Delete Label from the dropdown menu. Any labels lying to right of the removed labels stay where they are, still associated with their original audio.

Suppose you have labeled different song tracks in the Audio track and you have also labeled some noise in the middle of Track 2. You have removed the noise so you need to delete the label without moving any other labels.

Right-click in the label's text box to show the label dropdown menu.

Choose Delete Label and the label will be removed, leaving any following labels in their original place.

It's like having stickers on a paper chain, and lifting one of the stickers off the chain.

## Removing labels without moving any following labels (Split method)

You can use this method to remove single or multiple labels, without removing their associated audio, by split deleting a region in the label track. This method keeps the remaining labels synchronized with their audio.

Suppose you have labeled different song tracks in the Audio track and you have also labeled some clicks after half-way through Track-2. You have removed the clicks so you need to delete their labels without moving any other labels.

Select in the label track around the two labels to be removed. Only drag horizontally, so as to avoid extending the selection up into the audio track.

Use Edit > Remove Special > Split Delete or its keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Alt + K. The two labels are removed and the labels for Track-3 and Track-4 remain where they were previously. Note that the selection remains after performing this split delete in the label track.

It's like having stickers on a paper chain, and lifting some stickers off the chain.

## Label text removal method

You can use this method to remove a single label, all remaining labels remain synchronized with their audio.

Open the label by clicking in its text box, remove the text then press Backspace or Delete once to remove the empty label. This can be achieved in several ways, for example:

- Single-click before the first character in the label text (or click anywhere in the text then press Home), then press the Delete key until the text is removed, then press Delete once more.
- Single-click before the first character in the label text (or click anywhere in the text then press Home), then hold Shift and press End. Now press Delete twice.
- Single-click anywhere after the first character in the label text, then use first Backspace then Delete if needed until the text and label are removed.

Keyboard use: Use Up or Down to move the focus into the label track if needed, then Tab into the label to be removed. Now press Backspace until the label text and label are removed. You can also use Label Editor to remove an individual label without affecting the following labels.

## Removing labels (or regions of label track), moving back any following labels (Delete method)

You can use this method to remove labels or regions between labels, moving back (leftwards) any following labels. If you only remove the labels without also deleting the same region in the audio track Delete will desynchronize the following labels with their audio.

You have a podcast and have placed labels every two minutes where you will change to a different piece of accompanying music (not yet added). Then you decide not to use the second piece of music but to otherwise keep the same order for the following pieces of music. The easiest answer is to delete a region of label track corresponding to the "Vivaldi" piece, which allows the following labels to move back. We will not split delete because that would leave a section with no music label, and this method avoids having to rename any labels.

Select in the label track over the label to be removed. Only drag horizontally, so as to avoid extending the selection up into the audio track or the other label track. The labels following the removed label will move back by the length of region removed from the label track. It does not matter exactly where that region starts and ends, providing the selected length is correct and providing we select over the "Vivaldi" label point but do not let the selection touch the "Mozart" label.

Use Edit > Delete or its shortcut Ctrl + K to delete the selected part of the label track, moving back the following labels accordingly.

This is like removing part of a paper chain, making the following parts move back.

## Removing labels together with their associated audio

In most cases when you remove parts of the label track, you will also want to remove the corresponding audio so that the remaining labels are still synchronized with their original audio. For example, you may have labeled a region of noisy audio for later deletion, as in the example below where there is a section of a performance with clapping.

You have identified a section of applause at the end of Track-3 that you want to remove and have labeled this section with a region label.

Select in the audio track from one edge of the label to the other then drag down into the label track, or simply click in the text of the "clap" label.

Then use Edit > Delete or its shortcut Ctrl + K to make the deletion. As you can see, the label for Track-4 and its audio both move back (leftwards) on the Timeline thus keeping the label for Track-4 at the start of that track. If you already had the labeled audio selected on its own, you could equally have dragged either edge of that selection down into the label track.

|< Label Tracks