Audacity Keyboard Shortcuts

A cheatsheet to go hand-in-hand with the best free audio editor out there.

Audacity is a powerful free audio manipulation program available for modern operating systems. Unlike other free audio processing programs, Audacity stands out as one of the most feature-complete open source project out of all of them. In that, it can manage, edit, and mix multiple audio tracks in a single timeline.

Furthermore, being open source means that Audacity is constantly up-to-date with the latest audio standards, ensuring the ability to adapt any project that you do in Audacity for future audio formats and specifications. Lastly, Audacity is also available on all major operating systems. This ultimately means that even if you change your operating system today, you will most likely still be able to use Audacity.

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Essential Audacity Keyboard Shortcuts

Knowing all of that, this cheatsheet aims to aid you in learning some of the basic keybindings for Audacity. One important thing to note, however, is that it is also possible to modify the keybindings for this program. Because of that, this cheatsheet will only cover the default keybindings for Audacity as well as the keyboard variations for major operating systems.

Windows/LinuxmacOSFunction
File and Project Manipulation
Ctrl + NCommand + NOpen a Audacity project window.
Ctrl + OCommand + OOpen an existing Audacity project.
Ctrl + SCommand + SSave the current project as an Audacity project file.
Ctrl + Shift + ICommand + Shift + IImport an audio file as a track in the current project.
Ctrl + Shift + ECommand + Shift + EExport the entire project as an audio track.
Ctrl + Shift + LCommand + Shift + LExport the entire project as separate audio tracks.
Ctrl + WCommand + WClose the current project window.
Alt + F6Option + F6Switch to the next project window.
Alt + Shift + F6Option + Shift + F6Switch to the previous project window.
Ctrl + QCommand + QExit the Audacity program.
Shift + AShift + APrune the revision history of the current project.
Ctrl + PCommand + ,Open Audacity’s Preferences Menu.
Audio Selection
Ctrl + ACommand + ASelect the whole track.
Ctrl + Shift + ACommand + Shift + ADeselect the whole track.
Ctrl + Shift + KCommand + Shift + KSelect all the tracks in a project.
Ctrl + Shift + YCommand + Shift + YSelect all the Sync-Locked tracks in a project.
HomeHomePlace the cursor at the beginning of the track.
EndEndPlace the cursor at the end of the track.
Shift + JShift + JPlace the cursor at the start of the currently selected track.
Shift + KShift + KPlace the cursor at the end of the currently selected track.
[[Expand the current audio selection leftward.
]]Expand the current audio selection rightward.
Ctrl + [Command + [Place the cursor at the start of the currently selected region.
Ctrl + ]Command + ]Place the cursor at the end of the currently selected region.
Ctrl + 1Command + 1Zoom in the currently selected track from the current cursor position.
Ctrl + 3Command + 3Zoom out the currently selected track from the current cursor position.
Ctrl + 2Command + 2Return the current zoom to its default state.
Ctrl + ECommand + EFit the current selection to the window.
Ctrl + FCommand + FFit the whole track width to the window.
Ctrl + Shift + FCommand + Shift + FFit the whole track height to the window.
Ctrl + Shift + CCommand + Shift + CMinimize all the tracks in the project.
Ctrl + Shift + XCommand + Shift + XMaximize all the tracks in the project.
Playing Audio
SpaceSpaceEither play or stop the selected track at the current cursor.
Shift + SpaceShift + SpaceEither play or stop the selected track at the current cursor once.
XXEither play or stop the selected track at the current cursor and set the new cursor at the Stop point.
PPPause the currently playing track at the current cursor position.
Ctrl + Alt + UCommand + Option + UMute all the currently selected tracks.
Ctrl + Alt + Shift + UCommand + Option + Shift + UUnmute all the currently selected tracks.
Ctrl + UCommand + UMute all the tracks in the project.
Ctrl + Shift + UCommand + Shift + UUnmute all the tracks in the project.
Recording Audio
RRRecord new audio and place it at the end of the currently selected track.
Shift + RShift + RRecord new audio and place it in a separate track in the project.
Shift + DShift + DRe-record over the existing audio track.
Audio Track Editing
Ctrl + CCommand + CCopy the currently selected segment of a track to the buffer.
Ctrl + VCommand + VPaste the current track in the buffer after the pointer.
Ctrl + XCommand + XCut the currently selected segment of a track to the buffer.
Ctrl + ZCommand + ZUndo the most recent change to the project.
Ctrl + YCommand + YRedo the most recent change to the project.
Ctrl + KCommand + KDelete the currently selected segment of a track.
Ctrl + DCommand + DCopy the currently selected segment of a track and paste it as a separate track in the current project.
Ctrl + TCommand + TDelete the non-selected audio in the current track.
Ctrl + LCommand + LConvert the selected audio to silence.
Ctrl + Shift + XCommand + Shift + XCut the currently selected segment and split the current project.
Ctrl + Shift + KCommand + Shift + KDelete the currently selected segment and split the current project.
Ctrl + ICommand + ISplit the current track to two at the current pointer.
Ctrl + Alt + ICommand + Option + ISplit the current track to two separate tracks at the current pointer and move the second one to a different track.
Ctrl + JCommand + JCombine two split audio tracks.
Audio Labeling
Ctrl + BCommand + BAdd an audio label for the current selection.
Ctrl + MCommand + .Add an audio label at the current pointer.
Ctrl + Alt + VCommand + Option + VPaste the clipboard text as a label in the current track.
Alt + Shift + COption + Shift + CCopy the currently selected label to the buffer.
Alt + XOption + XCut the currently selected label to the buffer.
Alt + KOption + KDelete the currently selected label.
Alt + Shift + XOption + Shift + XCut the currently selected label and split the current project.
Alt + Shift + KOption + Shift + KDelete the currently selected label and split the current project.
Alt + IOption + ISplit the currently selected label into two.
Alt + JOption + JCombine two split labels.

Image credit: Unsplash

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