How to remove empty space from a multitrack session?

[steve.kr]

I often record hours of audio in multitrack sessions. I do a lot of work within the session before editing even begins. I have markers, mixing, effects, and so on, often as a result of going over the recorded material with the artists, and I keep all those markers and notes in the long multitrack session in order to know where my splices will be, and it helps keep things synced with any recorded video that I may also need to splice alongside my audio.

As a result, it is much easier to continue working within the same session. If I start a new session and copy/paste my audio in, none of my markings follow (and yes, I know you can now mark individual clips within a multritrack, but the feature is underdeveloped for my needs). So instead, I start editing in the same session (saving versions as I go). As I edit and trim the time down, the session drops from 3 hours, to 2 hours, to 1 hour, to perhaps as little as 5 minutes of audio spliced together. And then I'm left with all this &%@#$*! EMPTY SPACE I DON'T NEED.

CAPS LOCK EQUALS ANGER.

FEEL. MY. WRATH.

🙂

Anyways, does anyone have a good solution to get rid of this empty space? I may just need guidance on importing my audio, session settings, markers, metadata, etc. into a new multitrack. The empty space sometimes accumulates before my track, depending on where I begin splicing and how everything falls into place after that, but mainly the empty space accumulates after my the main chunk of audio that I've spliced and mixed. It's ridiculously annoying having a 3 hour timeline when audio clips occupy just a few minutes of the timeline.

My included screenshot is of a simpler, more organized session with all the audio I've spliced and mixed pressed up to 0:00.000 on the timeline, so it looks fairly clean. It's just a pain working in the multitrack editor because of all the empty space after my audio.

And no, selecting all the empty space and pressing "delete", "backspace", or "cut" yields nothing. There are no small, hidden audio clips accidentally prolonging this empty timeline.

This is obviously not a life/death issue, but it has been this way for years, and I am FED UP with this nonsense. Oohoh, there are children starving in Africa? Come on, I've got real problems.

🙂

[SteveG_AudioMasters_ · Accepted solution]

The solution for this has been a part of Audition since it was Cool Edit, for heavens' sake! At the bottom of the screen, to the right of the transport controls is a little button marked 'Zoom Out Full All Axes' (Ctrl + \). Click on that, and the magic - that you can achieve in no other way - happens; it will shorten your session. And yes, it really has been there for ever.

[steve.kr]

THANK YOU! Google has been utterly USELESS any time I've googled this issue over the years. At some point a feature, no matter how obviously placed, can be easily forgotten if it's not mentioned or tried, so I likely never would have found this amazing, magical button without you. Seriously, thanks so much! Admittedly, this only removes empty space trailing my audio, and does not remove empty space before my audio clips, not that I would have expected it to do that. Either way, this solves 90% of the problem for me; this is wonderful.

It's easy enough to move the audio clips together and press them up against 0:00.000 on the timeline, but I don't know how to movie audio and markers together. If you know a good way to do that, please let me know. As always, you're the Audio Master, SteveG! Thanks!