How to export and import comments into Audacity

If you’re an audio creator, you’ve most likely felt the need to leave comments and notes across your projects, such as podcast episodes, music, and the like. With timestamps mix-ups and email miscommunication between teams prevalent, more and more audio creators are looking to compile their creative workflow together. Notetracks is a comprehensive audio collaboration tool that allows creators to leave comments, notes, and annotations directly on the audio file itself. As many producers and editors use Audacity to create their projects, Notetracks becomes an excellent supplementary tool to then make comments, mark-ups, and notes that are easily exported and imported back into Audacity for use.

To begin, click the ‘New Project’ button, select audio as your project type, and give it a title.

If you haven’t already, add the audio project you’d like to make comments on into Notetracks by clicking either of the two ‘Add Track’ buttons on the left-hand side of the screen.

You can also add tracks by dragging and dropping, or by importing directly from Dropbox or Google Drive.

Next, ensure you’re in the ‘Comment’ pane at the top middle of the workspace. You can utilize the playback controls at the bottom of the workspace to navigate along the track to where you’d like to leave a comment. Alternatively, you can do the same by moving the playhead across the waveform.

When you’re ready to leave a comment or note, press the ‘New Comment’ button in the toolbar. Type in your feedback and click ‘Post’.

You can drag your comments along the waveform to move them using the green triangle. If you’d like a more in-depth guide on how to leave comments and notes on audio files, feel free to check out our How to Comment on an Audio File help blog.

To download your comments, navigate to the three dots on the side of your track title. Expand the menu and select ‘Export Audacity Labels’.

Your comments will now be saved as a .txt file.

To import into Audacity, open the track you were working on and navigate to the toolbar at the top of the workstation. This toolbar could appear differently depending on what operating system you’re using Audacity on.

Go to ‘Tools > Sample Data Import...’ and select the Notetracks .txt file you just exported.

Your comments will now be available in Audacity.

Notetracks has an impressive collection of commenting, editing, drawing, and annotation tools that can take your audio workflow to a higher calibre. Whether you’re producing a podcast series alongside guests or working on an upcoming single for a band, Notetracks’ comprehensive audio collaboration tools make it easy, intuitive, and quick. Find out more today.