Re: [Audacity-devel] Mixer, new toolbar

[Shane M. <smu...@um...>]

> > The three sliders could fit on a single horizontal toolbar quite easily.
> > This could be loaded only on  request.  One question to consider is how
> > useful these sliders are to a novice? Especially if they have the a
> > similar control on the track.
> 
> I'd argue that they're critically important, because novices open
> Audacity and don't have any idea why they can't hear anything when
> they press "Play".

Good point. I was thinking that putting them on their own toolbar would
make it easier to hide away; possibly with the toolbar hid by default
(along with the edit toolbar).

> I think that the icons do a perfect job of indicating output volume
> and mic/input level without being so cluttered.  However, I don't
> see how we could possibly come up with an icon for "master volume".

> Maybe we should just set PCM to 100% and only give them a master
> volume control?  Advanced users could open up a mixer dialog which
> lets them set the PCM level and turn off the feature which
> sets it to 100% when you open the program...

I'm getting confused. What are the two volume controls for (aside from
the microphone gain)?  Is it PCM/Main, or is it audacity internal
gain/external volume?  It sounds like it is the first. Most sound
applications I am aware of only control pcm volume; you control master
volume from the system tray/panel. Audacity 1.0 is unique in that its
volume controls neither of these. Anyway, I think it would be good to
have only a single volume control, and if there are just two such
sliders, (mic and volume), they would probably fit cleanly on the main
toolbar; like:
    loop   - master volume +
   source  - recording vol +
   

On a different note, it would be neat if the volume control slider and
level meters could be integrated into a single widget. I'm not sure
exactly how it would look, but it is something to think about that would
save screen real estate and allow for more direct manipulation. 

Stm...