Re: [Audacity-devel] behaviour of mute and solo

[David B. <drb...@go...>]

Hi Steve,

On Sun, Mar 15, 2009 at 11:28 AM, Steve the Fiddle
<ste...@gm...> wrote:
>
> Just thinking about the manual / explanations to new users on the help forum
> - which of the following is easier to understand, and which is more useful
> for the user:

My initial comments arose out of trying to describe the current
behaviour whilst updating my jaws guide to audacity.

>
> 1) Ctrl+U mutes all tracks. Ctrl+SHIFT+U unmutes all tracks.
> A track can not be set to solo and mute at the same time.
> Muted tracks will not play back and will not be included in any export.
> When one or more tracks are set to solo, only the soloed tracks will play,
> and only the soloed tracks will be included in an Export.

In solo button simple mode, then a track should not be solo and mute
at the same time,
but in standard mode it can - that's the desired functionality of the
standard mode. Otherwise I agree.

>
> 2) Ctrl+U mutes all tracks, but those that were previously set to solo
> remain set to solo as well as being muted and will play. When in the solo
> behaviour is set to "Standard" in Preferences (Ctrl+P > Interface tab) to
> mute a track you must click on "Mute" and if the track was previously set to
> "Solo" then you must also click on the "Solo" button to deselect solo mode
> for that track.

Again, in solo standard mode, that's ok.

The same applies to when using Ctrl+U. When in the solo
> behaviour is set to "Simple" Ctrl+U and Ctrl+SHIFT+U only affect the status
> of the "Mute" buttons and again, if  a track is also set to solo it will
> play back, but it will not (will/will not?)  be included in any Export.

It's confusing.

> My vote goes for:
> If the user chooses to "mute all tracks", then it should "mute all tracks"
> (On Ctrl+U all tracks are muted and any soloed tracks become un-soloed).
> It is easier to explain, it is (in my opinion) more logical, it is better
> for VI users and it avoids "illegal" combinations. (It also means that in
> "Standard" mode, multiple tracks can be quickly "un-soloed" by pressing
> Ctrl+U followed by Ctrl+SHIFT+U).

Again, in solo standard mode having tracks both mute and solo is fine,
but having a command
to unsolo all tracks might be useful for vi users,


David.