Re: [Audacity-devel] Mixer board

[Vaughan J. <va...@au...>]

Thanks, Steve. Lots of polishing, niggle-fixing to do on MixerBoard. 
Good to get more testing results on it.

The right place for this discussion is -devel, not feedback@.


Steve wrote:
> The mixerboard is a nice new feature, but I notice that on Linux (Ubuntu
> 9.04) there are a few things that seem a bit odd.
>
> 1) You can select tracks by clicking anywhere around the Audacity logo,
> but not on the audacity logo itself, and not on the track name.
>   
> This requires a lot more, and to my mind unnecessary, precisions when
> clicking to select a track. Is there a reason for this, or is it a bug?
>   
Gale pointed this out and it's on my agenda.  Just an incomplete 
feature, not a bug. Actually, since it looks like a button, maybe 
something more should be available. But for the near term, I'll just add 
the image to the selectable area.


>
> 2) Holding down the shift key and selecting multiple tracks on the
> mixerboard does not show up in the main Tracks window until some action
> is performed (such as moving a slider or clicking on the Effects menu).
>   
Yes, that's the way the client wanted it and I haven't yet converted it 
to the way we want it, i.e., as in TrackPanel.

>
> 3) If the "Solo" button behaviour is set to "Simple" in Audacity, the
> mixerboard does not use "Simple" but still uses the "Standard" Solo
> button behaviour.
>   
This was originally built on 1.2.6, so didn't have the different soloing 
methods. I'll add that.


> Also, the highlighting of selected channels on the mixerboard is very
> subtle (not easy to see) and would perhaps be ,ore clear if highlighted
> in yellow (like the current track in the main track window).
>   
Good suggestion. In 1.2.6, TrackPanel didn't have that either.

> It would also seem logical that if multiple channel strips are selected
> that adjusting a slider in one would adjust the slider in all selected
> channels, but I notice that it does not do this.
>   
Nomenclature: I've been calling them TrackClusters.

Actually, it affects both channels of stereo tracks, but you mean 
multiple tracks selected.

I think that's pretty counter to the way hardware mixer boards work, but 
I have limited experience with them. Some have automation, I know, where 
you can invoke presets and all the faders go to predefined values.

But for Audacity's MixerBoard, some stronger notation (rather than just 
selection) of locking tracks together might make sense. Then would you 
want them all to track the same value as the one the user adjusted, or 
the same relative change? I'd guess the latter. And would you want the 
same capability in TrackPanel? The gain sliders there are all 
independent for multiply-selected tracks.

Anyway, it's good to discuss, but I plan to do all the polishing before 
adding any new features like this.

- Vaughan