Re: [Audacity-devel] PC/Linux sanity check for OD loading

[Gale A. <ga...@au...>]

| From Michael Chinen <mc...@gm...> 
| Wed, 7 Oct 2009 17:52:35 +0200
| Subject: [Audacity-devel] PC/Linux sanity check for OD loading
> On Wed, Oct 7, 2009 at 6:34 AM, Gale Andrews <ga...@au...> wrote:
> >
> > | From Al Dimond <bus...@gm...>
> > | Tue, 6 Oct 2009 17:46:41 -0600
> > | Subject: [Audacity-devel] PC/Linux sanity check for OD loading
> >> On Tuesday 06 October 2009 17:24:03 Michael Chinen wrote:
> >> > Sorry, I forgot to mention the files should be at least 30 seconds
> >> > @44.1kHz long, otherwise the old method of aliased block files is
> >> > used.  Sorry you had to wait for 30 minutes.  If Audacity hangs for
> >> > more than 30 seconds when you load files this way, you should force
> >> > quit and let me know.  Thanks,
> >> >
> >> > > Thanks for checking Al.   If you or anyone else would like to give it
> >> > > another test, I've just checked in something that might fix it.
> >> > > The problem seems to be that the wait behavior for condition variables
> >> > > seems to be quite different for wx and pthread.  I'm waiting for
> >> > > feedback on the wx-users list right now to figure out what the best
> >> > > solution is.
> >> > > Sorry all for the break, and if its not fixed soon (a day and a half,)
> >> > > I'll revert it back to the old code.
> >> > >
> >> > > Michael
> >> >
> >>
> >> This time it worked perfectly, with three stereo .wavs, each a little more
> >> than a minute long.
> >
> > Hi Michael
> >
> > I tested it just now on Win XP, after updating to the latest
> > 1.31 version of ODManager.cpp. I tried with three 5-minute
> > 44100 Hz WAVs, dragged in together, then closed the
> > project and dragged them in individually instead.
> >
> > There is no real hang or excessive CPU use in terms of
> > Audacity being unresponsive, but the waveform calculation
> > never completes after import. At best (when importing a
> > single file), I got the first minute calculated.
> >
> > To view the waveform, I had to amplify it. Note this always
> > shows the required "Amplification (dB)" as 0.0 irrespective
> > of the actual volume of the track, and doesn't actually apply
> > any amplification.  Amplification seems correct if redone
> > (I assume this is all expected given no calculation was done).
> >
> > It isn't possible here to quit Audacity without force-quitting,
> > once an OD file has been imported.  I *can* clear to an
> > empty project by unchecking "Closing last window quits... "
> > in Preferences.
> >
> > The Status Bar message correctly reflects the % of waveform
> > that has been calculated (disappearing after Amplify has
> > completed the calculation).
> >
> > The quoted number of on-demand waveform calculations
> > seems to be more than one per track after your change. One
> > five-minute track reported 7 calculations when I imported it
> > on its own. After clearing to an new project and importing a
> > similar file, there were only 2 calculations going on for that
> > file. Can you explain a bit more about that, because the Manual
> > would be affected by this.
> >
> > NB I have built into an empty directory, so am confident of the
> > result.
> 
> Hi Gale, could you please try it again.  Also if Al or another linuxer
> would verify it still works there, that would be great.

The waveforms now complete on Win XP, and I can exit Audacity OK. 

As to speed improvements, I tested simultaneously importing two WAV
files lasting an hour each. On the basis of three tests in 1.3.9 Release
and three in 1.3.10, the average time to complete was 76 seconds in 
1.3.9 Release and 62 seconds in 1.3.10. 

Although the number of calculations is now the same as the number of
tracks imported, the overall calculation given in the Status Bar is
dividing the result by the number of tracks. So if you import four files,
the waveforms complete when the message says "Overall 25% complete".
1.3.9 has the same issue.  

A problem new to 1.3.10 is that although you get the "Calculating 
waveform 100% complete" message on mouseover, you can never get 
rid of the "progress" message in the status bar e.g. 
 
"Import complete. Running four on-demand waveform calculations. 
25% complete." 

So if after completion you select a region and amplify it, as soon
as there is no more mouse activity the progress message returns. 
Can we fix these two issues?        


Thanks 


Gale