Re: [Audacity-quality] [Audacity-devel] Some high return features/fixes for 2.0.2?

[Bill W. <bi...@go...>]

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Gale Andrews <ga...@au...>

> Details:
> 
> All these cause frequent angst to users, due to crashes, being left 
> with reduced functionality with no idea how to correct it, or being
> un-necessarily asked to go through repetitive hoops to perform
> what should be a simple task.  
> 
> "Votes" means votes on Wiki Feature Requests. 
> 
> * Snap To:
>   http://bugzilla.audacityteam.org/show_bug.cgi?id=436
> 
>   Reported almost daily. Discussed here:
>   http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=27402899
> 
>   and maybe elsewhere. I prefer some kind of fix to make it harder
>   to click on, while retaining it in Selection Toolbar (e.g. a button),  
>   rather than e.g. turn Snap-To off when zoomed in. Or we could 
>   have a box pop up when you enable Snap To. 

I don't know if I'd characterize it as a "bear trap" - it is too easy to get out of. To me this is akin to a photoshop user setting the crop tool to an 8 by 10 ratio then being bewildered when the crop tool is constrained to an 8 by 10 ratio. They may have forgotten that they've set it that way, but one glance at the crop tool settings tells them what's going on. So this is just part of the learning curve. Once a user has encountered this they are unlikely to do so again.

I put this down to user error and RTFM. I don't think it needs to be changed.

However, if it is felt it *must* be changed, I'd support keeping the checkbox as is, with a warning (with "don't show again" option) when setting it to On. Yet another warning preference.

> 
> * Audio cache, last discussed at:
>   http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=27431012 
> 
>   When this option is enabled it seems to cause crashes on far too 
>   many machines, long before the system memory falls to the 
>   threshold specified in Directories Prefs. Reported two or three 
>   times a week, more often in editing than recording (because we 
>   write edits to RAM too). On Steve's box under Linux but not
>   Windows, checking Audio Cache has no effect (recordings are 
>   written to disk rather than RAM, regardless). 
> 
>   I think the feature should be retired as experimental until fixed
>   so as to have a default option to only use it when recording; 
>   or to retain the feature until fixed, set the default "Minimum 
>   Free Memory" much higher (if Audacity can detect installed RAM, 
>   say to 35% of installed RAM). This would prevent most but not all
>   crashes, from reports received.  

Turning it off until it works properly seems a good idea.

>   
> * Give the selection format when generating at a point a way to
>   default to other than seconds. People who want e.g. milliseconds 
>   have to change the format every single time they generate. 
>   (34 votes, with preference going to have it remember the last
>   used format).

Yes, please!

> 
> * Make a port of GVerb that addresses the continual complaints
>   about this effect, or include our own reverb (19 votes). At a
>   minimum, there should be sensible default settings for use 
>   on a track on its own, presets, and it should be a stereo reverb.
>   Possibly consider Freeverb 3:
>   http://freeverb3.sourceforge.net/downloads.shtml . 

Longer term, I think. IIRC GVerb does not support presets. I know nothing about FreeVerb.

> 
> * Chains. Add export format options (to save having to start then 
>   cancel manual exports just to set the export format option for 
>   the Chain). Add export sample rate so that Chains are not halted 
>   by sample rate/bit rate mismatches. [Secondary: Add AIFF, 
>   Other Uncompressed Files and FFmpeg formats exports]. All these
>   have circa 20 votes. 

No opinion as I never use chains.

> 
> * Export to directory from which the original .aup or audio file 
>   loaded (like Save Project does). It's way too much hassle 
>   to overwrite the same file if you don't import from the last
>   used export directory (16 votes, plus other requests for a
>   quicker overwrite method).  

This seems sensible.

> 
> * Export Multiple:  Checkbox in dialogue to pass metadata through
>   to all exported files automatically, otherwise you get a screen
>   to OK on for each exported file. It saves having to File > Open
>   Metadata Editor to add tags before export, which is unintuitive. 
>   (35 votes)

Wasn't this discussed before, and weren't there reasons what it was either difficult to implement or not a good idea?

> 
> * Import Appended: (25 votes). Import multiple files end-to-end in
>   a single track. It's common to want to join files but we make the
>   user cut-and-paste each file.

Yes, please.

> 
> * One-step way to avoid clipping on multiple tracks: (25 votes)
>   Is something like this commented out in the code? It could be 
>   simply a shortcut that moves all gain sliders by the same
>   amount.

Or a master gain slider (separate from the Play slider, which is a monitor volume control).

-- Bill