Re: [Audacity-quality] Leveller redundancy

[Peter S. <pet...@ya...>]

Vaughan wrote:
>Btw, I think the preferred spelling is "Leveler".
 
Indeed - good catch Vaughan.
 
But perhaps this is now the time to consider the future of
the Leveler/Leveller effect.
 
Bill wrote in an ednote in the Manual back in April last year:
>I would hope that the Leveller will soon be dropped from Audacity. 
>If I understand the history correctly, this was added for use with 
>CleanSpeech at a quick and dirty (very dirty!) compressor that could 
>be used in a chain. It introduces unacceptable distortion (IMO) when 
>used as a compressor. It has some (very limited) use as a "distorted 
>vocal" effect. So, I'd rather lobby for its removal rather than spend 
>more time documenting it. 
 
If Bill's analysis is correct (and Gale's earlier comments in this thread
re. this effect being a simpler compressor for challenged users indicates
that it probably is) then I would certainly vote for its removal.
 
Thanks,
Peter

Peter Sampson
Tel: +44 (0)1625 524 780
Mob: +44 (0)7732 278 299
 

________________________________
 From: Vaughan Johnson <va...@au...>
To: aud...@li... 
Sent: Saturday, June 22, 2013 1:17 AM
Subject: Re: [Audacity-quality] Leveller redundancy
  

Btw, I think the preferred spelling is "Leveler".


On 6/21/2013 4:14 PM, Gale Andrews wrote:
>
> | From Vaughan Johnson <va...@au...>
> | Fri, 21 Jun 2013 13:40:22 -0700
> | Subject: [Audacity-quality] Leveller redundancy
>> I never used it before, but in removing credits from built-in effects, I
>> found the Leveller effect has absurdly excessive redundancy.
>>
>> Specifically, a cluster labeled "Degree of Leveling" in which there's
>> only one control, a wxChoice labeled... "Degree of Leveling:". (!)
>>
>> And why not just "Degree", since the title bar says "Leveller"?
>
> Probably because "Degree" would look silly on its own?

Obviously, I don't think so, or I would not have suggested it.


>
> Would "Amount" be technically wrong? That would be
> understandable on its own, I think.

Now *that* would look silly. :-)

I haven't looked into the processing code, but it's about how many times 
it processes, using the same processing, but he chose to express it by 
degree from Light to Heaviest.

"Amount" gives no more indication what's going on. We could just get rid 
of it altogether, and rely on the names of the choices, but then there 
would be no pref (no big loss, imo). Or we could change it to something 
that indicates it's about how many successive passes it makes.

Is this effect used much? Just get rid of it?


>
>
>> And another cluster labeled "Noise Threshold (Hiss/Hum/Ambient Noise)"
>> with only one wxChoice control, labeled "Threshold for Noise:" (*not*
>> "Noise Threshold", I guess just to not be quite so inanely redundant --
>> but it doesn't really achieve that effect).
>>
>> Clusters are for *grouping* controls, so never really appropriate for a
>> single control.
>>
>> I was going to just change it, but the wxChoices are created via
>> ShuttleGuiBase::TieChoice, so the labels are used for the associated
>> prefs. If I do change it, the "Degree of Leveling:" pref will still
>> work, but I would change "Threshold for Noise:" to "Noise Threshold:" --
>> so some users' prefs wouldn't work until they run the effect again. Is
>> that acceptable? I think it would affect very few people.
>>
>> And is "(Hiss/Hum/Ambient Noise)" necessary, or can it just be "Noise
>> Threshold"?
>
> IMO we don't need that explanation of noise in parentheses.

Thanks. Anybody think so?


>
> IMO "Threshold for Noise" is actually slightly clearer for challenged
> users, but I could live with the preference failing as a one-off in
> this case.

Good. Thanks.


>
> On the Forum we tend to discourage use of Leveller in music
> (except paradoxically as a distortion effect).

So it's results are bad. If we keep it, let's make that clear in the 
interface. "Typically will add distortion."


>
> I guess Leveller is largely used by people who simply cannot
> understand our non-standard Compressor and don't know about
> the Chris's Compressor Nyquist plug-in.

Ahh, tools for the clueless who don't want to learn... Maybe that's the 
real reason to remove it. Surely it's not actually helping them.

- V

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