Re: [Audacity-devel] Reassigned spectrograms

[Steve t. F. <ste...@gm...>]

Top posting as this is a summary response to a very long thread
(apologies to anyone that hates top posting :-)

I agree with Peter that most users probably use the default Waveform
view exclusively, though we know that a lot of users prefer to use
"Waveform (dB)", and some users will switch between the two (perhaps
using the dB scale in multi-track projects and switching to linear
scale for single track editing). I doubt that many will use a
spectrogram view "all the  time", but certainly some will switch to
spectrogram as and when the need arises. Using spectrogram views is
something that I think we should encourage, so we don't want to scare
novice users with a mass of highly technical options.

I agree with Paul that "Spectrogram settings should really allow a
rich set of combinations of algorithm, scale, spectral selection, and
other things". The word that I would emphasize is "allow".

I very much like James' idea of presenting users with a handful of
"view styles". With well chosen defaults, this will satisfy the needs
of most users. Switching from one view to another is simple and
convenient for those user that do so frequently, and may encourage
novice users to experiment with different views. More experienced
users are capable of "digging deeper" to discover the wealth of
features that Paul spoke of, and optional custom views provides a
convenient way to make good use of those features within an efficient
workflow.

On the point of "well chosen defaults", I would suggest that for the
default spectrogram view, the window size could be a little larger -
perhaps 512 as a general purpose compromise.


I agree that within the time-scale of the 2.1.2 release, a simpler
solution is lower risk and should allow more time for documenting and
testing. James asked what I would propose:- it would have been along
the same lines as Paul's recommendation:

"The choice of default view type in Tracks would be three-way, not
two, with Waveform, Waveform dB, and Spectrogram.  The track drop-down
would have those three items plus "Spectrogram settings...""

Personally, I like to use software that has all the bells and
whistles, but more important is how quickly and easily can I do what I
want to do.  Dominic Mazzoni always emphasized usability,
accessibility and a discoverable interface. Bells and whistles are
nice to have, but more important is how quickly and easily can users
work out how to get the job done, and having worked it out, how to
incorporate that into a convenient and efficient workflow.

On the subject of track scales, one feature (bug) that I would very
much like to see improved if anyone can work out how to do it (Paul?),
is for the dB ruler to extend down into the negative part of the
waveform.

Steve


On 19 August 2015 at 09:58, James Crook <cr...@in...> wrote:
> On 19/08/2015 09:37, Peter Sampson wrote:
>
> James wrote:
>>However your proposal to only configure spectrogram is much simpler and low
>> risk to implement, so if Steve and Peter are OK with
>>
>>---
>>Waveform
>>Waveform (dB)
>>Spectrogram
>>----
>>Spectrogram Settings
>>---
>>
>>Then that is what we go for.  It is simpler and lower risk.
>
> I am ok with that (as explained in my previous email), actually more than ok
> - I really wanted Waveform (dB) back at that top level.
>
> But do we need to set Spectrogram settings in its own boxed area - can't it
> just live in the views box?
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Also I'm confused now about the per-track settings issue.
> I thought we always have had the TCP dropdown menu
> making per track settings - what am I missing here?
>
>
> The spectrogram settings are per track, so we can have different window size
> on different tracks.  We can't in current Audacity.  Having track and global
> preferences does have slightly strange results.  Try the current UI and
> these steps:
>
> Create a track and put a spectrogram on it
> Change that spectrogram windows size for this track using the TCP settings.
> Go to preferences (Ctrl-P) and change the spectrogram colour preferences to
> gray.  No effect.
>
> This will still happen of course with the revised scheme without waveform
> settings.
>
> I think this probably isn't going to confuse many users, i.e. I would regard
> it as much less serious than the 'stuck in snap-to' issue we have had.
>
>
>
> No need to set off the spectrogram settings from the radio-choice.  That
> suggestion by me retracted.
>
> --James.
>
>
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