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Audacity 2.2.0 Released

audacityteam.org

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Re: Audacity 2.2.0 Released

#41

Post by SwellJoe »

ukyrgf wrote: post #31

I love seeing software that still has a "Screenshots" section of their website. It's looked the same for as long as I've been using computers to record audio, starting with my high school band's demo over 15 years ago. I could probably make fun of Audacity for not keeping up with the times, but if you look at other DAWs you'll see none are exactly bastions of good interface design. I got a little more serious about m…

This version has new themes. I'm happy to see an end to the weird fuzzy mushy looking buttons. I don't really like the other theme that I could find pictures of (Dark Audacity), but making it themeable is a big win. I might even tackle making a theme myself, as I use Audacity pretty regularly for the final mastering pass of tracks I make in FL Studio or Renoise or REAPER. It's a great tool but the UI has always been sad.

Re: Audacity 2.2.0 Released

#42

Post by SwellJoe »

tomc1985 wrote: post #39
ukyrgf wrote: post #31

I love seeing software that still has a "Screenshots" section of their website. It's looked the same for as long as I've been using computers to record audio, starting with my high school band's demo over 15 years ago. I could probably make fun of Audacity for not keeping up with the times, but if you look at other DAWs you'll see none are exactly bastions of good interface design. I got a little more serious about m…

> but if you look at other DAWs you'll see none are exactly bastions of good interface design What? Modern "good interface design" (at least by HN standards) has almost nothing to say about complicated 1000+ feature apps. (In fact every time I rant that modern design sucks and that apps need more features the first response I usually get back is, "but that's so much more testing! Do you know how many execution paths…

"Cubase has kept an interface very similar to its original Atari 2600 (I think?) version"

Cubase on a 2600 would be something to see. Cubase was introduced for the Atari ST in the late 80s. The UI has changed quite a bit, but the basic UI principles of early MIDI sequencers have carried over into modern DAWs.

Edit: A screenshot: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/OlspnqVcJho/maxresdefault.jpg

Re: Audacity 2.2.0 Released

#43

Post by SwellJoe »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #19
tangental wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not for producing as such but there's also Mixxx DJ software where you can write your own controls and effects in Javascript.

Have you used it? How does it compare to commercial DJ software? Iyho

I used it semi-professionally (I was a paid DJ, but not as my primary source of income) for a couple years. It's solid. 2.0 brings it very comfortably into competition with the best proprietary software, IMHO. That's when it got timecoded vinyl support, good pitch shifting, and better beat-matching.

Pros are probably still mostly using Serato or Traktor, but I don't think it's necessary. I used Traktor for a while but like Mixxx better. It's very good software. It had a lot of shortcomings in the 1.x releases, including stability issues, but I would definitely trust it for pro work today.

Re: Audacity 2.2.0 Released

#44

Post by dmd »

tomc1985 wrote: post #39
ukyrgf wrote: post #31

I love seeing software that still has a "Screenshots" section of their website. It's looked the same for as long as I've been using computers to record audio, starting with my high school band's demo over 15 years ago. I could probably make fun of Audacity for not keeping up with the times, but if you look at other DAWs you'll see none are exactly bastions of good interface design. I got a little more serious about m…

> but if you look at other DAWs you'll see none are exactly bastions of good interface design What? Modern "good interface design" (at least by HN standards) has almost nothing to say about complicated 1000+ feature apps. (In fact every time I rant that modern design sucks and that apps need more features the first response I usually get back is, "but that's so much more testing! Do you know how many execution paths…

It would be quite a feat to put Cubase on an Atari 2600, a machine with 128 bytes of RAM. Not kilobytes - bytes.

Re: Audacity 2.2.0 Released

#45

Post by clebio »

I've used Audacity off and on for years. Love that it is still around and pretty much _just works_. It does just what I need, as infrequently as I need it, and doesn't require an idiotic (and steep) subscription fee to use (glaring at you Adobe CS).

Re: Audacity 2.2.0 Released

#46

Post by darkmighty »

SwellJoe wrote: post #42
tomc1985 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but if you look at other DAWs you'll see none are exactly bastions of good interface design What? Modern "good interface design" (at least by HN standards) has almost nothing to say about complicated 1000+ feature apps. (In fact every time I rant that modern design sucks and that apps need more features the first response I usually get back is, "but that's so much more testing! Do you know how many execution paths…

"Cubase has kept an interface very similar to its original Atari 2600 (I think?) version" Cubase on a 2600 would be something to see. Cubase was introduced for the Atari ST in the late 80s. The UI has changed quite a bit, but the basic UI principles of early MIDI sequencers have carried over into modern DAWs. Edit: A screenshot: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/OlspnqVcJho/maxresdefault.jpg

See also Deluxe Music in the Amiga 1200:

https://youtu.be/OwROU4UkE84?t=45s

Re: Audacity 2.2.0 Released

#47

Post by uryga »

microcolonel wrote: post #13
tomc1985 wrote: post #5

I am so glad for Audacity but the UI always feels more convoluted than it needs to be. I wish they would copy Sound Forge's controls

That's a thought! I think that Reaper is the one to beat these days though, is there an essay or review of Sound Forge which would capture (comprehensively) what is to love about it? It'd be nice to decouple the UI from all the major open source sequencer and audio software, just leave some sort of pure data + Core Audio style innards and reconnect the UIs on top. I've taken a few cracks at this in private, but embar…

I'd love to help out with something like this! Do you have a public repo or something?

Re: Audacity 2.2.0 Released

#48

Post by bastawhiz »

clebio wrote: post #45

I've used Audacity off and on for years. Love that it is still around and pretty much _just works_. It does just what I need, as infrequently as I need it, and doesn't require an idiotic (and steep) subscription fee to use (glaring at you Adobe CS).

Honestly, I couldn't disagree more. Audacity is one of the buggiest pieces of open source software I've used. Audio routinely gets corrupted or lost. Their "known issues" page is comically long, and little ever gets fixed.

I have a lot of love for them for making audio editing accessible to the masses, but I wish a team would clean the app up like the LibreOffice folks did to OpenOffice.

Re: Audacity 2.2.0 Released

#49

Post by brian-armstrong »

wohlergehen wrote: post #23

I know I've come across a debugging story that ultimately ended up with the author loading binary data into audacity and hearing/seeing a pattern. Does anyone know what I mean, and has a link, since I can't seem to find it...?

There's some visualizing memory stuff in this bluray drive reversing

https://hackaday.com/2014/10/30/reverse-engineering-a-blu-ra...

Re: Audacity 2.2.0 Released

#50

Post by SubiculumCode »

bastawhiz wrote: post #48
clebio wrote: post #45

I've used Audacity off and on for years. Love that it is still around and pretty much _just works_. It does just what I need, as infrequently as I need it, and doesn't require an idiotic (and steep) subscription fee to use (glaring at you Adobe CS).

Honestly, I couldn't disagree more. Audacity is one of the buggiest pieces of open source software I've used. Audio routinely gets corrupted or lost. Their "known issues" page is comically long, and little ever gets fixed. I have a lot of love for them for making audio editing accessible to the masses, but I wish a team would clean the app up like the LibreOffice folks did to OpenOffice.

I hate to agree with you, but I do. Quite buggy.
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