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Audacity 2.2.0 Released

audacityteam.org

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Re: Audacity 2.2.0 Released

#51

Post by brian-armstrong »

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.

They are pretty accepting of new patches, and the source is easily readable. Knock yourself out :)

Re: Audacity 2.2.0 Released

#53

Post by qwertybn »

Modern interface design is all smoke and mirrors, and not about empowering the user. Interfaces in the 90’s and 00’s were much more useful. Given a choice, most power users would downgrade back to more features if they had that option.

Re: Audacity 2.2.0 Released

#54

Post by pensono »

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…

Have you tried bitwig? It's fairly new and seems to do alot of things right.

Re: Audacity 2.2.0 Released

#55

Post by chiefalchemist »

SwellJoe wrote: post #43
chiefalchemist wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 bu…

Great input. Thx. I've done a lot of proper DJing in my past. At this point it would mostly be for fun. Ideally get a lounge / chill gig just playing good choons for mood with no concern for a dancefloor.

Re: Audacity 2.2.0 Released

#56

Post by SwellJoe »

darkmighty wrote: post #46
SwellJoe wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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

I won a copy of Deluxe Music for Amiga in a music competition when I was a kid; I'd made the winning track in MED or OctaMED, and kept using MED/OctaMED even after winning Deluxe Music.

I found Deluxe Music cartoonish and not capable of doing what I wanted. I dismissed it almost immediately. It felt like wearing gloves to compose after coming from trackers, where you had tick-precision (this was sort of a weird combination of interrupts and the BPM of your song, I don't remember the details now) control over everything like volume, pitch, arpeggiation, the Paula filter, etc.

I think it's worth noting that Deluxe Music is distinctly not what modern DAWs look like, while Cubase kinda sorta is. Deluxe Music brought traditional music notation into the computer, which was great for folks who were comfortable with it, but you lose a lot of control and information visibility when you do that. And, of course, it requires your user to have some sort of formal music education.

There are still tools that'll work with traditional music notation, but very few people use them for composition. There's millions of copies of DAWs using a Cubase-ish sequencer-style interface in use every day.

Re: Audacity 2.2.0 Released

#57

Post by SwellJoe »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #55
SwellJoe wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 bu…

Great input. Thx. I've done a lot of proper DJing in my past. At this point it would mostly be for fun. Ideally get a lounge / chill gig just playing good choons for mood with no concern for a dancefloor.

DJing is fun as hell but isn't a great job. I mostly did it for free for charities and stuff that I support, but that ended up getting people requesting I do it for real and the money was actually pretty good (I mean, $600 to spin records for a few hours is great, in my book, though moving a few hundred pounds of speakers and lights in and out was less fun).

Re: Audacity 2.2.0 Released

#59

Post by chiefalchemist »

SwellJoe wrote: post #57
chiefalchemist wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great input. Thx. I've done a lot of proper DJing in my past. At this point it would mostly be for fun. Ideally get a lounge / chill gig just playing good choons for mood with no concern for a dancefloor.

DJing is fun as hell but isn't a great job. I mostly did it for free for charities and stuff that I support, but that ended up getting people requesting I do it for real and the money was actually pretty good (I mean, $600 to spin records for a few hours is great, in my book, though moving a few hundred pounds of speakers and lights in and out was less fun).

I never minded setting up. It was breaking shit down at 2am or later, plus a drive home, that always drove me nuts.

But i always loved, and still do, finding good tunes and then curating a vibe and a night. That's a great feeling. Free drinks help as well ;)

Re: Audacity 2.2.0 Released

#60

Post by tomc1985 »

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

Atari ST... I stand corrected :)
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