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Audacity 2.2.0 Released

audacityteam.org

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Re: Audacity 2.2.0 Released

#91

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...?

It’s fun loading images into Audacity. The audio effects look surprisingly like they sound.

cool! good to know.

Re: Audacity 2.2.0 Released

#92
post #89

I wish there was a some sort of a Open Source UI squad that would just work towards making awesome UIs for projects like Audacity, GIMP etc. There are so many low hanging fruits here like - iconography, spacing, using the right widget controls etc. that would make a lot more people want to use (and hopefully support) such software.

(UI) Designers don't want to work for free. This is more or less the observation I made in regards for Open Source software. Having some side projects or helping OSS is somewhat expected from a programmer. From other professions not so much.

I did some free UI design for a game I found on the Pygame site a while back. At the time I was gainfully employed as a graphic designer, UI designer, and illustrator. The artwork was gratefully received and I had a fun time working with the software developer. Here's what I think made it go well:

- High visibility: The game was featured in the website sidebar. So I thought it'd be neat to contribute.

- Easy as HTML: Extract game zip file, edit Python files in a text editor, plug in my own filenames instead of the default ones. Start game, see my graphics.

- Developer was very open and friendly. Just an IT guy with a hobby.

- I knew about the Pygame website already because I followed FOSS stuff.

I don't know how many UI designers are browsing sites like that, but my guess is not many. But imagine if they did: what are the chances their workflow would be as easy as it was for me? In a compiled language, forget it.

I remember a few years back when suddenly it seemed like everything was on GitHub. My UI designer peers _hated_ this and many still do. So it's far from inviting in many ways for a UI person, though I don't mean to suggest they couldn't hack it if they wanted to.

Re: Audacity 2.2.0 Released

#93
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(UI) Designers don't want to work for free. This is more or less the observation I made in regards for Open Source software. Having some side projects or helping OSS is somewhat expected from a programmer. From other professions not so much.

I did some free UI design for a game I found on the Pygame site a while back. At the time I was gainfully employed as a graphic designer, UI designer, and illustrator. The artwork was gratefully received and I had a fun time working with the software developer. Here's what I think made it go well: - High visibility: The game was featured in the website sidebar. So I thought it'd be neat to contribute. - Easy as HTML:…

> ...suddenly it seemed like everything was on GitHub. My UI designer peers _hated_ this and many still do.

What about it do they hate? I ask as a non-designer, to whom their perspective may be foreign.

Re: Audacity 2.2.0 Released

#94
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What other free-as-in-beer software do you use to produce music?

Ardour ( https://ardour.org/ ) and LMMS ( https://lmms.io/ ) are probably the two most popular open-source DAWs. I also really like MuseScore ( https://musescore.org/ ) for composition.

MuseScore is great, I have used it to produce lead sheets professionally on several occasions and it does not disappoint. I grew up on Sibelius but prefer MuseScore for simpler tasks. They have done a great job.

Re: Audacity 2.2.0 Released

#95
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did some free UI design for a game I found on the Pygame site a while back. At the time I was gainfully employed as a graphic designer, UI designer, and illustrator. The artwork was gratefully received and I had a fun time working with the software developer. Here's what I think made it go well: - High visibility: The game was featured in the website sidebar. So I thought it'd be neat to contribute. - Easy as HTML:…

> ...suddenly it seemed like everything was on GitHub. My UI designer peers _hated_ this and many still do. What about it do they hate? I ask as a non-designer, to whom their perspective may be foreign.

Github is a code management tool, so it isn’t too surprising that designers aren’t fond of it.

Imagine code diffs, but for visual designs instead. Showing you which palette colors have changed, which margins have been tweaked etc. - Github doesn’t do any of that.

Re: Audacity 2.2.0 Released

#96
post #95
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ...suddenly it seemed like everything was on GitHub. My UI designer peers _hated_ this and many still do. What about it do they hate? I ask as a non-designer, to whom their perspective may be foreign.

Github is a code management tool, so it isn’t too surprising that designers aren’t fond of it. Imagine code diffs, but for visual designs instead. Showing you which palette colors have changed, which margins have been tweaked etc. - Github doesn’t do any of that.

How could it? Do you expect them to run some sort of headless Photoshop VM?

Re: Audacity 2.2.0 Released

#97
post #96
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Github is a code management tool, so it isn’t too surprising that designers aren’t fond of it. Imagine code diffs, but for visual designs instead. Showing you which palette colors have changed, which margins have been tweaked etc. - Github doesn’t do any of that.

How could it? Do you expect them to run some sort of headless Photoshop VM?

I don’t know, that wasn’t the question.

In any case, is it that insane to imagine a visual diff tool? Illustrator files are basically just SVG, it’s all very parseable.

Re: Audacity 2.2.0 Released

#98
post #89

I wish there was a some sort of a Open Source UI squad that would just work towards making awesome UIs for projects like Audacity, GIMP etc. There are so many low hanging fruits here like - iconography, spacing, using the right widget controls etc. that would make a lot more people want to use (and hopefully support) such software.

(UI) Designers don't want to work for free. This is more or less the observation I made in regards for Open Source software. Having some side projects or helping OSS is somewhat expected from a programmer. From other professions not so much.

Well, most design people also have side projects, be it a Tumblr page or an endless supply of drawings that they just do to improve their drawing skills.

But that's different from helping an (OSS) application look good. For that, you have to make tons of mockups, iterate again and again, until you have something that looks good and consistent across the entire application. Ideally, you'd also want at least one other person to bounce ideas back and forth, and have an opinion about what you're doing.

This is real work, which requires a lot of commitment upfront. The equivalent of requiring a programmer to lay out the entire architecture before they write a single line of code. That's also something that mainly happens in a corporate environment, whereas for hobby projects it tends to lead to frustration.

Re: Audacity 2.2.0 Released

#99

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...?

Maybe Spectrograms?

i.e. Aphex Twin's Equation

More here: http://twistedsifter.com/2013/01/hidden-images-embedded-into...

Re: Audacity 2.2.0 Released

#100
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did some free UI design for a game I found on the Pygame site a while back. At the time I was gainfully employed as a graphic designer, UI designer, and illustrator. The artwork was gratefully received and I had a fun time working with the software developer. Here's what I think made it go well: - High visibility: The game was featured in the website sidebar. So I thought it'd be neat to contribute. - Easy as HTML:…

> ...suddenly it seemed like everything was on GitHub. My UI designer peers _hated_ this and many still do. What about it do they hate? I ask as a non-designer, to whom their perspective may be foreign.

They would show up wanting to find a download, and GutHub's UI was not set up like a typical private software website with a big "Download" button or menu item. It was off to the side, and I believe it said "Clone or Download", and these people are thinking, "is this some insider speak--am I at the right site?" And if you were just downloading, pretty soon you got told that you were ripping yourself off because downloading was so '80s, just clone the repo... Anyway you get the idea. All of a sudden tons of helpful UI resources were intermeshed with this GitHub ecosphere instead of living elsewhere, like on a lovingly-designed personal website with a pleasant UI that had not been mingled with versioning software.
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