Macros

Ed 7Feb13: I am going to top post this on this strawman as a ToDo – some of us have made wording changes on one or more of these strawman pages; before publishing one of them we need to go back with a fine tooth comb and make sure all the tweaks end up in the final published page.

• Peter 8Feb13: Until we decide otherwise THIS is the primary strawman and the following ones are kite-flying style suggestions, until we decide otherwise. So major changes should ideally be made here. But yes I have been striving to keep these 3 strawmen in step (not easy as you imply Ed) and I note that Gale has in the meantime made changes to Apply Chain thus rendering Strawman-3 out of date (but fixable). It would help me greatly if we could decided soonest which of the the 3 styles we prefer. I think Strawman-2 the fully consolidated has been ruled out but we still need to decide between #1 and #3. What we should remember is that either of these versions is vastly superior to the current inadequate Batch Processing page which kicked this particular project off.

Peter 23Jan13 Nomenclature: I created this page with the title "Chains - for batch processing" - in an email Gale suggested ths similar "Chains (for batch processing). My original choice was the simpler "Chains" - Gale commented that "Chains of effects are advanced terminology ... this I think is the very reason the page was called Batch Processing in the first place" and "Is it not also true that many of the Forum questions about our Chains feature are expressed using "batch" terminology?"

• Ed 6Feb13: maybe I'm repeating myself - I think that page titles should be in title case (Chains - for Batch Processing; Chains - for Effect Automation and Batch Processing etc. - removed to the numbered bullets as it made it hard to vote

Peter 6Feb13 Possible page titles (note this page is designed to repace the current Batch Processing page):

• Chains with a tagline on the front page link: "for batch processing")
• Chains with a tagline on the front page link: "for batch processing and macros")
• Chains of effects with a tagline on the front page link: "for batch processing")
• Chains of effects with a tagline on the front page link: "for batch processing and macros")
• Chains - for batch processing
• Chains - for batch processing and macros
• Chains (for batch processing)
• Chains (for batch processing and macros)
• Chains of effects - for batch processing
• Chains of effects - for batch processing and macros
• Chains of effects (for batch processing)
• Chains of effects (for batch processing and macros)
• Chains - for effect automation and batch processing
• Chains - for effect automation or batch processing

• Chains - for batch processing and effects automation
  • Peter 7Feb13: +0.5 (I'm assuming based on Gale's and Ed's comments that this is likely to be the prefered title)
  • Ed +1 (I am not 100% convinced about the grammar of "effects processing" versus "effect processing")
  • Gale +1 despite most page titles here capitalise nouns. I agree with Peter's reservation below about capitalising other than "Chains". Using "for" I think demands not capitalising the subesquent words.
  • Peter 8Feb13: 0 - not in this manual itself they don't, even Connie herself doesn't capitalize except for the first word (and see my email response to Ed). For my money "batch processing" and "effects automation" could be seen as perfectly correct here as they do not form part of the GUI, unlike Chains which does, so they are not "Audacity proper nouns"
• Chains - for Batch Processing and Effects Automation
  • Peter 8Feb13: +1 (most of our page titles, with the exception of some tutorials, seem to conform to this style and it puts focus on what the Chains actually do). I'm guessing from Gale's and Ed's comments that they will vote for this too.
  • Gale 08Feb13: -1 on reflection (see above) but not a veto.

• Chains - for batch processing and effects sequences

Peter 6Feb13 Question: are search engines more likely to pick up on "batch processing" if we embed that in the page title rather than just carry it in the page and on the front page tagline?

• Gale 06Feb13: Yes. If we've decided to refer to both use cases in the title, I don't think "macros" is a good choice for the most naïve users. I think "and" is better than "or" given a "batch processing" could include long effects sequences even if it often doesn't.
  • Gale (later):. I prefer "batch processing" first as in "Chains - for batch processing and effects automation" ("batch processing" being more common and familiar to the naïve than "effects automation"). I think "effects" should be plural, not singular.
    • Peter 7Feb13: I've un-bolded the no-hopers and outsider candidates.
• Peter 7Feb13: Following email f/b from Gale I have archived the former "Two uses for Chains" to the Talk page, as Gale's Workflow section transmuted from Strawman-2 contains the two use cases. Plus if we retitle to "Chains - for batch processing and effects automation" then the dual usage should be clear from the page title itself - which is good.

A "Chain" is a sequence of pre-set automated commands (mainly effects) that you can to apply to audio. Any built-in or Nyquist effect shown in the Effect Menu can be added to a chain. An Export command (four are available - 16-bit WAV, MP3, FLAC & OGG) is required to save an audio file.

The two uses of Chains are batch processing and effects automation; examples of typical usage:

• Batch processing multiple files by compressing the dynamic range then converting them to MP3.
• Automatically applying multiple effects (such as removing noise, bass boosting then normalizing) to a track (or tracks) in an open project.

Workflow

There are two Chain related commands in the File Menu, Edit Chains and Apply Chain. The workflow is:

1. First, use File > Edit Chains... to create a new Chain or to edit an existing Chain (if required)
2. Second, use File > Apply Chain... to select one of the existing chains and apply it to:
   • the project in the current window (this is essentially a method of effects automation) or
   • a selected list of external audio files (this is essentially an unattended batch processing of many individual items).

Edit Chains

Enables you to either edit, remove or rename existing Chains, or add a new Chain. The Chain can include a number of common Audacity functions and effects to be executed in any order you specify. In many cases, the parameters for each command in the Chain can be specified within the Edit Chains window.

Accessed by: File > Edit Chains...

The left hand box in the dialog box (labeled Chains) Chains contains a list of already defined chains. You can define the name of a new chain and select which chain is active by using the Add, Remove and Rename buttons.

The right hand box (labeled Chain) lists the ordered sequence of commands for the chain selected in the "Chains" box on the left. Here you can add or remove commands for the selected chain, change the order in which the commands execute in the chain, or edit the parameters for some effects in the chain.

For further details see the Edit Chains page.

Apply Chain

Enables you to select a Chain and apply it to either the entirety of the current project, to a single audio file or to a group of specifically selected audio files in a single directory.

Accessed by: File > Apply Chain...

The dialog window contains the list of all your current chains. Use left-click (or use the Up or Down arrow on the keyboard) to select the Chain you want to apply.

Then use the Apply to Current Project button for effects automation or the Apply to Files button to apply the selected chain to a set of files which you select (ou must have a new, empty Audacity Project window open to use this option).

For more details see the Apply Chain page.