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easy as you imply Ed) and I note that Gale has in the meantime made changes to Apply Chain thus rendering Strawman-3 out of date (but fixable).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.

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.