New features in this release

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Peter 03Apr17: ToDo-1 all new features to get a mention here or in the appendix.
James 22May17: ToDo-1 This has gotta be one of the most fluxy pages on the manual wiki, as it is the new features which are most in flux. Thorough review of especially images will be required close to the half-term build.
  • Peter 22MAy17: yes, its a "fluxy" brain-dump (so we don't lose or overlook stuff) for later tuning and polishing.
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This page is an overview of the key new functionality that has been introduced in Audacity 2.2.0

Contents

  1. Menu reorganization
  2. The Extended Menu Bar
  3. New Logo
  4. Themes
  5. Default Append Record
  6. New commands for using clips via the keyboard
  7. Stem Plots
  8. [[#help-buttons|Help buttons Help Button ]]
  9. Custom shortcuts
  10. Selection Toolbar improvements
  11. Possible MIDI


Menu reorganization

We have made the Menus shorter and clearer than in previous Audacity versions. The menus have been simplified without losing functionality. The most commonly used functions are found in the top levels of the menus. The functions moved down into lower submenus are better organized.

There are new menu items for exporting as MP3 or WAV. Previously you had to export audio, and then choose the format. You still can do that, but these new items are there for convenience.

One of the long standing bug-bears with Audacity is the distinction between ‘Save’ and ‘Export’. People expect to be able to open a WAV audio file, edit it in Audacity and then click save. That is not how Audacity works. Audacity needs audio in its own unique format to work on it. So Audacity converts when you 'Open' a WAV file and converts back when you 'Save'. In an attempt to make this clearer Audacity uses the word 'Import' for opening a file like WAV and 'Export' for converting and saving in a format like WAV. Open and Save are reserved for Audacity's own project format.

Now the ‘Export’ options are under the ‘Save Other’ menu item, where people trying to save audio as an MP3 or WAV file are more likely to find them.

See below for an example of new and old for the Edit menu:

Edit menus

New Edit menu   EditMenu.png        Old Edit menu   Edit Menu.png

The Extended Menu bar

There are two new additional menus that are hidden by default. They can be turned on at View > Extra Menus (on/off) or the Interface pane of Edit > Preferences.

These extra menus have many extra less frequently used commands. They are particularly useful to VI users, but normally-sighted users may find them useful too.

Image of the Extended Menu bar as it appears on Windows
The File Menu provides commands for creating, opening and saving Audacity projects, importing and exporting audio files and performing batch operations using ChainsThe Edit Menu provides standard edit commands (Undo, Redo, Cut, Copy, Paste and Delete) plus many other commands specific to editing audio or labelsSelect Menu has commands that enable you make selections of tracks or parts of the tracks in your project.View Menu has commands that determine the amount of detail you see in all the tracks in the project window. It also lets you show or hide Toolbars and some additional windows such as Undo HistoryTransport Menu commands let you play or stop, loop play, scrub play or record (including timed and sound activated recordings)Tracks Menu provides commands for creating and removing tracks, applying operations to selected tracks such as mixing, resampling or converting from stereo to mono, and lets you add or edit labelsGenerate Menu lets you create audio containing tones, noise or silenceAudacity includes many built-in effects and also lets you use a wide range of plug-in effectsThe Analyze Menu contains tools for finding out about the characteristics of your audio, or labeling key featureThe Help Menu lets you find out more about the Audacity application and how to use it, it also includes some more advanced tools such as for taking Audacity screenshots, or viewing log messages generated by the applicationThe Ext-Bar Menu provides access to Toolbar operations that are not available in the default Audacity menusThe Ext-Command Menu provides access to commands for track focus and cursor movement that are not available in the default Audacity menusMenu Toolbar Extra.png
Click, or hover, on either of the Ext- items at the end of the image to read about those menu entries.


Menu What you'll find there
Ext-Bar The Ext-Bar menu provides access to Toolbar operations that are not available in the default Audacity menus. These will be of most interest to visually impaired users or those who have difficulty using the mouse.

Shortcuts can be assigned to these commands if required.

Ext-Command The Ext-Command menu provides access to extra commands for track focus and movement of the editing or playback cursor that are not available in the default Audacity menus. These will be of most interest to visually impaired users or those who have difficulty using the mouse.

Shortcuts can be assigned to these commands if required.

If you only require regular access to a small set of these commands you can set shortcuts for them and leave the extra menus hidden.

The logo has been given a refresh, and now uses a sans-serif font and a flatter style.

James thinks it is worth having a before and after here.


Themes

Peter 17May17: ToDo-1 images of the various themes may need updating - especially the Hi-Contrast one which now has green wave and updated track info panel.

Audacity now comes supplied with four pre-configured, user-selectable, themes. This enables you to choose the look and feel you prefer for Audacity's interface. see the Themes page for details.

  • Light theme: this is a light theme loosely based on the look and feel of earlier Audacity versions, but given a modern twist with more modern-looking buttons and icons.
  • Dark theme: this is similar to the Light theme, with the same buttons and icons, but given a dark twist.
  • Hi Contrast theme: some users with poor eyesight benefit from a high contrast that is 'eye-popping' for most people.
  • Classic theme: The one you know and loved. This theme is a re-creation of the look and feel of earlier Audacity versions.
       Theme Light.png      Theme Dark.png      Theme Hi Contrast.png      Theme Classic.png
       Light theme      Dark theme      Hi Contrast theme      Classic theme
The theme to use can be chosen at Edit > Preferences > Interface.
  • In addition to the four pre-configured themes there is also a Custom theme.
By default the custom theme looks the same as Classic theme - but, if you have the right programming skills and tools, you can use this template to create your own theme. Instructions for how to do this may be found in the Audacity Wiki.
Should those how-to instructions be in the manual?
  • James 22May17: I think yes. Otherwise how many are going to find out how to do it?

Selection Toolbar now has 'Center' option

The Selection Toolbar now has a new options that show and set the center and length of a selection.

ToDo-1 Update image to show the button which selects which of start, end, center and length to show - and that does not have the radio buttons.


SelectionbarSampleW10.png

Appended recording on the same track in now the default

From Audacity 2.2.0 onward the default recording mode has changed so that when you click the Record button The Record button on Transport Toolbar, or use the R, Audacity will record at the end of the currently selected (or only) track.

To record on a new track

If you hold the Shift button down the Record button in Transport Toolbar will temporarily change to The Record New Track button. Then clicking on this modified Record button, or using the shortcut Shift + R will cause Audacity to create a new track and begin recording on that track from the current cursor position (or from the left edge of a region on the Timeline).


New commands for using clips via the keyboard

David states "The first two commands are on the cursor to sub menu, on the Transport menu. The next four commands are on the select sub menu, on the Edit menu. (These six are obviously subject to being moved almost anywhere in the reorganization :) ). The last two commands are occult."

Eight new commands, all of which interact with the clips on the focused track. As yet, there are no default shortcuts:

  1. Transport > Cursor to > Previous clip boundary
  2. Transport Cursor to > Next clip boundary
  3. Select > Clip Boundaries > Previous clip boundary to cursor
  4. Select > Clip Boundaries > Cursor to next clip boundary
  5. Select > Clip Boundaries > Previous clip
  6. Select > Clip Boundaries > Next clip
  7. Clip Left (not on a menu)
  8. Clip Right (not on a menu)

These are some notes on the functionality of the clip left and clip right commands. The aim is that they have similar functionality to using the mouse with the shift tool. So Clip left/right is roughly equivalent to clicking in the focused track at the time given by selection start, and dragging one pixel to the left/right. To be more precise:

1. If the focused track does not contain selected audio, then if selection start lies with a clip, that clip is moved, and selection start/the selection is also moved. (Using a mouse, selection start/the selection isn't moved.)

2. If the focused track contains selected audio, then if selection start lies within a clip, then that clip, along with all the other clips in any track which include audio which is selected, are moved, and the selected time range is moved.

3. If Sync lock tracks is one, then the relevant additional clips are moved.

Commands for moving the cursor to next/previous clip boundary on ANY track are pending. So as now, if the last clip in track one ends at 5s and the last clip in track two ends at 4s, there is no way to navigate between the clip ending at 4s and that ending at 5s without moving track focus.


Stem Plots

Peter 17May17: ToDo-1 Stem Plot is now the default. Maybe add some advice on how to revert to join-the-dots should one wish.

There is a new entry in the Tracks Preferences for Display samples. This setting changes how Waveform and Waveform dB views are displayed. It only affects the appearance of the waveform when you are so far zoomed in that you can see the individual sample dots. At lower zoom levels it makes no difference.

  • Stem plot: This is the default setting which draws a vertical line from the track center line to the sample dot, giving a clearer impression of the relative amplitude of the samples. As seen in the images below, when zoomed out close to the minimum for a stem plot, the horizontal distance between sample dots may be more uneven than seen with the connect dots default.
  • Connect dots: This is alternative setting yields a waveform where each sample dot is connected to the next sample by a line drawn between them.
Connect dots & Stem plot examples.png
Uneven spacing is due to "aliasing", but zooming in further will equalize the spacing whether choosing Connect dots or Stem plot.

Help buttons

Many place in the user interface have had a help button Help Button added. Examples are all the Preferences dialog pages, all the Effects, Generators and Analyzers.

Clicking on that button in the dialog will link you to the appropriate page in the Manual.

Example: the Amplify effect. Try clicking on the "?" at the bottmm right of this image.

Help for Amplify effectAmplify.png

Custom shortcuts

TBP

Selection Toolbar improvements

Advice This is still under construction and this subject to change.

In addition to being able to choose your display and selection type in Selection Toolbar "End" or "Length" from the selection start, we have added two further settings based on the length of the selection: "Length - End" of the selection and "Length - Center" of the selection.

Selection Toolbar display types.png

The dropdown menu is accessed by clicking on the display type text "Start -End" in the example in the image.

The forward and back chevrons >, < can be used to cycle through the four types without needing to use the dropdown menu.


Possible MIDI

To be provided ...

Peter 03Apr17: ToDo-1 TBP


Additional new features

This page New features in this release - appendix gives an overview of further new functionality that has been introduced in this release of Audacity.


Links

> Audacity Release Notes 2.2.0 - detailed release notes for this release of Audacity

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