New features in this release

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This page is an overview of the key new functionality that has been introduced in Audacity 2.4.0

• Details of all the major changes since 2.3.3 can be found in Audacity Release Notes 2.4.0.

Contents

1. Multi-view
2. Spectrograms now show Clip Boundaries
3. Selecting Waveform dB
4. Scrubbing using the keyboard
5. New effects
   • Loudness Normalization
   • Noise Gate
6. Bug Fixes

Coming up soon (Paul):

• Nyquist Effects now translatable.

Not in 2.4.0

1. Quick Fix
2. Improved Compressor effect

Multi-view

This is an advanced feature for expert users enabling Spectrogram and Waveform displays of the same audio shown simultaneously in the same track.

Spectrograms and Waveforms have different strengths and weaknesses:

• Waveforms show you overall loudness best. You might see the danger of imminent clipping. Precision in cutting and splicing is also best performed in Waveform view.
• Spectrograms show you frequencies. In vocals, for example, you can see how vowel sounds change over time. The onset of new sounds, when another sound is playing, often shows up more clearly in Spectrograms.

Choose and use whichever one gives you the best information for the task in hand.

Example of a stereo audio track with a Multi-view split 50:50 Waveform/Spectrogram

To get a split Multi-view for a track select Multi-view from the track's Track Control Panel dropdown menu.

See Multi-view for more details.

Spectrograms now show Clip Boundaries

We have now changed Spectrogram views so that they now show Clip Boundaries, the dark vertical lines in the image below.

Formerly these clip boundaries were only shown on Waveform views.

This change also affects the new Multi-view display.

Selecting Waveform dB

This used to done in the TCP dropdown menu. Now it's the Waveform Vertical Scale context menu.

Right-click in the Vertical Scale will bring up a dropdown context menu enabling swapping between Linear Waveform (default) and Waveform dB view.

See this page for details

Scrubbing using the keyboard

We have added two new shortcut commands to facilitate scrubbing from the keyboard.

These are:

• I: Scrub Forwards
• U: Scrub Backwards

They are part of the Standard default set of keyboard shortcuts.

After pressing one of the two keys, playback continues until the key is released. Playback starts from the cursor position, or the start of a time selection if there is one. Scrubbing is not limited by any selection that may be present.

The speed of playback is determined by the zoom level. If the zoom level is normal, then the playback speed is one half of the normal playback speed. Zooming in Ctrl + 1, halves the playback speed, and zooming out Ctrl + 3 doubles the playback speed. There are minimum and maximum playback speeds of one sixteenth, and 3x respectively.

If you want to use keyboard scrubbing at normal speed, just click Ctrl + 2 to return to normal zoom level, followed by Ctrl + 3 to zoom out one level.

See Scrubbing using the keyboard for further details.

New effects

Loudness Normalization

A new effect has been added "Loudness Normalization" which , as its name suggests, normalizes for loudness. Use the Loudness Normalization to change the level of the audio (normally reduce it to recommended limits). It is based on EBU R 128 recommendations on limiting the loudness of audio signals. See Perceived Loudness for the technical details about it.

Why use Loudness Normalization rather than Normalize or Amplify? Using Loudness Normalization rather than Normalize or Amplify helps you more easily set the required LUFS loudness target when normalizing. When preparing audio for television/radio programmes, podcasts and some websites you may be subject to loudness restrictions for the audio. Loudness is usually measure in LUFS (Loudness Units Full Scale). The LUFS level restrictions can vary by application. For example the level for television in the US is normally -24 LUFS and the EBU (European Broadcasting Union) recommends -23 LUFS. Out of all the standards, this one is the most serious in that a television network can get its broadcast license revoked for a violation. Send in a program with a higher level, and it will be returned for a revision. Another use case is creating an equally loud playlist from different sources.

For more details please see Loudness Normalization.

Noise Gate

A further new effect has been added "Noise Gate" which can be used to reduce the level of sound below a specified threshold level.

A noise gate is a kind of "dynamics processor" that allows audio above a specified threshold level to pass through unaffected (gate "open"), and stops or reduces sounds below the threshold level (gate "closed").

Noise Gates may be used to cut the level of residual noise between sections of a recording. While this is essentially a very simple effect, this Noise Gate has a number of features and settings that allow it to be both effective and unobtrusive and well suited to most types of audio.

For further details please see: Noise Gate

Bug Fixes

There will be some ...

==Additional new features== This page New features in 2.4.0 - appendix gives an overview of further new functionality that has been introduced in this release of Audacity.

Links

> Audacity Release Notes 2.4.0 - detailed release notes for this release of Audacity