New features in this release
- Details of all the major changes since 2.3.3 can be found in Audacity Release Notes 2.4.0.
Contents
- Hitting the big Time
- Export and Import of settings in effects
- Multi-view
- Spectrograms now show Clip Boundaries
- Selecting Waveform dB
- Scrubbing using the keyboard
- Muting and Unmuting selected tracks
- Changes to Play head pinning
- New effects
- Bug Fixes
Hitting the big Time
For this release the audio time position has been removed from the Selection Toolbar and created a new toolbar, the Time Toolbar. It is a read-only toolbar which displays the current audio position. The larger size of numbers makes it easy to read when, for example, you are recording an instrument you are playing and are further from the computer screen and keyboard than when directly editing the audio.
When Playing or Recording Time Toolbar dynamically shows the current playhead or recordhead position.
When Audacity is not Playing or Recording it will display either the current cursor position or the beginning of the current selection if present.
- Time Toolbar showing the current playback position of 44 seconds
Features of Time Toolbar:
- Time Toolbar provides a larger display, easily readable at a glance, for the current audio position. It is a double-height toolbar with a default display of roughly 1.5x previous size.
- You can resize to full double height , shrink it smaller or just remove the toolbar if you don't need it. It can be redocked in various positions in either tooldock and can be floated if you wish
- The time display format can be changed independently of the Selection Toolbar's time format.
- As this Toolbar is read-only you cannot use it to reset the audio position, to do that you need to use the Selection Toolbar.
Export and Import of settings in effects
Previously in Audacity you could only use the Export and Import buttons for VST and AU effects. This has now been extended to all effects that have a button.
Import...
Imports presets which you have exported using the Export option (below) on this or other machines or which you have exported from other software that supports a compatible preset.
Export...
Exports an effect's current settings as presets (in a text file) for use in Audacity on other users or machines via Import or for use in other software that supports import of a compatible preset.
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Note carefully that this Export creates a single exported text file with just the current settings in the effect. It does NOT export your entire set of User Presets. |
See Manage Presets for further details.
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 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
Spectrogram views have changed, 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 be accomplished with the TCP dropdown menu, it is now in the Waveform Vertical Scale context menu.
A right-click in the Vertical Scale will bring up a dropdown context menu enabling swapping between Linear Waveform (default) and Waveform dB views.
See this page for details.
Scrubbing using the keyboard
Two new shortcut commands have been added 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 these scrubbing 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.
If one of the keyboard scrubbing keys is being held down, and the other keyboard scrubbing key is pressed scrubbing immediately changes direction, and does not stop when the original key is released.
The speed of playback is determined by the zoom level. If the zoom level is normal playback speed is one half of the normal playback speed. Zooming in (Ctrl + 1) halves the playback speed, zooming out (Ctrl + 3) doubles the playback speed. There are minimum and maximum playback speeds of one sixteenth and 3x, respectively.
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If you want to use keyboard scrubbing at normal speed, just press 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.
Muting and Umuting selected tracks
Two new commands have been added to the Tracks menu to enable you to simultaneously Mute or Unmute all the currently selected tracks.
These operate on all selected audio tracks in the project, as if you had used the buttons from the Track Control Panel on each selected track.
Changes to Play/Record head pinning
TBP
New effects
Loudness Normalization
A new effect, "Loudness Normalization", has been added. As its name suggests, it normalizes for loudness. Use 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).
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Why use Loudness Normalization rather than Normalize or Amplify?
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For more details please see Loudness Normalization.
Noise Gate
Another 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. This Noise Gate has a number of settings that allow it to be effective, unobtrusive and well suited to most types of audio.
For further details please see: Noise Gate
Bug Fixes
There will be some ...
Links
> Audacity Release Notes 2.4.0 - detailed release notes for this release of Audacity
