The corruption of Audacity

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j_e_f_f_g
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Re: The corruption of Audacity

Post by j_e_f_f_g »

Just took a look at this "AudioMass" app. Aside from the annoying requirement that it run in your browser, it also has a few bad implementations.

1) Although it zooms in both axis, the zoom appears to be severely limited in its range. I couldn't zoom in far enough to be able to gauge good loop points, for example.

2) It "fills in" the shape of the waveform. I hate when editor apps do that because then you can't see each individual sample point when you zoom in. Also useless for accurate editing.

I'll bet it has lots of other flaws too, but I stopped evaluating it as a useful tool after I uncovered the above design flaws.

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LAM
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Re: The corruption of Audacity

Post by LAM »

j_e_f_f_g wrote: Sat May 08, 2021 3:57 am Just took a look at this "AudioMass" app. Aside from the annoying requirement that it run in your browser, it also has a few bad implementations.

1) Although it zooms in both axis, the zoom appears to be severely limited in its range. I couldn't zoom in far enough to be able to gauge good loop points, for example.

2) It "fills in" the shape of the waveform. I hate when editor apps do that because then you can't see each individual sample point when you zoom in. Also useless for accurate editing.

I'll bet it has lots of other flaws too, but I stopped evaluating it as a useful tool after I uncovered the above design flaws.
I agree on all your points, it's very limited indeed.

I posted it here because from my POV has some good points:
  1. Its a webapp (i don't generally like them, but) that can be run locally, and it runs on your phone also, without installing any app, you just need a browser.
  2. It's small JS app and doesn't use fancy JS things, it runs well also on low spec machines.
  3. Has very basic functions and a simple GUI, not going to replace anything like Audacity or Ocenaudio or Ardour, but sometimes you just need to do a simple normalize/fadein/fadeout, so in case you don't have acces to any of your powerful tools this is a great alternative.

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davephillips
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Re: The corruption of Audacity

Post by davephillips »

Regarding AudioMass:
LAM wrote: Sat May 08, 2021 6:25 am ...
I agree on all your points, it's very limited indeed.

I posted it here because from my POV has some good points:
...
Has very basic functions and a simple GUI, not going to replace anything like Audacity or Ocenaudio or Ardour, but sometimes you just need to do a simple normalize/fadein/fadeout, so in case you don't have access to any of your powerful tools this is a great alternative.
I use mhwaveedit for just such purposes, and it gets used a lot around here. Not Web-based, but it is small and fast, and it has the functions I need for quick & clean edits to my recordings from VCV Rack.

https://github.com/magnush/mhwaveedit

Best regards,

dp
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Re: The corruption of Audacity

Post by TAERSH »

Rezound.
Works with JACK audio.

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LAM
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Re: The corruption of Audacity

Post by LAM »

davephillips wrote: Sat May 08, 2021 12:01 pm
I use mhwaveedit for just such purposes, and it gets used a lot around here. Not Web-based, but it is small and fast, and it has the functions I need for quick & clean edits to my recordings from VCV Rack.

https://github.com/magnush/mhwaveedit

Best regards,

dp
Thanks @davephillips,
interesting program, it looks very "GTK2" but the basic features (and some more) are there.
Hopefully this program will still run for some years until GTK2 will be purged from modern distros (I saw a Flatpak version can be built in that case).

Thanks also to @TAERSH for mentioning ReZound.
This one looks more feature rich but on SourceForge the last update is 2013 (!!!), does it still run on modern distros?
EDIT: I succesfully compiled it!

Anyway, my posting of Audiomass was kind of a provocation, and it worked. But once i tried i kinda liked it. :lol:
Last edited by LAM on Sat May 08, 2021 2:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: The corruption of Audacity

Post by folderol »

I'll be sort of sad to say goodbye to Audacity. It was one of the first bits of Linux audio software I ever used.
There's no way I'll tollerate this betrayal though so I'll have to checkout some of the others. Rezound and mhwaveedit look the most promising.
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Largos
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Re: The corruption of Audacity

Post by Largos »

I don't know why instead of just not using/updating to any further editions of audacity, you're thinking of switching to programs that haven't been worked on in years :lol:
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Re: The corruption of Audacity

Post by TAERSH »

Largos wrote: Sat May 08, 2021 3:39 pm I don't know why instead of just not using/updating to any further editions of audacity, you're thinking of switching to programs that haven't been worked on in years :lol:
Program's names, please?
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Re: The corruption of Audacity

Post by folderol »

Largos wrote: Sat May 08, 2021 3:39 pm I don't know why instead of just not using/updating to any further editions of audacity, you're thinking of switching to programs that haven't been worked on in years :lol:
I've just tried mhwaveedit. This is actually better for my needs, so that's reason enough. Even if that were not the case, there is the matter of principle - unlike many companies these days, some of us still have them.
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Loki Harfagr
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Re: The corruption of Audacity

Post by Loki Harfagr »

Largos wrote: Sat May 08, 2021 3:39 pm I don't know why instead of just not using/updating to any further editions of audacity, you're thinking of switching to programs that haven't been worked on in years :lol:
In the case of ReZound that's understandable it always has been vastly superior to any variety of Audacity and still is.
Oh, if only ReZound could have been followed/forked/updated! (there would be quite some stuff in its plugins management and GUI depts that could be refurbished ;) )
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Re: The corruption of Audacity

Post by English Guy »

Those saying this is a deal breaker do realise it comes with an opt out?
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Re: The corruption of Audacity

Post by merlyn »

Some things I used in Audacity :

- Spectral view
- Generate tones, chirps (frequency sweeps), silence and noise
- Zoom into sample level
- Polarity reverse for null tests

It doesn't look like some of the other software suggested does all that.
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Re: The corruption of Audacity

Post by folderol »

English Guy wrote: Sat May 08, 2021 5:05 pm Those saying this is a deal breaker do realise it comes with an opt out?
For anything that touches Google, opt in/out is an illusion.
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Re: The corruption of Audacity

Post by davephillips »

I do use Audacity frequently in my teaching, rarely (if ever) as a soundfile editor. Its Change Tempo and Change Pitch functions are excellent for instructional purposes, very flexible and easy to apply. I would be a bit pressed to find an acceptable substitute, but from what I've read so far I'm not too concerned about the telemetry. I can always build Audacity myself if needed.

Best regards,

dp
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Re: The corruption of Audacity

Post by folderol »

davephillips wrote: Sat May 08, 2021 5:33 pmI can always build Audacity myself if needed.
This is true, and I may consider doing that 'just in case'.
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