#1 In older Audacity versions I did this:
I opened a folder that contained an album that needed to be normalized.
The exported “macro” folder would appear in the folder where I opened the file.
This feature was worsened. Now I normalize an album via a macro and it always
will be exported to: "C://User/UsernameX/Documents/Audacity/macros.
#2 When I install version 3.1.3 and I open Audacity and go to “about” it says
I have version 2.4.2 installed.
In their infinite wisdom the developers decided to change this. According to Apply Macro,
If you leave the entry for Macro output blank in Directories Preferences then Audacity will default to creating a folder called “macro-output” in:
Windows: C:\Users<your username>\Documents\Audacity
Mac: /Users//Documents
Linux: /home//Documents
That would be because at that particular moment, you were running 2.4.2.
This is likely because you have two versions of Audacity installed: a 32-bit version and a newer 64-bit one. Audacity won’t allow itself to be running twice. If you already have the 32-bit version running and you start Audacity, the 64-bit version tries to start but sees the other version running so it just wakes it up. This can be confusing for everyone.
OK, let me start over. Go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Audacity and double-click on unins000.exe. That should uninstall the old version of Audacity. The new one resides in the Program Files without the (x86).
In their infinite wisdom, the developers decided to change this. According to Apply Macro,
I kinda fear that I will have to learn new paths with every new version.
Like 3.1.4 has “/Downloads” as output then and 3.1.5 “/Music/”…
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I kinda took this as a basic concept for a long time:
You install newer software = and older software gets removed.
When you install Blender 2.9.8 and then you install Blender 2.9.9 you have 2 installations of Blender.
Audacity prefers to prioritize older versions because…?
I see this as a new trend. People prefer to mess with a system that was working before…
Thanks for the help!
The location is customisable. See: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/directories_preferences.html
I think it’s unlikely that the option to customise the location will be removed, though additional options could be added.
Normally, installing the latest version of Audacity will overwrite / update a previous version. However, upgrading from Audacity 2.x to Audacity 3.x is an exception because Audacity 2.x was a 32-bit app, whereas the default version of Audacity 3.x is a 64-bit app (a 32-bit version is also available for anyone that is still on 32-bit Windows or need to use a 32-bit version for any other reason).
The location is customisable. See: > https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/dir > … ences.html
I think it’s unlikely that the option to customise the location will be removed, though additional options could be added.
Alright, that is quite nice.
Edit:
This still means though that I can only get this feature back by downgrading. =/
Normally, installing the latest version of Audacity will overwrite / update a previous version. However, upgrading from Audacity 2.x to Audacity 3.x is an exception because Audacity 2.x was a 32-bit app, whereas the default version of Audacity 3.x is a 64-bit app (a 32-bit version is also available for anyone that is still on 32-bit Windows or need to use a 32-bit version for any other reason).
But shouldn’t the installer ask or warn then when you switch from 2.x to 3.x and/or 32-Bit to 64-Bit?
That would have been true, but I made a plug-in to emulate the old behaviour. See this post: https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/legacy-macro-output-folder/62096/1
Holy shit, nice. Thank you!
Sorry to bother you, folks, again, but I just tried out the
“Latest version: LegacyMacroOutputFolder.ny (updated 23/11/2021)”
And it’s still doing the same. Am I missing something?
Do you mean that your macro is still exporting to:
C:\Users<your username>\Documents\Audacity\macro-output
Possibly, but you haven’t told us exactly what you are doing, or exactly what is happening.
Yes, my macro still exports to:
C:\Users<your username>\Documents\Audacity\macro-output\
Here is what I am doing:
"#1 In older Audacity versions I did this:
I opened a folder that contained an album that needed to be normalized.
The exported “macro” folder would appear in the folder where I opened the file.
This feature was worsened. Now I normalize an album via a macro and it always
will be exported to: “C://User/UsernameX/Documents/Audacity/macros.”
I’m not sure what you mean.
Do you mean that you selected all of the files in that folder for batch processing?
Please post the full contents of the macro.
Yes, I do batch processing.
You replied early on in my thread and responded that there is a script.
I installed the .py script and it didn’t change anything.
So I am a little confused about why you are confused, to be honest.
Because you know that this is happening and why it is happening and that the script should in theory fix the issue,
depending on the Audacity version of the course.
I hope this doesn’t come off as rude.
OK.
So I made screenshots of this process because I am too lazy to record and edit and export and convert and upload the video.
Screenshots 1 - 11 show my routine.
Screenshot 12 depicts the parameters that you requested if I got that right.
Btw. it doesn’t make a difference as well if it’s .mp3 or .wav or .alac or .aiff, etc…
Which .py script are you talking about? I thought that you were trying the LegacyMacroOutputFolder Nyquist plug-in 
Perhaps you meant “.ny” (a Nyquist plug-in) rather than “.py” (a Python script).
Have you added the “Legacy Macro Output Folder” command to your macro? Did you add it in the right place?
If you post your full macro script I will be able to tell you if you are using that plug-in correctly.
It would be much easier to help you if you provided the information requested.
Yes, my bad. I meant the .ny script: “LegacyMacroOutputFolder.ny”
https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/legacy-macro-output-folder/62096/1
Oh, Jesus Christ… now I get it… I installed the script and thought that was it.
Now I read the header of the thread again.
#1 Downloading script.
#2 Installing the script via “Effect > Add / Remove Plug-ins…”
#3 Enabling the script in the “Plug-ins” window.
#4 Modify the Macro so that the “LegacyMacroOutputFolder.ny” comes in the first place.
It’s working. I could’ve saved us a lot of time if I’d read the thread thoroughly. Sorry.
No problem. We got there in the end 