Audacity is near perfect, especially with the new 1.3 Beta version out.
But there are a couple small things that could be improved…
Suggestion #1) Adding a locking feature to the now unfixed, always-movable Control Toolbar (the one with “Selector tool”, “Zoom tool”, etc), as well as all the other docked items like “Play, Record, Pause” button bar, “Master output” meter, volume control, etc.
The Problem: Every time I go to “File” in the corner or when I pick the “Zoom” magnify tool or the “Selection” cursor tool, I accidentally click on that notched bar to the left of the Control Toolbar which causes me to “unhook” the bar from the docked position to the “float” position. Then I have to redock with the “View → Dock Control Toolbar” command. I have to do it all the time. Its really annoying.
- Its great to have movable toolbars, but once I set them, I want them fixed so they do not move unintentionally.
Placement Suggestion: The best placement could be a small visual “padlock” icon on the main display, as in the top far-right part of the screen, such as right above the horizontal scroll bar (so its out of the way of everything). I think that would be best, to have a visual icon versus a Preference menu option it would be faster to unlock/lock the docks as well as easily seeing if the docks are locked in position or not. And of course, this “padlock” icon should always be fixed in its position, never able to move (that would be another problem if it was movable too!).
Suggestion #2) Adding a preference choice for “Entire Track Zoom” and “Entire Track plus Specific-Selection Zoom” for the dash-line rectangle that comes up when you drag a mouse click.
The Problem: Often when I’m zooming out, I accidentally make that “rectangle area” by unintentionally dragging the zoom icon on the track, which causes it to accidental zoom in again (when I’m trying to zoom out the whole track).
And the zoom-out feature (using the right mouse click) has only one behaviour for the drag dashed-line rectangle feature, zooming in. In other words, regardless if the user uses the left (zoom in) or right (zoom out) mouse button, the drag rectangle area will zoom in only. I think the best way to solve this would be to disable (or have an option to) any click-and-drag rectangle zooming for just Zoom-Out (Right mouse click).
With these 2 behaviours of the zoom feature, sometimes it feels like I’m in a loop of zooming then rezooming then zooming out because of those sensitive “rectangular zoom boxes”.
Placement suggestion: I was thinking this was most helpful on the main screen where all the toolbars are. And just have a switch or a check box for “Entire track zoom”, “Entire Track plus Specific-Selection Zoom”, or have them independent of each other and have “Entire Track Zoom” and “Specific Rectangle Area” option.
Suggestion #3: Add an option to overlay horizontal “ghost lines” to certain values on the vertical “-1.0 to 1.0” peak scale.
The New 1.3 Beta Version: I noticed on this new Beta version, there is a main horizontal line for “0” amp level, which is very helpful! (thanks developers!). I was thinking of of taking this one step further and have an option to have “ghost lines” for the other levels on the vertical scale like “0.5”/“-0.5” or a “0.75”/“-0.75” for a nice in-between for “0.5” and the max “1.0”. Or better yet, make it user-defined and have the user input a value between 0 and 1, which is duplicated for the negative values as well.
Placement Suggestion: I think this option would go best in 'Preferences → Interface → Display". And like discussed above, a user-input would be best, such as “Add ghost lines at: ___” or for just increments like “Every 0.1” or “Every 0.25” would work too. Whatever makes the most sense and is most simple.
I think those additions would be great additions and preferences for an already great program. 
Your loyal Auda user, 
- TrueHC
