Is there a reason, why a change in “new peak amplitude” in the “Amplify” effect is not remembered for the next time? I tried presets & settings, but it isn’t stored in there either.
I am aware of the “normalize” effect and the differences beteween both. Just wondering why a change in Amplify doesn’t stick, while in Normalize it does . (audacity v3.4.2 on win10)
The reason is that the Amplify effect defaults dynamically to a new peak amplitude of 0dB (maximum amplification before distortion).
If you need to set your own “new peak amplitude” default, use the “Normalize” effect instead.
Well, yes - but if we allow setting a different peak amplitude, wouldn’t it be logical if this was remembered? Or at least configurable in a preset.
What’s wrong with using the Normalize effect?
Nothing - just my habit: I usually check the available headroom with Amplify before I decide if I want to amplify. It would save me some clicks if Amplify remembered my last peak value .
If the Amplify effect remembered your last “New peak” setting, then when you check the amplitude, the “Amplification (dB)” would no longer show you the amplitude as clearly.
The “Amplification (dB)” shows how much amplification is required to reach the “New peak amplitude”. Because the “New peak amplitude” always defaults to 0 dB, the “Amplification (dB)” shows the number of dB between the current level and 0dB.
In other words, you can read the current level from the “Amplification (dB)” because the “New peak amplitude” defaults to zero.
I can certainly live with this behavior - no big deal - and I don’t want to beat this to death, but I want to share just three final thoughts from my perspective:
- I might actually be interested in the headroom not to 0dB, but to -3dB, so remembering the value would be nice. It is prominently visible, so there is no danger, that someone might overlook the setting and therefore misinterpret the headroom indicated.
- If this effect should invariably display the headroom to 0dB, then why make it changeable by the user in the first place.
- Irrespective of this specific effect: a user-configurable preset suggests to me, than any and all user-changeable values can be stored and recalled. Any other behaviour feels inconsistent to me.
Use the Normalize effect. That is what the Normalize effect does.
The intended purpose of the Amplify effect is to allow you to amplify the selected audio by a specified amount.
The intended purpose of the Normalize effect is to allow you to amplify the selected audio to a specified level. (And also supports normalizing channels independently and removing DC offset).
Built-in effects share a common base class *, which gives all effects configurable presets. You shouldn’t read anything into that - it is just a feature of the shared interface.
(* except for the Noise Reduction effect, which is the only remaining built-in effect built on the old-style effect base class).
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