Help please - can we remove effect added to a saved project?

[LeeX]

Hi,

After apply the echo effect to a track, I accidently save the project and exit Audacity. Would it be possible to remove this effect from the saved project? Ctrl-Z doesn’t work after re-open the project. This is with Audacity version 3.1.3. Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Merry Christmas!

Thanks & regards,
Lee

[kozikowski]

When you exit Audacity, it flushes all the caches and copies. There is no UNDO.

You hit the big time. Echo is one of the effects you can’t easily remove.

There are programs that claim to remove echo, but they don’t work all that well and they’re expensive.

Do you have that track backed up as WAV? That’s the best way. Desperation method MP3? Any backup?

Audacity 3 has File > Save Project > Save Backup Project. That gives you a separate Project with no automatic links back to the original show (use a different filename).

If you didn’t do any of those things, you’re stuck.

Koz

[Trebor]

… Would it be possible to remove this effect from the saved project? Ctrl-Z doesn’t work after re-open the project.

Sorry, no.
The effect History is not saved with the project, (it would massively increase the size of Audacity projects if it was).

[LeeX]

When you exit Audacity, it flushes all the caches and copies. There is no UNDO.

Do you have that track backed up as WAV? That’s the best way. Desperation method MP3? Any backup?

I did save project two hours ago, meaning I will wast two hours at most. Lesson is learned. I’ll keep backing up project and save the track being editted.

Thanks & regards,
Lee

[LeeX]

… Would it be possible to remove this effect from the saved project? Ctrl-Z doesn’t work after re-open the project.

Sorry, no.
The effect History is not saved with the project, (it would massively increase the size of Audacity projects if it was).

Thanks for the info.

Regards,
Lee

[kozikowski]

I did save project two hours ago,

Save Backup Project? Saving a regular project can get you into trouble. Did it open OK?

There was a recent poster who saved their Project constantly during the edit session and then near the end, had some file damage. You would expect, as they did that they have hundreds of older Projects to choose from, but in fact, they were just constantly updating one single Project and that one single Project was now broken.

Save As is misleading, too. It changes your current edit to the new Project, abandoning the old one.

Save Backup Project is the only one that forms a safe, isolated, frozen moment in time with no hot links to the current edit.

Koz

[LeeX]

Save Backup Project? Saving a regular project can get you into trouble. Did it open OK?

Save As is misleading, too. It changes your current edit to the new Project, abandoning the old one.

Save Backup Project is the only one that forms a safe, isolated, frozen moment in time with no hot links to the current edit.

Koz

Thanks for the heads-up. I just double checked, and could open the saved project to edit without issues.

I usually hit Ctrl-S (Save Project) every ~20-30 min while editing tracks, and to play safe I sometimes also run File->Export->Export Selected Audio to save the edited track to a MP3 file. What being described “Save As” above seems a normal behavior and what users expect, correct or I miss some details?

Thanks & regards,
Lee

[kozikowski]

save the edited track to a MP3 file.

There are some thoughts about that. MP3 comes with technical baggage. MP3 gets it’s small, convenient sound files by re-arranging musical tones and leaving some of them out. The damage is permanent. If you make an MP3 from an MP3, it does it again. By the third trip, you may not want the edit any more.

Much better use WAV for safety backups like that. They’re much larger, but they don’t have compression damage.

correct or I miss some details?

Audacity is full of unique surprises. Many would expect an audio editing program to save an audio file…

Koz

[LeeX]

Audacity is full of unique surprises. Many would expect an audio editing program to save an audio file…

One of surprises I found from version 3.x.x is that even though project is not saved, after close Audacity, the “Date modified” of aup3 project file is still changed in in Windows file explorer. This is not expected and may confuse users. Is it a feature or bug?

Version 2.x.x does not have this issue. “Data modified” of Audacity project file is only changed iff project is saved or re-saved.

Thanks & regards,
Lee

[steve]

One of surprises I found from version 3.x.x is that even though project is not saved, after close Audacity, the “Date modified” of aup3 project file is still changed in in Windows file explorer. This is not expected and may confuse users. Is it a feature or bug?

The new “.AUP3” format is an SQLite database (SQLite Home Page). Opening a project opens the database, and closing the project closes the database. It does not surprise me that Windows updates the time stamp when the database is opened and closed.

[LeeX]

The new “.AUP3” format is an SQLite database (SQLite Home Page). Opening a project opens the database, and closing the project closes the database. It does not surprise me that Windows updates the time stamp when the database is opened and closed.

SQL DB has quite a few timestamp related function calls (please see date & time related functions in MS website below). Some of them are used to sync with system time (like the behavior of Audacity 3.1.3). But applications don’t have to call such functions to sync with system time. It’s up to applications on how to handle it.

Date and Time Data Types and Functions - SQL Server (Transact-SQL)

It would be helpful and less-confusing for users if Audacity could keep the existing timestamp when project is not saved/changed. The current behavior (timestamp change without project change) sometimes can confuse users.

Thanks & regards,
Lee