I use audacity to convert tape and vinyl to digital, mainly audio cd. I’m running win xp pro sp3 on a gigabyte mb with a 3.x amd processor and 4+gigs of ram. I have had no problems with audacity 1.2.6. I was wondering what, if any, peculiarities I might run into in switching. I’ve spent the last hour or so going thru the FAQ and the manual, reading odds and ends in the forums and the wiki. Seems like it should be straight forward shift on my part. I rarely use project files so there should be no problems there. Most work is done in wav stereo format; I use cdex to convert to mp3 when needed. Any thing I should be looking out for? Too, can I run both versions on the same machine, not simultaneously!!
it’s been awhile and wanted to tryout some of the refinements.
They won’t be refinements with that big a jump. There’s going to be some tools and interfaces that you can’t find and some settings that are very different now.
I think there’s a way to install one Audacity as a “portable” install and keep the other one. I need to look. Or wait for the other elves.
Hum … I have been reading the change notes for years to keep up on its evolution while the site kept saying something like, " … not suitable for production …" or some such. The feature that had caught my attention was the ability to save different effect settings as presets. For instance I would have one for ‘rca red label’, another for ‘retail store label’. or another for ‘78 pre 54’. Are you implying that effect presets are not in 2.x?
When we had 1.3 Beta it was regarded as “unstable” and 1.2 was still the “stable” version, but with the release of 2.0.0, all 2.0.x versions are regarded as “stable”.
Koz meant that there will be program settings added and removed in 2.0.x. If you don’t reset preferences when you install 2.0.5 then your 1.2 settings will persist where it’s a setting that still exists in 2.0.5.
Not all built-in effects have presets - most do not.
Greetings Gale,
I guess my reading of version histories should have been termed “wishfull thinking” Oh well. Still, the time wandering through the forums and wiki has been enjoyable. A good place to hangout!
I had presumed there would be a lot of changes to the program options and such. Still, I’m wondering what your thoughts are about upgrading. Have effect filters changed, for instance? I like Audacity and recommend it to any who want to ‘transcribe’ analog to digital. It’s been a solid, reliable work horse for me and produces wonderful results from all the sources I’ve had to work with.
Audacity 2.0.5 (the current version) has a huge number of new and improved features compared with the old 1.2.6 version.
There are far too many to list here, but a few highlights:
New Reverb effect.
New “Paulstretch” effect.
New “Bass and Treble” effect.
Improved “Change Pitch” effect.
Improved “Noise Removal” effect.
New “Sliding Time Scale / Pitch Shift” effect.
New “Studio Fade Out” effect.
New “Adjustable Fade” effect.
New “Sample Data Export” (analysis tool).
Improved “Plot Spectrum”.
Greatly improved VST support.
Support for multiple audio clips in each audio track.
New “WASAPI loopback” recording.
New “Align Tracks” commands.
New “Sync Lock” feature.
Automated “Crash Recovery”.
Fast “On Demand” import of WAV/AIFF file types.
Improved accessibility for visually impaired users.
New “Chain” effects.
Improved resampling quality.
and many more.
Because of the vastly increased functionality, you may find that Audacity 2,x is a bit “heavier” (more demanding on computer resources) than the old 1.2.6 version, but that should not be a problem unless you are working on a very old or seriously low powered computer.
Is “more effects should have presets” what you are looking for? I read what you wrote as you wanted Equalisation presets, and 2.0.5 has those: Audacity Manual .
There have been a fair number of added or removed program preferences, but the point is that unless you reset preferences in the 2.0.x installer, Audacity will still use 1.2 values for those preferences that still exist in 2.0.x. If you want factory preferences for 2.0.x, use “Reset Preferences” in the installer.
To see how different the 2.0.5 preferences are, look at each Preferences window on Audacity Manual .
Your call, but there is no technical support for 1.2 or 1.3 now. You’re on your own if you have questions or problems.
2.0.x is slower than 1.2 in several respects. It’s not solely a question of a larger memory footprint in 2.0.x and 1.2 being quicker on underpowered machines.
It’s a question of changes and new features which have not been properly optimised for projects longer than an hour or so.
But there are many things in 2.0.x that are much easier to do or which no longer have bugs.
Thanks very much for your time and patience. I see that I can rebuild the equalizer to provide the 78 rpm profiles which I do use often.
I have a professionally prepared 1970’s stereo casette of a local chorale and orchestra at hand to convert. I’ll use it as a basis of comparison for the two versions. It’s fairly strait forward I believe but there’s no telling what compression was used and the original producer is long gone, and so I don’t know the list of devices used.