Sample Printer

[Gale_Andrews]

@steve

I’m getting a lot less keen on .CSV due to all of the different variations. I think best to keep it simple - if users want CSV they should be able to easily convert a plain text list to the particular CSV format they require. If we’re leaving out CSV, then may as well leave out HTML also and that eliminates one control altogether (and simplifies the code).

I think HTML could be a time saver for web publication and I might be +0.5 on keeping it even though none of my small sample of users were interested in it. Your call.

@steve

If you can think of a good, clear, brief description I could add an option to output stereo samples values as either “Left Channel then Right Channel” or “Alternate L,R,L,R…”

My best shot so far:

;control chan "Channel layout for stereo" choice "L  -  R lines,L block above R" 0

@steve

@Gale Andrews

I think the help needs to state that exceeding the slider range will produce very large output files.

I would have thought that it should be pretty obvious that if you have millions of lines of text the file will be quite large?

It may depend whether this goes in an Audacity release (ATM I think there is a strong case especially as Analyze menu is not yet overloaded). If someone downloaded it optionally, the assumption would be they have some idea what it will do. If it’s in a release it could be open to a naïve user who just “tries” the effect to see what happens and opens the resulting file. They’ll be used to 3 MB for an MP3, so 3 MB for a text file won’t on the face of it seem outlandish.

@steve

Personally I find the “Append to Home” option really convenient.

I think the drawback is the amount of explanation this would need in the Help. in particular I think few on Windows would understand “Append to Home”. They can understand typing a path in a box (probably).

@steve

For example, with 5 tracks in Audacity, multi-file export, base file name “data”:
Output files will be:
data0.txt, data1.txt, data2.txt, data3.txt, data4.txt (or would it be better to start numbering from “data1.txt” ?)

I think better to start from “data1.txt”. A “0” file is only used as far as I recall in export multiple for a file before the first label.

@steve

The “Reset” button is only required if exporting to multiple files. Multiple tracks could be written (appended) to a single file without the need to use SCRATCH and so no need to have a Reset button. However, without using *SCRATCH" the “header” information could not include a track number.

OK. I think the benefits of *SCRATCH" probably outweigh the potential confusion. I think the worst confusions are a) the word “Reset” itself; b) you can’t “see” the counter to know what value it has.

I think a “phrase” rather just “Reset” would help for a), as would not having it as first choice. I don’t think “Reset Counter” will help much. Does “Multi-file from 1” or similar convey any more, so that people leave that choice alone if they are not writing multiple files?

For b), could a choice “Show Multi-file name” or similar show you the counter, as Show Path shows you the path?

@steve

SCRATCH and (get-env) are not in Audacity 1.3.12

And even the multi-choice boxes (of which we’ll have many here) require 1.3.x, so I guess we accept you need latest Audacity for this plug-in, and also possibly consider a stripped down, simple legacy version if there is any demand.

@steve

I can include “Name (+ number), Mono/stereo and Sample Rate” as standard.
My reasoning for making them optional was if anyone was wanting to directly import the files into another application.

I’m sure people are doing that but those same people still seem to want “sample rate” in the header. I think the reason is that in e.g. spreadsheets you can simply select the data to be used and then type what you want for the legend. If so then it’s handy to have text for the legend visible in the input. I suppose you could have the choice for header of “none”, “minimal” or “full”, but if only two choices are desired then “minimal” or “full”, not “none” or “full”.

@steve

I think that “4 Output file path/name” needs to be displayed after the export has completed. Particularly important if the path entered was invalid and the fall-back path was used. Number of samples and duration would probably be useful too so that the user can see that they have processed what they intended. Something like:

Data written to:
C:Documents and Settings<username>data.txt
27 samples - 0.000 seconds.

Agreed.

@steve

You mean the bit-depth?

Yes “sample format” as in the Quality Preferences = bit depth.

@steve

What I would like to see is additional track data passed to Nyquist, possibly as a property list, to include:

• Track name,
• Channel allocation (for mono tracks),
• Peak Amplitude (solves the Normalising issue for some situations),
• RMS,
• Start time,
• Envelope Points,
• Bit-depth.

I’ve added that list (and “track time” as per below) to Nyquist Wish List.

@steve

@Gale Andrews

A couple of people asked for output in dB instead of dB FS

Do you mean dBFS instead of linear?
Current output is the linear value. It could be output as “dB” (which would be dBFS as in the “Waveform (dB)” view).
I can add that as an option.

Sorry for terminology mix up - just copied what someone wrote. But yes, the logarithmic Waveform (dB) values would be very welcome as an option.

@steve

We could have the “index” as a time value relative to the start of the selection, but that’s probably not what the user wants, and at 48 kHz sample rate the index would be incrementing in steps of 0.000020833333 seconds.

If the user wants the track time value they need to look in the Selection Toolbar. Sample times will then be “start time + (index/sample rate)”

Perhaps that might be a useful “tip” for the “Help” and possibly not that hard to get a spreadsheet to calculate it? I think “time from selection start” and “track time” are both useful, but not worth adding either until we can support both?



Gale