Downgrade howto?

[Anders J]

I upgraded from ubuntu 7.10 to 8.04 and got the audacity 1.3.4beta as a part of this process, which is missing the "change tempo" and "change pitch" functions, which are both the very essence of Audacity.

Tried to download the Debian package, but was told the was an error since a later version was already installed.

Being only one year into ubuntu Linux and not a would be software developer, what is the simplest method to downgrade to a the (I believe) 1.2.6 to get the functionality back?

[steve]

...is missing the "change tempo" and "change pitch" functions, which are both the very essence of Audacity.

A bit of an exaggeration I feel, but I agree they are a big loss. (I think they were absent from 1.3.3 as well).

Apparently "The solution to this problem is to add a build dependency libsoundtouch-dev"
http://www.mail-archive.com/debian-mult ... 02490.html

I'm still pretty new to Linux myself, but I have managed to build a working version of Audacity 1.3.4 from the source code when the only one in the Ubuntu repo's was 1.3.3

I intend to have a go at building Audacity 1.3.4 with libsoundtouch sometime over the next couple of weeks - If I'm successful I'll post a step by step walk-through on the "Audacity 1.3.x GNU/Linux" board.

Answering your question directly, Audacity 1.2.6 is available from here http://packages.ubuntu.com/feisty-updates/audacity but note that this package is intended for Feisty, not Hardy, so use at your own risk.

[wigren]

Is there any news as to when this feature will be added back into the program. This is what I use Audacity for and I need the Change Tempo feature. I don't know how to compile from source and, while I would like to, I just don't have the time to learn before this project is due... 5/4. Any help?

[steve]

I'm sure it will be fixed at some point, but with your deadline that is little help. In the short term you will probably be best seeing if you can do your project using one of the other Linux audio editors. (at least there is a good selection to choose from)

[wigren]

...(at least there is a good selection to choose from)

True. Thanks for the input.

[Gyrotwister]

Removing Tempo Pitch and Speed from the effects menu is a nasty trick to play on users of this application.
I use Ubuntu and recently upgraded from Dapper to Hardy and I just can't express the disappointment and dismay I felt when this afternoon I tried to shift the pitch of a song and found I could no longer do that.
I wasted no time in downgrading to 1.2.6
Audacity is a complete waste of time without these features.
When are these features going to be returned?
Shame, shame, shame on whoever is responsible for this.

[steve]

We are all disappointed that this feature is not currently available, but it's not really anybodies "fault". If you look up the Ubuntu development logs you will see that they tried really hard to get it working reliably, but for technical reasons they were unable to so without causing more serious problems for some users. Because of this they decided to leave it out. For users that desperately need this facility there are options available:
Downgrade to an earlier version.
Build it from source adding libsoundtouch-dev as a build dependency.
Use the Windows version with WINE.

I'm sure that if you or anyone else is able to resolve the problems, then the Ubuntu development team would be delighted to hear from you.

[Edit] Latest news is that it may be fixed in "Intrepid" - the alpha version of Intrepid is now available for anyone brave enough to try it.

[steve]

HOT NEWS

The "Intrepid" version )Audacity 1.3.5) is now available from here: http://packages.ubuntu.com/intrepid/audacity
and the missing effects are now available (Change Tempo, Change Pitch).

I've only just installed it so I don't know how stable it is, but so far it seems to be working.

[steve]

I've done a bit more testing and found what appears to be a bug.

Select some audio and select an effect from the effects menu.
Click on "Preview" and the effect is previewed
After the preview has finished, Click on "Cancel" and Audacity freezes.

This only happens when choosing "Cancel" after a preview. If the effect is applied then it works OK.

The workaround is: Rather than canceling the effect, apply it and then "undo". (a bit of a pain, but it gets around the problem).

Time will tell if this problem still exists when Intrepid is released.

Also noticed that JACK is no longer an option in the device selection (Edit > Preferences > Audio I/O)

System - Intel Pentium III 500 MHz
Xubuntu 8.04
Sound Blaster Live Value.

[Gyrotwister]

Thanks for the speedy reply, and for the suggestions.

Can we please clarify something though?
You installed the Intrepid package in 8.04, is that correct?

I'd like to experiment with this too.