Saving custom equalizer presets

[brynmyrddinemrys]

Hi - I am new to this board, though I have a quick question... is there a way to "export" or "save" my custom equalizer presets to an external file? I would like to be able to store my current configuration and move it to another computer or have it as a backup in case I have to reinstall Audacity for some reason. Or a more appropriate question might be: which file is Audacity storing these presets in and would I be able to reuse them on a different computer by copying this file to the other Audacity directory? Thanks for the help!

[kozikowski]

I'll get in trouble with the end of that first. There is a file on your machine called EQCurves.xml. It has the custom programming, in semi-english xml (oddly enough) programming. I'm on a Mac, so good luck finding yours.

Here's an equalizer I wrote for a friend.

<curve name="kentonUkulele">
<point f="90.540431971873" d="0.000000000000"/>
<point f="118.900773382713" d="-1.486488342285"/>
<point f="172.943837215216" d="-4.594596862793"/>
<point f="243.126745866588" d="-3.648647308350"/>
<point f="305.106295136868" d="-0.810810089111"/>
<point f="341.790812020192" d="0.135135650635"/>
</curve>

There is an Audacity feature request to make it easier to activate and share these code snippets, but anybody with notepad or TextEdit can do it manually. We routinely share these little blocks with each other like comparing the best recipe for quince marmalade. I like more grated zest, for example, than Steve does.

Anyway, don't you see the Save As...button at the bottom of the equalizer control panel? That will put your curve programming inside the EQCurves.xml file and you can pull it out in Notepad. Or just save the whole file.

You can, if the mood strikes, write one in xml source code without opening up Audacity at all. You don't need the extreme accuracy of the above example. The first number is the frequency and the next number is the dB volume change. Line two for example can be simplified to 119 Hz gets reduced 1-1/2 dB.

Of course,you still need Audacity to use it.

Koz

[brynmyrddinemrys]

Hi, I cannot for the life of me find a file called EQCurves.xml on my computer or any other file resembling it... I manually opened up every file within my audacity folder using notepad, and none of them seem to make any reference to the equalizer data. I am running Audacity 1.3.6 on Windows Vista 32-bit Home Premium. Is there a chance Audacity might be making reference to a file outside of its own program folder? I ran all types of searches on my computer looking for *.xml files, files called "EQCurves," hidden files, system files, anything that would have the EQ Curve names in them... all to no success. I'm really not sure where to look beyond that.

I am familiar with the Save As feature in the new Audacity, but I just can't figure out where the data is going when I press that button. Ideally, as you say, I would like to be able to manually program this EQ data straight from the file. Maybe Windows Vista is hiding something from me?

[steve]

Is there a chance Audacity might be making reference to a file outside of its own program folder?

Yes, probably. I don't have Vista, but you may find that the EQCurves.xml is in your user profile directory. (Possibly something like Documents and Settings<user name>Application DataAudacity )

[brynmyrddinemrys]

Hey Steve and Koz - thanks for your help! With your suggestion, I found the file under "<Drive>:Users<username>AppDataRoamingAudacity" It is a mystery to me why Vista was unable to find this file when I ran the search function before ... I must have had my search preferences out of whack (Windows isn't as intuitive as it used to be!)

Cheers!

[kozikowski]

<<<(Windows isn't as intuitive as it used to be!)>>>

MS-DOS 2.1. Now there was an intuitive operating system. [sigh]

Koz