Audacity Forum

This topic raises the question/difficulty/feature request for allowing the Mixer Board to be pinned on top of other windows.

On Linux this can already be done.
For example on Debian, click on the top left corner of the Mixer window and select "Always on Top".

In the Feature Request page of the wiki there is:

Mixer Board:

• Needs to stay on top with main window. (13 votes) Although it gets in the way if you have a lot of tracks, you can resize it horizontally. Making it disappear when you use the main window is not the answer. That means shortcuts don't work when it has focus (or developers have to add separate shortcuts for it). Tiling doesn't help if you want to work with maximised windows.

Assuming that this will eventually be possible on Windows, it will then be useful to be able to dock the Transport Toolbar into the Mixer Board window.

On Linux it is often convenient when working on large projects to move the Mixer Board onto a separate Desktop (multi-Desktop environment), but it is then necessary to switch to the Desktop with the main Audacity window in order to play, pause, stop. It would be a lot more convenient if the Transport Toolbar could be docked in the Mixer Windows AND in the main Audacity Window.

It would also be useful to see the "master" mix level also.

steve wrote:It would be a lot more convenient if the Transport Toolbar could be docked in the Mixer Windows AND in the main Audacity Window.

Suggestion: You can undock the Transport Toolbar and VU-Meter windows from the Audacity Project window and make them sticky across desktops, so they will be visible on the Audacity Project desktop as well as on the Mixer desktop, but this may work only under window systems using X.

- edgar

Hey steve, you wanted me to check this out well here are my 2cents

Have you ever used Krystal Audio Engine for windows? The dev of that daw already saw this issue and dealt with it by doing this... he made sure that the Mixer was always within the window and resizeable within the daw's main window (no seperate windows), minimizing the daw would force it out of the way to the tiny bottom corner out of the way. X-ing the Daw would make it disapear but could be brought back via the on screen menu or keyboard shortcut. I suggest you use KAE for a little bit play with it and see how the mixer reacts and if it fits audacity's model and see how well you think that concept will integrate into the audacity daw. As for now, that is all I can suggest. Hope it's useful

Here is a video displaying KAE in action take a look at how the live mixer behaves. It is an idea at times it may feel clunky or annoying to have it there but note you can hide or X it away(all the plugins stay faders etc it just hides it better when X'ed)

This video is not mines, if it violates any rules then go ahead and remove it before approving this reply:
around 0:45 he digs into the mixer check it out its the best video I found displaying the mixer to give the devs an idea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqoBlV388qU

Another thing you can do with PowerMenu and Afloat is to set transparency levels of application windows. So you could still see the waveform though the Mixer Board while moving the Mixer Board sliders.

MasSergio's suggestion is another idea, too.



Gale

MasSergio wrote: Have you ever used Krystal Audio Engine for windows?

Yes I have. I agree that it has some nice features.

We agree that there needs to be a quick and convenient method for switching between the mixer and the main window, but there are a number of ways that this can be accomplished. Krystal uses a panel within the main window. Adobe Audition uses a similar method (but has separate editing and multi-track views). Pro Tools and others have a separate mixer window with "hot key" switching between windows. Audacity has gone for this latter approach but does not yet have a consistent cross-platform way to switch between the windows. The OS window switching method (Alt+Tab for Linux/Windows) work to a degree but is a bit awkward if there are a lot of windows open and I think that a dedicated hot key (for example using a pair of "F number" keys) would be more convenient.

The main issue that I'm wanting to look at in this "new feature" topic is that Krystal/Audition/Pro Tools/Others all have some way to see the mix level and some way to access the play controls while the mixer is active. I don't think that Audacity needs to copy the feature from another application, but when mixing these are two essential usability features so I think that Audacity needs some method of doing so.

To break this down into bullet points, my feature request is for enhancements to the mixer board:

• A mix level (master) meter.
• Play controls for the mixer view.
• Fast switching between the main window and the Mixer Board window.

steve wrote: To break this down into bullet points, my feature request is for enhancements to the mixer board:

• A mix level (master) meter.
• Play controls for the mixer view.
• Fast switching between the main window and the Mixer Board window.

To which I would add:
Fader automation.

-- Bill

billw58 wrote: To which I would add:
Fader automation.

I thought that there was already a feature request on the wiki for that, but I don't see one.

Of these features I'd prioritise the first two, but I agree that fader automation would be a great enhancement.

• A mix level (master) meter.
• Play controls for the mixer view.
• Fast switching between the main window and the Mixer Board window.
• Fader automation.

I notice that MasSergio has also proposed some mixer board features so perhaps this needs a proposal page on the wiki. There are a lot of desirable features but I'd rather concentrate on those that are possible within the current Audacity framework. From a non-programmer point of view I think that these four look possible.

steve wrote:

billw58 wrote: To which I would add:
Fader automation.

I thought that there was already a feature request on the wiki for that, but I don't see one.

Maybe that is because only Bill has actively requested the idea? Does anyone else want to vote for it while this topic is open?

In Bill's post here explaining about it ( http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 47#p110847 ) he seems to suggest that even this needs a rewrite of envelopes.


Gale

Gale Andrews wrote:Does anyone else want to vote for it while this topic is open?

+1 for fader automation.

Gale Andrews wrote:he seems to suggest that even this needs a rewrite of envelopes.

He says:
"Unfortunately implementing this would mean changing the way envelopes are defined. They currently appear to be log or exponential curves defined by two points. Recording volume fader automation usually requires writing many volume control points with linear interpolation between them, and then possibly smoothing the curve (and removing redundant points) after the fact."

Personally I'm in favour of envelopes using linear interpolation whether fader automation is implemented or not. Log/exponential curves may be nice on paper, but they are horribly fiddly to use (and fading to silence is impossible).

steve wrote:Personally I'm in favour of envelopes using linear interpolation whether fader automation is implemented or not.

OK I added your vote here (and those of a couple of other people that have asked in the past):
http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Featu ... s#envelope

steve wrote:
Log/exponential curves may be nice on paper, but they are horribly fiddly to use (and fading to silence is impossible).

Someone claims in that FR section that you can fade to silence but I cannot manage anything below -130 dB when in 32-bit float. Perhaps you should comment there?


Gale