Frustrations from a Training Manager

[waxcylinder]

1). the main window cannot be resized vertically (i.e. zoomed in and out vertically, not just horizontally) so that more tracks can be seen at once (essential for large projects which have a large number of tracks)

Ther are a couple of existing tools than can help here:

1) View > Fit Vertically or its keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+F (chosen this way to mirror the Ctrl+F for zoom to fit horizontally.

2) View > Collapse All Tracks or its keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+C of you have a lot of tracks they still not all fit though, but you will see more tracks.

See this page in the manual: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/view_menu.html

WC

[Robert J. H.]

2). creating a track from an .mp3 file is not intuitive

I imagine that you mean it the other way around.
Creating a track from an MP3 is simply importing a file (Shift-Ctrl I). Alternatively you can drag and drop the file.
However, I guess that you want to create an MP3 from a track. The only cumbersome thing is to first install the library--which is essentially only a license question and can't be altered.
To export a single file:
Mute all tracks (Ctrl-u) and unmute the track you want to export --> export.
Or deselect all tracks but the one you want to export (from beginning to end, too). --> export selection.
The Parameters for the export dialog are straight forward and remain the same for most upcoming sessions. In most cases it will be enough to select the right file type (*.wav or *.mp3 etc) without clicking the options menu anymore.

[waxcylinder]

4). difficult to do crossfades without seeing where the crossfade occurs (by way of curves), like you can in Audition

Ah yes, I agree that this one is not as easy as it should be - there are a pair of crossfades in Audacity that don't actually do the X-fade for you - you have to fade on e track out and the other in - and there are more complex customizable fades available from the Effect > Adjustable Fade.... None of these fades has a graphical interface which shows what the curve is (there are ways of faking this, say by generating a sine tone and then applying the fade, this will show the curve shape).

One of the Audacity Team (Steve again) has been doing a lot of work on fades - for example the Adjustable Fade is his work. He may want to chip in here on whether or not he thinks a GUI with fade shapes is achievable or desirable - If so then this would definitely stand as a Feature Request.

This page in the manual is worth a read: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/fades.html
Here you can see the fade shapes (and these were generated in the manner I described above)

WC

[waxcylinder]

2). creating a track from an .mp3 file is not intuitive

I imagine that you mean it the other way around.
Creating a track from an MP3 is simply importing a file (Shift-Ctrl I). Alternatively you can drag and drop the file.
However, I guess that you want to create an MP3 from a track. The only cumbersome thing is to first install the library--which is essentially only a license question and can't be altered.
To export a single file:
Mute all tracks (Ctrl-u) and unmute the track you want to export --> export.
Or deselect all tracks but the one you want to export (from beginning to end, too). --> export selection.
The Parameters for the export dialog are straight forward and remain the same for most upcoming sessions. In most cases it will be enough to select the right file type (*.wav or *.mp3 etc) without clicking the options menu anymore.

Good point Robert - 'twas the use of the term "track" which has a specific meaning as an entity within Audacity that threw me

As Robert says - and this page in the manual wil be helpful: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/fi ... ialog.html

Though in my defence the poster does say "Creating a track from an MP3" and not "Creating an MP3"

This page on LAME will be useful too: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/fa ... .html#lame

WC

[waxcylinder]

When training folk she may find the various tutorials in the manual helpful as they work through a number of common uses of Audacity - see: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/tutorials.html

Top Tip: If you scroll down in the front page of the manual to the Reference section: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/index.html#reference
you will find that all the items displayed there in the screen image are clickable to take you directly to the page ar section in the manual related to where you are clicking (and many thanks to editor Bill Wharrie for this amazing piece of work - I, personally, find it immensely useful).

WC

[waxcylinder]

And answer came there none ...

No comment, no challenge, no thanks