3.1.3 Collapsed track view

I’m using Audacity to mix and combine lots of tracks together. Normally (in 2.4.2), I collapse all the tracks so I can see them all at once, but I just upgraded to 3.1.3 and now all I see is this:
What I see.png
Whereas this is what I want to see (screenshot obtained by downgrading):
What I want.png
I’ve looked in Preferences and in all the drop-down menus, and I’ve found nothing. What’s should I do?

What has happened I believe is that you opened a pre-existing 2.4.2 project in 3.1.3, right?

In which case when you open the project in 3.1.3 each stereo track will have not one, but two of the new Clip-handle drag bars, one per channel, rather than just one for the stereo pair… If you expand any one of those tracks that you have you should see what I mean.

If you then record a new stereo track in 3.1.3 you should see the you only get a single Clip-handle drag-bar with the new track.

Incidentally you get the same double Clip-handle drag-bar if you split a stereo track (split stereo or two mono) and then rejoin the two tracks to re-make a stereo track. I thought this was a questionable idea at the time but the developer at the time thought it was a good idea for some reason …

Fortunately there is a simple (it a little tedious) workaround. If you mix and render such a stereo track to itself it will remain the same audio (provided you are not using the Pan/Gain controls in the Track Control Panels or Envelopes) but with just a single Clip-handle drag-bar. But note that you have to do this for each track in turn:

  1. Select the track
  2. Tracks > Mix > Mix and Render

Basically I think a collapsed track with double Clip-handle drag-bars just showing the two drag-bars is a bug, or at best a poor design decision - so I will be logging this on the GitHub bug tracker later today.

I also think it’s questionable that a stereo track in a 2.x project gets gifted a double Clip-handle drag-bar when it gets opened in 3.x - so I’ll probably log that too.

Peter.

Thanks for the help! Just two more questions:

  1. Does this mean I have to do this for every project I have (until this gets fixed)?
  2. Is there a way to hide the drag-bars in collapsed view? They make selection difficult, which makes applying an effect to a part of all the tracks at once really difficult.

done.png

I logged to problem of double drag bars (“clip handles”) shortly after the problem was created: Cannot edit stereo track when collapsed · Issue #2137 · audacity/audacity · GitHub

I don’t think that the issue relating to importing Audacity 2.x projects is logged. I doubt that problem will get any developer attention because the problem will eventually go away as Audacity 2.x falls into obsolescence.

I don’t think it is likely to be fixed any time soon.
I’d suggest that either:

  1. You ignore the problem and expand the tracks whenever you need to modify them.
    or
  2. Revert back to Audacity 2.4.2 until all of your old projects are complete.
    If you no longer have the Audacity 2.4.2 installer, you can get it here: Old Audacity versions download

You may well be right Steve, but I added the two issues to GitHub anyway:

  1. Collapsed stereo tracks with double Clip-handle drag-bars display no audio #2708
    Collapsed stereo tracks with double Clip-handle drag-bars display no audio · Issue #2708 · audacity/audacity · GitHub

  2. Opening a 2.4.2 project with stereo tracks into 3.x gives the stereo tracks two Clip-handle drag-bars #2709
    Opening a 2.4.2 project with stereo tracks into 3.x gives the stereo tracks two Clip-handle drag-bars · Issue #2709 · audacity/audacity · GitHub

Peter.

The problem with this is that we cannot take advantage of the new features of 3.x.y … and we are especially vulnerable to lost work in the event of an Audacity crash. In the future, I encourage developers to wrap new features like this around a configuration toggle. Handles is a great idea for people who do all that “looping” B.S. but, for real recording of instruments and vocals, no one will ever use handles.

So far there are two main new features: the new loop button and “clip handles” (drag bars / “smart clips”).
Personally I prefer the old “Quick Play” and “Quick Loop Play” (from the Timeline) to the new loop button, and the new “smart clips” are still very buggy.

Audacity 2.4.2 is probably the most crash resistant Audacity version ever. Also, crash recovery works very well in 2.4.2. I’ve been using 2.4.2 for production work since before it was originally released, and I’m still using it for all important work.

I agree that is often appropriate. That approach has been taken to many changes in the past.
I doubt that the developers would want to do that for either clip handles or looping. The head of Audacity design sees them as major improvements and an important step towards a more DAW-like Audacity.

If Muse ever get around to fixing this issue they logged
Simplify asynchronous stereo tracks #2722
https://github.com/audacity/audacity/issues/2722

Ensuring that you then only ever get a single drag-bar with a stereo track - then this bug would (probably) be automagically fixed:
Opening a 2.4.2 project with stereo tracks into 3.x gives the stereo tracks two Clip-handle drag-bars #2709
https://github.com/audacity/audacity/issues/2709

And then your problem with collapsed tracks would be over.


Note that there is also another way to get a stereo track with two drag-bars and that is to make a stereo track from two mono tracks.

You will note from looking at Issue 2722 that there is disagreement between Muse QA and the Muse developer about whether the double drag-bar is an issue or a “design-feature”.

Peter.

Peter.