My Effects Menu Is Too Long

[TonyVA408]

Hi, folks. I'm using Audacity version 2.02 on a Windows 7 Home Premium system and it's working like a charm for me. The installation and operation have been completely problem-free for me.

However, after installing the effects packages I wanted, now the Effects pull-down menu is pretty inconvenient to use because my list is so long and the additional effects don't "overflow" to the right. I have to scroll it vertically, which isn't nearly as convenient as it might be if the list could overflow and produce additional "columns" to the right.

Yes, it's my fault, but I wonder whether there's an option I've missed, a tweak, or registry adjustment that might help.

If anyone is wondering, my menu characters are an "average size." That doesn't tell you much, I guess, so I had better provide some numbers. As I pull down the Effects menu, my monitor/display is tall enough to allow the first 47 effects to display without scrolling. In total, I have 135 effects appearing in the list.

Is there any hope for me? If I'll just need to get accustomed to scrolling, could this issue be a suggestion for future releases?

Thanks in advance, everyone.

Tony

[steve]

You could remove (make unavailable) any plug-in effects that you don't use.
To do that, find the folder where the plug-ins are installed, then move unwanted plug-ins into a sub-folder and they won't be seen by Audacity.

On Windows you can "jump" to plug-in names by opening the effect menu and typing the first letter of the effect name. Press the same letter again and it will go to the next plug-in that starts with that letter.

You can also set up keyboard shortcuts to those effects that you use most frequently: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/ke ... ences.html

[PGA]

You could remove (make unavailable) any plug-in effects that you don't use.

How can I do that selectively on the pre-installed effects? I use only Change Tempo, Fade In, Fade Out and Normalize from the "above the line" list. I have stripped out the "below the line" list to just those that I use: High Pass Filter, Low Pass Filter, Notch Filter and ResetEnv. I know we can assign keyboard shortcuts. The problem with that solution is that there are relatively few "rememberable" shortcuts that have not already been used.

[waxcylinder]

I have posted a new thread on the devel email list to see if I can get a developer interested in implementing Effects Categorization.

There is already a formal proposal in the Wiki to support this - see: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Propo ... ffect_Menu

@Tony: would you like me to add your vote for this to the Wiki>Feature requests and the proposal.

@PGA: IIRC I think your votes were added a while back. Correct?

WC

[steve]

How can I do that selectively on the pre-installed effects?

The effects "below the line" are plug-in effects and can be removed as described (and as you have done).
The effects "above the line" are built-in effects and are (as you might expect) built into Audacity and so cannot be removed.

If you choose to build Audacity yourself from the source code, then you could chose which effects you want and make a custom build (http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Developing_On_Windows)

[PGA]

@PGA: IIRC I think your votes were added a while back. Correct?

Yup! I was just reminding folks of my interest here.

However, I do not see "categorization" as the only answer - or even the best answer - for my needs. What I envisage is a new tab in Edit > Preferences, called (would you believe it ) Effects This tab would list all the installed effects. Against each name would be a li'l ol' tick box. The user could put ticks against those effects that were wanted and leave the ticks off all the others. Only those effects that had been ticked would appear in the menu list. Audacity could then, if so desired, ship with every effect under the sun pre-installed. No more hunting here, there and everywhere for the desired effect. If it exists, it will be installed. If it's installed, the user can choose whether to show it in the drop down menu or not.

Now, that's empowerment!

[kozikowski]

We implemented Effects Categorization in an early Audacity and it was an immediate un-hit. It greatly increased the time needed for multiple applications of an effect, required in, for example Noise Reduction, and at the time, there was no way to assign most used effects to hot keys.

Koz

[TonyVA408]

@Tony: would you like me to add your vote for this to the Wiki>Feature requests and the proposal.

@Wax ... Sure, that sounds fine with me. Yes, please add my vote.

While I'm here, I guess it's time to make another donation. I've had a great amount of fun with Audacity, and the more I learn, the more fun I have with it. I enjoy it so much, I almost feel guilty to post a question or make a suggestion. I know all the developers involved must be very good at what they do. In addition to requiring extraordinary programming skills, they apparently also have tremendous knowledge of audio data processing principles: the analog aspects, not to mention the science surrounding digitization of sound. So, from where I'm sitting, having Audacity has been a wonderful gift that deserves a large dose of gratitude.

The last time I posted a question regarding an earlier version, I was most impressed by the speedy, in-depth, and helpful replies I received. Amazing.

As my spare time permits, I'll visit the other forum topic area where Audacity users talk about their projects. One thing I enjoy doing is taking favorite songs and editing them to make them longer. It's not really hard, but making the edits seamless and undetectable takes time, patience, and determination. It's been a lot of fun.

Funny thing ... I have Sony Sound Forge Studio. I've opened it a few times, but using it doesn't seem intuitive at all. I mean, reading instructions is not beneath me, but I've gone pretty far using Audacity, and I've hardly ever needed to read any instructions. Sound Forge might or might not be superior, but since figuring it out hasn't come as easy as learning Audacity, that's why Sound Forge just sits unused on my hard drive.

Thank you, folks. Thanks again, good luck, and all the best!

[steve]

However, I do not see "categorization" as the only answer - or even the best answer - for my needs.

I (currently) see it as "the best" answer, because it could provide what you need, what Koz needs, what waxcylinder needs and what Josephine Bloggs needs.
As Koz wrote: "...Effects Categorization in an early Audacity and it was an immediate un-hit."
Two things were missing at that time:
1) Keyboard binding to effects (Audacity now has this)
2) Customizing the categories.

How (2) would help people that use very few effects is that they could put those effects that they use regularly into the "root" menu ("Effect menu => there they are"), and could put everything else into a sub-category "Everything Else", and so end up with an Effect menu that looks something like:

Code: Select all

Repeat Last Effect   CTRL+R
_______________________
Amplify...        CTRL+ALT+A
Fade In           CTRL+I
Fade Out          CTRL+O
Normalize
_______________________
Everything Else       >
_______________________

(Custom assigned keybindings shown are arbitrary, for illustration only).

[waxcylinder]

Two things were missing at that time:
1) Keyboard binding to effects (Audacity now has this)
2) Customizing the categories.

Actually there were 3 things missing at the time
3) an ability to categoraization on/off

This is now in the proposal (and I moved it higher up the list of details yesterday to give it a bit more prominence).

See: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Propo ... ffect_Menu

WC