No simple save command?

[Monadian]

I've probably revisited exploring Audacity at least half a dozen times now, and I keep shying away from it because it seems overly complex for what I want. I decided to come forward with my question.

I can relate to the idea of "projects". However, saving seems overly complex when all I want to do is edit a wave and then save it. In WaveStudio (please excuse the comparison), I can open the wave directly, make my changes, then click save. Done deal. In Audacity, I must click File > Export, scroll and select the file name again if it's different than the original, click save, click to bypass the warning about overwriting, then click okay to close the metadata window.

Am I missing something, or is this just the way it is with Audacity?

Thanks in advance,
Dave

[kozikowski]

That's a sore point. The inability to "save" a sound file has cursed many shows to death as people try to email an AUP sound file to someone. AUP isn't a sound file. It's an Audacity Project Manager and it has no audio in it.

I went the first year of using Audacity before I even knew what a Project was. I knew I needed a WAV file and I kept poking until I got it. Most people aren't so lucky or persistent.

Unfortunately, many production editors including video do it the same way, so the help elves get pointed to them every time somebody gets burned.

I think it's best if nobody gets burned.

It is frequently pointed out that Audacity is not a WAV editor. It's a sound editor or as I like to call it, an Editorial Production Environment Manager. The Save/Export thing makes a lot more sense if you think about it that way. It's natural product is not a sound file.

So that's the way it is. There's too much inertia for the program to change, particularly since we're right on the cusp of releasing a new version and most if not all the code is frozen.

Koz

[steve]

In WaveStudio (please excuse the comparison), I can open the wave directly, make my changes, then click save. Done deal.

You're excused
... but... Directly editing WAV files is not without its dangers. If you make a mistake in the editing then you're up the creek without a paddle.
In Audacity 1.3.13 it is possible to overwrite the original WAV file, but I would highly recommend not doing so. If you use a new unique name then even if you mess up the editing you still have the original WAV file.

You don't actually need to save the Audacity Project (and many times I don't). If all you want is to edit a WAV file, then it's:
1) Import the WAV file
2) Do the editing
3) Export a WAV file.
(done deal)

rather than (in WaveStudio)
1) Open the WAV file
2) Do the editing
3) Save the WAV file.
(done deal)

Tip: If you don't use Metadata, you can disable the Metadata Editor from popping up during Export.
Edit menu > Preferences > Import/Export
then deselect "Show Metadata Editor ....."

[Monadian]

Koz and Steve, thanks for the replies. I like the analogy of comparing Audacity to a video editor. I've done a fair amount of video editing, so it's easy to wrap my head around that comparison. Yes, it definitely makes more sense to think of it that way.

Steve, don't know if I'd necessarilly agree that working directly on a wave is dangerous, at least as far as my work is concerned. There's always undo! And if I were delving in risky territory or thought I might mess something up, I'd just do a Save As and test the results first. Then again, I'm not working on original studio tracks or anything critical. If that were the case, then I can definitely understand why you would want to maintain a pristine original, and can see your point.

Again, thanks for the replies!

[Gale Andrews]

1 Import
2 Edit
3 Export

only works as simply as that in Audacity if you happen to import from the same folder you last exported to, otherwise you have to stop and navigate to the correct export directory. Probably we want (at least) a preference to export to the last directory an audio file was imported from. Do you (Monadian) want to vote for that, or a File > Overwrite menu item? Note it won't happen any time soon for the reason Koz states.

Note also that if you import a WAV or AIFF and choose to "read it directly" from its current location (this is set when you import the file or in the Import/Export Preferences), you still have a backup of the original file even if you overwrite the original. Audacity renames the original to have an "old" suffix and then reads the file directly from that name.


Gale

[steve]

don't know if I'd necessarilly agree that working directly on a wave is dangerous,

It is as soon as the WAV is overwritten.
I can't really comment of WaveStudio because it's been a long time since I've used it, but in Audacity "Undo" is only available while the project is open. As soon as you close Audacity there is no going back unless you have back-ups.

And if I were delving in risky territory or thought I might mess something up, I'd just do a Save As and test the results first.

Yes, absolutely, and Audacity tries to make it difficult to accidentally trash the show.
Back-ups are always an irritating inconvenience... until you need them

There are certainly situations when it would be nice to just open a WAV file, edit and save, but IMHO enabling such an option would need to be done very carefully. For my own work with Audacity I frequently use multiple audio files in the same project, and reuse some of the same source files in other projects. If I inadvertently overwrote one of my source files, it could mess up other projects and trash many hours of work. The way that Audacity works makes it quite difficult to do that (which is good), but causes a little inconvenience for situations where I just want to make a quick edit to a file and be done with it (which is not so good).

[Gale Andrews]

There are certainly situations when it would be nice to just open a WAV file, edit and save, but IMHO enabling such an option would need to be done very carefully.

Possibly File > Overwrite would import as well as export (no more overwrites allowed in that project), displaying the file name in the project window, and have options to make a backup (additional to the backup Audacity makes when reading WAV/AIFF directly) and to delete the backup on closing the project window.


Gale