Find out the total number of tracks, muted and solo

[OxygenSupply]

Hello,
Windows 7 64bit SP1, Audacity 2.0.5 from .exe

This may sound like a dumb question but I can't find anywhere how to display the total amount of tracks currently in my project. It consists in a LOT (about a hundred… well, I don't know exactly hence my question) of short tracks and I need to know the total number of:
- tracks;
- muted tracks;
- soloed tracks;
- muted+soloed tracks.

Where can I find such counter in the program? Thank you.

[Gale Andrews]

Windows 7 64bit SP1, Audacity 2.0.5 from .exe

This may sound like a dumb question but I can't find anywhere how to display the total amount of tracks currently in my project. It consists in a LOT (about a hundred… well, I don't know exactly hence my question) of short tracks and I need to know the total number of:
- tracks;
- muted tracks;
- soloed tracks;
- muted+soloed tracks.

Where can I find such counter in the program? Thank you.

You don't, so I moved the topic to Adding Features.

Why do you need so many tracks? What is your workflow? You are asking for performance issues with that many tracks.

I think a count of total tracks and selected tracks could be useful in some cases. Why do you want a count of Mute/Solo combinations? Have you seen Tracks > Unmute All Tracks? Would other commands for mute / solo help you?


Gale

[OxygenSupply]

The project has a ton of 5-second parts placed end to end, which results in a medley that's several minutes long; each 5-second part has several variations (under the form of several tracks aligned vertically) and all of them but 1 have to stay muted so that the overall medley doesn't have multiple variations playing at the same time.


I must be able to mute/unmute variations in order to change the final medley at will, and use the solo feature when adding new variations. The large amount of tracks combined with their short length and the zoom options make it so it's very unpractical to find out if there's a track that's erroneously muted/unmuted/soloed/both, while the counters would tell me that immediately. I understand my case is a bit special but I don't doubt these counters would end up being useful for other people too. Excerpt:



I experienced rare crashes with this project in 2.0.3 but since I updated to 2.0.5 none at all (for reference, these crashes always happened while moving tracks up/down, never during editing tasks or playback). It takes about 75MB RAM usage. I read that the only thing limiting the number of tracks in a project was available RAM ( http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 46&t=74685 ) so I did not hesitate to use Audacity for this. I cannot think of any other way to handle such project but if you have any suggestion, why not!

[steve]

I'm +1 for more information about the project.
The way I'd imagine it would be two "Analyze" effects.
1) Project Information
2) Track Information

"Project Information" could give a variety of information about the project, such as:

• Name of project, Project Rate, Session start time and (if possible) Project creation date
• Number of Tracks
• Play duration
• Total size on disk and free space remaining
• Peak and RMS amplitude (of the mix)
• Errors (if any), such as missing alias files or NaN samples
• List of tracks, possibly in the form:
  [S][M][Sel] Track Name
  where 'S,M,Sel' indicate track status (Solo, Mute, Selected)
  These may be icons rather than text (with 'Alt text') so as to provide
  quick visual recognition.

"Track Information" would be for the track that has focus, and could include:

• Option for analyzing the entire track or just the current selection
• Track Name, Sample Rate, Track bit format, Actual bit format.
• Peak, RMS, ReplayGain, LU
• Track status (mute, solo, selected)
• List of start/end times for audio clips

Other information could be included, these are just some ideas.

[steve]

I can't find anywhere how to display the total amount of tracks currently in my project.

I can do you a plug-in that gives the number of tracks selected. Please say if that would be useful for you.
I can't do a plug in for the mute/solo status as that information is not currently available to plug-ins.

[steve]

The project has a ton of 5-second parts placed end to end, which results in a medley that's several minutes long; each 5-second part has several variations (under the form of several tracks aligned vertically) and all of them but 1 have to stay muted so that the overall medley doesn't have multiple variations playing at the same time.

It would perhaps be easier to do this with a sampler and MIDI sequencer.

[Gale Andrews]

I experienced rare crashes with this project in 2.0.3 but since I updated to 2.0.5 none at all (for reference, these crashes always happened while moving tracks up/down, never during editing tasks or playback). It takes about 75MB RAM usage. I read that the only thing limiting the number of tracks in a project was available RAM ( http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 46&t=74685 ) so I did not hesitate to use Audacity for this.

There is still a performance hit when there are large number of tracks. It will take longer for playback to start and stop, whether one track or all are playing.


Gale

[Gale Andrews]

"Track Information" would be for the track that has focus

People have also requested file name/format information where a file was imported though that could be global (the file is in all tracks), per track (different files for each track) or composite (a track has more than one file).

The Track Drop-Down Menu is already rather full but Windows-like behaviour would probably have all relevant information about the track as a "Properties" item at the bottom of the menu.

Gale

[steve]

The Track Drop-Down Menu is already rather full but Windows-like behaviour would probably have all relevant information about the track as a "Properties" item at the bottom of the menu.

Some of the information that I think would be useful is not directly available to Audacity without analyzing the data (such as the peak level of the mix, or the ReplayGain level).

[Gale Andrews]

The Track Drop-Down Menu is already rather full but Windows-like behaviour would probably have all relevant information about the track as a "Properties" item at the bottom of the menu.

Some of the information that I think would be useful is not directly available to Audacity without analyzing the data (such as the peak level of the mix, or the ReplayGain level).

I understand that, but Properties could still open after the analysis had been done, if necessary with a progress bar. We already wait quite some time for Audio Device Info... to appear. Or the data that must be analysed could have "Analyze" buttons.

One possible benefit of using the Drop-Down is that the analysed information could be cached and displayed at once if unchanged. Would a Nyquist Analyze effect know if it did not need to reanalyse if called again?


Gale