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I am so glad for Audacity but the UI always feels more convoluted than it needs to be. I wish they would copy Sound Forge's controls

by tomc1985 9y ago

microcolonel 9y ago
That's a thought! I think that Reaper is the one to beat these days though, is there an essay or review of Sound Forge which would capture (comprehensively) what is to love about it? It'd be nice to decouple the UI from all the major open source sequencer and audio software, just leave some sort of pure data + Core Audio style innards and reconnect the UIs on top. I've taken a few cracks at this in private, but embarrassingly have a hard time getting much done on this particular project without anyone watching.
- tomc1985 9y ago
  I am not at home with my audio software but, off the top of my head, zooming and navigating a waveform in Sound Forge is SUPER efficient and intuitive, as mouse-wheel zooms and middle-click scrolls, and click-drag to edit individual samples. You can quickly zoom into your work at a level of individual samples and them zoom out and see the whole waveform in only a few movements. My other favorite features are how editing doesn't rely on "modes' like Audacity (I hate having to hit a button before I make a selection then another to do something else), and Sound Forge's selection logic itself: - the playback cursor will intelligently snap and loop on your selections (or not, depending on how you set the toggle), - - the editing scrolls to follow your cursor as you are zoomed in, but not if you're currently editing something. A lot of programs do this but I find their logic is terrible and I have to control automatic scrolling myself. This is very helpful for working on seamlessly looping material, as you can leave playback on loop and continue working at the very end of your selection without the UI losing your place - load and save in native formats without having to use some proprietary intermediary format (AUP)
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- uryga 9y ago
  I'd love to help out with something like this! Do you have a public repo or something?
jimmaswell 9y ago
How is it convoluted? It's as simple as it can possibly be. There are play, stop, pause, and record buttons, and the waveforms go in the main area. Timeline tools are in a smaller section, there are effects in a drop down menu, and the options you'd expect are in the places you'd expect them. I don't see how it could possibly be any more straightforward unless it read your mind.

I am so glad for Audacity but the UI always feels more convoluted than it needs to be. I wish they would copy Sound Forge's controls

microcolonel 9y ago

That's a thought! I think that Reaper is the one to beat these days though, is there an essay or review of Sound Forge which would capture (comprehensively) what is to love about it? It'd be nice to decouple the UI from all the major open source sequencer and audio software, just leave some sort of pure data + Core Audio style innards and reconnect the UIs on top. I've taken a few cracks at this in private, but embarrassingly have a hard time getting much done on this particular project without anyone watching.

tomc1985 9y ago
I am not at home with my audio software but, off the top of my head, zooming and navigating a waveform in Sound Forge is SUPER efficient and intuitive, as mouse-wheel zooms and middle-click scrolls, and click-drag to edit individual samples. You can quickly zoom into your work at a level of individual samples and them zoom out and see the whole waveform in only a few movements. My other favorite features are how editing doesn't rely on "modes' like Audacity (I hate having to hit a button before I make a selection then another to do something else), and Sound Forge's selection logic itself: - the playback cursor will intelligently snap and loop on your selections (or not, depending on how you set the toggle), - - the editing scrolls to follow your cursor as you are zoomed in, but not if you're currently editing something. A lot of programs do this but I find their logic is terrible and I have to control automatic scrolling myself. This is very helpful for working on seamlessly looping material, as you can leave playback on loop and continue working at the very end of your selection without the UI losing your place - load and save in native formats without having to use some proprietary intermediary format (AUP)
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
uryga 9y ago
I'd love to help out with something like this! Do you have a public repo or something?

jimmaswell 9y ago

How is it convoluted? It's as simple as it can possibly be. There are play, stop, pause, and record buttons, and the waveforms go in the main area. Timeline tools are in a smaller section, there are effects in a drop down menu, and the options you'd expect are in the places you'd expect them. I don't see how it could possibly be any more straightforward unless it read your mind.