New features in this release

This page is an overview of the key new functionality that has been introduced in Audacity 2.3.3

Details of all the major changes since 2.3.2 can be found in Audacity Release Notes 2.3.3.

Maintenance release

2.3.3 is a maintenance release to reorganize the structure of the underlying code. This is so that we can make better changes for the user experience in the future.

There are no new and almost no changed features in this release. However, we have fixed many long standing bugs, at the same time as making the restructuring. We are also taking the opportunity to retire some features which are better done by other approaches.

Earlier we had set ourselves a target of 20% live bugs out of total bugs by August 2019. Two years ago 35% of bugs were live bugs, and the live bugs total was just over 600. We actually met our target early, by 1st June 2019. As at 1st September we were at 16% live bugs with just 356 live bugs. See this table in the Audacity Wiki.

Two bugs we fixed which noticeably change behavior are:

Quality slider now works for AAC/M4A Export

An important bug-fix for this release is that we have finally made the Quality slider work when exporting AAC/M4A files. Formerly, although you could move the slider, the setting of slider was ignored by Audacity and it used always a constant bit rate (CBR) 196 kbps (stereo) file or 98 kbps (mono) file.

This was P2 Bug 344 - M4A Quality slider has no control of bitrate setting or AAC quality

Leading blank space treated as silence on Export

For this release we have added a feature where by default when exporting audio any leading blank space in the tracks or project to be exported is treated as silence and appropriate leading silence will pad the exported audio.

Previously many users were confused when they had carefully positioned their audio with an initial offset (white/gray space) that when they Exported the track this offset was ignored and the exported file started immediately with the audio with no offset.

This particularly confused multi-track users who export and subsequently re-import tracks and are surprised/puzzled when their tracks no longer line up properly.

This makes for greater consistency in Audacity with regard to pre-existing behaviors:

leading blank space has always been treated as silence when playing such an offset audio track
if a track has embedded blank white/gray space between audio clips, upon export those embedded chunks are rendered as silence to preserve the relative positioning of the clips.
Mix&Render has always preserved leading blank white/gray offsets

There is a new option in Import/Export Preferences where you can turn this off and revert to Audacity's previous behavior with leading blank space ignored on Export.

A use case for turning this "on" is track-based multiple export where you have "songs" lined up one after the other on different tracks - and in this case you probably do not want the offsets exported as long silences at the start of "songs".

This was P3 Bug 1904 - Audio offset not honored in Export/Export Multiple/Export Selection

Exports are now based on "What you hear is what you get"

From this version onwards When making multi-track exports the export will be based entirely upon the track hear when preview playing the audio in the project prior to Export.

I also means than any grayed-out tracks will not be exported.

Formerly with the Solo Button behavior set to the expert mode "Multi-Track" in Tracks Behaviors" preferences the exports were instead based on the state of the Mute buttons, using the Solo buttons could leave some tracks grayed out and not playable on preview, but still exported on Export.

Users who leave the Solo Button set to its default Simple mode will notice no difference as a result of this change.

This was P2 Bug 2213 - When Solo button is "Multi-track" Export is not accurate - can lead to data loss

Equalization effect split

The former Equalization effect has now been split into two separate effects. We did this as part of fixing some bugs with the effect:

Filter Curve - equalization using drawn curves

Graphic EQ - equalization using sliders

End-of-life retired functionality

For this maintenance release we have decided to withdraw some pieces of functionaality which are considered to be no longer useful or relevant.

Nyquist Workbench End of Life

The optional module Nyquist Workbench has been declared obsolete for version 2.3.3 onwards.

We plan to replace it later with a modern alternative Nyquist IDE. A lot of the important functionality is already built into the Nyquist prompt in Audacity.

Vocal Remover End of Life

We have finally decided to no longer ship the legacy effect Vocal Remover with Audacity. It has been superseded for a while now by the newer and more powerful Vocal Reduction and Isolation effect. We upgraded the effect slightly with this release, so that it now can also do exactly what the old effect did.

New users who install 2.3.3 as their first Audacity will not see Vocal Remover in the effect menu. Upgraders from earlier versions of Audacity will still find this legacy effect in their effects list (because it was supplied as a Nyquist plug-in). If you no longer wish to see it in the Effect menu simply mark it as Disabled in the Plug-in Manager.

On-Demand loading of aliased files End of Life

Audacity previously had a feature where Audacity projects could depend on uncompressed audio files (for example WAV and AIFF) that were stored outside the Audacity project and folder. This saved space but was rather dangerous, as the project could become unusable if the files were moved or renamed.

The space saving made some sense back in 1999 when disk storage was more expensive. Nowadays it does not make sense. It causes far more problems than the space saving is worth. Previously we had defaults set to always copy audio into projects, and not try and save space. Now we have removed the option of this ill advised space saving. Audacity will still work with old projects that do this, but for new projects audio will always be copied in.

Normalize on Load feature

Audacity previously had a 'mis-feature' called 'Normalize on Load' which gave the option of always normalizing newly imported audio (an option that was settable in preferences). Normalizing or alternatively compression should usually only be done as one of the last steps in producing audio, for example if one knows the audio is destined to go into an MP3 file or CD.

Bug Fixes

We have fixed many bugs in the course of this maintenance release:

Click on the bug number for full details in the bug thread.

P1 2077 - Mac - FFmpeg Custom options dialog opens behind Export Audio dialog
P1 2112 - Crash when opening Equalization settings in a Macro
P1 2119 - Linux: Incorrect behaviors in "Manage Macro"
P1 2127 - Track deletion while in Record/Pause state crashes Audacity
P1 2133 - Silence Audio deletes MIDI notes
P1 2141 - Tabbing between labels now only works if the label track is selected
P1 2176 - Crash when attempting to time shift multiple tracks
P1 2191 - Linux: Many effects (Repair, Paulstretch, Reverb) much slower
P1 2192 - Audacity throws warning dialog on opening project if it contains silent blockfile(s)
P1 2200 - Uncompressed exports in formats that have no (realistic) size restriction fail the 4GB trap for WAV & AIFF - regression on 2.3.1
P1 2216 - Mac: Cannot use Enter to effect an Effect after entering numeric data in a field - regression on 2.1.3
P1 2226 - Punch&Roll record inserts a squelch/screech noise at start of re-recording
P2 344 - FFmpeg: M4A Quality slider has no control of bitrate setting or AAC quality
P2 1329 - Mac: ENTER does not close/apply effects unless user has turned on Full Keyboard Access
P2 1335 - Moving tracks or swapping stereo channels during playback does not work correctly.
P2 1503 - Mac: Modal dialogs cause 100% Audacity CPU when open with any AU or graphical VST/LV2 effect
P2 1843 - Tracks menu error messages do not have "?" help buttons to link to the Manual
P2 2199 - crash after attempting to export as OGG at very high sample rate
P2 2213 - When Solo button is "Multi-track" Export is not accurate - can lead to data loss
P3 46 - GSM 6.10 files cannot be exported - failure messages are unhelpful un-illuminating
P3 59 - No error reported to user and crash when FFmpeg attempts invalid custom export of WAV with mp2 codec
P3 387 - Mac/Linux: Text export for Contrast and Plot Spectrum does not supply extension if omitted
P3 461 - MIDI or Allegro export filter does not enforce output format cross-platform
P3 1180 - Custom FFmpeg Export: an empty presets list can be Exported
P3 1281 - Windows: Plug-in manager does not properly disable SC4
P3 1477 - Mac: Sticky Tooltips
P3 1567 - Windows: DirectSound Sound Activated Recording does not record correctly or pauses permanently after 12 seconds
P3 1578 - TXT and XML exports are not to Documents and may require elevation to save
P3 1622 - Cryptic error message when existing project cannot be saved
P3 1723 - Keyboard Preferences: Closing subtrees can leave highlight on wrong item.
P3 1824 - Preview fails (with Error Opening Sound Device) for built-in Generate effects when no selection
P3 1904 - Audio offset not honored in Export/Export Multiple/Export Selection
P3 2099 - 24-bit WAV (and AIFF) export is wrongly limited to 3GB
P3 2113 - Label editor: After it closes, no control is the focus
P3 2118 - "Q" shortcut for "Toggle Spectral Selection is not in the Standard set
P3 2122 - Screenshot tool: no way to exit using the keyboard
P3 2120 - Spectral Selection Toolbar can be truncated when undocked
P3 2169 - Windows: Modules page of preferences is not read by NVDA screen reader
P3 2182 - Updating Audacity can cause messed up toolbar layout
P3 2185- Import2: Incorrect error message if file not found
P3 2189- Bugs that won't be fixed relating to on-demand loading of aliased external audio files
P3 2225 - No error message when trying to delete with no selection
P4 169 - Welcome Message: Local links to "Quick Help" and "Manual" do nothing if help is not installed.
P4 240 - Time track selected by itself cannot be removed with Tracks>Remove Tracks
P4 440 - Metadata Editor: Tags without values can't be added
P4 496 - Modifier keys ignored when focus is on time box in the Selection Toolbar
P4 590 - Win/Linux: Audacity crashes with LADSPA blop plug-ins
P4 826 - Mis-handling of envelopes when split-deleting, or when cutting with cut lines enabled
P4 1058 - Windows: Strange cursor changes Works for me on 2.3.2
P4 1235 - Linux: Mixer Board meters do not update when Meter Preferences are updated
P4 1269 - "backslash percent" not saved in effect presets
P4 1411 - Multiple non-modal "Help from the Internet" windows
P4 1582 - Incorrect level shown in Mixer Board meter when track has positive gain
P4 1738 - Numeric control units are not translated
P4 1742 - Built-in Macro name "MP3 Conversion" does not translate
P4 2043 - Access keys not shown (Japanese)
P4 2049 - ENH: Noise Reduction error message for no selection is unhelpful
P4 2107 - Mac Accessibility: if a text box is the focus, pressing enter does not press the default button
P4 2136 - GetInfo: localization creates invalid JSON
P4 2137 - Nyquist: Assert when receiving multibyte characters
P4 2138 - Crossfade Tracks effect may desynchronize tracks
P4 2148 - AUD-GET-INFO command fails if data contains backslash
P4 2154 - selected audio: timeline and track show different selected time range
P4 2160 - Shipped macros are not protected against edits. Edits can be made, but there is a Restore button
P4 1780 - Sample Rate dialog does not appear when track has custom sample rate
P5 680 - "Undo Recover" does not undo.
P5 803 - Incorrect pointer (cursor) when rearranging tracks
P5 1200 - Unwanted duplicate .mo files on Mac.
P5 2100 - AIFF exports GT 4GB are trapped but error message is only "WAV" - German translation also OK now - was not so before

Equalization bugs

P1 1750 - Equalization: EQ control points can disappear if the points are at the same frequency
P1 2031 - Equalization: presets under the Manage button do not save custom EQ curves
P1 2088 - Graphic EQ ( and Filter Curve): Manage button does not work
P2 1722 - Equalization effect: possible crash when using Manage > User Presets
P2 2206 - Filter Curve (and Graphic EQ) corrupt saved curves (on the right)
P2 2207 - Filter Curve and Graphic EQ have no factory presets (available in 2.3.2 and earlier)

Links

> Audacity Release Notes 2.3.3 - detailed release notes for this release of Audacity