Your proposal is really good Tom. I think we're on the right track with this and we should be able to hammer out the details.
As for the VUMeter which monitors the microphone volume, this is different than the VUMeter in the mixer view right now. The one we have implemented right now shows the *output* volume, and therefore is only active when the audio is playing.
I am fairly certain that with standard alsa you cannot monitor the volume of the microphone without recording it, so having a VUMeter monitoring the input would block any other programs from using the microphone.
PulseAudio solves this problem by automatically copying the microphone data to any program that requests it. But to enable this we would have to support querying the available input devices from pulseaudio, and using pulsesrc (a feature we were planning to support anyway).
For now you can assume that this will work as long as you are using the default device. People with multiple inputs should have a more complicated setup anyway. If you want to try this out at home you can run two instances of the command:
gst-launch-0.10 alsasrc device=default ! fakesinkTwo can run at the same time on my computer, but if I change device to hw:0, it complains that another application is using the device.
Laszlo Tom Halligan wrote:
Hi Knut, I agree completely with the volume control as a necessity, particularly if Jokosher is to be considered the user-friendly audio editor of choice. Right now I'm kind of leaning towards an 'all-in-one' solution: 1: Recording monitor when the instrument is armed for recording - preferably with an input volume control if possible. 2: Volume control when instrument is not armed for recording - this could also be a peak monitor: even if the track is recorded without peaking, further manipulation may cause peaks. 3: When not armed for recording, it would make sense for the volume control to incorporate the mute function - say, by right-clicking. If we included all 3 points, we could get rid of the mute button itself, and use the freed-up space to have a slightly larger vumeter on the right hand side of the instrument viewer, which I think would be the best solution. On 6/25/08, Knut Erik Teigen <knutert gmail com> wrote:Hey, I was the one submitting that patch. I haven't really participated afterward, work on my PhD thesis has consumed all my time, unfortunately. But I try to follow the progress, and hope to contribute more when the dust settles. I really like the idea of having a VUWidget in the instrument view as well. Also, I believe pop-up buttons generally are a bad solution. Changing the volume is something you do very often when recording, so it should be instantly accessible. Regards, Knut Erik Teigen On Wed, Jun 25, 2008 at 3:42 PM, Tom Halligan <tom halligan gmail com> wrote:I do like the mockup - maybe a little polish would be needed, but it does the job. I don't really like the way it looks as if it's just drawn on top of the InstrumentViewer, rather than an actual feature of it, but that's just nit-picking. I found this: http://www.mail-archive.com/jokosher-devel-list gnome org/msg00239.html Did you ever get a response? I'm not that up to date on gstreamer itself so I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking for there - but since Jokosher has a VUWidget anyway, am I right in assuming that the problem is fixed? If so, we could just go ahead and try that patch, maybe with a few alterations here and there (say, to include input volume control, and track volume control when not armed to record?) - see if people like it or not. On 6/25/08, Laszlo Pandy <laszlok2 gmail com> wrote:Tom Halligan wrote:.... Maybe the easiest solution would be to use a small, horizontal VUWidget rather than the current volume slider? Although this doesn't solve the space issue - it would at least be more intuitive as a volume control, and also doubles up as a level monitor. The mute functionality could be incorporated into this, so then we'd just have three buttons to dealwith.See this bug from a *really long* time ago: https://bugs.launchpad.net/jokosher/+bug/70351 And the screenshot accompanying it: http://www.kryogenix.org/random/jokosher-vumeter.gifAnother option, although a lot more work than the above, would be to implement a rotating 'dial' widget (like those used in FruityLoops, for example). This would look out of place with Jokosher, though - and I don't think many people honestly like these things anyway, so probably best to avoid it.This is explicitly prohibited by the Jokosher way, as originally defined by Jono when he wrote about the stupidity and unusability of audio editors which try to be familiar by copying the mixer desk controls. They fail miserably because mixing desks were not meant for mouse manipulation. The prime example of this is the rotating dial because it is really easy to control with your fingers when you have grasp and tactile feedback, but it is absolutely impossible to use when a mouse pointer.I do think a sliding control is still the best option, but I guess to some, the horizontal slider would remind them of a pan control. However, the slider's 'groove' (Or whatever you want to call it) does become shaded to the left of the slider handle, which does suggest some kind of 'increase' as we move towards the right, rather than just a left vs right balance. Perhaps if we could make it more obvious that it was a volume control somehow - although I don't think the confusion between volume and pan would be anything serious, even for people used to such a thing. A fixed, vertical slider could be the easiest way around the space issue, although this obviously means something else would have to be compromised. Tom From: "Jeff Ratliff" <jefrat gmail com <mailto:jefrat gmail com>> To: jokosher-devel-list gnome org <mailto:jokosher-devel-list gnome org> Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2008 08:33:07 -0400 Subject: Re: [jokosher-devel] [PATCH] InstrumentViewer volume slider patch (SVN Rev. 1519) Sorry, don't think I sent this to the list: The volume slider in this position makes the think of a pan control, not a volume control. This comes from my experience with physical sound boards though, and a novice may not have this problem. You could do a volume icon that pops up a volume slider, a la rhythmbox and others. If you were really clever, you could find awayto integrate it with the mute button and take up no additionalspace.This is less discoverable though, and would really rely on a good descriptive icon, or a little mini popup arrow thingy (excuse my advanced technical jargon). :) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ jokosher-devel-list mailing list jokosher-devel-list gnome org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/jokosher-devel-list_______________________________________________ jokosher-devel-list mailing list jokosher-devel-list gnome org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/jokosher-devel-list