Re: [jokosher-devel] I'm back!

[John Green <john thegreens co uk>]

On Tue, Jan 23, 2007 at 11:13:20PM +0000, Ben Thorp wrote:
> Hey guys - it's been ages since I've done anything other than keep an
> eye on Jokosher, and I've decided that I should try and rectify that. 
> 
Welcome back. Some great suggestions here.

> However, 1 or 2 issues that cropped up (mostly questions, rather than
> bugs - feel free to point me to Trac if they're just bugs ;) )
> 
You've been away too long. Bugs are on Launchpad now.
https://launchpad.net/jokosher/+bugs

> 1. Reduced sample 2 to 0 for last couple of seconds, playback caused
> hang.
> 
> 0:02:56.757746000 10418 0x81e8f90 ERROR        audioresample
> resample_ref.c:118:resample_scale_ref: buffer_queue_pull returned NULL
> 
> Haven't tried reproducing this  - probably a known bug?

I couldn't make this happen. Can you reproduce it?
> 
> 2. Sometimes the audio seems to just crackle out, or not play. 
> This is a weird one - there is a definite crackle at times, and then it
> stops playing. But if you stop and restart, often it's OK.
> 
Hard to say. Sound problems could have countless causes.
> 3. Doesn't scroll when you select off screen.
> When you're selecting bits of audio with the shift-drag, it should
> really scroll to the left (or right) if you mouse out of the window. 
Yes it should. 
> 
> 4. Would be nice to be able to type numbers in effects window
> Is this possible, given that the effects are based on LADSPA? It would
> be nice to be able to, say, type 4.5, rather than having to slide.
Absolutely. I don't like having to use the mouse all the time. You can tab
between the sliders and use left and right keys but if you know the specific
value you want there ought to be a way to put it in. The trouble is the
interface then starts to get rather cluttered.
> 
> 5. Would be nice if you could amplify in the same way as you fade out -
> perhaps get a line showing the top peak, and raise the whole clip.
> Particularly for podcasters, it would be nice to use a similar system to
> the fade in/fade out to be able to amplify. Is this within the scope of
> J, or do we leave it to the effects? 

I think we could do this for a future release. The mixer view now lets you
increase the volume so that the factor is greater than 1.0. You can see the
bigger levels in the VU displays but the waveforms don't reflect the
amplification. The same applies if you use an amplify effect. I'd like to
just right-click on a too quiet audio clip (duff interview recordings do
happen) and select normalise and have Jokosher calculate the optimum
amplification for me. Then display the amplified waveform so you can see
that it's altered. I think we already have enough level info about a clip to
do this.

> 
> 6. Need to be able to apply an effect to a portion of music, not just a
> whole instrument.
> Again - is this possible? Or is there a 'workaround' to make it happen?
> (ie split audio, copy to new instrument, apply effect?) In my example,
> some of the audio on the first instrument was a lot quieter than on
> other sections, and I would've liked to either use something like the
> wave editor to amplify, or select a portion to apply the amplify effect
> to. 
> 
It's probably possible with a bit of re-engineering but we'd have to think
carefully to avoid overcluttering the UI.

> 7. Why shift-drag to select? Surely it would make more sense to drag to
> select, and shift-drag to move the object file? Seem counter-intuitive
> to me?
> 
I still always drag to select. It's what every other app I use does.

> 8. Is there some way of indicating that an effect has been applied to
> some audio? Maybe a little icon that can be moused-over to indicate what
> effects have been applied? 
> 
An excellent idea. I love mouseover tips that give you useful info that
avoid having to click through umpteen levels to get what you want.



-- 
John Green