Audacity wins an award...

... for intelligent file management. That’s version 1.3.0beta.

I discovered that editing a 123 megabyte FLAC file creates over a gigabyte of work files. Unfortunately, /tmp on this laptop is a gigabyte.

However, Audacity wins a prize by making the work directory configurable, which allowed me to put it in /var/tmp/ long enough to do the editing.

I must also mention that it’s pretty good at click-free cutting & stuff like that, & that the menu entries show practice.

For example, one of the Edit menu items is Trim, which lops off the data either side of the selected area. It only saves a few seconds a go for not having to do two selects & cuts, but it’s amazing how much that simple addition smooths out my work-flow.

I leavce a little trailer for a noise sample, then select the sound “inside” that to de-noise, then Edit/Trim to keep just the filtered sound. It’s one of the few ops that makes me wish for a 4GHz dual-CPU laptop. (-:

Thanks, Dominic Mazzoni & team.

Oh, yes, & thanks to that noisy European bloke (actually a Sydney-sider) for getting me hooked on it at LCA2005. Looking at the sites, it seems that Conrad “Kfish” Parker has moved along, software-wise, which is a good thing, but thanks for this useful addiction, anyway. (-:

PS, I remember Sweep (or something very much like it) being shown off at LCA2003 here in Perth. Good to see that still going well.

Comments

every-application-is-part-of-a-toolkit at work

I have a LibreOffice Impress slideshow that I wish to turn into a narrated video. 1. export the slideshow as PNG images (if that is partially broken — as at now — at higher resolutions, Export Directly as PDF then use ‘pdftoppm’ (from the poppler-utils package) to do the same). 2. write a small C program (63 lines including comments) to display those images one at a time, writing a config file entry for Imagination (default transition: ‘cross fade’) based on when the image-viewer application (‘display,’ from the GraphicsMagick suite) is closed on each one; run that, read each image aloud, then close each image in turn. 3. run ‘Imagination’ over the config file to produce a silent MP4 video with the correct timings. 4. run ‘Audacity’ to record speech while using ‘SMPlayer’ to display the silent video, then export that recording as a WAV file. 4a. optionally, use ‘TiMIDIty’ to convert a non-copyright-encumbered MIDI tune to WAV, then import that and blend it with the speech (as a quiet b

new life for an old (FTX) PSU, improved life for one human

the LEDs on this 5m strip happen to emit light centred on a red that does unexpectedly helpful things to (and surprisingly deeply within) a human routinely exposed to it. it has been soldered to a Molex connector, plugged into a TFX power supply from a (retired: the MoBo is cactus) Small Form Factor PC, the assorted PSU connectors (and loose end from the strip) have been taped over. the LED strip cost $10.24 including postage, the rest cost $0, the PSU is running at 12½% of capacity, consumes less power than a laptop plug-pack despite running a fan. trial runs begin today.

boundaries

pushing the actual boundaries of the physical (not extremes, the boundaries themselves) can often remove barriers not otherwise perceived. one can then often resolve an issue itself, rather than merely stonewalling at the physical consequences of the issue.

Plantagenet Penguinista

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