Software update: Audacity 1.3.4 beta

A new version has just been released after a long time in the development branch of the open source audio editor Audacity. The program, which is available for Windows, Linux, MacOS 9 and X, can record sound, import and export wav, aiff, ogg and mp3 files and has an unlimited undo function. In addition, Audacity has a lot of effects on board, such as fade-in and fade-out, echo, change tempo and noise reduction. More effects can be added easily as the program supports both VST and LADSPA plugins. The changelog of this release shows the following changes:

New features

• New Welcome Screen with introduction to Audacity.
• Enhanced Windows Shell integration, so Audacity shows up in lots of Windows places such as “Open With”.
• New keyboard command: ‘Mix and Render to New Track’ (bound to Ctrl+Shift+M).
• New keyboard shortcut: “Shift-A” starts playback when stopped, or performs “Stop and Select” when playing.
• Added support for VAMP audio analysis plug-ins.
• Solo button solos only one track at a time, and a track cannot be both mute and solo.

Interface

• Keyboard shortcuts for making short/long jumps along the timeline.
• Added ‘Snap To’ in the Selection Bar.
• Made keyboard navigation easier when multiple menu items with the same first letter exist.
• Enhanced interface for label editing.
• Layout of OK/Cancel buttons consistency improved.
• Preferences:
  • “Select all audio in project, if none selected” (on by default).
  • “Beep on completion of longer activities” (system bell, not main output).
  • Other preferences cleaned up and explanations improved.
• Envelopes: Many fixes when copying / pasting / repeating.
• Many translation updates.
• Track height fixed in several cases.
• CleanSpeech mode switching without closing and re-opening fixed.

Opening/Saving Formats

• Metadata editor added for OGG, FLAC and WAV/AIFF exports, and general improvements.
• Metadata import improved.
• Muted tracks are no longer audible in the exported mix.

Effects

• Truncate Silence: support for multiple and stereo tracks.
• Dtmf Generator:
  • Added support for keypad letters.
  • Added an amplitude control.
• Compressor: variable decay time added.
• Equalization:
  • Clicks at start/end prevented.
  • Improvements to saved curves being found.
  • Preview works correctly.
• ‘Merge’ command appears in Undo history.
• Clipping detected more reliably.
• Nyquist plugins reviewed and enhanced.
• Better (and more) progress bars.
• Canceling effect always restores previous audio.
• Several improvement to effects in batch mode.

Recording/Playback

• Improvements to latency correction.
• Updated version of portaudio-v19 library.

Note that Help is no longer built in, but accessible on the Web via links in Audacity.[break]The following downloads are available:
Audacity 1.3.4 beta for Windows
Audacity 1.3.4 beta for Linux
Audacity 1.3.4 beta for Mac OS X[break] Click for a larger version.