Software Update: Audacity 2.3.1 RC

A release candidate of Audacity version 2.3.1 has been released. Available for Windows, Linux, and macOS, this open source audio editor can record sound, import and export wav, aiff, ogg, and mp3 files. It has an unlimited undo function and also has a large collection of effects on board, such as fade-in and fade-out, echo, tempo change and noise reduction. More effects can be added easily as the program supports both vst and ladspaplugins. In version 2.3.1 we find, among other things, a 64bit version for macOS, the scrub ruler is now hidden by default and various problems have been fixed.

64-bit Mac build

The 2.3.1 release of Audacity for macOS is now a 64-bit build and will only run on modern 64-bit Macs, running OSX 10.7 or later.
Note carefully that if you use the LAME library for MP3 export or the FFmpeg library you will need to install the 64-bit versions of those libraries.
FFmpeg is used for importing and exporting a much larger range of audio formats including M4A (AAC)AC3, AMR (narrow band) and WMA.

Scrub Ruler

the Scrub Ruler is now turned “off” by default and is not displayed. The reason we did this was because we found too many users were accidentally clicking in the Scrub Ruler and then finding themselves stuck in Scrubbing mode.
This will only affect you if you opt to reset your preferences settings as part of the 2.3.1 installation, manually reset your preferences or install Audacity for the first time.
If you want/need to turn it back on again use either the Transport > scrubbing and check the Scrub Ruler to be “on”. Or right click in the Timeline and select Enable Scrub Ruler.
The Scrub and Seek commands are still readily available from the Transport menu.

Advanced Vertical Zoom

We have added a new command to the View > Zoom menu for turning Advanced Vertical Zoom “on” or “off”.
Advanced Vertical Zooming enables you to use left-click gestures in the Vertical Scale to control zooming (this is in addition to the Simple mode vertical zooming commands available from the right-click context menu in the Vertical Scale).
In version 2.2.2 we changed the way vertical zoom works, splitting it into Simple and Advanced forms with the Advanced form turned off by default. Advanced mode could be turned on in Tracks Behaviors preferences but many users failed to find it there. Accordingly we introduced this new command to make this more discoverable.

Micro Fades
Micro fades (introduced in 2.3.0) can reduce the click when playback starts and stops. We’ve now made this an opt-in feature rather than provide it all the time, this can be set in Playback Preferences.

Regular Interval Labels improvements

We have made some improvements to Regular Interval Labels, accessed by Tools > Regular Interval Labels.
In particular we have made it possible to create range labels and not just point labels with this Tool. You can do this by specifying the label length in the new input field Length of label region (seconds). see this page for full details of how the improved Tool works.

Bug Fixes

• Linux: Audacity 2.3.0 was available only for Mac and Windows, and Linux used 2.2.1. Audacity 2.3.1 is available for Linux.
• Windows and Linux: Intermittent truncation of the end of a recording – see Bug #2009
• Can’t adjust Time Track envelope when Logarithmic scale selected – see Bug #1832
• Mixer Board does not automatically update when tracks added or removed – see Bug #2022
• Regular Interval Labels fails – see Bug #2014
• Windows: Regular Interval Labels on multiple tracks produces multiple labels – see Bug #1298
• Multiple problems with Change Pitch – see Bug #2016
• Mac: Audacity crashes when right clicking in label after copying label text to ano app – see Bug #2028
• Linux: Assert on recording or generating when main Window minimized – see Bug #2040
• Windows: Macros – “ExportMP3 before” and “ExportMP3 after” overwrite causing non-critical data loss – see Bug #2054
• Macros: Change Pitch in a Macro does not remember speed parameter setting – see Bug #2069