[Ardour-Users] Hm...

[David Kastrup]

Paul Davis <paul at linuxaudiosystems.com> writes:

> On Mon, Aug 30, 2010 at 10:19 AM, David Kastrup <dak at gnu.org> wrote:
>>
>> I wish I had made a desktop recording of the last three hours or so.  I
>> am a new user to ardour2.
>>
>> Task: take a recorded WAV file, crop a piece away from the beginning,
>> pick a point of time where one starts fading out, pick a point of time
>> where the fade out is complete (alternatively, just pick the point of
>> time where the fadeout starts and specify a fadeout length).
>>
>> Save the result from the chosen start position to the end of the
>> fadeout.
>>
>> Would you believe that I have not managed yet?  I am amassing project
>> directories, since not even "quit without saving" is working: invariable
>> a _lot_ of the previous failed project is saved and interferes with the
>> new attempt.
>>
>> So far the only gain adjustment I have found to be possible is from
>> start of project to end (meaning that the fadeout starts at the
>> beginning of the recording).
>>
>> It is, in general, impossible to click on any graphical element with the
>> intent to change/move/whatever it.  You first, if at all, have to change
>> some internal ardour modes around (with obscurely named mode switcher
>> buttons or menu entries elsewhere) to facilitate the desired operation.
>
> This is false.

The graphical user interface most certainly does quite a good job of
making it appear true.

> If you'd like help with using Ardour, how about you start by simply
> describing what you want to do,

See above.

> Do you understand that Ardour is a DAW and not a soundfile editor?

So what?  I was not complaining that the menus were overcrowded.

> You can certainly do what you described, and do it very easily.

But one can't figure out easily how to do them.

>> I had to restart jack+ardour even in order to manipulate a 44.1kHz file
>> when jack happened to run at 48kHz sampling frequency.
>
> What do you propose should happen otherwise?

When there is nothing else establishing the project sampling frequency
yet?  How about:

    Warning: this file has a different sampling frequency to the
    Ardour project frequency.  Should I
    [ ] Ignore the file sampling frequency, importing it at different
        speed/pitch
    [ ] Resample the file to project sampling frequency
    [ ] Get the project frequency again after you restart jackd
    [ ] Change the ardour project frequency to the file sampling
        frequency anyway

> Automatic resampling because you chose not to pay attention to the
> most fundamental aspect of digital audio that exists? Ardour isn't a
> single-file editor - why would it pay any attention to the SR of a
> particular file that you import, and switch its audioengine rate
> because of it?

Because it is userfriendly, and users make mistakes?

>> This does not make much user interface design sense.  If I want to
>> manipulate the operation at a certain graphic element, I don't want
>> to have to move the mouse elsewhere in order to switch into some mode
>> where this is even possible.
>
> there is never any need to do this. first of all, all mouse modes are
> accessible via keyboard bindings and secondly, no mouse mode changes
> are required to do what you describe.

That's great to hear.  It would be even better to see it.

-- 
David Kastrup