View source for Feature Requests

///'''NEW!''' Help beta-test a [http://audacityteam.org/FeatureRequest.php new Feature Request system] and then share your thoughts on it here: [[NewFeatureRequestSystemFeedback]] 

Please try to keep feature requests as short as possible here so that it's easy to quickly scan the whole list; if you want to discuss the feature, please add a [[WikiWord]]  and link to another page to discuss it.  The Audacity developers will refer to this list for ideas.

[http://www.audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php?title=Feature_Requests&action=edit&section=new Click here to add a new request.] Please remember to see if your idea hasn't already been suggested.

If you would like to vote for your favorite features, please feel free to edit this page (use the link at the bottom), and change the number of votes next to any feature.  You may also re-sort the list.  Please be honest and only increase the count by one, and please only vote for <b>6-8 features</b>.  (Increased from the previous limit of 3-4 features because there are so many.  Also, once a feature has been completed (like VU meters, in Audacity 1.2.2), you can vote for another, too!

Interested in sponsoring a feature?  Contact the Audacity developers for information if you want to contribute money in order to have your favorite feature implemented sooner.
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= [[Completed Features]] have moved to a separate page =
= [[Features We Can't Implement ]]= because of restrictions placed on us by other copyright holders. These are things that it would be good to do in audacity, but would involve using formats or protocols that belong to companies who do not allow them to be used in open source programs like audacity.

= Highest-rated =

Anything with 10 or more votes can be moved here so that it will really grab the Audacity developers' attention:
* Ability to drop vertical marks that are 'glued' to the waveform on the main track (not on a label track). They should move when when track is moved, and also be adjustable and label-able.  Should be possible to highlight for cutting, copying or other operations the area between two adjacent marks.  This is an extremely useful feature available in Sound Forge and most other editing programs. (If this feature were installed, AMARC would recommend and distribute Audacity for the worldwide community radio editing norm.  It would be wonderful to have it available by November 2006 when AMARC has its quadrennial conference! [see www.amarc.org} Add AMARC's 3000+ worldwide members to the votes here.)  (18  Votes and rising)
* Ability to make selection between labels (like double clicking between markers in soundforge)
* Ability to select multiple non-adjacent labels (such as with control-click or shift-click (which is better for previously requested item)).  Then pressing the play button would play all of the selected areas in the audio file, skipping the non-selected regions.  This feature would be useful for comparing two regions of an audio file without delay between the playback of the two (or more) labeled regions.
* Set selection based on multiple time-points as "clipped in" or "clipped out," and then have the ability to play the track with "clipped in" points only -- standard feature on professional audio editing systems. (3 votes)
* Synchronize playback / recording without manual time-shift tool (53 votes)
* Should be MTC/MMC slave and master
* LAME commandline switches (40 votes) <span  style="font-style:italic; color:green"> Note: This is implemented in Beta 1.3.3 if you choose an external encoder such as LAME when exporting </span>
* Punch-in and punch-out recording (32 votes) *PLEASE!*
* Panning envelope editing (31 votes)
* Multi-channel output (e.g. mix down to Dolby 5.1, 7.1, 10.2, 64.4 etc, Playback w. ALSA and Export (maybe OGG multichannel ?)). (31 votes)
* Noise removal (more flexible - ala Goldwave, possibility to apply effect even less)  (32 votes)
* Import/Export Aud-X (mp3 5.1) files  (1 votes)
* Horizontal line at 0 (DC=0) to more easily detect DC offset. (19 votes) <span  style="font-style:italic; color:green"> Note: Implemented in CVS</span>
* Import/Export AAC/MP4 files using open source FAAC library. This would support AAC multichannel and AAC+ (low bitrate streaming-optimised variety of AAC) (26 votes)
* Cue sheets: ability to import/export cue sheets for CD burning (and/or text file compatible with shntool) to and from labels (3 votes)
* Automation: Capacity to apply to a great numbers of files in a batch mode the following actions: to normalize, to make fade in (from the beginning) and fade out (from the end), determining the time of the fades in seconds (18 votes)
* Bpm Detection and beats / bars timecode and automatic beat matching/syncing with 2 or more songs (23 votes)
* Allow real time adjustment [[RealTimeAdjustment]]  (17 votes)
** could allow effect intensity/LADSPA plugin parameters/panning to be varied in real-time?
** include something similar to the envelope tool to adjust the effect parameters?
* Fast-foward and Fast-reverse to the Next or Previous, Silence or Marked Point (17 votes)
* More precise Volume leveling (both gain and input volume where card supports it (16 votes) <span  style="font-style:italic; color:green"> Note: you can shift-click to drag the gain/pan sliders with more precision, and in 1.3.3 dragging the sliders will now do so in 1 unit increments</span>
* Allow saving and loading of FFT/adjustable filters/EQ parameters to reapply later (17 votes) 
** Would be nice if a batch file of sorts could be created that allows effects with given params in set order - this implements other requested features too
** And if the FFT filter data were saved in a nice format, such as CSV, we could work around the currently awkward dialogue interface.
* Incorporate midi sequencer (16 votes)
** It doesn't make a lot of sense to add support for MIDI files if Audacity can't also be used as a sequencer. Obviously this would take some time, but if sufficiently developed would make Audacity competitive even with [[ProTools]]  and Sonar! 
* Loop file or marker in track (i.e. drum lines, bass loops, etc.) (11 votes) <span  style="font-style:italic; color:green"> Note: The "Loop Play" command ("L" or shift-play) and the "Repeat" effect provide limited looping features.</span>
* Time Shift Tool to move all selected tracks at the same time, and tell in tool bar the shift amount (13 votes) <span  style="font-style:italic; color:green"> Note: in 1.3.3 Time Shift does move all selected tracks </span> 
* [[VoiceActivated]] -Recording (VOR or VOX) - stops recording when you are not speaking but continues to record in the same file when you start speaking again (12 votes)
* Import/Export AC3 files (12 votes)

= Segmenting Tracks =
* Ability to time-shift a /selection/ within a track and not have to split selection to another track first. (1 vote) <span  style="font-style:italic; color:green"> Note: This has been implemented in the Beta version for a long time (multiple clips per track) and will appear in the 1.4.0 stable version</span>   
* Parsing (automatically starts recording a new track) based on configurable "silence" period usually found between program segments (merged two items here) (8 votes)  <span  style="font-style:italic; color:green" class="plainlinks"> Note: try [http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~raa110/audacity/SilenceMarker.ny this script] to create labels at each silence, then export multiple.</span>
* [[TextTrack]] (4 votes) <span  style="font-style:italic; color:green" class="plainlinks"> Note: Audacity already has [http://audacity.sourceforge.net/onlinehelp-1.2/track_label.htm Label Tracks].</span> 
* Export Multiple - change radio buttons under "Name Files" to check box or drop-downs with. Ie. Label/Track name ''and'' Number consecutively, and Prefix (e.g. <album><track><title> would now be automated. Postfix label as well? (4 Votes)
* Define selection start and selection end  via keyboard while listening (3 votes)
* Preview
** Cut or Selection: Plays 3 secs before and after the selected area but skips the selection itself (16 votes) <span  style="font-style:italic; color:green"> Note: Already implemented in the Beta 1.3.3 version. Use the "C" hotkey, and customise the length of preview in the Audio I/O tab of Preferences </span> 
** Selection Beginning-End: Listen to a few seconds of the beginning of selection; Listen to a few seconds of the end of selection (to test whether long selection is desired selection) (2 votes) <span style="font-style:italic; color:green"> Note: Already implemented in stable and Beta versions. Use the "B" hotkey and place mouse cursor near start or end of selection, and audio plays from start of selection to mouse cursor, or from mouse cursor to end of selection </span>     
* A "paste special" function, my main desire would be the ability to paste a loop 2 or 9 or 'x' number of times, but might also include some other paste options (1 votes)
** <span  style="font-style:italic; color:green"> select the section, then use the "Repeat" effect ?</span>
* Paste a selection to any track, to the current position of the cursor, not just to the beginning of the track, or just to the end of existing material on the track (2 votes)
* When setting volume envelope points for a track, it would be very useful (and sharp), when moving a edit point, having, in the status bar, or in a tooltip, the possibility of showing, while the point is dragged:
** gain amount
** position in the timeline
** it's also very useful the possibility of having a tooltip appearing when the mouse is over a volume envelope point, telling the gain amount, and maybe also the position in the timeline (2 vote)
*Adjust Clip Boundaries - Recovering original audio from adjoining split/deleted clip. Done in other programs (Audition1.5, Cubase, Vegas) with a drag corner at the start and end of clip. (2 votes)
*Improve time shifting. When using the time shift tool, a useful improvement would be for the cursor within the track being moved to move with the track.  Currently is stays at the same time setting.  Additionally, if this cursor extended over other visible tracks, it would make it much easier to line up one track with the others. (1 vote)
* Add ability to automatically select audio between two labels (1 vote)
* Need display of Snap to { on | Off } setting (probably at bottom of screen) (1 vote) <span  style="font-style:italic; color:green"> Note: already exists in stable version and has been fixed in Beta code. </span>  
*Expand selection command: After recording from an LP or a cassette or a live session, a single track will contain multiple songs, which the user has to separate. Let the user place his cursor on a track, and then use a "Expand selection" command. Audacity should expand the selection on both sides (towards left and right) till it finds silence (or the beginning/end of the track) (2 votes) ''See [[Feature Requests#Features for "books on tape", field recordings, etc.]] below.)''
*Looping and Dictation aids: (2 votes for each)
** During looping play, if user hits right-bracket, then set the end of looping region to current position, and go back to beginning immediately.  (Currently need to stop and restart looping play for it to take effect.)
** During looping play, if user hits left-bracket, then set the beginning of the looping play to the current play position immediately.  (Currently need to stop and restart looping play for it to take effect.)
** During looping play, if user hits shift-right-bracket, then set the end of the looping region to the end of the track immediately.  (New key, new feature.)
** During looping play, if user hits shift-left-bracket, then set the beginning of the looping region to the existing end of the looping region, and also move the play head to this new location.  Also moves the end of the looping region to the end of the track.  (New key, new feature.) This will let someone work through a dictation, adjusting and advancing the looping region during playback, sentence by sentence or verse by verse.

= Frequency Analysis Capabilities =

This section is now at [[Suggested Frequency Analysis Capabilities]].

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= Automation =
*Batch process a folder of audio files as follows for making samples for the web: open file, select portion of file between 0:30 and 1:00, trim away the rest of the file, add fade in and fade out, save as 128kbps mp3. I have to do literally thousands of these a month by hand. (6 votes)
** look at a comand line program like SOX (http://sox.sourceforge.net/) - works best for jobs that are strictly repetitive, with no user input.
*Ability to use the bass boost in batch encode (1 votes)
*Convert between file formats / bit depths / sample rates in the same way (9 votes)
*How about simply allowing any effects to be used in batch mode, with the specified parameters, like a macro script? (4 votes) (Couldn't we just add all other batch mode request votes to this?)
* Scriptability 
** [[LibAudacity]]  - library allowing integration with other C code.  ''not a pre-requisite for all of the following'' (6 votes)
** Control Audacity from Python (6 votes)
** Control Audacity from Visual Basic (1 votes)
** Control Audacity from TCL/TK (0 votes)
** Control Audacity from [[AppleScript]]  (5 votes)
** Control Audacity from command line (19 votes)
** Control Audacity from tcp or unix socket (could enable all of the above easily)
** Nyquist debugger within Audacity (0 votes)
** Ability to save currently applied filters (those appeared in Undo/Redo) as an editable (probably Nyquist) script. (1 votes)
** User defined composite operations (scripts) bound to a button (2 votes)
* [[PlugIn]]  Support (1 votes) - allow plugins to replace any/all of audacity and expose all of audacity to plugins for manipulation.  Will allow plugin packages for specialized applications (video-editing, CD ripping, CDDA support, for example)
** Equals Mezzo (http://www.audacityteam.org/wiki/index.pl?Mezzo) ?

* Start/stop recording at a user-defined threshold, e.g., start recording when the level goes above 30db, and stop recording when the level drops below 30db and stays there for 3 minutes or some other user-defined interval (2 votes)
* RSS Support (mainly to podcasters) in 'Podcast Projects', integrated with FTP, then the RSS is automatic created and the Podcast is uploaded to Server (0 votes)

= For Documentation Update or FAQ =
* Easier way to convert between different sampling rates without changing pitch and speed.  In the current version I changed the sampling rate of the track, then I compensated the speed.  But how can I save the wav in the correct sampling rate then? The saved wav is always 44khz!
** The "Project Rate" menu at the bottom of the Audacity window controls the export/playback format. Just set the desired project rate and export, the tracks are automatically converted to the project rate for export.
* Deletion of selection without moving further parts of the track backwards (2 votes)
** Can't this be done with the "silence" command?

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= Effects =

* A de-clipper for repairing overdriven sound. (3 votes)<span style="color:green;font-style:italic" class="plainlinks">   Note : try [http://www.gaclrecords.org.uk/clipfix.zip Clipfix]</span>

* Preview effects for whole duration of a selection, with option to loop the preview(2 votes)<span style="color:green;font-style:italic">  Note: Ability to choose preview length has been added to the Beta </span>

* Allow effects to be applied in realtime (4 votes)

* Include a grid in the EQ display (1 vote)

* Add effects for post-processing records (like [[GramoFile]] ) (7 votes)

* Noise gate (not noise removal, just a simple binary gate) (6 votes)

* I would love it there were more stompbox-style effects, you know, like distortion, the leslie speaker effect, chorus, flanger, talkbox/vocoder, That would be great.  (3 votes) <span style="color:green;font-style:italic"> Note: LADSPA plugins are already supported, and there are many available for such effects </span>

* Truncate silence. Implemented in 1.3.x for mono tracks but needs to work in stereo (7 votes)

* Generate silence does not change zoom level (3 votes)

* Generate tone does not change zoom level (4 votes)

* Generate tone exactly covers selection (ie beep out) (3 votes)

* Generate tone provides a drop down list of notes to set the frequency - i.e. middle C (264Hz), etc. (3 votes)

* Single menu command for Extract vocals/instrumental from stereo sources (5 votes)<span style="color:green;font-style:italic"> Note: This is very hit and miss - on many recordings simple techniques don't work well or at all. A Nyquist plugin can be used for automatic centre extraction and other plugins can be tried. See [[Vocal Removal]]</span>
* Allow MIDI files to control VST Instruments (1 vote)

* Dolby B and Dolby C input and output filters (for converting to/from tape recordings in Dolby) (1 votes) <BR>
<I> Will need quite a lot of trial and error by ear, as the Dolby process is recording level dependent. Needs expander and treble cut.</I><BR>
<I> I agree.  It would be tricky to get it right without straight-up copying the actual process.  This would be a licensing no-no.  Trust me, I work at Dolby.</I><BR>
<I>There is a Winamp plugin which simulates Dolby decoding [http://www.hansvanzutphen.com/tape_restore_live/ here]. </I>

* Smoothen effect, perhaps using a weighted average (or a better method), see http://audacityteam.org/FeatureRequest.php?mode=details&id=83 (0 votes)
<I> I  wunder about a tool to easy removing of noise could be usefull in the program. Like the rubber tool in f.ex. photoshop.The rubber tool schould flatten the noise when you tuch the noise. It would then be possible to remove noise in less zooming.
And maybe it could be usefull to have the possibility to set the pencil to (f.ex. with SHIFT ) only go complete horisontally.</I>

* would it be possible to include some pre sets on effects like echo(stadium,hall,front room etc and any others like gverb ??

* An option to normalize tracks individually. (Currently, normalizing works either on all tracks as a single group, or only on the selected track.) (1 vote)

* An automatic silence remover for silence at the beginning and end of a track. I would like to open a WAV file I have and have Audacity automatically cut  out the silence so the sound begins right away. This feature is perfected in commercsoftware such as Acoustica Audio Converter Pro (1 vote)

* Gradually increasing/decreasing tempo changes (without pitch) to facilitate DJ-style mixing

* Allow the effects drop-down menu capable of sub-folders or categorisation (the slide-over menu hierarchy following the directory structure of the Plug-Ins folder inside the Audacity install folder), so that the user can organize his plug-ins however he wishes.  This could include a Favourites folder which would be at the top for frequently used plugins.  How about making the "Favorites" area be auto-generating (not something the user needs to create in the file structure) by having Audacity keep track of the top-10 (10 most used) effects, and placing the most-used effect at the top??  (8 votes)

* Ability to bind functions (effects, plugins, etc) to buttons and/or keystrokes. E.g. one keystroke to amplifiy +3db, another keystroke -3db, another to compress (2 votes) 

*Provide a way to see the same VST plugins interface that we can see in other softwares like Cubase or Sonar

* Apply Change Speed effect to labels as well as audio, otherwise, labels become out of step.

* Surprised no one requests an exciter to enhance album or tape recordings. It is actually an easy effect and only needs a high pass and distortion. This is widespread use in recording studios and radio stations.

* Something like a combination of Voltage-Controlled Oscillator and the "Sample and Hold" modules of the old ARP 2600 Synthesizer [analog], where you could sample another waveform (in another track) at regular time intevals, and the instaneous level of the sample determines the frequency of a tone generated for the same interval of time. In the real-world Arp 2600, you could patch the output of a VCO (or other audio source) into the input of the S&H module, then patch the S&H output into the control voltage input jack of another VCO. In the Audacity version, the user makes a selection in the track to be sampled (analogous to the first VCO) , and then (in a dialog box) selects the time interval between samples, the minimum and maximum frequency to be generated. The duration of the resulting sequence of tones to be generated in a new track would be the same as the duration of the original selection. Optional - select sine, sawtooth, square, or triangle waveforms for the generated tone. Another option would be to be able to sub-divide the length of the selection into X number of sample intervals, as opposed to specifying the duration of the interval. Typical results would be a sequence of discrete pseudo-random (frequency) tones at regular intervals, like a retro movie sound effect for a computer that's busy thinking. Another example: Sampling a triangle waveform whose period is much longer than the sample interval would result in a series of ascending and descending stepped tones.

= Improved Resource Control =
* Allow recording from multiple channel sound devices at once - a lot of multi-channel cards look like this to the application, rather than one multi-channel device. A good behavior could be: (7 votes)
** there must me the possibility of selecting, for any track, a recording source, from the ones available for a certain sound card (also with the possibility of using multiple sound cards)
** for mono tracks a mono IN form the sound card must be choosen; for stereo tracks, two mono INs from the soundcard must be choosen (but they can also be the same)
** for each track the INs can be the same or different, and there must be a key for selecting whether the track is selected for recording or not
** a versatile possibility would be to be able to choose the default recording source from Audacity just the way it is done now, and this is selected by default for each track, but with the possibility, for each track, of selecting a different recording source, the way I just described
** this would also allow the possibility of easily setting the sampling rate, depth and number of channels for a track, before recording, and not simply based on master Audacity preferences and project settings, with maximum versatility
*[[IdlePriority]]
* Disk use limit for recording (6 votes)
* Search and recognize existing hardware capabilities. Specifically, note limits on quality achievable due to RAM configuration, DAC bit counts, soundboard specifics such as db gain at recording levels (41, 44, 96), and other software installed on the machine (iTunes, other popular players / organizers). Then customize recommendations by what is doable on that machine, but still allow anyone to get extreme if they wish. (0 votes)
* A nondefault setting to allow recovery/retaining of current data (recording in progress or otherwise) in case of accidental closure of audacity or power failure - even if data cannot be fully recovered it is preferable to have something (e.g. 70 minutes) rather than nothing, especially when recording live events (2 votes)
* Loop record option, commit last 2 hours of recording, at any moment. (2 votes)
* Undo buffer management:
** Compress undo buffers (2 votes)
** (You can already clear the Undo buffers by opening the Undo History dialog box, and compressing will take lots of CPU and have little space gain unless you use a lossy compressor, which kind of defeats the point of undo...)
** Save undo history into the project file(s) - useful for picking up on a project at a later time (2 vote).
** Save undo history as a .txt file - it would be very useful for documenting what steps had been done.
** Per-track undo history and stack. So you don't have to undo a bunch of changes you DO want on some tracks to get rid of something you did a while ago to another track. Also, the history would be viewable per track so you can remember what effects and such each track has had applied (so you don't mess up the effects chain order or over-do anything).

* Better space management. True, selecting a smaller sampling rate could take up less space, but there's no reason why a comparably small amount of data (a couple 4-megabyte mp3s with very minor edits) should take up as much space as it does (~500 megabytes). The concept of the _data folder is confusing, and the small file size of the .aud itself is misleading. If a user accidentally moves the _data folder or modifies it, the program refuses to accept it, and the user must either figure out what they have done wrong and attempt to repair it (not very newbie friendly), or start from scratch. Perhaps an incremental version check to the audio files (a la Volume Shadow Copy) would be beneficial, because as of now, it seems to save anything it can and wants. 

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= Imports and Exports =
* Import (extract) and/or export (burn) CD audio tracks (11 votes)
* Speed up the importation of MP3 or other sound formats from avi or mpeg files (2 votes)
* Support for Speex codec (similar to Ogg Vorbis but optimized for voice) (8 votes)
* Export OGG tags (title, artist, album, etc) (10 votes)
* Import/Export AMR (Adaptive Multi-Rate) found e.g. on Nokia/SonyEricsson Mobile Phones' Voice Memo or Playing features (supported in ffmpeg) (7 votes)
* Import/Export [[QuickTime]]  files on Windows/Mac (6 votes) <I><font color="green"> Note: Support for importing QuickTime based formats has been reintroduced in 1.3.3 for users on OS X</font></I>  
* Import/Export OMF multi-track to/from [[ProTools]] /Cakewalk, etc. (2 votes)
* Export over a currently open .wav file (so Audacity can edit samples for a host sequencer without the user finding the new file) (1 vote)
* Import meter/key meta-events from MIDI-file (to represent time in measure/beat) & markers. (0 votes)
* Import / Export MPC files (Windows) (2 votes)
* Import/export DSS (3 votes)
* Ability to import and export .wma audio (Windows) (2 votes)
* Export multiple using labels to split tracks should filter out disallowed characters from filenames.  e.g. a label of '01 - When?' should strip off the ? when creating the file name (1 vote)
* Option to export a meta-data file that records all changes made (5 votes)
* support import and export of AVI files including the video (4 votes)
<I> what would you do with the video? - also, AVI is a wrapper, so would need dozens of codecs to cope with range of AVI file compressions. Could easily double the size of audacity just to open and play video files (look at Mplayer, Xine etc)</I><br>
<I>i guess the idea is, at least thats what i would need it for, to edit the "soundtrack" of a video while keeping the image reference. there is no need for audacity to actually modify the video itself, only play along the video to the audiotrack of the avi / mov whatever. audacity wouldnt need to handle any video codec issues, the user has to take care of that himself. I guess it would even be helpful if you had to export the video to one specific codec & format, i.e. .mov with "mjpeg A" codec. its only to keep the video reference for the sound editing, the process of combining the exported audio track with the full resolution video is usually done (for example with protools) in the video editing software.</I>
* An "all recognized formats" mask selection in the Windows open dialog (3 votes)<span  style="font-style:italic; color:green"> Note: Implemented in Beta 1.3.3, also choice of mask is recalled on next use</span>   
* Display genre drop-down list in alphabetical order (5 votes) <I><font color=green> Note: Implemented in 1.3.3</font></I>
* Define both ID3v1 and ID3v2 tags simultaneously (rather than just either-or) (3 votes)
* Allow leaving genre field blank (2 votes)
* Allow custom genre in genre field for ID3v2 (5 votes)
* More MP3 encoding options (bitrate, the possibility of choosing between CBR or VBR, etc...) (9 votes) <I><font color="green">Note: This is implemented in 1.3.3 and will appear in 1.4.0 (the next stable version) when released</font></I>
*Ability to right click on multiple audio files in Explorer and have them open a project and then add to that project
*When doing an export multiple to break a long track by labels, it would be useful for each WAV file to be an exact number of CDDA frames (similar to using the snap to option).  Samples could be carried over (or borrowed) from following section as required.  This would be useful when buring CDs to avoid microgaps.  The FLAC encode actually has an option to do this. (2 votes)
*Ability to extract and import Vorbis portion of Ogg files encoded with non-audio tracks, such as Theora.  Currently gives an error "unknown format", straightforward modifications should do the trick.  (1 vote)
*When exporting multiple, have progress dialogue explicitly state which of the files is currently being processed (3 votes)

= Web requests =

* Add a link to this Wiki to the main (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ ?) site's motif.
* Add some prominent, or add some more prominent if it's already somewhere on this wiki, linkage back to the main place andor wherever a newbie can quickly find themselves installing Audacity on their computer.
* Facilitate funding of features.  Tip cup towards features?  An "i'd give x dollars towards someone working on XYZ bit" kinda thing?
(1 vote)

== Spectrum Settings ==

A lot of wildlife enthusiasts utilise this software for recording and editing animal sounds (e.g. birds, bats) who generally work from the spectrum rather than the waveform. The following would extend the sound analysis capabilities of the software and make the spectrum feature easier to use: 
. Threshold settings to remove the displayed background noise - i.e. only sound over a certain amplitude is displayed
. Time marks displayed along x-axis, more frequency marks along y-axis
. User defined spectrum colours
. Settings saved upon exit (e.g. fit vertically, spectrum, threshold)

==Count number of clipped samples==
See [[SampleClipCount]]

==Suggestions for Beta Timer Record ==
*Accessible from File Menu so when you hit record button dialogue would come up that would give you choices. (1 vote)
*Ability to set Timer Record to automatically use stored settings to start recording on a daily basis (1 vote)
==logarithmic Y axis scale==
in the spectral track view would be cool, so played notes are easiliy transcribable to music notes (1 vote)

==note recognition with wav-to-Midi capabilities==
(1 vote)

==a beep after certain types of operation==
have completed; the operations would be things like file import/export which can take a long time (which means that the user may wish to do another task while waiting for it to compete, but would like to return to audacity the instant that the operation has completed); an additional option would be to have a popup (1 vote)



== Controls ==  

*Have a separate button for loop play (1 vote)

*Add option for playback cursor to resume at stop point, not start point (3 votes)

* Scrubbing: While playing back audio, I'd like to be able to drag and drop the time position indicator (cursor) left and right to skip to various places in the project. When I release the mouse button, playback should resume at that position. This is not an unusual feature - it is merely how every single one of dozens other audio players work. Good for controlling the end of (long) selections. So you don't have to start from the beginning and hear it all for the n-th time. (3 votes)

* Mixer toolbar needs L....R balance control (2 votes)

* Ability to default (or remember) the zoom. Currently defaults to 10 seconds or so depending on screen width, where I would like it to default to 3 minutes.

* Spacebar and other keyboard controls should always work without the need to click on the track.

== Non-linear Fade In and Fade Out. ==

Perhaps include the ability to change the rate of the fade in and fade out.

== Create labels automatically at pre-defined intervals.  ==

Create labels automatically at pre-defined intervals on the timeline e.g. every 5 minutes.  This would be of great help when you need to split a long continous single track from a speech.[ 4 votes]
<span style="font-style:italic; color:green" class="plainlinks"> Note: There is a Nyquist plugin [http://www.shellworld.net/~davidsky/equalabl.zip here] which will do this.</span>

== Reversibly silent selection ==

Add the ability to silent a selection and later un-silent it (not just with undo, since we might want to do some other things before undo-ing the silence). Perhaps can be done similar to cut-lines.

== `Peak hold` on limiter and compressors ==

A `peak hold` line on the compressors and limiter so that you can see what the maximum amount of compression/limiting was since starting.
This can help in finding the right settings without having to watch stuff very very closely.

== Indicators when audacity is busy ==

When I do a control-f (zoom to fit in window) in audacity on a 2 hour recording it takes a while before the waveform is displayed. Some busy indicator, maybe even progress bar might help.
Same for moving around in a file, which can take time. (even on striped disks)
This also affects re-drawing of the waveform after applying pretty much any Effect.

(2 votes)

== Statistics ==

Ability to gather statistics (Margin to dBFS, RMS volume, etc, see SF, WAvelab, etc) over an abirtrary length of audio, even the whole file.

== DSD ==

DSD editing capabilities.

Korg MR-1 and MR-1000 are coming, making DSD more affordable, usable, etc.
DSD editing software is rare and/or expensive.
Dunno how well it blends with the current architecture for PCM. (bad?)

== Stop Recording Before Disk Filled ==

Instead of having to perform crash recovery because of recording to a full hard disk, why not simply stop recording just before the disk is full?

== Option to Record to an Existing Track Rather than to a New One ==

It would be useful to have the OPTION to record to an existing track at the current cursor position rather than always have to record to a new track and then copy/paste from there back to an existing one. (11 votes) <span style="color:green;font-style:italic">  Note: Beta 1.3.3 now allows you to hold SHIFT while pressing Record to append recording the end of a selected track or tracks</span>

== Remember import data for raw ==

When importing raw data, the sample rate is not remembered from last time. If I change from 44100 to 8000 I want that to be default next time I import something.

== Secondary horizontal scrollbar for extents of selection ==

One very useful addition would be a secondary horizontal scroll bar (just above
the existing standard horizontal scrollbar) that scrolls only the extents of
selection.

This would come in handy when you've highlighted, say, one bar of a song, then
want to zoom in to the sample level. You want to scroll back and forth in your
selection, but the standard project-wide horizontal scrollbar isn't granular
enough and you whiz way out of your selection.

(1 vote)

== Export Text Labels as XML ==

For using Audacity to analyze interviews or to generate Audio-Picture-Slideshows it should be possible to export all Text-Labels (with  names) as XML. Nodes: "trackname" with Nodes "start, end, label".

== Effects - normalise - percentages ==

Would it be possible to have a percentage normalisation option (as an alternative to decibels)? Many people have problems with decibels.


== Effects - normalize - use David Robinson's Replay Gain algorithm ==

The current normalize method in 1.3.2 uses peak value as
indicator of loudness, which is far from what human ears
perceive.  The algorithm outlined by David Robinson in 
[http://replaygain.hydrogenaudio.org/calculating_rg.html Replay Gain]
seems to approach human perception better than simply taking the
peak value.

In the Replay Gain algorithm, if the "equal loudnes filter" is
hard to implement, we can start with "RMS Energy Calculation" and
"Statistical Processing" first.

== Importing a project into another project ==

Importing an Audacity project into another one could highly facilitate the development of big projects, because one can mantain the diffent parts separated

== Gverb Negative roomsize ==

In Gverb I'd swear we used to be able to apply negative roomsize which reduced reverb which improved back-of-the-room recordings. Can this be reinstated?

== Multi Channel Soundcard support - Posibillity to select Track input channel. ==

Also it does not seem to be possible on Windows at the moment, it would be really nice to have this function on Mac Os X and Linux, if possible. At the moment, if I like to make a stereo recording with my soundcards Microphone inputs, I have to create a 10 channel Project, to get to the input channels. If I like to use the digital Input its impossible, because of the restriction to 16 input channels. My digital Inputs are 21 to 28 ... so it would be important to increase at least the number of supported inputs.

Similarly, it would be very useful to allow a nonconsecutive
set of input channels to be selected to deal with devices that
send special outputs on the higher numbered channels.
For example, Alesis's MultiMix-8 returns its mixed outputs,
which is the only outlet for its on-board effects, on channels
9 and 10. A common setup for me is to use channels 1-3 for
instruments and mics, and mix in some effects from the Alesis
unit; I'd like to have Audacity record channels 1,2,3,9,10 instead
of 1 thru 10.

== Option to import .wav without resampling - changing .wav headers. ==

I have a problem with some .wav Files that I recorded, with an Hardiskrecorder, that had external sync to 48 kHz but due to an error in the settings after a short poweroff wrote 44.1 kHz in the .wav headers. This wavs now play at the wrong speed / pitch. If I import them to Audacity at 48kHz they are resampled, which is wrong, too. I´d like to just play them on 48k without other changes...

== Import/Export OFR files ==

It would be nice to be able to import and export OptimFROG files (.ofr), a lossless audio format that's smaller than FLAC.

== Clean up temp files when closing files during batch processing ==

In Audacity 1.3.2 beta, if you apply a chain to a group of files (with File, Apply Chain, Apply to Files), it will import each file, write uncompressed temp files during open and edits, export the file to complete the chain, and then proceed to import the next file.  This process leaves on disk all the temp files created for all the files in the batch, which can cause the system to completely run out of disk space rather quickly. Instead, Audacity should clear out the temp file when closing each file.  (3 votes)

== Better peak / clip indications ==

Something I'd like to see added to Audacity would be an indicator for each track showing the peak meter reading for the track. This would be especially helpful in live recording scenarios, so we can see if we clipped. Right now, I have to watch the meters in real time, and even the sliding peak indicator only holds it's position for a couple of seconds. I note that Cakewalk Sonar has this on each channel (with a reset button) and it's very helpful. Possible implemtation options: a max level (i.e "-3.5db") per track at the far left track info box, which could be turned red if it ever went to "0.0".

== Render MIDI as Audio based on 'free' samples. ==

One of suggested feature is as follows although presumably complex to implement.

There are MIDI sequencers, however what I felt was missing was the ability
to render a MIDI file using samples from suitably 'free' sources such that
the eventual full file was also 'free'.

I would therefore like to request that the Audacity team look into whether
some kind of 'tracker' code could be incorporated into newer versions of
Audacity. This would allow a user to effectivly convert a MIDI or other forms
of tracker file (i,e Protracker) into RAW audio.

My reason for this request is so that old PD Music can be scored and performed
without the need for actual muscians, and to allow conversion of sound-like
files without having to payout for commerical tools.

[[User:ShakespeareFan00|ShakespeareFan00]] 10:15, 30 January 2007 (PST)

== color code levels for clipping ==

On the waveform display have a colored background that goes yellow .7 then red .9, the levels where clipping will occur.


== create labels in real time from external source during recording ==
It would be nice to be able to create labels immediately during the recording process, using either remote calls or listening on a socket. I currently fake this with a little python script that logs the intended labels and (hopefully) the correct time-since-start into an external file, then "Import Labels". It would be nice if there were some way to do this directly, since Audacity always has the correct "current" time-in-recording.
We use this for pulling in GPS-sourced time, scenechange hints, and some other stuff.

"waterfall"/"voiceprint" spectrum display option (instead of, or above/below waveform display)

== Playback at different speed ==
The beta (1.3.2) allows for playback at different speeds, but the slider bar is difficult to control accurately, it would be good if the speed ratio was also displayed in a textbox, that allows entry of a specific desired number.

Also, it would be nice to be able to record while playing back at the different speed. I realise this could be difficult, but often singers like to record vocals at a lower speed than the final playback, it adds an "edge" to their voice.[[User:RoscoHead|RoscoHead]] 20:04, 17 February 2007 (PST)

I would also like to see a playback speed option included in the next release. I know there is one in the beta but I feel that as well as allowing the user to input a specific number, you can also have some pre-set speeds such as 50% slower or 50% faster etc. If you are looking for an example the music playing software JetAudio Basic [http://www.cowonamerica.com/download/ COWON America Website] are who manufacturer the program. This program has a playback speed changing feature with pre-set speeds such as 10% faster which can be applied while playback is occurring. 22.47, 10 May 2007 (GMT+10) - Nickdella

== Keyboard Modifiers in User Interface ==
I was wondering why audacity does not make use of keyboard modifiers in the UI? It could speed up the working process significantly... for example soundforge has the shift modifier so you could move a selection without changen the duration. For me, the more the better, once you know the modifier functions its much more comfortable than changing tools before doing something.

== Move Project File Format to Advanced Authoring Format (AAF)==
Probably it would be a great idea to keep audacity projects compatible to other audio (and video) editing softwares. I am neither a lawyer nor a programmer so i cannot say if AAF the best possible standarized file format, from a user point of view it sounds nice as a lot of other companies are supporting it already.
[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Authoring_Format AAF on Wikipedia]]

== define Selection of audio through simple dialog ==

It would be much faster for a screen reader user to define the selection through a little "Select Specified Time" dialog, similar to WavePad. Then just press the "Preview" button to hear the selected audio rather than mess with toolbars.

== tracks ==

when I open up tracks in the new beta program they are very small, is it possible so that 
I can resize them to always open approx. the same size as 1.2.6
cheers
Les

== Automatically join tracks end to end ==

New option needed under the Project > Align Tracks menu that would align the selected tracks end to end. (3 votes)

== ID tags for each imported file ==

Multiple imported files should retain their own ID tags rather than take the tags of the first imported file (2 votes)

== Tap (in general) ==

How about tap delay, and tap bpm input (1 vote)
* I already voted for bpm time code, but I think this deserves it's own section.

== Propellerheads ReWire ==

* ReWire bridge (just like VST bridge) to corporate Adacity with Propellerheads Reason
* MIDI Sequencer (as requested before) to controll Reason

== More colorfull ==

I think It needs to be more colorfull. All of the grayness is boring and depressing.

== Dcop support ==

It would be great if Audacity could support [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dcop dcop], which is ''"a light-weight interprocess and software componentry communication system. The main point of this system is to allow applications to interoperate, and to share complex tasks. Essentially, DCOP is a ‘remote control’ system, which allows an application or a script to enlist the help of other applications."''

Ideally, using dcop all of Audacity's functions could be controlled from the command line or through a shell script.  Here's a sample shell script to illustrate something that should be easy to do if all of Audacity's functions were available through dcop:

  for file in *.mp3
  do
    dcop audacity import foo.mp3
    dcop audacity select 00:00:00 00:00:05
    dcop audacity cut
    dcop audacity export foo.mp3
    dcop audacity close
  done

That script would delete the first five seconds of every mp3 file in the current directory.

Of course, a full-featured dcop interface could accomplish something much more complicated, things that would be difficult or impossible to do using chains, and for which plugins would not really be appropriate (such as operations on multiple files, and incorporating data not already in audacity).  A dcop interface would also make integrating audacity with other applications (such as Amarok, for example) very easy.

== Export to pipe ==

Instead of only being able to export to a file, could Audacity be made to have the ability to pipe data in a given format to a specific application?  This would be really useful, because it would allow the user to do things like convert WAV format data created by Audacity to formats that Audacity does not support (yet) or to otherwise do post-processing in a fully automated fashion.

For example, I'd like to convert WAV data created by Audacity using notlame's --vbr-new option, which Audacity does not support (as far as I know).  Right now that involves exporting to WAV and then manually running notlame --vbr-new on the exported file.  With a lot of files to process in this manner, this becomes kind of a pain.  Exporting to a pipe could solve this problem and many others besides.


== simple voice recorder build? ==
wondering if it might be possible to create a simple, stripped down version of audacity that would simply record and spit out to mp3.  i'd like to use audacity to record meetings and brownbags etc at my company, but right now it's a little too complex to put in peoples' hands.  
-:)[[User:Bnardone|Bnardone]] 13:32, 18 April 2007 (PDT)

== Collapse display of tracks into folders or sets ==

There can be many more tracks in a project than can be displayed easily on one screen. The Shift-Ctrl-F (auto-fit all tracks) feature in Audacity 1.2.6 does a good job of making all the tracks visible, but then the tracks have to be of very shallow height to be fitted on screen - and mute buttons etc. become hidden. Now that same difficulty can occur in Adobe Photoshop (a graphics image editor) if an image has many "layers". An elegant solution to this problem has been implemented in recent versions of Photoshop in the "layers palette". The same idea would work very well in Audacity. This is how it would work, translated into Audacity language: 1) A menu option "Create new TRACK GROUP" creates something that looks like a new track - it has a name, delete, balance, volume, mute and solo buttons - but it is not an audio track - it is a track "set" or "folder" or "group" or "collection". It also has an expand/collapse button on the left. I will call this thing a "group" for now. 2) Let's name this group "Rythm", for example. 3) If any audio tracks are dragged onto the "Rythm" group they are displayed under that group. 4) But if the "collapse" button of the "Rythm" group is clicked then the single "group" track is displayed as one horizontal strip but all the audio tracks inside it are hidden from view. 5) Balance, volume, mute and solo buttons on the Rythm group strip control the playback of all the audio tracks inside that group (though each audio track still has its own specific settings). 6) The Rythm group, and other groups, can be manipulated in their collapsed state by dragging up and down, collapsing, expanding, muting, adjusting volume, etc. 8) Individual audio tracks can be dragged from group to group, or dragged out of a group completely. 7) The visual appearance of the waveform area of a "group" strip could be just blank, or it could show for instance a simple normalised sum of all the audio tracks inside - that would aid usability.  8) Most of the audio editing functions would NOT be implemented for working on a "group" - that would still be done on the individual audio tracks visible in an expanded group.        Here is an example of what a user might create in a working project using this idea: Groups named "Rythm", "Vocals", "Backing", "Count-in", "Roughwork", "Soundeffects", and "ScratchPad". Each group might contain about five separate audio tracks. That would be about thirty-five audio tracks in the project. Most of the groups would be displayed in the collapsed state with just one group expanded. All the tracks in the project would be available to view as desired without the confusion of all the tracks being in one unweildy long scrolling list.

== mp3 export to conform to track MUTE settings ==

In Audacity 1.2.6 the data passed from a project to the mp3 export plug-in conforms to the volume slider settings on each track (tracks set with low slider volume in Audacity are exported at low volume in the mp3 file) (which is good!) But the same is not true with the Audacity track MUTE buttons. Muting a track prevents it playing in Audacity, but does not prevent it being exported to mp3. The only way to stop a track being exported is to delete it before doing an mp3 export.

== Superimpose vertical grid-lines ==

A menu option to turn on/off a grid of thin vertical lines covering the whole waveform display area. This would help with the task of aligning sounds over multiple tracks. (With no grid this is quite difficult to do by eye, especially over four or five audio tracks.) The grid lines would not have to be adjustable in any way, just an on/off toggle. There would be a fixed number of vertical lines on the screen - about 30 (or user could chose a number). For super-accurate alignment the user would simply zoom in - expanding the audio tracks time scale - whilst the number and pixel distance spacing of the gridlines on screen would not change.

== Import preferences from HKLM ==

It would be very helpful in deployment situations if you could easily specify program defaults.

Specifically on windows, if the 'Audacity' HKCU key doesn't exist, 'Audacity' in HKLM could be checked for and copied across to HKCU if it exists.

== Non-destructive editing of compressed audio ==

Add capability for limited editing of lossily compressed audio in its native format, rather than decompressing into a full waveform and recompressing the processed audio. This would be ideal for quick editing of formats such as MP3,  OGG, etc. especially at low bitrates without altering the quality of the track. <span style="color:green;font-style:italic" class="plainlinks">  Note: For non-destructive cut, paste and volume edits see [http://www.mpesch3.de/ MP3 Direct Cut] (Windows) and [http://www.panic.com/audion/ Audion] (OS X)</span>

== Headroom Indicators ==

On the waveform display, a horizontal line (actually two lines) at a user-specified number of dB below and above 0dBFS. This is for compliance with SMPTE and EBU standards calling for program material to have a specified amount of headroom before full-scale clipping. As previously suggested, the waveform trace could change color when it exceeds the specified headroom level. This would be in addition to the previously-suggested horizontal line at the DC level.

The VU meters should likewise have headroom indicators: a line drawn at n dB below 0dBFS. In addition, the color of the meter fill should change colors when the headroom level is exceeded. My suggestion for colors is green for levels below headroom, yellow for levels above headroom, and red when the level is 0dBFS (clipping).

The headroom level could be set using the existing Meter Preferences dialog.

== Features for "books on tape", field recordings, etc. ==

This is a collection of features that will facilitate converting recordings made "live" or on physical tapes into digital form.  My use-case is my attempt to turn foreign language instructional cassettes into MP3 files.

Recordings such as these frequently feature a lot of meta-data that is spoken by the presenter, things like "Unit 3", "Activity 5" and "Page 7", which I want to capture as labels.  I would like, while either recording or playing a project, to be able to define "hot keys" that instantly create labels according to a template which could optionally include automatically incrementing numbers.  Currently, I have to press something like [Ctl-M], "u3" and [Enter], and then hand-edit the .aup file afterwards.  If several pieces of data occur in rapid succession, this is especially hard to do accurately.  It would be nice if the label were inserted a bit before the time of the key-press, to allow for reaction times.

It would also be nice to be able to adjust the play-back speed of a recording, and have a key that, during play-back, jumps backwards one or two seconds.  Especially when scanning speech, this would reduce the time required to label everything.

Even with compensation for reaction times, it is unlikely that a label will be exactly where you'd want it to be.  I'd like to be able do two things to help with this.  One is to use the mouse to sweep a region and then have Audacity adjust the selection boundries according to a Nyquist extention, for instance to move the selection's start point forward until it is a fixed time prior to the end of silence.  The other thing is to, given a selection that covers exactly one label, adjust that label so that it matches the selection.

Finally, I'd like to see label-based navigation of tracks, things like "scroll to the {first,next,previous,last} label".

These features would allow to perform a mostly unattended capture of a presentation or a cassette tape, play it back at hight speed and mark points of interest, and easily revist those points to adjust the labels.