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What's New in Audacity 1.2 ??
(History of Audacity)

New features in Audacity 1.2:

User Interface

  • New Mixer toolbar allows you to control the output volume, input volume, and input source directly from Audacity.
  • Every track now has its own gain and pan controls.
  • Uses improved project file format.
  • Block files (stored in Audacity project directories) now use the standard AU format. Though some Audacity meta-information is in these files, they can now be read by many other popular audio programs as well.
  • Import RAW has a simpler GUI but support for far more file formats. The autodetection algorithms are much more accurate than in 1.0.
  • Using high quality resampling algorithms, with the option of better quality for mixing than for real-time playback
  • Preliminary support for Time Tracks, for changing playback speed over time
  • Vertical zooming of tracks.
  • Improved look and placement of toolbars.
  • New custom mouse cursors.
  • Complete implementation of editable keyboard shortcuts.
  • Find zero-crossings.
  • Mouse wheel can be used to zoom in and out.
  • Multi-Tool mode.
  • Amplify using envelope.
  • Labels can store selections (like Audacity 1.0.0).
  • Open multiple files from the same dialog.

Effects

  • Repeat Last Effect command
  • Support for LADSPA plug-ins on all platforms
  • VST support now comes through an optional LADSPA plug-in called the VST Enabler.
  • Most effects now have a Preview button
  • Compressor (Dynamic Range Compressor)
  • Change Pitch (without changing tempo)
  • Change Tempo (without changing pitch)
  • Change Speed (changing both pitch and tempo)
  • Repeat (useful for creating loops)
  • Normalize (adjust volume and DC bias)

Audio I/O

  • 1-second preview command (just hit the '1' key on your keyboard)
  • Looped play (Shift-click on the Play button)

New features in Audacity 1.1.1:

User Interface

  • Tooltips appear in Statusbar.
  • Vertical cursor follows play/record
  • Pause button
  • Drawing tool (with three different modes)
    Note:
    In v1.1.1 from Nov11th 2002, the smoothing tool (CTRL+click) crashes if used too close to the edge of a tracks audio. Stay away from the edges.
  • Vertical Resizing of stereo tracks is more fun.
  • Adjust selection by click-dragging selection boundary
  • Toolbar button context-sensitive enabling/disabling
  • Better zooming functionality (centers region)
  • Multiple ways to display the cursor position and selection
  • Snap-to selection mode
  • Drag tracks up and down
  • Align and group align functions
  • Cursor save/restore
  • Working history window

Effects

  • Effects broken down into three menus: Generate, Effect, and Analyze
  • Generate menu lets you generate silence, noise, or a tone
  • Nyquist support (supports plug-ins written in Nyquist, an interpreted functional language based on Lisp)

Localization

  • Improved localization support
  • More languages available
  • Language selection dialog on startup

Mac OS X

  • Support for more audio hardware
  • Support for full-duplex (play while recording)
  • Support for MP3 exporting using LameLib Carbon

Unix

  • Audacity now has a man page (it describes command-line options and how to set the search path)

File Formats

  • Uses libsndfile 1.0, which fixes some bugs and improves performance

Searching for Files:

  • On Windows and Mac OS, Audacity now looks for translations in the "Languages" folder and all plug-ins in the "Plug-ins" folder, relative to the program.
  • On Unix, Audacity looks for translations in /share/locale and looks for everything else in /share/audacity and also in any paths in the AUDACITY_PATH environment variable

New features in Audacity 1.1.0:

Core audio processing:

  • Support for 24-bit and 32-bit sample formats
  • Automatic real-time resampling (using linear interpolation)

Effects:

  • Support LADSPA plugins on Linux / Unix

File formats:

  • New XML-based Audacity project format
  • Full Ogg Vorbis support now (importing and exporting)
  • Export to any command-line programs on Unix
  • Support for reading and writing many more types of uncompressed audio files, including ADPCM WAV files.

Toolbars

  • New toolbar drawing code; automatically adopts your operating system's colors
  • New toolbar buttons (Skip to Start, Skip to End)
  • New Edit toolbar
  • Toolbar buttons disable when they're not available

User Interface

  • Fully customizable keyboard commands
  • Autoscroll while playing or recording
  • New Ruler, used in main view and in FFT Filter effect
  • The waveform now displays the average value in a lighter color inside the peak values

Localization

  • Audacity can now be localized to different foreign languages.

New libraries in Audacity 1.1:

  • libmad for fast MP3 importing
  • libid3tag for editing MP3 file information
  • libsndfile to read and write more audio file formats
  • PortAudio for cross-platform audio playing and recording