New features in Audacity 2.3.2
Last updated
Last updated
© Muse Group & contributors. Contents licensed under the Creative Commons-Attribution 4.0 license.
This page is an overview of the key new functionality that has been introduced in Audacity 2.3.2
Details of all the major changes since 2.3.1 can be found in Audacity 2.3.2.
The LAME library, which is needed for exporting MP3 audio files, is now built-in to Audacity on Windows and macOS as a part of the application.
With previous releases it was necessary to download and locate the LAME library as an optional extra.
If you go to Libraries Preferences you will see that the option to locate the library is no longer there and the dialog tells you what version of LAME is built-in.
LAME is not built into Audacity on Linux - you will still need to acquire an locate the optional LAME library.
There is now a Select button in the Track Control Panel.
The whole of an individual track can be selected by clicking this Select button.
Holding Ctrl (or ⌘ + A on a Mac) and clicking on the Select button toggles the selectedness of the track.
You can still select a whole track in the previous ways if that is what you are used to:
Click in the neutral gray area of the Track Control Panel (this is hard when the tracks are reduced size, as in this image)
Double-click in the track.
The new Nyquist Plug-in Installer is itself a Nyquist plug-in. It simplifies the installation of other Nyquist plug-ins. It is installed by default in Audacity and can be found in the Tools Menu. It can be accessed by: Tools > Nyquist Plug-in Installer...
This plug-in installer provides a file browser for selecting the plug-in '.NY' file (Nyquist plug-ins are plain text files that have the filename extension '.NY'), and then copies the file to the correct location.
Once the plug-in has been installed, in order to use it it must be enabled using the Plug-in Manager.
The folder that is created by Audacity when running a Macro on files, or when an Export command is used in a Macro that is run on the current project, has been renamed to "macro-output" to give it a more meaningful name.
The created folder used to be called "cleaned" (which was a hangover from functionality that used to be in Audacity, bit was removed many versions ago).
The add-on module "mod-script-pipe" provides a programming interface that allows Audacity to be controlled by an external program or from the command line. When enabled, mod-script-pipe intercepts scripting commands that are sent to it from an external program (usually Python) via a named pipe.
The experimental mod-script-pipe is now available with Audacity for Windows and Mac. You need to enable it in Modules Preferences.
The default setting for the "Type to create a label" in Tracks Behaviors Preferences has been changed from "on" to "off".
When enabled "on", if there is already a label track that has the yellow focus border, you do not need to use "Add Label at Selection" or its Ctrl + B shortcut to create a new label. Just type your required label text to create a new label at the position of the editing cursor or selection region.
The change was made as some users were confused by: a) shortcuts not working when the label track has focus b) labels not being created when the label track did not have focus.
This will not affect any previous setting that you have, or have made, for this Preference unless you chose to have your preferences reset as part of an upgrade installation.
WAV and AIFF audio files are size limited to a maximum of 4 GB. This is a general restriction and not an Audacity restriction.
In earlier versions of Audacity if you exported a WAV or AIFF file that would exceed those limits the file would be corrupted and truncated and this would happen without warning.
For 2.3.2 we have implemented an error trap to catch this and stop it happening. Now when attempting to export an oversized WAV or AIFF file Audacity will not do this and you will get the following error message:
Clicking on the ? Help button in the message will show the following table in the Manual
Sample Format | Stereo | Mono |
16-bit (default) | 6h:45m | 13h:31m |
24-bit | 4h:30m | 9h:01m |
32-bit | 3h:22m | 6h:45m |
These timings are the theoretical maximum times. You would be well-advised to restrict yourself to slightly lower limits to afford some head-room.
Click on the bug number for full details in the bug thread.
P1 2078 - Append recording into a collapsed track causes a crash
P2 2068 - Mac: misleading error message when importing M4A without FFmpeg installed
P2 2082 - Expand function after Append Record to a collapsed track fails
P2 2086 - Incorrect Mixer Board behaviour
P2 2096 - High quality stretching in Change Pitch/Tempo causes the Preview to malfunction and remove the selection
P2 723 - Recording does not stop at end of selection.
P2 1534 - Linux: Malformed tooltips/"Untitled window" in taskbar when clicking or hovering over toolbar sliders
P3 1899 - Windows: previously deleted folders are unnecessarily re-created on next Save
P3 2007 - Windows: Empty folder created on Import if last used import folder does not exist
P3 1762 - Importing keystrokes can fail to import keystrokes that are not in standard set
P4 2080 - Windows: Using WASAPI, after recording, playback can fail with "opening sound device error"
P5 2050 - Misleading LAME version error message
P4 2084 - Enh: Auto-select behaviour changed from previous version and not documented.
P4 1248 - Windows: TAB does not navigate out of mouse-created focus in sliders.
P4 2087 - Mixer Board gain control dialog is ridiculously over-long vertically
P4 2064 - Linux: ESC key does not work to abort drags in the Timeline Ruler
P4 1965 - Enh: Track name overlay display for all track types
P4 2051 - Shortcut for Edit>Clip>Boundaries>Split (Ctrl+i) should be in the Standard shortcut set
P5 2053 - Splitting or joining collapsed stereo tracks causes broken scroll bar behavior
P3 1815 - NoteTrack: Hidden notes on importing MIDI
P4 2093 - Note Track: Vertical Zoom Reset produces max. zoom out and not a reset
P4 1820 - Note tracks don't save the pitch height, which may lead to hidden notes
Filter Curve
Graphic EQ
Audacity 2.3.2 - detailed release notes for this release of Audacity
