Subject: [linux-audio-dev] what's wrong with glame
From: delire (delire_AT_selectparks.net)
Date: Thu Jul 26 2001 - 14:03:01 EEST
This is a fairly lengthy rant on the latest glame. Some of you might find it
boring. It's really directed at the authors.
What I say here needs to be taken in context. My requirements for an editor
are fairly heavy as I make both commercial special effects and
noise/electroacoustic music.
It's rare that I work under DAT level audio - 48khz. But like a normal
studio it's not uncommon for me to have 50 or 60 audio files open at the
same time. Similarly, with my electroacoustics, I rarely work under 4
channels.
So in this way i'm not your ideal subject. However I do produce alot of work
for various multimedia productions, including games, which i think includes
your target user. I say this because while glame isn't advanced in other
areas, you have placed a strong emphasis on signal processing.
Two different systems are running glame in my studio, one is a debian box
and the other runs suse [both latest kernels (now) thanks to a bad analogy
from paul davis] All required libs are installed. I noticed that both don't
have a play head that follows the audio - instead it remains static. In the
install notes you said this worked - I may have done something wrong. Also
it should be said that I've only been using Glame for a week or so, forgive
me for the things I've overlooked [short keys / menu's etc]...
I'll begin:
The idea of a 'project' is a nice approach - but it tends to assume that one
is about to embark on something of a large scale. In other environments this
is also called the session - which is an option only if you want to save
global setting as applied specifically to your work, or an arrangement, as
in cool edit pro [windows].
Often however i don't want to make a project, so much as quickly edit a
wave. Most desktop studios are engaged in editing samples every few minutes
during a normal day. This is where glame really struggles to be useful.
What tends to happen in most studios is users become loyal to an editor
through familiarity. As a result one editor is chosen as the native editor
for all situations, so even when you're in another app, you can click
[something like 'editor'] and your waveform immediately appears. Also it's
necessary to be able to click on a sound-file and immediately bring it up in
waveform view ready to go. In these two ways, 'setting up a project' blocks
access to the urgent role of the editor in any audio.
Glame's functionality needs to be considered within this hierachy of needs:
Most studios, home and pro, require these in an editor /multitracker /dsp
studio:
Open sample [resample / attentuate / trim
Record sample [line in or another output from app]
Edit sample / signal process /clean [many of these open at once]
Multitrack session [for composition, syncing and mix down]
Custom project / session / filternetwork
By orienting work around the 'project' you're stopping glame from becoming a
popular [frequently used] editor.
Once I made a project, i had to 'import audio'!! As though audio were not
the native media of the app. All good apps assume that 'open file' leads to
a wave. Cool edit pro [which is becoming so popular that many major studios
[including the ABC in my country]
are ditching pro-tools] simply has 'open' when in 'waveform view' - since in
that window, you're always going to be opening soundfiles...import in so
many desktop studios represents a special function, that's why when i first
used glame, i reached for the 'add stereo wave' item.
Even once i've imported the audio i'm still barred; held back before getting
on with the job of editing...now i have to select the
text-that-represents-my-file and choose to 'edit it', as though there were
other things i might want to do with it instead.
So i right click on the name of the file [?] and then choose 'edit', which
brings up the waveform view.
And the waveform view is nothing to smile about - black and white is a bad
choice of rendering. High contrast schemes like this make a 10 hour session
in the editor a strain, though the wearing of sunglasses indoors is
particular to this field.
At this stage I realise that I loaded the wrong file[s], to get rid of it
from the project list i have to [delete] [as opposed to the inuitive,
'close'] and then 'empty the
trash' [what trash? and why should i [?] - implying that i have the option
to revoke my decision once it's in the trash].
Back in the edit mode with the right file I look first for my peak values,
trying to get a sense of how i should attentuate the file.
Also because i have to, say, make a file exactly 10.253 seconds in length i
look for the time [this probably sounds ridiculaous but it happens often
when making sound for film or games]. also accuracy is a kind of confidence.
I find that there aren't even samples, rms, or 'beats' as alternative timing
schemes - many other media packages require these time scalings for sync
up - in this way glame further rarifies it's position as a stand-alone-tool.
Most importantly however, there is no means of evaluating peak values short
of a loose grid in the background. Options like these can be immediately
altered using left or right clicks in cool edit pro.
The studio editor needs to contain multiple different means of visualising
audio-data the bare essentials are:
for time:
hms, sample, frames per second, SMPTE drop, bar [beats].
amplitude:
normlized values, percentage values [where 100% = 0dB]
other:
spectral analysis, with a couple of windowing options for comparison.
There needs to be an option for resampling file in conjunction with shifitng
bit-rates.
eg: 48khz / 24bit > 22.05khz / 8bit. preferably with dithering and
noise-shaping in order to maintain the integrity of the signal.
this would enable the multimedia community to use glame for web and cdrom
without fscking around in other apps.
One of the most common requirements in an editor is that it allow selection
of an area to be previewed as a loop - a small area for close-up work. Drag
selectable editors right back to soundedit16 have this function. Instead in
glame there is an icon
[looks like a recycle symbol] that I assumed probably meant 'loop' - that
strangely means 'view all'. I couldn't and still can't find how to loop on a
selection in glame...
I can't do it in either install of glame. For this reason i can't really use
it at all. Similarly all editors have a key-bind for play and stop!!! Why
doesn't glame??
Normally they manifest as <space>, <p> or <enter>. None of these work.
Instead i have to actually click play which really slows work down.
All the edit preferences are in a good place [right click] in waveform view
but the menu is unecessarily deep. Absolutely basic functions like cut and
paste are instead hiding behind the edit submenu!! They need to be ready at
hand at all times.Similarly the fundamental 'undo' is hiding in a submenu
inside 'edit'.
If i simply want to select an area and play it i have to select the area and
right click on that area and then choose play selection. And if that's not
enough i have to then hit a second play button in a strange play control
that pops up!!! That i found really frustrating.
Any digital audio practitioner requires to be able to select an area for
play many times a minute - this also makes glame to hard to use
prolifically. Strangely this excessive 'play control' disappears as soon as
it had finishes playing the sample like it's pissed off with you.
So i've selected the area i want to fade, sadly here glame makes all the
decisions for me as my fade is a linear fade. There needs to be
representation of commonly expected envelope based amplitude fade, with
presets for bell, curved and the requisite attack/decay.
Many of your filter gui's are without legend [unit values], and so are
useless. The worst case here is 'volume adjust', which uses [instead of
'dB', or 'percent'!!] 'factor' whatever that is. Here information is use
with confidence.
That's all i can do for tonight [though there's plenty more i could write
about]. If you get a chance check out both SoundEdit [functional but v basic
editor] and the excellent Cool Edit Pro [not cool edit which is shareware].
next i'll write about my experiences with multitracking in glame.
de|
_ / a -> b, b ->c, a -> d, d -> c ...and so on... \ _
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b28 : Thu Jul 26 2001 - 14:08:20 EEST