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Audacity 3.4.2 is out with Various More Bug-fixes

Last updated: November 18, 2023 — Leave a comment

For users of Audacity 3.4.x, the popular audio editor and recorder app just announced the second update for this release series.

It’s Audacity 3.4.2 that includes following bug-fixes:

  • Fix crash when opening projects with zero-length clips.
  • Fix a crash when clearing loops.
  • Fix Nyquist-related crashes.
  • Fix a crash when closing Audacity.
  • When exporting a file, the sample rate of the tracks is now considered, and last-used sample rate is remembered.
  • Copy-pasting now pastes into audio again by default. Though, there’s an option to change in Preferences.
  • Mix and render now also resets the gain for the resulting track.
  • Fix clips shifting to the right when effects are applied to them.
  • Fix clicks occurring when overdubbing a project with muted tracks.
  • Fix files being exported without a file extension in rare cases.
  • Show all sample rates possible for MP2 exports.
  • Fix pasting into labels.
  • Fix copying when “select all audio if selection required” is enabled.
  • Fix GTK detection and compilation for wxWidgets 3.2.4.
  • Fix EQs in macros.
  • Fix builds on armhf.

How to Install Audacity 3.4.2

Audacity is available to install Ubuntu Linux through a few different ways. They include AppImage, Ubuntu PPA, and Flatpak. Just choose either one that you prefer.

Option 1: AppImage (official)
It provides official macOS .dmg, Windows .exe, and Linux .AppImage packages available to download at the link below:

Download Audacity

For Linux, click expand the “Assets” section and choose download the .AppImage package.

Then, right-click on the .AppImage file and go to its ‘Properties’ dialog. Add executable permission by enable ‘allow executing file as program‘. Finally, right-click on it and select “Run” to launch Audacity.

Option 2: Ubuntu PPA

For choice, I’ve uploaded the new release package into unofficial PPA for Ubuntu 22.04, 23.04, and Ubuntu 23.10 with amd64, arm64, and armhf support.

1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When terminal opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/audacity

Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.

2. For Linux Mint users, you may manually update system package cache by running command:

sudo apt update

3. Finally, install Audacity 3.4.2 either by running the  command below in terminal:

sudo apt install audacity audacity-data

Or, launch ‘Software Updater’ to update from an existing version:

Option 3: Flatpak

Audacity is also available to install as universal Flatpak package, that run in sandbox.

First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. Then, Ubuntu users can install Audacity as Flatpak by running the 2 commands below one by one:

sudo apt install flatpak
flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/org.audacityteam.Audacity.flatpakref

Uninstall:

To uninstall Audacity 3.4.2 PPA package, you have 2 choices:

  • Purge the Ubuntu PPA, which also downgrade the installed packages to the stock versions in your system: 
    sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/audacity
  • Or, remove Audacity package by running command: 
    sudo apt remove --autoremove audacity audacity-data

    Then, remove the Ubuntu PPA via command:

    sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/audacity

To uninstall the Flatpak package, use command:

flatpak uninstall --delete-data org.audacityteam.Audacity

Also run flatpak uninstall --unused to remove useless runtimes.

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Audacity 3.4.0 Released! Ubuntu PPA Updated for 22.04 & Higher

Last updated: November 3, 2023 — Leave a comment

Audacity audio editor and recording tool announced the new major 3.4.0 release after almost 2 weeks of beta testing.

The new release features Beats and measures grid, allows to easily align audio clips to the musical tempo and rhythm. It shows you the subdivisions of each measure depending on zoom level, and you can snap clips to the nearest beat.

It also features new time stretching algorithm, allows to change the duration of your audio clips without affecting their pitch non-destructively. Just hold “Alt” (macOS: Option) while hovering over the top third of a clip edge to stretch it.

The 3.4.0 also features a new export dialog with easier access to options such as sample rate and custom mapping (for 5.1 or 7.1 audio). Additionally, the “Browse” button uses the native file browser now!

New Export dialog

Other changes include:

  • always uses Joint Stereo mode for MP3.
  • Simplified pasting logic, and stereo tracks.
  • uses Conan 2.
  • Built-in Opus support.
  • And stability fixes.
  • See change-log for more details

How to Install Audacity 3.4.0:

Option 1: AppImage (official)
It provides official macOS .dmg, Windows .exe, and Linux .AppImage packages available to download at the link below:

Download Audacity

For Linux, click expand the “Assets” section and choose download the .AppImage package.

Then, right-click on the .AppImage file and go to its ‘Properties’ dialog. Add executable permission by enable ‘allow executing file as program‘. Finally, right-click on it and select “Run” to launch Audacity.

Option 2: Ubuntu PPA

For choice, I’ve uploaded the new release package into unofficial PPA for Ubuntu 22.04, 23.04, and Ubuntu 23.10.

NOTE: Due to bug, arm64 and armhf packages are excluded in the PPA until the bug-fix due in next point release.

1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When terminal opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/audacity

Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.

2. For Linux Mint users, you may manually update system package cache by running command:

sudo apt update

3. Finally, install Audacity 3.4.0 either by running the  command below in terminal:

sudo apt install audacity audacity-data

Or, launch ‘Software Updater’ to update from an existing version:

Option 3: AppImage

Audacity is also available to install as universal Flatpak package, that run in sandbox.

However, it’s not updated to v3.4.0 at the moment of writing, see this page for details.

Uninstall:

To uninstall Audacity 3.4.0, you have 2 choices:

  • Purge the Ubuntu PPA, which also downgrade the installed packages to the stock versions in your system: 
    sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/audacity
  • Or, remove Audacity package by running command: 
    sudo apt remove --autoremove audacity audacity-data

    Then, remove the Ubuntu PPA via command:

    sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/audacity
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New PPA for Installing Audio Recorder in Ubuntu 23.04 | 23.10

Last updated: August 12, 2023 — 5 Comments

For those who want to install the simple Audio Recorder application in Ubuntu 23.04 and next Ubuntu 23.10, here’s new Ubuntu PPA.

Audio Recorder is a free open-source GTK3 audio recording application for Linux. It has a stupid simple user interface, while can record any sound from your computer.

Audio Recorder simple UI

This app can record sound from your speaker, microphone, music player applications, and mixed source, such as recording speaker and microphone at the same time.

Sound can be recorded into OGG, FLAV, MP3, WAV, OPUS, M4A audio formats. And, it has a timer to start/stop recording automatically on given time and/or voice, silence.

This audio recorder is one of my most favorite Linux applications. But don’t know why, it’s excluded in Debian/Ubuntu repositories. And, the official Ubuntu PPA support so far until Ubuntu 22.04.

Some users reported it does NOT install in Ubuntu 23.04, so I made a new PPA contains this software packages, with support for Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 23.04, and Ubuntu 23.10 on amd64 (X86_64), arm64/armhf (for Apple M1/M2, Raspberry Pi, etc) CPU architecture types.

And thankfully,  the new PPA package seems working good (with only minor testing). Since you may know, Ubuntu 23.04 switched to Pipewire sound server while 22.04 and earlier are using classic PulseAudio.

1. Add the new PPA

To add the PPA, simply press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. Then run command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/audio-recorder

2. Update system package index

Since Ubuntu 20.04, it automatically updates system package index while adding PPA. Though, some Ubuntu based systems may NOT.

Just in case, you may run command manually to refresh your system package index:

sudo apt update

3. Install Audio Recorder

Finally, install the audio recorder package by running command in terminal:

sudo apt install audio-recorder

The Audio Recorder app updates rarely, so you can remove the PPA after installation (see the bottom screenshot).

Uninstall:

To remove the audio recorder, simply run command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove audio-recorder

And remove the PPA, either by running command in terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/audio-recorder

Or, use “Software & Updates” utility by removing the source line under ‘Other Software’ tab.

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Re-name Sound Output Devices in Top-right Menu in Ubuntu 23.10

Last updated: September 18, 2023 — Leave a comment

For Ubuntu 23.04, Ubuntu 23.10, Fedora 38 and other Linux with GNOME 44 & 45, there’s now an extension allows to change display name of audio output devices from the top-right aggregation menu (aka Quick Settings).

By default,  the speakers and headphones in the sound output sub-menu is a bit too explicit, that are not very clear to understand. To make the menu easy to read, you may rename them to just “headphones”, “built-in speaker”, or whatever that you want.

1. To install the extension, first open Ubuntu Software, search and install “Extension Manager”:

Install Extension Manager in Ubuntu 22.04+

For Ubuntu 23.10, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal and run the command below instead to install it:

sudo apt install gnome-shell-extension-manager

2. Then launch “Extension Manager”, navigate to ‘Browse’ tab, finally search and install the “Quick Settings Audio Devices Renamer” extension.

For Fedora and other Linux, go to this web page and use ON/OFF switch to install the extension.

3. Once installed the extension, switch back “Installed” tab in Extension Manager (or open GNOME Extensions app). Then, click open the settings for that extension, finally click on the ‘pencil’ icon to edit the name of corresponding output device.

You can even insert emojis in the name, either by using a emoji picker or copy from “Gnome Characters” app.

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Configure Logitech or SteelSeries Headset in Ubuntu via This App

Last updated: March 21, 2023 — Leave a comment

Got a Logitech or SteelSeries headset? This app may help to adjust sidetone, get battery state, toggle LED, and set inactive time in Ubuntu Linux.

It’s HeadsetControl, a free and open-source application that supports:

  • Logitech G430, G432, G433, G533, G535, G633, G635, G733, G930, G933, G935, G Pro.
  • Logitech Zone Wired/Zone 750
  • SteelSeries Arctis 1, Arctis 1 for XBox, Arctis (7 and Pro), Arctis 7+, Arctis Nova 7, Arctis 9, Arctis Pro wireless.
  • HyperX Cloud Flight Wireless
  • Corsair Void (Every void-version*, regardless whether Elite, Pro, HS70 Wireless)
  • Roccat Elo 7.1 Air

The application is a command line tool, though it has a graphical interface for GNOME 42+ (Ubuntu 22.04 / Fedora 35 and higher).

Image borrowed from extension web page, as I don’t have a headset at hand

How to Install the HeadsetControl app

The app so far does not have binary package for Ubuntu Linux, though it’s not hard to build it from source. The following steps is tested and works in my case in Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.

1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open a terminal window. When it opens, run command to install build dependencies:

sudo apt install build-essential git cmake libhidapi-dev

2. Then, clone the source by running the git command in terminal, and then navigate to the source folder:

git clone https://github.com/Sapd/HeadsetControl && cd HeadsetControl

3. Create ‘build’ sub-folder, navigate to that sub-folder and start building it:

mkdir build && cd build && cmake ../

4. Finally, run make and then make install to build and install the tool:

make -j4
sudo make install

Once successfully installed, it will output that ‘/usr/local/bin/headsetcontrol‘ and ‘/usr/local/lib/udev/rules.d/70-headsets.rules‘ installed.

How to Install the Extension for graphical UI

For Ubuntu 22.04 and higher, first search for and install “Extension Manager” from Ubuntu Software.

Install Extension Manager in Ubuntu 22.04+

Then, use “Extension Manager” to search and install the ‘HeadsetControl’ extension under ‘Browse’ tab.

Once installed, it should show the indicator applet in system tray area immediately with menu options to control your headset! Other Linux can go to this page to use ON/OFF switch to install the extension.

Uninstall:

To remove the extension, either go to the link page above and use ON/OFF switch, or use “Extension Manager” or Gnome Extensions tool.

To remove the command line application, open terminal and run command:

sudo rm /usr/local/bin/headsetcontrol /usr/local/lib/udev/rules.d/70-headsets.rules
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