Thank you very much for your response! Nyquist sounds like something that I
might have fun playing with. I have designed web sites and such, but have
never done any actual software language writing. I've always been
interested on a kind of hobby basis. After I finish with my schooling in a
few months, Nyquist just might be my next learning project.
When I look through different on-line music stores, which I frequently
do, I discover that there are many single task software programs to aid in
recording. One example is the range of programs that reduce additional
noise. These range anywhere from $49, to too much to consider. Can someone
like me, design something with Nyquist that is comparable to these? And in
terms of writing software with Nyquist, what is the main difference between
something that would costs $49 at a dealer, and one costing $200? Does the
language become progressively more difficult to write, or if the actual task
that the software will do is the same, is the rest mainly marketing? In
other words can I write something that is actually a quality item, or does
one need to get into something much higher in order to write something of a
professional quality?
Thank you...
Respectfully,
James
-----Original Message-----
From: Steve the Fiddle
Sent: Thursday, August 17, 2017 5:59 PM
To: audacity4blind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [audacity4blind] Re: Two Basic Questions Please...
In reply to the first of your questions James,
"Nyquist" is a programming language that is built into Audacity as an
advanced tool that is available to Audacity users. Nyquist programs
are written as plain text, and may be as simple as a single command
that can be run in the Nyquist Prompt effect, or a complex plug-in
like the vocal reduction and isolation effect.
One of the main benefits of Nyquist for VI users is that it is
entirely text based, so while it is possible to create simple
graphical interfaces for Nyquist effects, graphical interfaces are not
required. Everything can be done with text.
Another major benefit is that with some knowledge of the Nyquist
language, plug-ins can be developed quite rapidly, and existing
plug-ins can be modified to fulfil needs that are too specific to
justify developing the feature in C++. For example, if someone needs a
filter that notches out frequencies of 35 Hz and 70 Hz and 140 Hz,
then that is so specialised that either you would need to use a
general notch filter and run it three times (once for each frequency),
or create your own custom filter with Nyquist (which could be achieved
with just a few lines of code).
I think it is important to realise that Nyquist is an "advanced" tool,
and it is not something that everyone will get on with, but it is a
very powerful and versatile tool that makes possible many tasks that
would not otherwise be possible.
It is also interesting that two of the most prolific writers of
Nyquist plug-ins are / were blind. Sadly one of them, David Sky, died
a few years ago. The other, Robert Hänggi, is a regular contributor to
this email list.
Steve
On 17 August 2017 at 22:53, James Kelm <jameskelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hello My Audacity Friends...
OK, two basic questions. They are born out of the fact that I am a new
user of Audacity, as well as digital recording in general. So while I’m
sure that my questions are old hat for most of you, I am an old guitar
picker, so I figure that I can wear an old hat! LOLL
First of all, recently there has been a lot of talk on this list
concerning utilizing Nyquist with Audacity. So my earth shaking question
is... What the heck is Nyquist, and why might I consider using it with
Audacity?
My second question is similar, but I want to preference it with a very
strong and sincere statement! My question deals with reasons for why I
might consider the JAWS scripts for Audacity as an advantage. But please
know that my question is in no way meant to offend anyone, or to in any way
put down the author of the JAWS scripts!!! I simply am looking for
information and guidance, but I am not at all suggesting that the author of
the scripts has created something that is poor, or unhelpful. In fact, my
general thoughts are just the reverse! There are so few companies and/or
individuals who are considering ways to help us blind folk in our pursuit of
musical expression, that I warmly celebrate anyone who is courageous, and
thoughtfully oriented enough to create any type of computer accessory that
is strictly intended to aid the blind, visually impaired, or visually
challenged, whichever is the current PC accepted way to identify those of us
who are unable to read our local white pages of the telephone book. That is
to say, if the white pages of a physical telephone book still existed! LOLL
So my question is, why might I find the JAWS scripts to be an advantage
when using Audacity? I downloaded and installed them when I first installed
Audacity. You might recall that this was on an older computer with XP
Professional. But I was having enough trouble with the old computer, that I
took off everything but was absolutely necessary in order to try and make
the computer work better with Audacity. I have subsequently installed
Audacity on a much newer computer with Windows 7, which is what has now
become my primary DAWS machine. I simply have not reinstalled the JAWS
scripts, because it seems relatively easy to find what I need in Audacity
without them. I understand that since I am so new to Audacity, that there
might be a lot of stuff that I simply don’t yet know that I’ll need to use,
and there fore I do not understand just how much of an advantage in the
future, that will be gained by using the JAWS scripts. I am a JAWS user by
the way.
Thank you for helping me once more, to gain an education in the wacky
world of digital recording. By the way... Does anyone know of a program
that will make everything that I play into Audacity audamaticly sound just
like George Benson? LOLL
Respectfully,
James
From: Gary Campbell
Sent: Thursday, August 17, 2017 11:44 AM
To: audacity4blind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [audacity4blind] Re: Manuals and tutorials (Re: nyquist little
manual)
Hi Damien,
It's been a while since I've used Nyquist, but I learned what I know about
Audacity and Nyquist from the Nyquist manual. On the wiki there is a
Nyquist Plug-ins Reference which has links to the Nyquist manual.
An audio sample in a 16-bit signed WAV file is a number between -32768 and
32767. In a 24-bit file it would be different. Nyquist abstracts this out
as a number between -1 and 1 so your program is not dependent on the way
each sound is stored. If you display a sound as a graph of voltage versus
time, each sample is the value of the voltage at that point in time. So in
Nyquist a sample is a number between -1 and 1 that is the amplitude of the
sound at that point in time. If you were to examine samples of a sine wave
you would find that they would start at 0, increase for a while until they
reach a maximum, then decrease through 0 to minus the maximum, and then
increase to the maximum again. The samples between the two maximum points
would represent one cycle, the amount of time that represents is the
"period" (sec/cycle) of the wave, and the frequency of that sound is 1 over
the period. If you sum two sounds in Nyquist, you make a new sound by
adding the values of sample 1 of both sounds, then sample 2, etc. So if
sample 47 of wave 1 is .3 and that of sound 2 is .4, sample 47 of the new
sound is .7. If you multiply 2 sounds you take the product of each sample,
so you again change the amplitude in a different way, so the speed doesn't
change. There are some concepts used to work with sounds that are unique
to Nyquist, and you need to read the first sections of the Nyquist manual to
understand them. If I were going to do much with Nyquist I would have to go
back and read the Nyquist manual, time which my wife would consider not well
spent!
BTW: Another post talked about how you can only represent a sound with a
frequency of half the sample rate. That is called the Nyquist rate, after
which Nyquist was named.
Gary
On 8/14/2017 2:16 AM, Damien Sykes-Lindley wrote:
Hi,
I don't know why, but Nyquist kind of reminds me of the GoldWave expression
evaluator. Not sure if it's because the common upshot was I couldn't
understand either one of them, despite having a programming background. Lol.
Seriously though, I may be mistaken but they both may have this weird caveat
that you need a working knowledge of both programming, and digital audio
structure. The latter I have no experience with whatsoever, so when people
talk about adding signals to increase volume or multiplying signals to mix
or multiplying/dividing individual samples to manipulate speed...I haven't a
clue how that works in practice. I was always taught that 2*2=4, not
chipmunk. *Grin*.
At least making an attempt to be serious again, I think it's more a theory
behind digital audio processing is more what's needed. Everything I have
seen so far has either been very technical, or doesn't make sense. For
instance, I read somewhere, or at least understood it as, that an audio
sample is a number between -1 and 1. If that were the case, that could
easily be stored in 2 bits, yet audio is generally saved as 16, mixed at 32
bit, which I calculate as providing ranges of -32768 to 32767 and
-2147483648 to 2147483647 respectively.
Additionally, I can't seem to find anything regarding a logical explanation
as to what the numbers mean. The simplest explanation used most often, which
I understand to a degree, is that each number represents either an
amplitude, or a speaker position. I've seen both explanations, not sure how
they link together but I guess they do. But nothing explains why doing
something to one number and something else to another can change the output
in a way that makes me think that adding would logically change the volume,
multiplying would logically change the speed, using a square root of the
inverse sign might apply a filter, or raising to the power of 16, dividing
by Pi and adding the number of miles between NASA's latest rocket and the
sun would cause a flange. In case those weird formulas start a form of
interesting debate, let me clarify for those that didn't pick up on it that
those last ones are completely made up garbage...I've no idea what would
cause those effects and I've no idea what using those formulas might do -
knowing my luck probably cause a lot of distortion and unwanted hiss.
But as you can see. I personally think that's the kind of tutorial that is
needed.
I've always wanted to make a convolution plugin since neither GoldWave or
Audacity seems to have one - Wondering if Nyquist is up to such a task once
I can get all this theory learned first.
Cheers.
Damien.
-----Original Message----- From: Steve the Fiddle
Sent: Monday, August 14, 2017 8:48 AM
To: audacity4blind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [audacity4blind] Re: nyquist little manual
There is this page in the Audacity wiki that covers much of the
Audacity specific Nyquist information:
http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Nyquist_Plug-ins_Reference
The complete reference for Nyquist functions is in the full Nyquist
manual: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rbd/doc/nyquist/indx.html
and detailed information about LISP in Nyquist (with examples) can be
found here:
http://www.audacity-forum.de/download/edgar/nyquist/nyquist-doc/xlisp/xlisp-index.htm
Steve
On 14 August 2017 at 08:39, Paolo Giacomoni mailto:paolgiac@xxxxxxxxxx
wrote:
Hi listers.
I.m looking for a little nyquist manual, specially for audacity
applications.
Thanks you
Paolo
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