The Story Behind Audacity

With Muse Group's ownership and Tantacrul/Martin Keary as Head of Product of Audacity [0][1], Audacity will be moving in a radically different direction from a UI/UX perspective. I happen to think this will be a good thing, and I happen to think that (opt-in) telemetry is a perfectly good way of ensuring that a consumer-facing open-source project doesn't just build for its loudest users, especially in the context of large interface redesigns. And with MuseScore 4, the creative team struck what I think is a great balance between streamlining the interface and avoiding the removal of complexity/advanced features. But I can also see why a fork can and should diverge, for those who want a more stable and slow-moving evolution of the software. I hope the Tenacity project succeeds! [0] ▶ this video [1] link

> doing things like automating certain workflows where possible, building some custom tools, etc. The goal is to slowly transition to working as a programmer at Steinberg or Ableton or something like that, and then start my own company. I presume you’ve contacted tantacrul[1] who is now working[2] redesigning Audacity, with a hilarious video on the hellscape of a UI that is Sibelius[3]. I am guessing becoming a UI designer for a major piece of software is less difficult than becoming a composer? [1] link [2] ▶ this video [3] link Thank you for your story - it is a good reminder of the risks we face.

At this point I am just really interested in the psychology and goal-orientation of the Muse Group team. There seems to be a fundamental disconnect with significant portions of the community they inherited. This disconnect includes things like ethical concerns and public-facing messaging...to some really strange extents. For example Martin was very upfront[0] about including the community in decision-making, to include the original Audacity team, which he apparently interviewed about their past and intentions for Audacity...but then these strange gaffes keep occurring with the software's written policies and back-end functionality. So I wonder what the perspective and messaging looks like on the inside of this project. I guess I wonder if--and maybe this is way out there--but I wonder if Muse Group is designing for acquisition. Their website is more like a portfolio in a lot of ways [1]. They could be pitched as a FOSS-to-commercial services bridge, for example. This would also explain the strange moves around metrics-gathering and user data; a customer looking to acquire something from Muse Group would almost certainly be asking about these things. 0. ▶ this video 1. link (Newsroom, Careers, tons of stock photography, zero emphasis on the typical FOSS-style FOSS-information-first design...)

Tantacrul, the project lead for both MuseScore and Audacity, is a professional UI/UX designer and has once conducted a significant first-time user testing for Dorico [1], so I'm pretty sure that he already knows what you are saying. Given his latest video about Audacity [2] though, I guess that Audacity has a very diverse user base and it might be hard to do the user testing while accounting for that diversity (the article you've linked specifically mention this issue). [1] link [2] ▶ this video (includes an interview with original Audacity developers)

This is excellent news! Looking forward to the lens of Tantacrul being applied to Audacity the way it was to MuseScore. Wow, non destructive stackable VST effects ▶ this video The levity and the pragmatic focus make a great combination.

If anyone's curious, here are Tantacrul's entertaining videos on MuseScore and designing MuseScore's new font, and the Audacity video from yesterday: link link ▶ this video

Tantacrul who has been working with Muse Score for a while now to improve their UX will also be working on Audacity. They also plan to hire some full time devs. Source: ▶ this video Well worth watching his other videos too, even if you don’t use musical notation software. Funny and insightful commentary on software usability in general.