Envelope Control Points

Audacity envelopes provide a useful, non-destructive way to modify the volume of the audio, but are rather fiddly to use. Due to the lack of numeric input, it’s virtually impossible to set precise values manually.

This plug-in provides a simple way to add envelope control points with precise values.

Download

Installation:

Installation is in the usual way. Use the Nyquist Plug-in Installer to install EnvelopePoint.ny, then enable the plug-in using the Plug-in Manager.

Add a single control point:

To add a single control point:

  • Click on the waveform at the position where the envelope point is required.
  • Launch the “Envelope Point…” plug-in from the Tools menu.
  • Set the required value, and click “OK”.

Add a pair of control points:

To add a pair of control points:

  • Click and drag on the waveform to create a selection.
  • Launch the “Envelope Point…” plug-in from the Tools menu.
  • Set the required value, and click “OK”.

Example:

Fade out (non-destructively) audio from 2 seconds to 4 seconds, and fade back in from 4 seconds to 5 seconds:

Because we want the audio to start and end at normal volume, we begin by selecting the entire region from 2 to 5 seconds

Select region from 2 to 5 seconds

Then add control points with value 1.0

Envelope Point plug-in with value set to 1.0
Control points added at start and end of selection

Click on the track at 4 seconds

Cursor position at 4 seconds

and finally add a control point with value 0

Envelope Point plug-in with value set to 0.0
Envelope point value 0.0 added.

5 thoughts on “Envelope Control Points”

  1. Hi,

    first off, thanks for doing this work! Have been looking for this kind of control for a long time. This would be a huge time saver for audio dubbing work.

    Though it does not seem to work for me. Am I doing anything wrong? I’ve uploaded a video showing my issue here (17 seconds), please excuse the german language settings:
    https://archive.org/details/2022-03-13-09-54-44

    Basically audacity responds with “value 1.000000” when trying to adding control points.

    I’m using audacity 2.3.3, if relevant. Thanks in advance for your time.

    1. I think it should work with Audacity 2.3.3. I originally wrote it for Audacity 2.0.0 and I’ve just tested (successfully) with Audacity 3.1.3.

      Try clicking the “Debug” button to see if that provides any debug information.

      1. This is the debug info:

        error: unbound function – AUD-DO-COMMAND
        if continued: try evaluating symbol again
        Function: #
        Arguments:
        ((T0 (GET (QUOTE *SELECTION*) (QUOTE START))) (T1 (GET (QUOTE *SELECTION*) (QUOTE END))))
        (AUD-DO-COMMAND “SetEnvelope” :TIME T0 :VALUE VAL)
        (UNLESS (= T0 T1) (AUD-DO-COMMAND “SetEnvelope” :TIME T1 :VALUE VAL))
        “”
        1>

        1. “AUD-DO-COMMAND” was added to Audacity 4 Mar 2020. That’s shortly before the release of Audacity 2.4.0.

          Audacity 2.3.3 was released 22 Nov 2019, so unfortunately that’s too early to run this code.

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