Crash editing Amplify (and some other effects) macro parameters

[Paul-Licameli]

Bug description

Reported to me by Larry Hudson who has for years taught classes in the use of Audacity for voiceover.

Steps to reproduce

1. Tools > Macro Manager
2. Now in left pane, enter "My macro", or select existing macro name
3. Insert in right pane
4. Click Amplify in command list
5. Click "Edit Parameters" near the top
   Crash!

But a known workaround:

0. Select some sound, open Amplify once from the Effect menu, Esc key

Thereafter, editing the macro parameter is possible, so long as you do not close the Audacity project window in which you opened Amplify

Expected behavior

No crash

Actual behavior

a) No response in some cases

b) in other cases one gets the ET-phone-home dialog

Audacity Version

current master / alpha / nightly build

3.2.1

Operating system

Windows, macOS, Linux

Additional context

This bisects to 35581fa and does not affect all effects.

I don't know yet the complete list of effects that suffer. Specific Amplify code wasn't changed. It was instead things in the framework. But Nyquist effects (example, Low-pass filter) do not have the problem.

Another rescue for this user could be to write a simple Nyquist effect to substitute for amplify and share it.

[petersampsonaudacity]

The following EGATs also crash when trying to edit parameters in a Macro

1. Graphic EQ
2. Filter Curve EQ
3. Autoduck
4. Classic Filters
5. Spectral Edit Shelves
6. Spectral Edit Parametric EQ

And these Vamp plugins (other Vamp plugins appear unaffected):

1. Bar and Beat Tracker: Bars
2. Bar and Beat Tracker: Beats
3. Tempo and Beat Tracker Beats
4. Tempo and Beat Tracker Tempo

I got the ET-phone-home-messages and pressed the Send button to send it on

[petersampsonaudacity]

@Paul-Licameli

Another rescue for this user could be to write a simple Nyquist effect to substitute for amplify and share it.

Another simpler workaround is to get this user to use the Normalize effect
as this does not crash when editing its parameters in Macro Manager

[Paul-Licameli]

Suspect effects include those that override the Init function

So these should be checked:
Nyquist (but negative, I checked)
Vamp
Amplify
AutoDuck
ChangeSpeed
ChangeTempo
Equalization
Classic Filters

[petersampsonaudacity]

@Paul-Licameli @crsib @LWinterberg

Testing with Paul's Branch build: audacity-win-3.2.2-alpha-20221006+73eb7de-x64
Fix crash when editing macro parameters of Amplify and others... Build Audacity #2740

The following now do NOT crash Audacity at Step of of the STR:

1. Amplify
2. Auto Duck
3. Classic Filters
4. Spectral Edit Shelves
5. Change Speed
6. Change Tempo

BUT the following still cause a crash as step 5
7. Graphic EQ
8. Filter Curve EQ
9. Spectral Edit Parametric EQ

Update

I cannot test the Vamp plugins as these do not show up in the Analyze menu with Paul's branch build/

Nor do they show up in the Analyze menu with the latest 3,3,0 alpha either - I will log this as a separate issue

[petersampsonaudacity]

Nor do they show up in the Analyze menu with the latest 3,3,0 alpha either - I will log this as a separate issue

Logged as: 3.3 alpha fails to load Vamp plugins #3795

[dozzzzer]

I confirm the crashes in the three EQ effects from @petersampsonaudacity 's comment. The rest seem to not cause the crash.
Tested against audacity-macOS-3.2.2-alpha-20221006+73eb7de-universal.dmg build.

[petersampsonaudacity]

@Paul-Licameli @crsib @LWinterberg

Testing with Paul's Branch build: Fix crash when editing macro parameters of Amplify and others... Build Audacity #2750

I confirm that the three effects that still previously crashed Audacity when trying to set parameters in a Macro di NOT do so now
7. Graphic EQ
8. Filter Curve EQ
9. Spectral Edit Parametric EQ

I also retested to confirm that the following still do NOT crash Audacity at Step of of the STR:

1. Amplify
2. Auto Duck
3. Classic Filters
4. Spectral Edit Shelves
5. Change Speed
6. Change Tempo

So all looks OK with this bug now in Paul's branch build.

Vamp

I still cannot test the Vamp plugins as these do not show up in the Analyze menu with Paul's branch build due to regression bug:
3.2.2 beta and 3.3.0 alpha fail to load Vamp plugins #3795

[petersampsonaudacity]

BTW testing shows that this is a regression on 3.1.3 (introduced in 3.2.0)

[dozzzzer]

Verified.

[petersampsonaudacity]

@dozzzzer

I confirm this remains un-fixed in latest 3.2.2 Beta: audacity-win-3.2.2-beta-20221017+31f4fee-x64-msvc2022

and in 3.3 alpha: audacity-win-3.3.0-alpha-20221011+69764a4-x64-msvc2022

[dozzzzer]

@petersampsonaudacity it's not yet merged into the release branch

[petersampsonaudacity]

@dozzzzer I figured that...

so this was really a "nudge" to see if this could get merged, particularly since it's a P1 regression bug - and one that real-life users are falling foul of (as reported on the Forum)

[petersampsonaudacity]

Testing on W10 with latest 3.2.2 Beta: audacity-win-3.2.2-beta-20221018+1196ca9-x64-msvc2022

I confirm that the three effects that still previously crashed Audacity when trying to set parameters in a Macro do NOT do so now in this Beta
7. Graphic EQ
8. Filter Curve EQ
9. Spectral Edit Parametric EQ

I also retested to confirm that the following still do NOT crash Audacity at Step of of the STR:

1. Amplify
2. Auto Duck
3. Classic Filters
4. Spectral Edit Shelves
5. Change Speed
6. Change Tempo

So all looks OK with this bug now in the latest 3.2.2 Beta