Noise Reduction's parameters set in a Macro are corrupted by its direct use and corrupt parameters for next direct use

[petersampsonaudacity]

Bug description

When a user carefully sets their required parameters for Noise Reduction in a Macro:

a) the next time Noise Reduction is used and its parameters are changed, then these changes ripple back to the Macro where the parameters are changed

b) when Noise Reduction is used in a Macro then any parameter settings that it has will be used as "last used" the next time Noise Reduction is used directly.

---

From testing about half the other effects it looks like two things are supposed to happen:

1. An effect in a Macro should NOT have its parameters changed by the next direct use of the same effect with different parameters. What is set in the Macro should stay in the Macro.
   This is important as one of the uses that the Manual recommends for a Macro is to set a particular effect with your favorite parameters - and possibly set a shortcut to that Macro.

2. An effect setting when used in a Macro shot NOT propagate to the next direct uses of that effect (it should be last-used from the last time it was used directly)

So far I have found a couple of others that are OK with regard to point 1) but fail on point 2). These are Bass and Treble and Wahwah. I will log these and other similar ones I may find in a separate bug ticket.
UPDATE Logged as #5183

Steps to reproduce

1. get some audio
2. get a noise profile
3. create a new Macro
4. Inset Noise Reduction
5. Set its parameters to 3,3,3 (default is 6.6.6)
6. run the Macro on the project
7. Invoke Noise Reduction on the audio
8. Observe: parameter settings are 3,3,s (should be 6,6,6)
9. Change parameter settings to 9,9,9
10. run the effect
11. Return to the Macro and edit its parameters
12. Observe: these have been changed to 9,9,9 (should have remained at 3,3,3 from Step 5)

Expected behavior

1. Noise Reduction in a Macro should NOT have its parameters changed by the next direct use of Noise Reduction with different parameters. What is set in the Macro should stay in the Macro.

2. Noise Reduction parameter settings when used in a Macro shot NOT propagate to the next direct use Noise Reduction (it should be last-used from the last time it was used directly)

Actual behavior

Parameter settings are corrupted/changed in both use cases

Audacity Version

3.3.3 and 3.4.0 alpha

Operating system

Windows 10 but assume all OS

Additional context

Point 1) is extremely important as the change to the Macro is made opaquely/invisibly to the user,

Originally logged by a Forum poster in this thread: https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/getting-a-macro-to-deploy-noise-reduction-with-a-different-set-of-parameters-decibels-sensitivity-and-frequency-smoothing-than-the-programs-values-for-the-same-parameters/84120

[petersampsonaudacity]

This does NOT appear to be a regression - the same occurs in all earlier 3.x releases.

I cannot test with Audacity 2.4.2 as Audacity crashes when running the Macro,

[Paul-Licameli]

Some of my least favorite old warts in Audacity --

The exceptional two-pass nature of the Noise Reduction effect,

And,

Macros. The macro system. The entire miserable ill-considered extension of the Chains feature.

[petersampsonaudacity]

@Paul-Licameli hahaha

The exceptional two-pass nature of the Noise Reduction effect,

Indeedy

Macros. The macro system. The entire miserable ill-considered extension of the Chains feature.

Yebbut my use case Macro is the simplest you can get - a single command with a few set parameters ... ;-)

[tjkirch]

I think this is the issue I'm running into, but I'm not sure. Here's my thought process on it.

I'm trying to use Noise Reduction in a macro. (I promise I'll create a noise profile before running the macro.) After adding Noise Reduction to a macro, its settings (in the UI and in the macro text file when exported) show Use_Preset="<Current Settings>" rather than the specific settings I want to use in the macro. So, my problem is: if I use noise reduction in another way outside the macro, how would the macro know to use the original settings I wanted and not the settings I happened to use for a one-off outside the macro?

That sounds like this issue to me. Without knowing anything about the architecture of Audacity (i.e. pulling this from thin air) it seems like Noise Reduction (and maybe other macros) are not able to save parameters at all, and always use a global set of parameters for that effect, which are affected both by direct usage and macro usage.