Designed for Your Phone and Your Keyboard: The Latest SoundViz Editor Updates

Most people make their waveform on a phone, on a sofa, with a song playing. Some never touch a mouse at all. This round of updates is about making the editor feel right in both situations.

On a Phone, Your Waveform Stays in View

Dragging a slider is only fun if you can see what it does. On a phone the preview used to scroll away while you adjusted the controls. Now it stays pinned at the top of the screen and only the controls scroll underneath, so every change to bar width, spacing or colour happens right in front of you. The "Using sample audio" note also wraps to fit small screens instead of running off the edge.

Typing a Colour Code No Longer Breaks Your Design

If you know your exact colour, you can type its hex code into the background field. Until now, every half-typed code like #1A8 was applied immediately and the picture flickered. The waveform now changes only once you have typed a complete six-digit code, and the field marks itself as invalid while it is unfinished. Click away and it returns to your current colour.

Video Clips Show Their Progress

Exporting an animated clip takes about five seconds, and a button that just sits there looks stuck. The Export button now counts up while the clip is recorded, so you know it is working and when it is done.

Works With a Keyboard and a Screen Reader

• The upload box is reachable with Tab. Press Enter or Space to open the file picker, with a visible focus outline. Picking the same file twice in a row also works now.
• The Export menu behaves like a menu. The arrow keys move between options, Escape closes it and puts you back on the button, and clicking anywhere outside closes it too.
• Every control has a proper label. Sliders, text fields, dropdowns and colour pickers are now announced by name, which helps screen readers and also means tapping a label focuses its control.
• Bigger touch targets. Colour pickers and the "add colour" button are 44 pixels on touch screens, and the remove button on a colour swatch is always visible because there is no hover on a phone.

Long Titles Fit on Every Print Size

We tested a 65-character title and a 105-character dedication on the 8x10 and 12x12 inch print sizes and on the Story format, and the text stayed inside the canvas each time. Title and dedication scale with the size you choose, so a longer line of text still fits.

Try It on Your Phone

Open the SoundViz editor on your phone, pick a sample or record a few seconds, and drag the sliders. If anything gets in your way, tell us. Most of this list started that way. For earlier changes, see what else is new in the editor.