Sony Sound Forge User Guide

After you start Sound Forge for the first time, the registration wizard will appear. This wizard offers easy steps that enable you to register Sound Forge online with Sonic Foundry. Alternatively, you may register Sound Forge online at www.sonicfoundry.com at anytime.

Registering your product will provide you with exclusive access to a variety of technical support options, notification of product updates, and special promotions exclusive to Sound Forge registered users.

Registration Assistance

If you do not have access to the Internet, registration assistance is available. Please contact our Customer Service Department.

Registration assistance is currently available during regular business hours by dialing the following numbers:

Telephone/Fax Country

1-800-577-6642 (toll-free) US, Canada, and Virgin Islands

+800-000-76642 (toll-free) Australia, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, UK,

Netherlands, and Japan

+608-204-7703 for all other countries

1-608-250-1745 (Fax) All countries

Customer Service/Sales

For a detailed list of Customer Service options, we encourage you to visit

www.sonicfoundry.com. For Customer Service during normal office hours:

Telephone/Fax/E-mail Country

1-800-577-6642 (toll-free) US, Canada, and Virgin Islands

+800-000-76642 (toll-free) Australia, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, UK,

+608-204-7703 for all other countries

1-608-250-1745 (Fax) All countries

customerservice@sonicfoundry.com

Netherlands, and Japan

Technical Support

For a detailed list of Technical Support options, we encourage you to visit

www.sonicfoundry.com/support.

• To listen to your support options, please call 608-256-5555.

• Customers who have purchased the full version of Sound Forge receive 60 days of complimentary phone support. This complimentary support begins when the product is registered. (Registration is required to receive this complimentary support.) Please call (608) 204-7704 if you need assistance with your full version of Sound Forge. This offer does not apply to Sound Forge XP users.

Sonic Foundry, Inc.

1617 Sherman Avenue Madison, WI 53704 USA

The information contained in this manual is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of Sonic Foundry. The software described in this manual is provided under the terms of a license agreement or non-disclosure agreement. The software license agreement specifies the terms and conditions for its lawful use. No part of this manual may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means for any purpose other than the purchaser’s personal use, without written permission from Sonic Foundry, Inc.

Sonic Foundry and Sound Forge are registered trademarks of Sonic Foundry, Inc. The brands and products named here are the trademarks or registered trademarks of Sonic Foundry, its affiliates, or their respective holders.

Table of Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

Introducing Sound Forge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Using This Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Full version of Sound Forge versus Sound Forge XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Shortcuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

To install Sound Forge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

What’s New? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25

Extended bit-depth and sample rate support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Bit-depth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Sample rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Acoustic Mirror. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Built-in DirectX FX Plug-Ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

CD Writing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

CD Ripping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Wave Hammer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Repair tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Bit-Depth Converter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

MP3 Plug-In. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Sonic Foundry Perfect Clarity Audio (.pca) format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

New registration procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Optimization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Hard drive defragmentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Windows 9x/Me default settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Direct mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Opening a file in direct mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Peak files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Faster file saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Relocating the temporary storage folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

The Sound Mapper. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Preventing audio breakup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Total Buffer Size. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Editing the total buffer size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Preload Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Changing the preload size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Forced Write-Through During Record (Windows 9x and Me only) . . 33

Disabling Forced Write-Through During Record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Playback cursor and record counter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Turning off the playback cursor and record counter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Meters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Turning off the play (output) meters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Turning off the record meters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Passive updating for video and time displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Enable passively updated time displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Enable passively updated video displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Scan for external monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Turning off scan for external monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Background processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Running multiple applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37

Using the mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Using the mousewheel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

The main screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Main screen components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

The data window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Data window components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Displaying data window components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

The Playbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Toolbars. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Available toolbars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Displaying a toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

The Standard toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

The Transport toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Navigation toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Views toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Status/Selection toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Regions/Playlist toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Process toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

The Effects toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

The Tools toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

The Levels toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

ACID Loop Creation Tools toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

ToolTips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Command descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Vertical faders and horizontal sliders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Edit box spinner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Drop-down lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Radio buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Check boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Envelope graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Displaying the waveform on an envelope graph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Stereo files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Working with stereo files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Selecting data in stereo files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Getting Help within Sound Forge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Online Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

What’s This? Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Help on the Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Fundamentals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73

Opening a file. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

The Open dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Playing a file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

File position indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Playing a file from a specified point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Playing an audio selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Selection status fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Viewing selection statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Creating a new data window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Active data windows vs. inactive data windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Copying data to a new file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Saving a file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

The Save As dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Saving all open audio files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Saving/opening the workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

E-mailing audio files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Audio editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Editing tutorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Copy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Copying data to the clipboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Paste. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Pasting data in an existing data window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Pasting in a new data window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Cut. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Cutting data from a window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Previewing a Cut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Delete (Clear) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Trim/Crop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Trimming/cropping an audio selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Mix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Mixing audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Undo/redo an edit operation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Undo/Redo History window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Using the Undo/Redo History window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Status formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

How status formats work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Configuring the frames format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Configuring the Measures & Beats format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Zoom and magnify . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Time Ruler (horizontal) zooming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Level Ruler (vertical) zooming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Zoom tricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Magnify tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Using the Magnify Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Crash recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Recover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Delete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Ignore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Types, Formats, and Attributes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .111

File attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Editing file attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Sample rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Editing the sample rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Bit Depth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Step-up conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Step-Down Conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Minimizing quantization error . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Mono-to-stereo conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Stereo-to-mono conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Channel Converter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Converting file formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Save as type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Summary information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Viewing and editing summary information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Viewing extended summary information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Editing extended summary information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Saving summary information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Additional embedded information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Markers, Regions, and the Playlist/Cutlist. . . . . . . . . . .123

Why use markers, regions, and the Playlist?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Rapid navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Destructive vs. nondestructive editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

MIDI synchronization and triggering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Markers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Creating a marker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Creating markers using the ruler shortcut menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Creating markers during playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Creating markers during recording . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Changing the marker position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Using markers to create regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

The Regions List. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Displaying the Regions List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Understanding the Regions List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Creating regions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Creating regions using menu commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Creating regions using drag-and-drop operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Creating regions using the ruler shortcut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Creating regions using the keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Creating regions automatically. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Creating regions while recording . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

The Auto Region tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Using the Auto Region tool with rapid sound attacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Active parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Using the Auto Region Tool with musical time intervals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

The Markers to Regions command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Editing a region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Editing regions in the data window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Editing regions using the marker/region shortcut menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Editing regions in the Regions List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Editing regions using the Regions List shortcut menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

The Extract Regions tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Playlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Displaying the Playlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Adding regions to the Playlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Adding regions to the Playlist using menu commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Adding regions to the Playlist using drag-and-drop operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Region display in the Playlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Playing from the Playlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Arranging the Playlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Replicating a region in the Playlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Stop points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Deleting a region from the Playlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Creating a new file from the Playlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

The Cutlist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Enabling the Cutlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Using the Cutlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Recording, Ripping, and Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .149

Protecting existing audio during recording. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Recording in Direct mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Record dialog. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Displaying the Record dialog with no open data windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Displaying the Record dialog with open data windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Record dialog features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Displays. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Title bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Recording attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Recording time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Recording modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Automatic retake (automatically rewind) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Multiple takes creating Regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Multiple takes (no Regions) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Create a new window for each take . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Punch-In (record a specific length) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

DC adjust. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Calibrating the DC adjust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Record dialog buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

The New button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

The Close button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

The Remote button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

The Help button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .158

The Go To button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

The Selection button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

The Window button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

The Sync button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Record meters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Viewing record levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Scaling the record meters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Record level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Setting the record level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Record dialog toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

The Prepare button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

The Record button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

The Drop Marker button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Other features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Gap detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Automatic labeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Blinking status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Extracting data from CD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Create regions for each track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Create markers for each index change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Previewing CD tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Refreshing the Extract Audio from CD dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Writing to CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Sample rates, bit-depths, and CD writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Writing mono tracks to CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Adding a track to CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Closing the CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Advanced Editing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .173

Pre-roll to Cursor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Using Pre-roll to Cursor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Go To dialog. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Displaying the Go To dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Using the Go To dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Using the Set Selection dialog. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Creating a selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Other Set Selection dialog controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Using Mark In/Mark Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

Creating selections during playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

Fine-tuning selection points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Tuning a selection with the mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Auto snaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Tuning a selection with the keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Restoring a selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Understanding the Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Navigating in the Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

Playback in the Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

Audio event locator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Displaying the Views toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Creating views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .184

Paste Special. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Crossfade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Overwrite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Replicate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Drag and drop operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Dragging mono selections into stereo destinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Snapping to events in drag-and-drop operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Drag-and-drop pasting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Drag-and-drop mixing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Drag-and-drop crossfading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Mix/Paste/Crossfade toggle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Creating a new window with drag-and-drop operations . . . . . . . . . . 192

Finding and repairing audio glitches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Using the Find tool to locate glitches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Repairing audio using Copy Other Channel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Repairing audio using Interpolate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Repairing audio using Replace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

Repairing audio with the Pencil tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Audio Plug-In Chainer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Using the Audio Plug-In Chainer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Audio synthesis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

DTMF/MF Tones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

FM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

Simple . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Processes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .207

Presets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Using a preset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Creating presets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Deleting presets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Using the Preset Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Previewing an operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

Previews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

Storing preview parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

Preview parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

The Bypass check box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

Repeating an operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

Sound Forge processes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Auto Trim/Crop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Using Auto Trim/Crop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Auto Trim/Crop controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

Bit-Depth Converter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Converting a file’s bit-depth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

Channel Converter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

Using the Channel Converter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

Channel Converter controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

DC Offset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

DC Offset controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

EQ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Fade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

Graphic Fade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

Creating a graphic fade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

Creating a custom graphic fade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Graphic Fade Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Fade In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

Fade Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

Insert Silence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Inserting silence into a file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Insert Silence controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Invert/Flip. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Inverting an audio selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Mute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Muting an audio selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Normalize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Normalizing Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Normalize Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

Pan/Expand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

Creating a pan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

Creating a custom pan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

Pan/Expand controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Resample. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Downsampling audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

Upsampling audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

Resample controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

Reverse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

Smooth/Enhance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

Time Compress/Expand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

Volume. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

Increasing the volume of a selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240

Volume control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .241

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acoustic Mirror and Wave Hammer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .243

What is Acoustic Mirror? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

The acoustic signature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

Adding an acoustic signature to an audio file. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

Adjusting the acoustic signature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

Acoustic Mirror dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

Acoustic Mirror dialog controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

General tab controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

Envelope tab controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

Summary tab controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

Recover tab controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250

Creating Impulse Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252

What you need to create custom impulses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252

Recording the impulse in an acoustic space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

Recording the impulse through an electronic device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

Recovering the impulse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

Trimming the impulse file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

Adding summary information to your impulse file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

Using the new impulse file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Using impulse files in creative ways. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Processing individual audio elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

Adding realistic stereo to mono recordings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

Creating special effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

Recreating spaces for foley effects and dialog replacement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

Panning with head-related transfer functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

Stuttering during real-time previewing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

Impulses do not recover properly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

The recovered impulse is too noisy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

Descriptions of Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

TABLE OF CONTENTS

What is Wave Hammer? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

Displaying Wave Hammer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

Compressor tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

Volume Maximizer tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265

MIDI/SMPTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

What is MIDI? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

The Virtual MIDI Router . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

Installing the Virtual MIDI Router . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268

Installing the VMR in Windows 98 or Me . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268

Installing the VMR in Windows 2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268

Configuring the Virtual MIDI Router . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

Configuring the VMR for Windows 98 and Me . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270

Configuring the VMR for Windows 2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

MIDI triggers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Playback Versus Triggered Playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

MIDI-triggered playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272

Triggered region playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274

Additional internal/external MIDI devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276

Advantages of external MIDI controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276

Sound Forge and MIDI Timecode synchronization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

Playing regions using MTC from a sequencer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

Playing regions using MTC from an external device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279

Using Sound Forge to generate MTC for a MIDI sequencer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279

Using Sound Forge to generate MTC for an external device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

Sampling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

Samplers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

External samplers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

Internal samplers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Sampler dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

Displaying the Sampler dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

Configuring the Sampler Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

The Sampler Configuration dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

Displaying the Sampler Configuration dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

Creating a sampler configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

Saving sampler configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286

Sending and receiving samples. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286

Sending a sample . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286

Receiving a sample . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

MIDI unity note and Fine tune . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

The MIDI Keyboard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

Displaying the MIDI Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

Turning the MIDI Keyboard on . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

Configuring the MIDI Keyboard output port and channel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

MIDI Keyboard troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

Specifying instruments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

Generating chords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

MIDI/SDS hardware setup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290

MIDI/SDS troubleshooting with open loop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290

SCSI/SMDI hardware and setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290

SCSI/SMDI troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

Conflicting SCSI IDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

Periodic transfer failures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

The sampler is recognized but does not transfer reliably . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292

Looping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .295

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Loops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295

Sustaining and release loops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296

Creating a sustaining loop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296

Creating a sustain loop with a release loop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

Looping techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

Match endpoint amplitudes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

Match endpoint waveform slope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

Match endpoint sound levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300

Avoid very short loops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300

Editing loops. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300

Editing a loop without the Loop Tuner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300

Editing a loop with the Loop Tuner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

The Crossfade Loop tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

Using the Crossfade Loop tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

Looping and ACID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

Displaying the ACID Loop Creation Tools toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

ACID Toolbar functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

Editing ACID properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

Loop halving /doubling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

Shift selection left/right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

Rotate Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

Loop tempo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311

Saving loop points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

Disabling the loop points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

Working with AVI Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

Opening an AVI file. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

Multiple streams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

AVI navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

Navigating the video strip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

Displaying/hiding the video strip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Attaching video to an audio file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

Saving an AVI file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

Specifying the audio and video streams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

Compressing the video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

Compressing the audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

Using the Playlist with AVI files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

Editing with the Playlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

Streaming Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .323

Optimizing files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

Creating RealMedia files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324

RealMedia requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324

Setting the RealMedia Summary fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324

Saving files as RealMedia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325

Creating custom RealMedia templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325

Creating Microsoft Windows Media Format files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

Windows Media requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

Creating Windows Media files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

Adding markers and script commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

Navigation markers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

Creating custom Windows Media 7 templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330

Creating custom Windows Media (.asf) templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

Spectrum Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .333

Working in the frequency domain. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

Fast Fourier Transform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334

Spectrum graph vs. sonogram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Spectrum graph. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

Displaying a spectrum graph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

Monitoring playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

Monitoring an input source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

Displaying frequency and amplitude values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336

Displaying frequency and pitch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336

Stereo files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336

Updating a spectrum graph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337

Viewing multiple spectrum graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337

Spectrum Settings dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338

Saving spectrum settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340

Navigating a spectrum graph. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340

Displaying a frequency range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340

Displaying an amplitude range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341

Displaying an amplitude and frequency range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341

Displaying ranges using the Spectrum Settings dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342

Grab/Pan mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342

Overview window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

Sonogram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

Displaying a sonogram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344

Displaying frequency and amplitude values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344

Updating a sonogram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344

Tuning a sonogram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344

Returning to a spectrum graph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345

Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

General Keyboard Shortcuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

Waveform Display Keyboard Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349

Navigation and Playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351

Regions List and Playlist Keyboard Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352

ACID Loop Creation Tools Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352

Additional Mouse Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Microsoft Audio Compression Manager . . . . . . . . . . .355

Audio Data Compression and Decompression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355

Transparent Playback and Recording of Non-hardware Supported Audio Files 356

SMPTE Timecode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .359

SMPTE 24 Film Sync . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359

SMPTE 25 EBU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359

SMPTE 30 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359

SMPTE Non-Drop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359

SMPTE Drop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360

RIFF Wave Chunks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .361

tlst (Trigger List) Chunk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362

Markers, Regions, and Playlist Entries as Used by Sound Forge . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365

Object Linking and Embedding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .367

Introduction to Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367

Using OLE with Sound Forge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367

Tips and Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369

Using CSOUND, MTU, IRCAM, BICSF, and EBICSF Files 371

Opening and Saving files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER

Introduction

Introducing Sound Forge

Thank you for purchasing Sound Forge and for your continued support of the Sonic Foundry family of products. Sound Forge will provide you with the powerful features you have come to expect, as well as a number of new features designed to make digital audio editing quick and easy.

Using This Manual

This manual is separated into seventeen chapters, each dedicated to a specific aspect of using Sound Forge.

Chapter Description

Introduction Includes brief overview of manual as well as information and the

What’s New Describes Sound Forge’s new features and functions. Optimization Provides procedures and tips for getting optimum system

Controls Provides detailed overview of all of the application’s toolbars and

Fundamentals Describes the basics of digital audio editing. Types, Formats, and Attributes Describes and explains working with audio file configurations

Markers, Regions, and the Playlist/Cutlist Describes using these Sound Forge tools to identify, isolate, and

Recording, Ripping, and Writing Describes recording in Sound Forge, including all available

Advanced Editing Describes techniques and functions that will allow you to take full

Processes Describes all Sound Forge features located in the Process menu.

CHP. 1 INTRODUCTION

procedure needed to install Sound Forge.

performance when using Sound Forge.

controls.

including bit depth, sample rate, channels, and summary information.

arrange selections within in audio file.

recording modes as well as ripping data from and recording music to CD.

advantage of Sound Forge’s digital audio editing capabilities.

Explains use of presets and Preset Manager.

Chapter Description

Acoustic Mirror and Wave Hammer Provides an in-depth description of Sound Forge’s Acoustic Mirror

MIDI/SMPTE Explores MIDI, the Sonic Foundry Virtual MIDI Router, MIDI

Sampling Examines the use of samplers and the Sound Forge Sampler Tool.

Looping Describes creating loops in Sound Forge, including use of ACID

Working with AVI Files Describes using Sound Forge to add audio to and work with .avi

Streaming Media Describes using Sound Forge to prepare files for streaming

Spectrum Analysis Describes using Sound Forge’s Spectrum Analysis tools to evaluate

feature, including procedures for creating custom impulse files. Also discusses the Wave Hammer feature.

Triggers, and using MIDI/MTC synchronization

Provides troubleshooting information and tips for sampling.

Loop Creation tools.

files.

delivery over the Internet. Includes explanation of creating custom streaming media templates.

and edit audio files.

In addition to these chapters, seven appendices and an index are provided to assist you in mastering Sound Forge and quickly locating information within the manual. The following tables briefly describes the content of all appendices.

Addendix Description

Shortcuts Provides a complete list of the application’s keyboard shortcuts as well as a description of the

Microsoft Audio Compression Manager SMPTE Time Code Briefly describes all available SMPTE Time Code formats.

RIFF Wave Chunks Provides an overview of the defined RIFF Wave File chunks that Sound Forge stores and

Object Linking and Embedding

various shortcut menus. Describes using Sound Forge in conjunction with the ACM.

recognizes. Describes using Sound Forge in conjunction with OLE technology.

Full version of Sound Forge versus Sound Forge XP

This manual is provided to assist users of the full version of Sound Forge as well as Sound Forge XP users. For this reason, product features exclusive to the full version of Sound Forge are identified throughout the manual using the following icon:

In addition, Sound Forge XP-only issues are identified and described where appropriate.

INTRODUCTION CHP. 1

Shortcuts

As experienced users of Sound Forge products know, there are often several methods of executing a command, including menus, shortcut menus, and keystrokes. Throughout this manual, the typical method of executing a command is identified in the procedure and alternate methods are identified in a section indicated by the following icon:

Installation

The install utility, setup.exe, located on the Sound Forge CD-ROM, creates necessary folders and copies all files required to operate Sound Forge.

Note:

Sound Forge requires Microsoft DirectX Media 6.0 or later and Internet Explorer 4.0 or later. The setup program will alert you if either is not detected on your system and prompt their installation from the Sound Forge CD-ROM.

To install Sound Forge

Place the Sound Forge CD-ROM in your system’s CD-ROM drive. AutoPlay launches the

Setup menu.

Note:

Start button and choose Run. Type

“D:\setup.exe”, where D is the drive letter of your CD-ROM drive.

Click Install, and follow the instructions in the dialogs to complete the installation.

If AutoPlay is not enabled, click the

CHP. 1 INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION CHP. 1

CHAPTER

What’s New?

This chapter is intended for experienced Sound Forge users. It simply addresses the question on everyone’s mind: “What’s new in this version of Sound Forge?”

Extended bit-depth and sample rate support

Probably the most exciting enhancements in Sound Forge are its improved bit-depth and sample rate capabilities.

Bit-depth

This release of Sound Forge can open and save audio files with any of the following bit depths:

• 8-bit

•16-bit

• 24-bit integer

• 32-bit float

Specifying bit-depth

The bit-depth value for new or existing audio files can be specified in any of the following locations:

• The New Window dialog. For more information, see Creating a new data window on page 80.

• The Save As dialog. For more information, see The Save As dialog on page 82.

•The

• The bit-depth shortcut menu (right-click the bit-depth display in the data window’s

CHP. 2 WHAT’S NEW?

Format tab of the Properties dialog. For more information, see Editing file attributes on

page 112.

status bar). For more information, see Editing file attributes on page 112.

Sample rate

Sound Forge will now support all integral sample rates from 2 kHz to 192 kHz.

Specifying sample rate

The sample rate value can be specified or changed in any of the following locations:

• The New Window dialog. For more information, see Creating a new data window on page 80.

• The Resample dialog. For more information, see Resample on page 235.

•The

• The sample rate shortcut menu (right-click the sample rate display in the status bar). For

Format tab in the Properties dialog. For more information, see Editing file attributes on

page 112.

more information, see Editing file attributes on page 112.

Acoustic Mirror

This release of the full version of Sound Forge includes Sonic Foundry’s Acoustic Mirror™. Acoustic Mirror allows you to add realistic reverb to audio projects by simulating acoustic wave responses of actual environments and electronic equipment. For more information, see

Acoustic Mirror and Wave Hammer on page 243.

Built-in DirectX FX Plug-Ins

Sonic Foundry’s XFX packages 1, 2, and 3 are now included with the full version of Sound Forge. Where applicable, they replace the native plug-ins that did not offer real-time previews. The effects in XFX are located on the place of the native plug-ins in an attempt to maintain usability for experienced Sound Forge users. Sound Forge XP includes Sonic Foundry’s ExpressFX 1, 2, and 3.

Effects and Process Sound Forge menus in

CD Writing

Sound Forge now allows track-at-once CD writing. Audio tracks can be written to CD over a period of time and, once closed, the CD can be played in an audio CD player.

CD Ripping

Sound Forge allows you to extract audio tracks from a CD and open them in Sound Forge. You can select how the audio is extracted: by track, by CD, or by a time range.

WHAT’S NEW? CHP. 2

Wave Hammer

This release of Sound Forge features Wave Hammer™, an all-in-one digital audio mastering tool that includes a high-quality vintage compressor and look-ahead volume maximizer. For

more information, see Acoustic Mirror and Wave Hammer on page 243.

Repair tools

Sound Forge now features three unique tools for removing glitches from digital audio files:

Channel, Interpolate, and Replace. These tools are located in the Repair submenu of the Tools

menu. For more information, see Finding and repairing audio glitches on page 192.

Bit-Depth Converter

The expanded bit-depth support of Sound Forge renders the previous Convert to 8-Bit function obsolete. Decreasing (or increasing) the bit-depth of a file as well as masking the resulting quantization noise is now accomplished using the new located in the

Process menu. For more information, see Bit-Depth Converter on page 215.

Bit-Depth Converter function

MP3 Plug-In

An MP3 plug-in is available to users of Sound Forge from the Save As dialog. If you are using Sound Forge XP, you will be limited to 20 free encodes with the MP3 plug-in until you register your product. Once you register Sound Forge XP, you will have unlimited use of the plug-in.

Sonic Foundry Perfect Clarity Audio (.pca) format

Sound Forge now supports Sonic Foundry’s Perfect Clarity Audio™ (.pca) format. This format compresses files without the audio degradation that typically results from compression/decompression algorithms. Because of this, files saved in this format can be endlessly re-edited without signal degradation. In addition, the Perfect Clarity Audio codec will typically render audio files 20% to 60% smaller than the original.

New registration procedure

Registering Sound Forge is now easier and requires less user input.

CHP. 2 WHAT’S NEW?

WHAT’S NEW? CHP. 2

CHAPTER

Optimization

This chapter contains information on configuring your system to optimize the performance of Sound Forge.

Hard drive defragmentation

Sound Forge is a disk-based digital audio editor that allows editing operations to be performed on the system’s hard drive rather than in memory. Because of this, Sound Forge is able to edit large files as well as retain extensive undo/redo information and clipboard data.This also means that the hard drive specified for temporary storage must have sufficient free space to store large quantities of data.

With time and usage, hard drives become fragmented, leading to discontiguous files and slow access. This is particularly true for older hard drives. Since Sound Forge is hard drive intensive, faster disk access equates better performance. Therefore, the initial step in improving system performance is hard drive defragmentation. The computer’s operating system is typically equipped with a defragmenting program that should be run prior to using Sound Forge for the first time.

CHP. 3 OPTIMIZATION

Windows 9x/Me default settings

System configuration settings deviating from Windows 98/Me defaults may result in reduced performance from Sound Forge.

From the menu, choose Settings, and then choose Control Panel from the submenu.

Double-click the System icon. The System Properties dialog is displayed.

Click the Performance tab and verify that File System and Virtual Memor y are set to 32-bit.

In the Advanced settings window, click the File System button. The File System Properties dialog is displayed.

Click the Hard Disk tab and verify that the Read-ahead optimization slider is set to Full.

Click the Troubleshooting tab and verify that all check boxes are cleared.

Click OK to return to the System Properties dialog.

Click the Graphics button in the Advanced settings window. The Advanced Graphics Settings dialog is displayed.

Verify that the Hardware acceleration slider is set to Ful l and click OK.

Note:

experiment with different

acceleration settings.

If dropouts are detected in playback,

Hardware

Direct mode

When you open a file in Sound Forge, a backup copy is created to preserve the original file until it is resaved. However, you have the option of opening files in direct mode, which will open an audio file without creating a backup copy. If the application’s defaults are active, the waveform of a file opened in direct mode will be colored red (normal mode waveforms are blue).

Direct mode makes opening files quicker and requires less disk space, but there are drawbacks. Only files stored in the uncompressed .wav or .aiff format can be opened in direct mode. In addition, since no backup file is created, only the modified file remains if the application is suddenly terminated.

OPTIMIZATION CHP. 3

Opening a file in direct mode

From the File menu, choose Open. The Open dialog is displayed.

Select a .wav or .aiff file.

Select the Operate directly on the file check box and click Open.

Note:

Once the Operate directly on the file check box is selected, all subsequent applicable files are opened in direct mode. To disable direct mode, clear the

file check box.

Operate directly on the

Peak files

When a file is initially opened in direct mode, Sound Forge scans the entire file and creates a peak file. The peak file is stored with the same name and in the same location as the .wav file, but it is given an .sfk extension. Sound Forge automatically updates this peak file whenever the original file is edited.

If a file is modified in an application other than Sound Forge, the peak file should be regenerated by choosing

Rebuild Peak Data from the Special menu.

Faster file saving

When a new file is created, Sound Forge automatically creates a temporary file containing the new audio data. When the file is saved, Sound Forge copies this temporary data to the file. If the audio data is saved as an uncompressed .wav file, Sound Forge can accelerate this saving process by physically moving the temporary data to the file, instead of copying it. To accommodate this, the new file must be saved on the same drive as the temporary storage folder. This may require you to relocate the temporary storage folder.

Relocating the temporary storage folder

From the Options menu, choose Preferences. The Preferences dialog is displayed.

Click the Perform tab.

Click the Browse button and browse to the new temporary storage folder location.

Click OK.

CHP. 3 OPTIMIZATION

The Sound Mapper

Sound Forge allows you to specify any installed Windows-compatible sound card for playback and recording. In addition, you can specify the Sound Mapper. The Sound Mapper will automatically select the appropriate sound card for playing audio. If this is not possible, the Sound Mapper converts the audio into a usable format.

Preventing audio breakup

Be aware that Sound Mapper format conversions occasionally introduce overhead which may lead to audio signal breakup. To prevent this, do either of the following:

• Verify that the system’s sound card supports the selected format.

• Specify playback/record devices other than the Sound Mapper whenever possible.

Note:

record audio using the actual sound card’s wave driver, the Sound Mapper is not causing signal breakups.

If the Sound Mapper is the only option and signal breakups are detected, convert the audio to a format directly supported by the system’s sound card. This will remove the overhead required to convert the audio data for the sound card.

It is also acceptable to use the Sound Mapper when the audio data format is directly supported by the sound card. In this case, the Sound Mapper passes the data to the sound card, which requires negligible overhead.

For more information, see Microsoft Audio Compression Manager on page 355.

If the application is able to play and

Total Buffer Size

The total buffer size value determines the amount of RAM used for recording to/playing from the hard drive. A total buffer size of 512kb is recommended, but increased buffering may be necessary if gaps are detected during playback.

Drawbacks to increasing the buffer size

Increasing the total buffer size requires additional memory. Combined with a large preload

, this may result in a delay when starting and stopping playback. For more information, see

size

Preload Size on page 33.

OPTIMIZATION CHP. 3

Editing the total buffer size

From the Options menu, choose Preferences.The Preferences dialog is displayed.

Click the Wave tab.

Use the Total buffer size slider to configure an appropriate buffer size value and click OK.

Preload Size

The preload size value determines how much sound data Sound Forge prepares and loads into the sound card driver prior to starting playback. Preloading is performed between the

time the Play ( ) button is clicked and the first sound of playback.

Increasing preload size may eliminate the dropouts evident at the beginning of playback that are characteristic of slow and/or fragmented hard drives. The trade-off for increasing the preload size is a delay prior to the start of playback. The length of the delay is proportional to the size of the preload.

Changing the preload size

From the Options menu, choose Preferences.The Preferences dialog is displayed.

Click the Wave tab.

Use the Preload size slider to configure an appropriate preload size value and click OK.

Note:

Certain Windows sound drivers do not support this option. If noise or dropouts are detected at the start of playback and the system’s sound drivers do not support preloading, disable this option by setting the

Preload size to 0.

Forced Write-Through During Record (Windows 9x and Me only)

When using a Windows 9x or Me operating system, Sound Forge implements a forced writethrough during recording option. This lessens the occurrence of dropouts, but results in a overactive hard drive.

CHP. 3 OPTIMIZATION

Disabling Forced Write-Through During Record

From the Options menus, choose Preferences. The Preferences dialog is displayed.

Click the General tab.

Clear the Forced write-through on record check box and click OK.

Note:

Disabling this feature is not recommended.

Playback cursor and record counter

The playback cursor and record counter options determine whether these displays are updated during recording and playback. If dropouts and skipping are detected at high sample rates (greater than 44,100 Hz), these displays should be turned off to minimize processing overhead.

Turning off the playback cursor and record counter

From the Options menus, choose Preferences. The Preferences dialog is displayed.

Click the Perform tab.

Clear the Show the position of the playback cursor and Show the record counter while recording check boxes and click OK.

Meters

Sound Forge’s play and record meters use a small amount of processing overhead during recording and playback. However, if dropouts are detected during recording or playback and previous fixes have failed, these meters can be turned off.

Turning off the play (output) meters

Choose Play Meters from View menu. The check mark adjacent to the command is cleared, indicating that the play meters are turned off.

Turning off the record meters

From the Special menu, choose Record. The Record dialog is displayed.

Clear the Monitor check box and click OK.

OPTIMIZATION CHP. 3

Passive updating for video and time displays

Passive update options lower the priority of repainting the video and time displays during playback. When these options are enabled, the displays are updated only if there is ample time. Frequently this goes unnoticed, and enabling these options minimizes playback overhead with little or no inconvenience.

Enable passively updated time displays

From the Options menu, choose Time Display, and choose Passive Update from the submenu. A check mark is displayed next to the command to indicate that this option is enabled.

Enable passively updated video displays

Go to the Options menu, choose Video, and choose Passive Update from the submenu. A check mark is displayed next to the command to indicate that this option is enabled.

Scan for external monitor

Sound Forge allows .avi files to be viewed on an external video monitor. By default, the application scans for an external video monitor each time an .avi is opened. This feature should be turned off if the system is not equipped with an external video monitor.

Turning off scan for external monitor

From the Options menus, choose Preferences. The Preferences dialog is displayed.

Click the Video tab.

Select the Disable scan for External Monitor support check box and click OK.

Background processing

When Sound Forge is performing extensive editing or processing operations, a progress meter is displayed in the bottom-left corner of the status bar. If the progress meter is visible, Sound Forge is processing and the current operation can be cancelled by clicking the Cancel

button or pressing .

Running multiple applications

All processing performed by Sound Forge is done in the background. This means that other applications can be used while Sound Forge is working. However, using additional applications while editing digital audio may negatively affect processing time.

CHP. 3 OPTIMIZATION

Esc

OPTIMIZATION CHP. 3

CHAPTER

Controls

This chapter provides a detailed overview of the application’s toolbars and controls.

Using the mouse

The following table defines the mouse-related terms used throughout this manual.

Pointing Moving the mouse pointer over an item. Clicking Pointing to an item and quickly pressing and releasing the left mouse button.

If there is no left or right specification, left-clicking is implied.

Right-clicking Pointing to an item and quickly pressing and releasing the right mouse

button. Right-clicking is frequently used to display shortcut menus.

Double-clicking Identical to clicking, but instead of pressing and releasing the mouse button

once, it is done twice in quick succession. Double-clicking always indicates the left mouse button.

Triple-clicking Identical to clicking, but instead of pressing and releasing the mouse button

once, it is done three times in quick succession. Triple-clicking always indicates the left mouse button.

Toggle-clicking Clicking the right mouse button while holding down the left mouse button.

This is used to toggle options and is a shortcut for drag and drop editing and specifying the Magnify tool’s mode.

Shift-clicking Holding down the Shift key on the keyboard while clicking the mouse. Shift-

clicking is typically used to skip dialogs and quickly repeat operations.

Ctrl-clicking Holding down the Ctrl key on the keyboard while clicking the mouse. Ctrl-

clicking is used to modify the operation of a normal click.

Dragging Holding down the left mouse button while moving the mouse pointer.

Dragging is used to quickly move sections of data between windows, as well as to adjust sliders, scrollbars, and faders.

Slow-dragging Holding down the right and left mouse buttons while adjusting sliders and

faders increases the resolution of the movement. This is useful when making fractional adjustments to parameters.

Dropping After dragging an item, releasing the left mouse button on top of another

area is known as dropping. Dragging and dropping are used to speed up operations such as mixing or moving regions within the Playlist.

CHP. 4 CONTROLS

Note:

Once familiar with the application’s basics, you may want to begin using the shortcuts provided by the mouse and keyboard. For more information, see Shortcuts on page

347.

Using the mousewheel

Sound Forge now allows you to use your mousewheel to navigate audio files. The the following table briefly describes the available mousewheel functionality.

Wheel Up Zoom in (horizontal) Wheel Down Zoom out (horizontal) Ctrl+Wheel Up Zoom in (vertical) Ctrl+Wheel Down Zoom out (vertical) Shift+Wheel Up Scroll left (in 10ths of screen width) Shift+Wheel Down Scroll right (in 10ths of screen width) Ctrl+Shift+ Wheel Up Cursor left or current selection point left (if there is a selection) Ctrl+Shift+ Wheel Down Cursor right or current selection point right (if there is a selection)

CONTROLS CHP. 4

The main screen

When you start Sound Forge, the main screen is displayed. The main screen’s workspace is where all audio editing is performed.

Menu bar

Workspace

Play meters

Status bar

CHP. 4 CONTROLS

Main screen components

The following table describes the major components of the main screen.

Menu bar Displays the menu headings for the available functions. When no data windows are

open, the Process, Effects, and Tools menus are not available because these menus contain commands that require an open data window.

Status bar Help and processing information is displayed on the left-hand side. The fields on the

right-hand side display the playback sample rate, bit depth, channel configuration (mono/stereo), length of the active data window, and total free storage space. With the exception of the free storage space field, these fields can be edited by doubleclicking or right-clicking them. When no data windows are open, only the free storage space field contains a value.

Workspace This is the area located behind the data windows. Sections dragged to the workspace

automatically become new data windows.

Play meters Display the level of the output audio signal. These meters can be toggled on/off by

choosing displays a shortcut menu that allows you to precisely configure the appearance of the meters.

The data window

Data windows contain audio data (as a waveform) as well as a number of controls and commands used to edit and process audio.

Play Meters from the View menu. Right-clicking the play meters

Time Ruler

Title bar

selector

Playbar

Position Scroll Bar

Selection Status Fields

Time Zoom Resolution

Time Zoom In/Out

Edit Tool

Level Ruler

Waveform display

Level Zoom In/Out

CONTROLS CHP. 4

Overview

Ruler tags

Maximize width

OLE Drag Source

Data window components

The following table describes the data window components:

Title Bar Displays the file name. If a title information is included in the summary of a

.wav file, it is displayed here instead of the file name. Double-click to maximize and restore the window.

Level Ruler Displays the amplitude of the waveform. Right-click to display the level ruler

shortcut menu. Drag to shift the view up/down when zoomed in vertically.

Time Ruler Displays the current location in the data window as well as ruler tags. Right-

click to display the time ruler shortcut menu. Drag to scroll the data window.

Ruler Tags Indicate the position of region end points, loop end points, and markers.

Right-click a tag to display the ruler tag shortcut menu. Drag to edit a tag’s position. Double-click anywhere within a region to select it.

Edit Tool Selector Toggles through the Edit, Magnify, and Pencil tools. The Pencil tool requires a

zoom ratio between 1:1 and 1:16 to be used.

Playbar Contains the following audio transport buttons: Go to Start, Go to End, Stop,

Play Normal, Play Looped, and Play as Sample.

Selection Status Fields Display the beginning, end, and length of a selection. If no selection exists,

only the cursor position is displayed. Double-click on the left-most field to display the Go To dialog. Double-click on either of the other two fields to display the Set Selection dialog. Right-click to display the status format shortcut menu.

Waveform Display Displays a graphical representation of an audio file. The horizontal axis

represents time, and the vertical axis represents amplitude. Right-click within this display to access the waveform display shortcut menu.

Position Scroll Bar Scrolls forward/backward through an audio file to display sections of the file

not visible in the current area of the waveform display.

Overview Allows for quick navigation and playback of any part of an audio file. The

overview also indicates the portion of the waveform currently depicted in the waveform display, as well as the selected region. Click to move the cursor. Double-click to center the cursor in the waveform display. Right-click to start or pause playback. Drag to activate the audio event locator.

Time Zoom Resolution Specifies the number of samples of data represented by each horizontal point

on the screen. This determines the length of time displayed in the data

window. Smaller resolution values (1:1, 1:2, 1:4) will display less time. Time Zoom In/Out Changes the zoom resolution for the time (horizontal) axis. Level Zoom In/Out Changes the zoom resolution for the level (vertical) axis. Maximize Width Resizes the data window to maximize its size within the workspace. OLE Drag Source Drag from this section of the data window into another application such as

Microsoft Word to link an audio file to a document.

CHP. 4 CONTROLS

Displaying data window components

Sound Forge allows you to customize the appearance of individual data windows.

Choose Properties from the File menu or press + . The current file’s Properties dialog is displayed.

Click the Display tab.

Display/hide specific components by selecting/clearing the corresponding check box(es).

Select the Save as default for all new windows check box if you want to set the new configuration as the default data window display.

Click OK.

The Playbar

The Playbar is located in the bottom left-hand corner of a data window and contains six buttons. Using the

Stop

Go to End

Go to Start

Playbar, audio files can be navigated and played in a variety of ways.

Play as Sample or Cutlist

Play Looped

Play Normal

Alt

Enter

The following table briefly describes the

Moves the cursor to the start of the audio file.

Moves the cursor to the end of the audio file.

Stops playback and returns the cursor to its position prior to playback.

CONTROLS CHP. 4

Playbar buttons

If there is no selection, audio is played from the cursor to end of the file.

If there is a selection, audio is played from the beginning of the selection to the end of the selection. If there is no selection, the entire audio file is played in an infinite loop.

If there is a selection, the selection is played in an infinite loop.

The file is played with the sustaining and release loops repeating the specified number of times.

Current playback mode

When an audio file is played from the Playbar, a small horizontal line is displayed beneath the selected Play which is the mode used when the

button’s icon ( ). This indicates Sound Forge’s current playback mode,

Transport toolbar’s Play ( ) button is clicked. For more

information, see The Transport toolbar on page 46.

Changing the current playback mode

To change the current play mode, click a Playbar button or press + .

Ctrl

Space

Toolbars

Sound Forge’s toolbars contain buttons used to quickly execute many of the program’s commands and functions. Toolbars can be dragged throughout the workspace, docked, resized, and hidden.

Docking a toolbar

When a floating toolbar is dragged to any edge of the main screen, it docks on that edge.

Floating a toolbar

When a docked toolbar is dragged away from an edge, it becomes a floating toolbar.

CHP. 4 CONTROLS

Available toolbars

Choose Preferences from the Options menu. The Preferences dialog is displayed.

Click the Toolbars tab. A list of available toolbars is displayed.

Select the appropriate check box to display the desired toolbar

Displaying a toolbar

To display a toolbar, select the corresponding check box and click OK.

CONTROLS CHP. 4

The Standard toolbar

The Standard toolbar is displayed by default when Sound Forge is started. It contains buttons that allow you to quickly access and execute many common application commands.

Pencil Tool

Magnify Tool

New

Redo

Undo

Trim/Crop

Play from Clipboard

Mix

Paste

Copy

Cut

Save As

Edit Tool

Repeat

Save

Open

CHP. 4 CONTROLS

The following table briefly describes each Standard toolbar button.

Creates a new data window. Plays the audio on the clipboard.

Displays the Open dialog. Removes all data from the audio file that

Saves the current audio data. Reverses the last edit operation.

Saves the current file with a new name or format.

Removes selected audio data and places it on the clipboard. This command has no effect if there is no selection.

Copies selected audio data to the clipboard. This command has no effect if there is no selection.

Inserts a copy of the clipboard data at the current insertion point. If there is a selection, this command replaces the selected data with the clipboard data.

Mixes a copy of the clipboard data with the current audio file. The mix start point is either the cursor point or the start or end of the selection in the destination data window.

is not currently selected. This command has no effect if there is no selected data. This command does not copy data to the clipboard.

Re-performs the previously undone edit operation.

Repeats the last operation. This command can be used with most processing functions. The previous operation’s parameters are repeated. To specify new parameters, hold Shift and click this button, Selects the Editing tool.

Selects the Zoom tool.

Selects the Pencil tool. The Pencil tool can only be used when viewing an audio file at zoom ratios between 1:1 and 1:16.

The Transport toolbar

The Transport toolbar is also displayed by default and contains basic audio transport buttons.

Go To End

Rewind

Go to Beginning

Stop

Pause

Play

Play All

Record

CHP. 4 CONTROLS

Fast-Forward

The following table briefly describes the Transport toolbar buttons.

Records data to a new or existing data window.

Plays the entire audio file from beginning to end, regardless of cursor position, selection, or playlist. Plays the file in current playback mode (Normal, Looped, or Sample).

Pauses playback and maintains the cursor at its current position.

Stops playback and returns the cursor to its prior position.

Moves the cursor to the start of the file.

Moves the cursor backwards, take by take, in the current audio file.

Moves the cursor forward, take by take, in the current audio file.

Moves the cursor to the end of the file.

Navigation toolbar

The Navigation toolbar contains buttons used to navigate within the current data window.

Center Release End

Center Release Start

Zoom In

Zoom Selection

Zoom Normal

Go To

Mark Out

Mark In

Cursor to Selection End

Drop Marker

Cursor to Selection Start

Cursor Center

Center Sustaining End

Center Sustaining Start

CHP. 4 CONTROLS

The following table briefly describes the Navigation toolbar buttons.

Magnifies the selected area to a 1:1 ratio. Centers the display with the cursor

Resets the audio data to its original magnification.

Maximizes the selection vertically and horizontally.

Drops a marker at the current cursor position.

Marks the “in” point of a new selection. Moves the cursor to the end of the

Marks the “out” point of a new selection. Moves the cursor to the beginning of the

Displays the Go To dialog and allows you to quickly move the cursor to a specific point in a file.

displayed in the center of the data window.

Moves the cursor to the beginning of the selection.

Moves the cursor to the end of the selection.

Moves the cursor to the beginning of the sustaining loop.

sustaining loop.

release loop.

Moves the cursor to the end of the release loop.

Views toolbar

The Views toolbar contains buttons used to store and retrieve data window views.

View #

Set

The following table describes the

Toggles views 1-8 between setting

and restoring.

CHP. 4 CONTROLS

Views toolbar buttons.

Stores and recalls specific selection views.

Status/Selection toolbar

The Status/Selection toolbar contains buttons used to specify the file’s status format and perform the application’s

Snap To functions.

AutoSnap to Time

Samples

Measures & Beats

SMPTE

Frames

Time

AutoSnap to Zero

The following table briefly describes the

Changes the status format to samples. Changes the status format to

Changes the status format to time. Aligns selections to the nearest zero-

Changes the status format to frames. Aligns selections to the nearest whole time

Changes the status format to SMPTE.

Status/Selection toolbar buttons

measures:beats:quarter notes.

crossing as defined by the Editing tab of the Preferences dialog.

division.

CHP. 4 CONTROLS

Regions/Playlist toolbar

The Regions/Playlist toolbar contains Regions List and Playlist buttons as well as buttons corresponding to synchronization commands and status displays.

Sync Status

Pre-Queue for SMPTE/MTC

MIDI Output Sync

MIDI Input Sync/Trigger

Playlist

Region List

The following table briefly describes the

Displays the Regions List. Configures Sound Forge to send MIDI

Displays the Playlist. Opens the wave device and preloads data

Configures Sound Forge to be triggered by MIDI commands received through the MIDI input port. The MIDI input port is specified on the MIDI/Sync tab in the Preferences dialog.

Regions/Playlist toolbar buttons.

Playlist Position

time code through the MIDI output port. The MIDI output port is specified on the MIDI/Sync tab of the Preferences dialog.

for the next region to be played from the Playlist.

Playlist position display

Displays the current playback position of an audio file being played from the Playlist. Right- clicking on this field displays a shortcut menu that allows you to specify a new format.

Sync status display

Allows you to monitor the status of incoming/outgoing MIDI commands.

CHP. 4 CONTROLS

Process toolbar

The Process toolbar contains buttons corresponding to all commands located in the application’s

Process menu.

Smooth/Enhance

Reverse

Resample

Pan

Normalize

Mute

Invert

Insert Silence

Fade Out

Fade In

Fade Graphic

EQ-Parametric

EQ-Paragraphic

EQ-Graphic

Bit-Depth Converter

DC Offset

Channel

Volum

Time Compress/ Expand

Auto Trim

CHP. 4 CONTROLS

The following table briefly describes the Process toolbar buttons.

Removes silence from an audio file and automatically fades in/out the end-points of each phrase.

Converts between mono and stereo formats. Can also be used to intermix the left and right channels of a stereo file to create panning effects.

Coverts a file to a lower bit depth. Mutes the current selection.

Changes the baseline of an audio file. Normalizes the loudness of an audio file.

Launches Sonic Foundry’s XFX Graphic EQ. Creates custom pans, expands, and mixes.

Launches Sonic Foundry’s XFX Paragraphic EQ.

Launches Sonic Foundry’s XFX Parametric EQ.

Creates user-configurable fades. Launches Sonic Foundry’s XFX Smooth/

Fades-in the selection. Launches Sonic Foundry’s XFX Time

Fades-out the selection. Adjusts the volume of an audio file.

Inserts user-configurable silence into audio files.

Inverts (or flips) the current selection.

Creates a copy of the audio file with a new sample rate.

Reverses the current selection.

Enhance tool.

Compress/Expand tool.

CHP. 4 CONTROLS

The Effects toolbar

If you are using a full version of Sound Forge, the Effects toolbar contains buttons corresponding to all Sound Forge’s built-in XFX.

Vibrato

Reverb

Pitch Shift

Pitch Bend

Noise Gate

Gapper/Snipper

Flange/Wah-Wah

Envelope

Dynamics-Multi-band

Dynamics-Graphic

Distortion

Delay-Simple

Delay-Multi-tap

Chorus

Amplitude Modulation

CHP. 4 CONTROLS

The following table briefly describes the Effects toolbar buttons.

Applies a sinusoidal or square shaped periodic gain to the input signal.

Simulates multiple audio sources from a single sound.

Creates a delay with up to eight delay-taps spaced anywhere within 2.5 seconds of the original sound. Adds a delayed copy of the audio signal to the file.

Simulates the overloading of an amplifier. Changes the pitch of a selection with or

Applies compression, expansion, and limiting to affect the dynamic range of an audio file. Allows compression and limiting to be placed on up to four different frequency bands.

Forces the amplitude envelope of a waveform to match a specified envelope shape.

Mixes a modulated delay signal with the original signal.

Removes/inserts sections of silence at regular intervals to create unusual effects.This effect is only available if you are using the full version of Sound Forge. Removes signals below a set amplitude threshold.

Creates a modified sound envelope that corresponds to increasing or decreasing the pitch of a sound file over time.

without preserving the duration of the file.

Simulates the acoustics of different environments.

Creates periodic pitch modulation in an audio file.

CHP. 4 CONTROLS

The Tools toolbar

The Tools toolbar contains buttons corresponding to all commands in the application’s Tools menu.

Synthesis-Simple

Synthesis-FM

Synthesis-DTMF/MF Tones

Statistics

Spectrum Analysis

Sampler

Repair-Replace

Repair-Interpolate

Repair-Channel

Preset Manager

Find

Extract Regions

Crossfade Loop

Auto Region

Audio Plug-In Chainer

Extract Audio from CD

Create CD

CHP. 4 CONTROLS

The following table briefly describes the To ol s toolbar buttons.

Writes selected audio track to CD. Extracts audio from CD and opens in

Links multiple DirectX plug-ins into a single processing chain.

Replaces selected audio data with previous adjacent data.

Allows you to transfer samples to/from Sound Forge.

Performs spectrum analysis on the current file or selection.

Displays statistics corresponding to the current file or selection.

Generates dial tones used by telephone companies.

Uses frequency modulation and additive synthesis to create complex sounds from simple waveforms.

Generates a simple waveform of a given shape, pitch, and length.

Sound Forge for editing.

Automatically creates regions in an audio file according to rapid sound attacks or a specified musical time interval. Mixes audio occurring before the loop start point into the end of the loop to smooth transitions. Extracts all file regions and saves them as individual files.

Searches for clicks and pops, volume levels, or silent breaks in an audio signal.

Used to back up and transfer userconfigured presets from all effects, processes, tools, and plug-ins.

Replaces selected audio with a corresponding selection from the opposite channel. Replaces selected audio with interpolated audio data based on the selection’s beginning and end samples.

The Levels toolbar

The Levels toolbar displays the audio levels in the left and right channels in the userspecified format.

Left channel level

Right channel level

For more information, see Status/Selection toolbar on page 49.

CHP. 4 CONTROLS

ACID Loop Creation Tools toolbar

The ACID Loops Creation Tools toolbar contains buttons corresponding to commands used when creating audio loops for Sonic Foundry’s ACID products.

Tempo Window

Selection Grid Lines

Rotate Audio

Shift Selection Right

Shift Selection Left

Halve Selection

Double Selection

Edit Tempo

Edit ACID Properties

The following table briefly describes the

Displays the Edit ACID Properties dialog. Shifts the current selection to the left so

Calculates the musical tempo (beats per minute) based upon the current selection.

Doubles the size of the current selection. Moves the current selection to the

Divides the current selection in half. Toggles the selection grid line display on/

ACID Loop Creation Tools toolbar buttons.

the current start point becomes the end point. Shifts the current selection to the right so the current end point becomes the start point.

opposite end of the file.

off.

Tempo window

The ACID Loop Creation Tools toolbar also contains a Te mp o window. This window calculates and displays the ACID project’s tempo as if the current selection represents a complete measure.

For more information, see Looping and ACID on page 306.

CHP. 4 CONTROLS

ToolTips

Hovering the mouse pointer over a button or status bar field for longer than one second will display a small text box adjacent to the pointer. This text, called a ToolTip, is a brief description of the button or field’s function. Using ToolTips is an effective way to quickly familiarize yourself with Sound Forge.

ToolTip

Turning off ToolTips

Choose Toolbars from the View menu. The Toolbar Preferences dialog is displayed.

Clear the Show ToolTips check box and click OK.

Command descriptions

When a button in a toolbar is clicked and held or a menu item is selected and held, a brief description of the command is displayed in the lower left-hand corner of the status bar. If you release the mouse button outside of the toolbar or menu item, the command is not executed.

Controls

A major step in mastering Sound Forge is becoming familiar with all controls used to set and adjust feature parameters, including the following:

• Faders and sliders

• Edit boxes

• Drop-down lists

•Buttons

• Radio buttons

• Check boxes

• Envelope graphs

CHP. 4 CONTROLS

Vertical faders and horizontal sliders

Vertical faders and horizontal sliders are frequently used to edit effect and process parameters. To use either control, drag the control’s thumb to the desired position and release.

Fader

Thumb

Slider

Fine-tuning fader and slider values

A fader or slider value can be fine-tuned by doing any of the following:

• Holding both mouse buttons while dragging the thumb.

• Holding while dragging the thumb. For more information, see Using the mouse on page

37.

• Clicking on the hash marks incrementing the thumb’s range-of-travel.

Resetting fader and trackbar values

Double-click the thumb to return the control to its default value.

Ctrl

Fader and slider shortcuts

There are numerous keyboard shortcuts available when using faders and sliders.

• , , , and change the value in small increments.

Page Up Page Down

• and change the value in larger increments.

Home

• and set the control to its maximum and minimum values respectively.

CHP. 4 CONTROLS

End

Edit box spinner

Spinners are used to set edit box values.

Spinner

The spinner provides three options for editing parameter values:

• Click in the edit box and enter a numeric value from the keyboard.

• Click the small arrow buttons to increment the value.

• Use the spinner to set the value.

Using the spinner

The spinner is the small rectangular button positioned between the control’s arrow buttons.

Increment Up Arrow

Spinner

Increment Down Arrow

Click and hold the spinner.

Drag the mouse up/down to increase/decrease the value.

Release the mouse button to set the value.

Fine-tuning spinner values

Spinner values can be fine-tuned by doing either of the following:

• Holding the both mouse buttons while dragging the spinner.

• Holding while dragging the spinner. For more information, see Using the mouse on page

Ctrl

37.

Spinner shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts are also available when using spinners.

• and change the value in small increments.

Page Up Page Down

• and change the value in larger increments.

CHP. 4 CONTROLS

Drop-down lists

Drop-down lists typically contain presets. In addition, you can save custom settings as presets and they will appear in drop-down lists. For more information, see Presets on page 207.

Drop-down list

Specifying a preset from a drop-down list

To specify a preset from a drop-down list, click on the list’s arrow button and select an item from the list.

Navigating a drop-down list

The scroll bar and the arrow keys are used to navigate lengthy drop-down lists. Notice that while scrolling through presets, the dialog’s controls are positioned to reflect the parameters of the current selection. This is useful for getting a feel for how various parameters are used to create specific effects.

Radio buttons

Radio buttons appear in groups of two or more and function like the station selector on a car radio; select one and all others are deselected.

Radio button

Check boxes

A check box, as the name implies, is a square box that can be selected or cleared to turn a feature on/off.

Check box

CHP. 4 CONTROLS

Envelope graphs

Envelope graphs are used to configure the shape of frequency or amplitude envelopes applied to audio waveforms.

Envelope point

Envelope

Time axis

Amplitude or frequency axis

Understanding the envelope graph

To use the envelope graph, you must first understand what it represents. In the previous example, the horizontal axis represents time, with the left-most point representing the start of the selection and the right-most point representing the end of the selection. The vertical axis represents either amplitude or frequency, depending upon the operation.

Moving an envelope point

Click an envelope point.

Drag the point to a new position.

Release the mouse button. The point is repositioned and the envelope is adjusted accordingly.

CHP. 4 CONTROLS

Moving multiple envelope points

Click in an unused area of the envelope graph.

Drag the mouse to create a selection box containing all points to be moved.

Select the envelope points

Release the button. The selected envelope points are displayed in red.

Click any of the selected envelope points. The pointer is displayed as a multi-directional arrow.

Drag the envelope point to the desired position. All selected points are moved accordingly.

Release the mouse button. The entire envelope graph is adjusted accordingly.

Reposition multiple envelope points

Selecting all envelope points

Ctrl + A

Press to select all envelope points.

Adding an envelope point

Place the mouse pointer on the envelope. The pointer is displayed as .

Place the pointer on the envelope

and click to add a point.

Click the mouse. A point is added to the envelope graph and can now be positioned as needed. For more information, see Moving an envelope point on page 62.

CHP. 4 CONTROLS

Deleting an envelope point

Place the pointer on the point to be deleted. The cursor is displayed as .

Place the pointer on the point to be

deleted and right/double-click.

Double-click or right-click the mouse. The point is deleted and the envelope is adjusted accordingly.

Delete all points

Delete all envelope points by clicking the Reset Envelope button.

Displaying the waveform on an envelope graph

Certain envelope graphs (such as in the Graphic Fade dialog) allow you to view the audio waveform on the graph. If the selection is small, the waveform is automatically displayed. Otherwise, selecting the

Displaying stereo waveforms

The Show Wave drop-down list allows you to specify how stereo files are displayed in the envelope graph.

Show wave check box will display the waveform.

Specify the channel to be displayed

Stereo files

Stereo files require you to work with two channels of data. When a stereo file is displayed in a data window, the left channel is represented in the upper data window and the right channel in the lower.

CHP. 4 CONTROLS

Working with stereo files

When playing, editing, or processing stereo files, you are able to select the left channel, the right channel, or both channels. However, certain processing cannot be performed upon an individual channel of a stereo file. For more information, see Single-channel editing on page 67.

Selecting data in stereo files

When editing a stereo file, the waveform display is divided into three logical sections and the mouse pointer location determines what channel (or channels) will be selected.

• The upper quarter of the data window selects the left channel.

• The lower quarter of the data window selects the right channel.

• The middle half of the data window selects both channels.

Left channel only

Both channels

Right channel only

Open a stereo .wav file.

Select the Edit tool by choosing To ol from the Edit menu and Edit from the submenu.

CHP. 4 CONTROLS

Position the tool near the top of the left channel and notice its appearance.

Cursor to select

channel only

left

the

The tool is displayed as . This indicates that only audio data in the left channel will be selected.

Position the tool in the middle portion of the data window and notice its appearance.

Cursor to select both channels

The tool is displayed as a standard cursor. This indicates that it will select a mono file or both channels of a stereo file.

Position the tool near the bottom of the right channel and notice its appearance.

Cursor to select the right channel only

The tool is displayed as . This indicates that only audio data in the right channel will be selected.

CHP. 4 CONTROLS

Toggling channel selections

Once the cursor is placed or a selection created in a stereo file, you can cycle through channel options (left, right, both) by pressing .

Previewing channels

Tab

The single channel selection option allows you to preview channels in a stereo file individually.

Open a stereo .wav file and select all data.

Click . The file is played in stereo.

Single-channel editing

Tab

Press . The left channel is selected.

Click . Only the mono left channel is played.

Tab

Press . The right channel is selected.

Click . Only the mono right channel is played.

Stereo files are held together by the nature of their stereo format. Because of this, certain editing operations (such as

Cut or Paste) cannot be performed on a single channel of a stereo

file. Attempting to alter the duration of a single channel of a stereo file will result in an error message.

Channel lengths must remain equal in stereo files. Frequently, this issue can be “sidestepped” by copying a single channel of a stereo file to the clipboard. Once this mono selection is located on the clipboard, you can do any of the following:

• Paste it into a mono file.

• Paste it in both channels of a stereo file.

• Mix it into a single channel of a stereo file.

• Mix it into both channels of a stereo file.

Note:

When mixing mono clipboard data to a stereo file, the Mono to Stereo dialog prompts you to mix it to the right, left, or both channels.

CHP. 4 CONTROLS

Getting Help within Sound Forge

You are able to access two varieties of help within Sound Forge:

• Online help

• What’s This? help (also referred to as context-sensitive help)

Online Help

To view online help, Internet Explorer 4.0 or later must be installed on your system.

Accessing Online Help

To access online help, choose Contents from the Help menu.

To access online help, press .

Help Topics dialog

The Sound Forge online help dialog contains four tabs used to locate information within Online Help:

The Contents tab

Contents, Index, Search, and Favorites.

The Contents tab provides a categorized listing of available Help topics.

Select the appropriate book and topic page

CHP. 4 CONTROLS

Using the Contents tab

To use the Contents tab to browse for information:

Double-click the book ( ) to be browsed. The topic pages appropriate to the selected book are displayed.

Select the topic page ( ) corresponding to the desired information. The topic page is displayed in the information pane.

The Index tab

The Index tab provides a complete listing of available help topics.

Enter a word in the text field

Select the appropriate index entry

Using the Index tab

Scroll through the list of available index entries or enter a word in the Type in the keyword

to find

edit box.

Select an index entry and click Display. The topic is displayed in the information pane.

CHP. 4 CONTROLS

The Search tab

The Search tab allows you to enter any keyword and display all topics in online help containing that specified keyword.

Enter a general keyword

Select a topic

Using the Search tab

Enter a keyword in the Type in word(s) to search for: edit box and click the List Topics

button. Appropriate topics are displayed in the

Select a topic and click Display. The topic is displayed in the information pane.

CONTROLS CHP. 4

Select topic area.

The Favorites tab

The Favorites tab allows you to archive frequently accessed help topics for quick retrieval.

Favorites tab

Using the Favorites tab

Locate a help topic using any of the previously described methods.

Click the Favorites tab. The current topic is listed in the Current topic edit box.

Click Add. The topic is added to the Favorites tab and can be retrieved in the future by clicking Display.

What’s This? Help

What's This? help allows you to view pop-up descriptions of the application’s dialog boxes.

Accessing What’s This? Help in a dialog

Click in the upper right-hand corner of the dialog.

Click a dialog item. Appropriate What’s This? help is displayed.

Help on the Web

Additional Sound Forge information is available on the Sonic Foundry Web site. From the

Help menu, choose Sonic Foundry on the Web, and choose the desired location from the

submenu. Sound Forge starts your system’s browser and attempts to connect to the appropriate page on the Sonic Foundry Web site.

CHP. 4 CONTROLS

CONTROLS CHP. 4

CHAPTER

Fundamentals

Sound Forge is a state-of-the-art digital audio editing tool with users from all musical backgrounds. It is an extremely deep program, containing features that may only be required by the most advanced or specialized users. Nonetheless, a firm grasp of Sound Forge basics is essential. This chapter is designed to provide you with information on the Sound Forge fundamentals.

Opening a file

From the File menu, choose Open. The Open dialog is displayed. For more information, see

The Open dialog on page 74.

Click the

Select the Tutor1.wav file (the application searches for .wav files by default).

Note:

the application.

Click Open. Sound Forge opens the audio file and displays a data window containing the waveform.

CHP. 5 FUNDAMENTALS

This file is located in the same folder as

Open () button.

File is Displayed in the Data Window

The Open dialog

The Open dialog contains several features that allow you to locate audio files.

File Information Display

File of type

Select to Preview Files

The Files of type drop-down list is used to specify the file format the application will search for in the system. Sound Forge supports several popular file formats.

Recent

The Recent drop-down list contains recently accessed folders.

Auto play

Selecting the Auto play check box configures Sound Forge to automatically preview .wav files as they are selected in the Open dialog.

Note:

You can also preview .wav files by

selecting the file and clicking Play.

FUNDAMENTALS CHP. 5

File information display

If the application recognizes the format of the selected file, information regarding its format, length, and attributes is displayed in the lower pane of the Open dialog. The following table describes each of these values.

File type Indicates the type of the selected file. Format Indicates the format of the selected file. Unity note If the selected file is a sample, this is the MIDI note that will trigger a sampler

to play the sound file at its original pitch. SMPTE Displays the SMPTE offset for the selected file if an offset has been defined. Length Indicates the length of the select file in seconds and samples. Attributes Indicates the bit depth, sample rate, and channels value of the selected file. Loop(s) Displays information about loops that have been defined in the selected file. Rgns/Playlist Indicates if the file contains regions on its Regions List or Playlist. Comments Displays any comments included in the file.

CHP. 5 FUNDAMENTALS

Playing a file

After a file is opened, it can be played by clicking the Play All ( ) button on the Transport toolbar. For more information, see The Transport toolbar on page 46.

File position indicators

As a file is played, the current playback position is indicated in the data window using three methods:

• A pointer travels across the visible portion of the data window.

• The current playback position in relation to the entire file is represented in the

• The first selection status field in the playbar displays the current position in the user-

specified format. For more information, see Status formats on page 98.

Overview.

Overview current position

Data window cursor

Status format value

FUNDAMENTALS CHP. 5

Playing a file from a specified point

Sound Forge also allows you to begin playback from any point in a file.

Click, but do not drag, the mouse pointer in the data window. A flashing cursor (spanning the height of the waveform display) is displayed.

Click the Play ( ) button on the Transport toolbar. The file is played from the cursor position.

If no playback is heard, a small selection may inadvertently have been created. To determine if a selection was created, examine the status fields in the bottom right-hand corner of the data window’s status bar.

Status fields

• If only the first field contains a value, there is no selection.

• If all three fields contain values, a selection has been created. The selection can be cleared by clicking anywhere in the data window.

For more information, see Selection status fields on page 78.

CHP. 5 FUNDAMENTALS

Playing an audio selection

Specific portions of audio data can be played by creating selections in the waveform display.

Drag the mouse within the data window. Notice that the waveform is selected as the mouse is dragged.

Click the Play ( ) button. Only the selection is played.

Create a selection on the waveform

Selection status fields

When a selection exists, the selection status fields in the bottom right-hand corner of the data window contain values. These values indicate the start, end, and length of the selection.

Selection status fields

No selection

Selection

Beginning Value End Value Selection Length

Status field format

You are able to display status field values in any format supported by Sound Forge. For more information, see Status formats on page 98.

FUNDAMENTALS CHP. 5

Viewing selection statistics

Choosing Statistics from the Tools menu will display a Statistics dialog corresponding to the current selection. The following table describes all statistical categories displayed in the Statistics dialog.

Cursor Position The cursor position (in samples) from the start of the audio file. Sample Value at Cursor The actual number stored by a single sample. The maximum

Maximum/Minimum Sample Position and Sample Value

RMS Power The Root Mean Square of the sample values relative to the RMS

Average Value (DC Offset) The sum of all sample values in the selected region divided by the

Zero-Crossings The number of times per second that the waveform fluctuates

allowed sample value is often referred to as 100% or 0 dB. The maximum and minimum sample values and the locations (in

samples) where they occur.

These values may help determine if clipping will occur in the audio file. These values can also be used to determine the noise level of a signal for use with a Noise Gate. For example, to determine the noise amplitude of a file, run Statistics on a region of noisy silence.

value of a maximum-amplitude square wave (the loudest possible recording).

On short intervals, this value relates to the volume level of the audio file. If used on a large selection with large volume variation, this value becomes less meaningful.

number of samples. If this value is not zero, it usually indicates a DC offset in the recording process.

from a negative to a positive value.

This value can be used as a rough estimate of the frequency of the audio data for very simple waveforms.

Note:

If Statistics is run without a selection,

statistics are displayed for the entire file.

FUNDAMENTALS CHP. 5

Creating a new data window

Before a new file can be created, its attributes must be configured in a data window.

From the File menu, choose New. The New Window dialog is displayed.

Choose a sample rate from the Sample rate drop-down list.

Choose a bit depth from the Bit depth drop-down list.

Select the desired Channels radio button and click OK. A new data window with the specified attributes is created and displayed.

For more information, see File attributes on page 111.

Active data windows vs. inactive data windows

New Window dialog

When multiple data windows are displayed on the workspace, only the window currently being edited is active, and all operations affect this window exclusively.

Activating a window

To activate a data window, click anywhere within it. The title bar changes to the color defined as the active window color and the previously active window is deactivated.

Note:

the

Choosing Focus to Data Window from

View menu will also result in the focus

being returned to the current data window.

FUNDAMENTALS CHP. 5

Copying data to a new file

New audio files can be created by copying data to a new data window.

Open an audio file and create a selection.

From the Edit menu, choose Copy. The selection is copied to the clipboard.

Click the

Create a new data window. For more information, see Creating a new data window on page

80.

From the Edit menu, choose Paste. The selected data is pasted in the new data window.

Click the

Saving a file

From the File menu, choose Save.

When saving a new file, the Save As dialog is displayed. If the file was previously saved, choosing

Copy ( ) button in the Transport toolbar

Selection is pasted in the new window

Paste ( ) button in the Transport toolbar

Save automatically saves the file without your input.

In the File name box, enter a name for the file and click Save. Sound Forge adds the .wav extension and saves the file.

FUNDAMENTALS CHP. 5

The Save As dialog

The Save As dialog allows you to save an audio file with a new name, in an alternate format, or with new attributes.

Specify File Type

Specify Recent Directories

Specify File Format

Specify Bit Depth, Sample Rate, and Channels

Specify Saving Region/Playlist Information

Select to Save Summary Information

Save as type

The Save as type drop-down list allows you to choose any format supported by Sound Forge.

Recent

The Recent drop-down list allows you to access frequently used folders.

Format

The Format drop-down list is used to choose the format in which the data is saved. Audio files are typically saved in the PCM format; however, other formats are available for compression purposes.

Attributes

The Attributes drop-down list is used to specify the file’s sample rate, bit depth, and channels (mono or stereo) values.

FUNDAMENTALS CHP. 5

Regions/Playlist

The Regions/Playlist drop-down list is used to specify options for saving Regions List/Playlist information.

Save Summary Information in file

Selecting the Save Summary Information in File check box allows summary information to be saved in applicable files formats. For more information, see Summary information on page 120.

Creating Custom Templates

If the file type you select supports it, you can create custom templates for saving files by clicking the Custom button.

Note:

If a file type supports custom templates, a Custom button displays next to the

Te mp l a te drop-down list after you choose

the file type.

Once you click the Custom button, a Custom Settings dialog appears. You can choose your own template name and properties. When you are finished editing the template properties, click the OK button. Your template name will display in the

Te mp la t e drop-down on the

Save As dialog.

Note:

For information about specific controls in each file type’s Custom Settings dialog, click the What’s This? button and click the item.

Saving all open audio files

Choosing Save All from the File menu will automatically prompt you to save all open audio files on the current workspace before closing them.

Note:

All

Holding while choosing the Save

command will automatically save and close

all open files without your input.

Shift

FUNDAMENTALS CHP. 5

Saving/opening the workspace

Complex audio editing projects often consist of numerous data windows in various stages of completion. To accommodate large projects, Sound Forge allows you to save the entire workspace as an alternative to saving individual files. Workspaces are saved as Sound Forge Workspace files (.sfw) and when opened, restore all files to their previous sizes, positions, and views.

Saving the current workspace

From the File menu, choose Workspace, and choose Save As from the submenu. The Save

Workspace dialog is displayed.

Browse to the folder where the file will be saved.

Enter a name for the file in the File name box and click Save.

Opening a workspace

From the File menu, choose Workspa ce, and choose Open from the submenu. The Open

Workspace dialog is displayed.

Browse to the folder containing the desired .sfw file.

Select the desired file and click Open.

E-mailing audio files

Choosing Send from the File menu allows you to send the current audio file via electronic mail by launching your e-mail program, opening a new message, and embedding the active audio file in it. Using this feature, all contents of the audio file are inserted into the message and any changes that have been made to the file must be saved before the message can be sent.

FUNDAMENTALS CHP. 5

Audio editing

New Sound Forge users should remember that even the most complex editing is derived from a few simple operations: following table provides a brief description of Sound Forge’s basic editing operations.

Copy Copies data from the window to the clipboard. Paste Inserts the contents of the clipboard into the window at the current cursor

Cut Deletes data from the window and copies it to the clipboard. Clear/Delete Deletes data from the window, but does not copy it to the clipboard. Trim/Crop Deletes all data in the window, with the exception of the selection. Mix Mixes data from the clipboard with the data in the current window, starting at

Editing tutorial

The following procedures will familiarize you with Sound Forge’s basic editing operations. These procedures use files which are located in the same folder as the application. While working through these procedures, these files should remain open and be modified as described.

Copy, Paste, Cut, Clear/Delete, Tr im /C ro p, and Mix. The

position. If a selection exists in the data window, the pasted data replaces the current selection.

the current cursor position or the start of the current selection.

FUNDAMENTALS CHP. 5

Copy

Audio data can be copied from a data window to the clipboard without changing the original file. Once on the clipboard, data can be pasted into existing files or used to create new ones.

Copying data to the clipboard

Open the Tutor1.wav file.

Create a selection containing “Wow.”

Choose Copy from the Edit menu

Create a selection in the waveform

Data is copied to the clipboard, but the waveform is unchanged

From the Edit menu, choose Copy. The selected data is copied to the clipboard.

Click the

FUNDAMENTALS CHP. 5

Copy ( ) button or press .

Ctrl + C

Previewing clipboard contents

To preview the contents of the clipboard, choose Clipboard from to the View menu, and choose

Play from the submenu.

Note:

Detailed information regarding the size and attributes of the clipboard contents can also be displayed by choosing the

View menu and Contents from the

Clipboard from

submenu.

Recycling clipboard contents

Once on the clipboard, data can be pasted or mixed into an infinite number of windows. Data remains on the clipboard until it is replaced by new data.

FUNDAMENTALS CHP. 5

Paste

Once on the clipboard, data can be pasted or mixed into an existing data window or used to create a new data window.

Pasting data in an existing data window

Move the cursor to the beginning of the Tutor1.wav file by clicking the Go To Start () button in the

From the Edit menu, choose Paste. The clipboard data is inserted into the file and the data for “Wow” is displayed on the left-hand side of the waveform.

Playbar. For more information, see The Playbar on page 42.

Select Paste From the Edit menu

Clipboard contents are pasted Into the data window

Click the

To confirm that the data has been pasted into the file, click Play . “Wow, Wow. Sound

Paste ( ) button or press .

Ctrl + V

editing just gets easier and easier,” is played.

Pasting in a new data window

To use data from the clipboard to create a new data window, go to the Edit menu, choose

Paste Special, and choose Paste to New from the submenu. A new window containing the

clipboard data is created in a single step.

FUNDAMENTALS CHP. 5

Cut

The Cut command allows you to remove a section of audio data from a data window and store it on the clipboard until it is pasted or mixed into another file. When deciding between

Cut and Copy, consider the following:

• Copying data has no effect on the original file.

• Cutting data modifies the original file (also referred to as a destructive edit).

Cutting data from a window

Create a selection containing the second “Wow” (there should be two if the examples are being followed) in Tutor1.wav.

Create a selection

Choose Cut from the Edit menu

Selection is removed from the data window and placed on the clipboard

From the Edit menu, choose Cut. The selected data is removed from file and placed on the clipboard.

Click the

Click Play . “Wow. Sound editing just gets easier and easier,” is played.

FUNDAMENTALS CHP. 5

Cut ( ) button or press .

Ctrl + X

Previewing a Cut

Even with Undo capabilities, a cut is a destructive edit. For this reason, Sound Forge allows you to preview cuts prior to performing the edit. This allows you to determine if the selection was made accurately and the results are desirable.

Create a selection anywhere in Tutor1.wav.

Choose Preview Cut/Cursor from the Edit menu. Sound Forge ignores the selection, playing the audio before and after the selection to allow you to preview the cut.

Create a selection

Choose Preview Cut/Cursor from the Edit menu

Configuring cut pre-roll and post-roll lengths

Frequently, the default pre-roll and post-roll lengths are insufficient to evaluate the accuracy of an edit. For this reason, Sound Forge allows you to configure pre-roll and post-roll lengths.

From the Options menu, choose Preferences. The Preferences dialog is displayed.

Click the Other tab.

Configure the Pre-roll and Po s t-r oll values in the Cut preview configuration area of the dialog and click OK.

Delete (Clear)

Delete permanently removes the selection without replacing the data currently residing on

the clipboard. To delete data, choose

Delete

Press .

FUNDAMENTALS CHP. 5

Delete (Clear) from the Edit menu.

Trim/Crop

The Trim/Crop command allows you to retain a selection while deleting all surrounding data.

Trimming/cropping an audio selection

Create a selection containing “Wow, sound editing just gets easier” in Tutor1.wav, but do not select the second “easier.”

Choose Trim/Crop from the Edit menu

Create a selection

Only the selected audio remains

Choose Trim/Crop from the Edit menu. Only “Wow, sound editing just gets easier” remains in the data window.

FUNDAMENTALS CHP. 5

Mix

Mixing is a powerful editing function that allows two sounds to be combined into a single waveform.

Mixing audio

Open and play the Tutor2.wav file. A snare drum and crash cymbal are heard.

Note:

Tutor2.wav is located in the same folder as the application.

Verify that the Tutor1.wav window is active and choose Select All from the Edit menu. The entire waveform is selected.

Choose Copy from the Edit menu.

To copy audio data, click or press .

Activate the Tutor1.wav data window and click the Go To Start ( ) button on the

Playbar. The cursor is moved to the start of the file.

Ctrl + C

FUNDAMENTALS CHP. 5

From the Edit menu, choose Paste Special, and choose Mix from the submenu. The Mix dialog is displayed.

Click .

Set both faders to 0dB

Verify that the Source and Destination Vol ume faders are set to 0 dB and click OK. The drum hit is mixed equally with the spoken passage and is displayed accordingly.

Both waveforms are combined

Preview the file and notice that, unlike

Paste, mixing does not change the length of the

file.

FUNDAMENTALS CHP. 5

Undo/redo an edit operation

Sound Forge encourages experimentation by allowing you to easily undo/redo edit operations.

• Any newly performed edit operation can be undone by choosing

Undo from the Edit

menu.

• Any newly undone edit operation can be redone by choosing

Click the

Click the Redo ( ) button on the

Disabling Undo/Redo

Undo ( ) button on the Standard toolbar or press .

Standard toolbar or press .

Redo from the Edit menu.

Ctrl + Z

Ctrl + Shift + Z

Maintaining an Undo/Redo History for a file requires disk space, processing power, and a negligible amount of time. When working on large files, it is often advantageous to turn off the

Undo/Redo History feature. This feature must be turned off on a per-file basis. Be aware

however, that turning off this feature results in the

Undo and Redo commands being

unavailable for all operations performed on that file.

To turn off the

Undo/Redo History, choose Disable Undo/Redo from the Edit menu. A check

mark is displayed adjacent to the command to indicate that the feature is turned off. In addition, the title bar of the file’s data window indicates that the feature is turned off. To turn on this feature, choose

Note:

The application does not modify the

Disable Undo/Redo from the Edit menu a second time.

original file unless it is opened in direct or mode. Therefore, until the file is re-saved, it can be recovered by re-opening it.However, saved changes are permanent.

FUNDAMENTALS CHP. 5

Undo/Redo History window

The Undo/Redo History window may seem confusing at first, but you will find it invaluable once you have mastered it. This window allows the audio file to be auditioned in various versions by undoing/redoing multiple operations. To display the choose

Undo/Redo History from the View menu.

Using the Undo/Redo History window

Verify that the Tutor1.wav data window is active and choose Undo/Redo History from the

View menu. The Undo/Redo History window is displayed. If the previous procedures have

been performed, it should appear as follows:

Undo/Redo History window,

Performed operations

Play buttons

Undone operations

Current Undo/Redo History window

Notice that the

Mix operation is displayed at the top of the Undo pane. The most recent

operations are always displayed at the top of the appropriate list.

FUNDAMENTALS CHP. 5

In the Undo pane, click the corresponding to the Mix operation. The audio file is played without the drum track.

Play the pre-mix file

Select the Mix operation and choose Undo from the Edit menu. The drum track is extracted from the Tutor1.wav data window and the

Mix operation is moved to the Redo

pane.

Choose Undo from the Edit menu

In the Redo pane, click the corresponding to the Mix operation. The audio file is played with the mixed drum track.

Select the Mix operation again and choose Redo from the Edit menu. The drum track is remixed into the Tutor1.wav waveform and the

Mix operation is returned to the Undo

pane.

Select the Trim/Crop operation in the Undo pane and click . Only the Mix operation is undone and moved to the

Redo pane. This is due to the fact that operations can only be

undone or redone in the order originally performed.

FUNDAMENTALS CHP. 5

Double-click on the Cut operation in the Undo pane. The Cut and Trim/Crop operations are both undone in the waveform and moved to the

Double-click the Cut operation

Redo pane.

To view the

Undo/Redo History window, press . To quickly undo/redo

operations in the

Undo/Redo History window, double-click on the operation.

Alt + 8

Clearing the Undo/Redo History for the current file

Clearing the current file’s Undo/Redo History will free up disk space by deleting the file’s temporary undo/redo files. However, deleting these temporary files will prevent you from undoing changes made to the file since it was last saved. To clear the the current file, go to the

Special menu, choose Undo/Redo History, and choose Clear from

Undo/Redo History for

the submenu.

Clearing the Undo/Redo History for all open files

Sound Forge also allows you to simultaneously clear the Undo/Redo History for all open files. Once again, however, you will not be able to undo any previous changes once these histories are deleted. To clear the

Undo/Redo History, and choose Clear All from the submenu.

Undo/Redo History for all open files, go to the Special menu, choose

FUNDAMENTALS CHP. 5

Status formats

The status format determines how the application displays a file’s position and length information. The following table briefly describes status formats that Sound Forge supports:

Samples Number of samples Time Hours, minutes, seconds, and milliseconds Seconds Seconds and fractions of seconds Time & Frames Hours, minutes, seconds, and frames, as defined by the Edit Frame Rate

Absolute Frames Frames and fractions of frames Measures & Beats Measures, beats and 1/4’s of a beat SMPTE Non-Drop SMPTE at 30 or 29.97 frames per second (fps) non-drop SMPTE Drop SMPTE at 30 fps with drop frames SMPTE EBU SMPTE at 25 fps SMPTE Film Sync SMPTE at 24 fps

How status formats work

The Tutor1.wav file can be used to demonstrate how status formats affect values in the status display fields.

Open the Tutor1.wav file.

From the Options menu, choose Status Format, and choose Samples from the submenu.

command (located on the Special menu)

Select all data in the Tutor1.wav window by choosing Select All from the Edit menu. Notice the selection status fields.

• The first selected sample is sample 0.

• The last selected sample is 220,506.

• The total number of samples in the selection is 220,507.

From the Options menu, choose Status Format, and choose Time from the submenu. Notice that status values change from samples to hours, minutes, and seconds.

From the Options menu, choose Status Format, and choose SMPTE Non-Drop from the submenu. Notice that status values change to hours, minutes, seconds, and frames.

FUNDAMENTALS CHP. 5

Sony Sound Forge User Guide

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Introduction

Introducing Sound Forge

Using This Manual

Full version of Sound Forge versus Sound Forge XP

Shortcuts

Installation

To install Sound Forge

What’s New?

Extended bit-depth and sample rate support

Bit-depth

Sample rate

Acoustic Mirror

Built-in DirectX FX Plug-Ins

CD Writing

CD Ripping

Wave Hammer

Repair tools

Bit-Depth Converter

MP3 Plug-In

Sonic Foundry Perfect Clarity Audio (.pca) format

New registration procedure

Optimization

Hard drive defragmentation

Windows 9x/Me default settings

Direct mode

Opening a file in direct mode

Peak files

Faster file saving

Relocating the temporary storage folder

The Sound Mapper

Preventing audio breakup

Total Buffer Size

Editing the total buffer size

Preload Size

Changing the preload size

Forced Write-Through During Record (Windows 9x and Me only)

Disabling Forced Write-Through During Record

Playback cursor and record counter

Turning off the playback cursor and record counter

Meters

Turning off the play (output) meters

Turning off the record meters

Passive updating for video and time displays

Enable passively updated time displays

Enable passively updated video displays

Scan for external monitor

Turning off scan for external monitor

Background processing

Running multiple applications

Controls

Using the mouse

Using the mousewheel

The main screen

Main screen components

The data window

Data window components

Displaying data window components

The Playbar

Toolbars

Available toolbars

Displaying a toolbar

The Standard toolbar

The Transport toolbar

Navigation toolbar

Views toolbar

Status/Selection toolbar

Regions/Playlist toolbar

Process toolbar

The Effects toolbar

The Tools toolbar

The Levels toolbar

ACID Loop Creation Tools toolbar

ToolTips

Command descriptions

Controls

Vertical faders and horizontal sliders