User manual SONIC FOUNDRY SOUND FORGE XP

[. . . ] 1 INTRODUCTION I NTRODUCTION I NTRODUCI NG SOU N D FORGE XP Sound Forge XP is a compact, easy-to-use digital audio editing solution for the Windows platform. With a Windows-compatible sound card, Sound Forge XP gives you the ability to record, edit and process professional-quality digital audio files. Sound Forge XP supports an extensive set of file formats, allowing you to develop audio for training and business presentations, Web content, musical recordings, computer games, and digital video productions. The latest version of Sound Forge XP offers expanded file format support, including Microsoft Video for Windows (AVI), RealAudio and RealVideo (RA, RM), and Active Streaming Format (ASF) files using Microsoft NetShow. [. . . ] · Adjust the spinner while holding down both mouse buttons to see the finer increment resolution (or hold down the Control key). 118 RECORDING DROP-DOWN LIST For an example of this control, display the Pitch Bend dialog. Choose Pitch Bend from the Effects menu. To select an item from a drop-down list, click on the drop-down list and select (highlight) the item. If you have to scroll through a large list, click on the scroll buttons or use the arrow keys. The Pitch Bend dialog uses a drop-down list to select the channels of a stereo source. P USH B UT TON To use a push button, left-click on it or press the Spacebar while it is selected. In the Pitch Bend dialog, the OK, Cancel, Help, and Reset Envelope controls are push buttons. 119 RECORDING CH ECK BOX A check box, as its name implies, is a square box you can check or leave blank. They are used to turn a feature on or off. The Create Undo and Show Wave controls on the Pitch Bend dialog are check boxes. ENVELOP E GR AP H Envelope graphs are used to draw the shape of a frequency or amplitude envelope that will be applied. The horizontal axis represents time, with the left-most point specifying the start of the selection and the right-most point specifying the end of the selection. The vertical axis represents either amplitude or frequency. To create a new knob on the graph, left-click anywhere on the line connecting the envelope points and drag the knob in any direction, like pulling a rubber band. You can delete a knob by double-clicking or right-clicking within it. To reset the graph (delete all knobs) click on the Reset Envelope button. 120 RECORDING MOVI NG M U LTI P LE ENVELOP E POI NTS To select and move more than one envelope point at once: 1. Click on an unused section of the Envelope Graph in the Pitch Bend dialog. While holding the mouse button down, drag the mouse. A dotted-line selection square will appear. Move the mouse to surround the points to move with the selection square. The selected points will now be colored red. To move all of the selected points, drag any one of the points. You can also select all points by pressing Control+A when the Envelope Graph is active. DISP L AYI NG TH E WAVEFOR M ON AN ENVELOP E GR AP H Some envelope graphs (such as in the Graphic Fade or the Pitch Bend dialogs) allow you to view the waveform of the selected data region on the graph. If the selection is small, the waveform is automatically displayed. Otherwise, you must select the Show wave check box. If you have a stereo file, you can choose between displaying the Left channel only, Right channel only, or Mix channels in the drop-down list. R ADIO B UT TON Radio buttons always come in groups of two or more. For examples of radio buttons, display the Chorus dialog from the Effects menu. Radio buttons are like the radio station selector in a car radio; turn one on and the rest turn off. [. . . ] If you did everything correctly, a Sound Forge XP Audio object will now be embedded in your document. After the Sound Forge XP Audio object has been created and embedded into the document, you can edit it at any time using Sound Forge XP by doubleclicking on the object in your document. 279 APPENDIX F TI PS AN D LI M ITATIONS As mentioned above, Sound Forge XP Audio objects are implemented as links to existing sound files on your hard disk or network server. Because of this, there are some limitations you should be aware of before using the OLE support in Sound Forge XP. LI N KS CAN B E B ROKEN, B UT NOT M EN DED The most important rule to bear in mind when using OLE with Sound Forge XP is that links can be broken, but not mended. When you create a Sound Forge XP Audio object, it stores only a link (which is a directory path) to the sound file. Sound Forge XP uses links because sound files tend to be very large and would usually not be acceptable to store along with your documents. [. . . ]