The Application menu has the usual commands which apply to the application as a whole, and also the usual system commands. Only the commands which apply to Transcribe! itself are described here.
This command displays the version number and other information about this copy of Transcribe!
This command displays a dialog allowing you to alter some global aspects of Transcribe!'s behaviour.
No playback in background
If this box is checked then Transcribe! will stop playback while any other application is active. Otherwise playback continues while Transcribe! is in the background.
Show waveform volume changes
This affects the display of the waveform profile : when you adjust playback volume with the slider at the left of the profile, should the graphic of the profile itself be scaled too? This is purely cosmetic, according to taste.
Playback loop delay
When looping playback is on, you can choose to have a pause after each time the segment is played before it starts to play again. This gives you a bit of time to think and to write down what you hear.
Min: 0 Max: 10 Default: 0 (seconds).
Playback buffer size
When Transcribe! has prepared some audio to be played it puts it in the playback buffer and hands it to the sound driver to be queued for playing. If the buffer is too short then you may get playback glitches - short slivers of silence. If the buffer is long then Transcribe!'s response to such things as volume and pitch changes gets slow, as these changes can only take effect after the present buffer contents have been played.
Min: 2 Max: 20 Default: 3 (tenths of a second).
Audio source buffer size
Sometimes, heavy computation is required to obtain audio data from the Sound file ready for playback. This is particularly true when decoding MP3 files and when you use slowed-down playback. Transcribe! buffers the audio source data, and you can choose the buffer size in seconds. On a faster machine a short buffer will provide a faster response, while on a slow machine you may want a longer buffer so as to get longer stretches of uninterrupted playback. If Transcribe! is unable to keep up then a dialog appears from time to time saying "Pre-computing audio data", while the buffer is refilled. The buffer length applies to the duration after any slowing down has been applied.
You can always avoid this problem by using the Copy to File command.
Min: 0 Max: 10 Default: 4 (seconds).
Adjust Keyboard Timbre
This button brings up the Adjust Timbre dialog which allows you to adjust the timbre of the sound generated by Transcribe! when you mouse-button the keyboard graphic.
Adjust Timbre of Keyboard and Tuning Notes Dialog
This dialog allows you to change the timbre (the tonal quality) of notes generated by Transcribe! when you mouse-button the keyboard, and also of reference notes used for tuning comparison. This is a global option.
The point is that the timbre of a note can sometimes affect your ability to hear its pitch clearly, so adjust it according to your taste.
A choice of triangle or square wave is offered. The slider adjusts the symmetry of the wave : "mild" gives a symmetrical wave while "savage" is very asymmetrical and thus has more harmonics.
Label piano keys if wider than . . .
Transcribe! always labels the C's on the piano keyboard, giving their MIDI octave numbers for reference. If you want then you can also have note names appear on all the white notes. If you specify 0 here (the default) then Transcribe! will only label the C's. Otherwise, Transcribe! will label all the white notes whenever their size on the screen is wider than the number of pixels you specify. About 20 or 30 is usually a suitable sort of value.
In new windows . . .
Here you can specify your preferences for the initial state of new transcription
windows when they are first opened. You can choose whether the piano and/or spectrum
should be displayed, and whether auto-scroll and loop should be enabled.
"Fit whole file" causes new transcriptions to be scaled so the whole file fits the
window, like the Fit Whole File
command on the View menu.
The "Set size and keyboard position from current window" button is only enabled
if you currently have a transcription open.
It records the size and position of the transcription
window and also the position of the piano keyboard (if you have scrolled the keyboard
position, which notes appear at the top and bottom). Subsequently when you launch
Transcribe! the first transcription you open will appear in this size and position,
and subsequent ones will have the same size, with their positions cascaded in the
usual way.
Also when you open a transcription the initial piano keyboard position will be
set from what was recorded.
Just as it says, this hides Transcribe! without quitting the app. Click on Transcribe!'s icon in the Dock to bring it back.
Use this command to end your Transcribe! session. Transcribe! prompts you to save transcriptions with unsaved changes.