CHAPTER TWO - MONITORING & PLAYBACK CONTROLS

When HyperEngine is launched, you will see a group of floating control palettes appear at the left of your screen. These are used to control HyperEngine's monitoring, metering and playback.

The Playback palette contains two parts: listening mode controls and transport controls.

Listening Mode Controls

The top part of the playback palette contains nine elements (three rows and three columns) which let you select the listening mode. The green lights indicate which listening mode is currently active. From top to bottom, the three rows represent mute mode, bypass mode and processed mode. You can independently select the left or right channel, or switch both channels at once by clicking on the center column.

Using these controls, you may mute either channel individually, or hear the original sound in one channel while monitoring the processed sound in the other.

Note that in the case of mono (one-channel) source sound files, the setting of the left channel will apply to both left and right channel playback. Note also that mono sounds are "panned center" on playback, so they're heard equally through both the left and right speakers.

The Playback Palette and Tape Transport controls may be closed by clicking the small window close box in it's upper left corner. If you close it, and then want to re-open it later, choose the Play Back item in the Window menu.

Hearing Effects

To hear the results of effects processes, click the multi-colored button in the center of the bottom row. The green lights indicate the bottom row is active and effects processes will be monitored.

Bypassing Effects

To Bypass effects and hear the unprocessed sound file, hit the black button at the center of the middle row. The green lights indicate the middle row is active and only the original sound will be monitored.

Muting Playback

To mute playback entirely, click the center button of the top row.

Transport Controls

The items in the lower part of the Playback palette lets you control the playback of your sound file, much like a traditional tape transport.

transport controls in the Playback palette

Clicking on the Play button begins sound file playback from the beginning of the area selected in the FX window's waveform overview. The space bar is a keyboard shortcut for Play. Note that the space bar is also the Pause shortcut.

Playback normally begins at the start of the current selection; however, if you reposition the cursor within the selection, playback will begin at the new cursor location.

Playback only works if an area of the sound file (or the entire sound file) has been selected by highlighting it in the FX window's waveform overview. If the Play button won't work (and its status "LED" won't light) try selecting an area of the sound file by mouse-dragging in the waveform overview.

The Stop button stops HyperEngine playback and recording. The Return key is a shortcut for the Stop button.

The Pause button suspends playback, and allows playback to resume from the current cursor position in the FX window's waveform overview. The space bar is a keyboard shortcut for the Pause button.

The Playback Palette and Transport may be closed by clicking the small window close box in its upper left corner. If you close it, and then want to re-open it later, use the Window menu.

Peak Meters

HyperEngine's meters inform you of possible overloads in the signal level. In the upper part of the scale, orange "LEDs" light up to indicate that the level is approaching the saturation point. Red "LEDs" at the top indicate that one or more samples have been clipped. Note that there is no consensus on how may consecutively clipped samples constitute "a problem;" many devices won't show clipping of a single sample. However, HyperEngine indicates a single clipped sample. The red clip indicator "LEDs" remain lit even if playback is interrupted by clicking on Pause or Stop. To turn the red "LEDs" off, click on the reset button in the top center of the peak meter window. When an effect is on, HyperEngine's meters indicate the level at the output of the effect (i.e., post-effect).

The left and right sides of the Meters reflect energy in the left and right channels. Mono sounds are panned center by HyperEngine, so both Meters are active when playing mono files.

Because some effects can increase the level of your original sounds, it is possible to introduce unintended digital distortion during processing. If this happens, you can use the output faders (described next) to reduce the overall level.

The Peak Meters may be closed by clicking the small window close box in its upper left corner. If you close it, and then want to re-open it later, choose the Peak Meters item in the Window menu.

Faders

The faders are graphic potentiometers that control the gain or attenuation of the output signal. They are located to the right of the peak meters by default. When an effect is on, Hyperprism's faders affect the level at the output of the effects process (i.e., post-effect).

Each channel is independent. The fader palette contains:

Two indicator columns (left and right) graduated from &endash;18 dB to +18 dB.

Two faders, left and right. These can be independent or grouped together. The faders are aligned to 0 dB by default. To move both faders simultaneously, click the knob in the middle and drag the mouse up or down. You can click and drag individual fader handles if you wish. To bring left and right channels to the same level, simply click the center fader control and the left and right faders will both jump to that level. Three buttons at the bottom of the window each show 0. Click on one of them to reset the faders to 0 (left, right, or left and right simultaneously).

You can change the fader levels during playback. If you want to change the gain, be prudent when increasing the level, as you might overload ears and your loudspeakers. If you saturate the digital-to-analog converter hardware, the red LEDs in the peak meters light up. They remain lit until you explicitly turn them off with the reset button at the top of the meters.

The Fader window may be closed by clicking the small window close box in it's upper left corner. If you close it, and then want to re-open it later, choose the Faders item in the Windows menu.

Time Display

The Time Display shows run time as a sound is played back. It displays hours, minutes, seconds and hundredths of a second. The display increments as looped sounds are played, so that total running time is always shown.

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