TO ORDER THE FULL WORKING VERSION OF THE 1.0 SOFTWARE
SEND $25.00 TO
ADC c/o SCIOTO TV
1628 Grandview Ave.
Portsmouth,Ohio 45662
(614) 354-1289 Ask for MIKE CORRIEL
This doc file explains the features of the program, a tutorial
version will be sent with your order.
Preface
Thank you for purchasing SoundEd. We have made this product to
be the best 8SVX sound editing software we believe available. It
is written entirely in machine code to optimize size, speed, and
features.
SoundEd has been designed with an intuitive user interface,
however, the documentation should be fully read to understand all
function of this program. In the following instructions, it will
be assumed that the user understands how to use the AMIGA family
of computers. If you have any questions on how to use your
AMIGA, consult your owners manual.
Program requirements
SoundEd will run on any properly configured AMIGA. Hopefully you
will have one megabyte of ram or more, but the program will run
on a 512K machine. The program has not been tested on a 256K
AMIGA 1000. Naturally with all variations of third party
products, the program cannot be tested on every possible
variation of machine. Please advise us of compatibility
problems, we will do our best to help.
Running the program
SoundEd may be run from the workbench by double clicking on the
program icon. The program may also be run from the cli by
entering run (pathname) Sound_Ed where "pathname" is the complete
path to the location of the SoundEd file. At this time the
SoundEd program is complete within one file, no other support
files are needed.
Overview
8SVX sound files have header data at the beginning of each file
that contain information on rate, stereo or mono, and if mono
data on what side the file is to be loaded on.
When the program is run, it will open up with two editing
windows, one for the left side of a sound file and one for the
right side of a file. Each editing window contains gadgets that
allow manipulation of the sound files. The format of the
documentation will be as follows: first we will take a look at
the various requesters that you will come across using the
program. Next we will look at the menus. Finally we will look at
the gadgets that can be used.
REQUESTERS
PLEASE WAIT
The please wait requester is a full screen requester that will
block the selection of any other gadgets during a program file
manipulation.
LOAD - SAVE
This is a requester that allows loading and saving of files for
the program. The requester is the common file requester format
used in most AMIGA programs now. There are a couple of ways to
select files for loads and saves. You can type the filename,
including full path to the file, in the name box and hit return
to load and save. The device gadgets can be selected (DH0: ram:
etc) and you can work your way through a path to a file for
selection. You can double click on a filename to do a load or
save (caution: the program does not verify file overwrites, be
careful when saving a new version of a file with the same
filename, it is possible to loose data.).
L - R
This requester appears when a file is being loaded and has no
data in the header (see above) to indicate what channel the file
should be loaded as. Select "L" to load in the left edit window
and "R" to load the file in the right edit window. This requester
will always appear when loading RAW files.
LOW MEMORY
This will appear when your computer encounters a low memory
condition. During the course of an editing session you may
choose a file manipulation technique that requires more free
memory than your system has available. Memory fragmentation may
also cause a low memory condition. Unless you have a utility
that can de-fragment memory, you can save your work to disk and
reboot as a work around for the fragmentation problem. This
requester will inform you of the ammount of available memory
your machine has and will also show the ammount of memory used
by the CUT buffer. If the CUT buffer is not needed, this memory
can be freed using the FREE menu selection.
SAVE FILES FIRST?
If you select "QUIT" menu or one of the "FREE" menu selections you will be presented with a chance to save your work first. If yes is selected, you will be sent back to the program and you can
select save to bring up the save requester. If no is selected
the menu selection operation will be invoked.
MENUS
Menus will be explained from left to right. Each selection under
a menu heading will be discussed before going to the nest menu
heading.
QUIT
There is only one selection under this heading...quit. This
exits the program. If there are files present in the edit
windows, you will be presented with the "save files first?"
requester to give you a second chance to save your work before
program exit. There is a keyboard shortcut for this selection,
The right Amiga - Q key combination.
TASK
The only selection under this heading, iconify, moves the program
into a tiny black box at the top of the workbench screen. It
also put the program into a waiting state, so it won't hinder the
other programs you may run during the iconified state. To resume
use of SoundEd, you click on the "icon" with the left and then
right mouse buttons. The keyboard shortcut for this selection is
right Amiga - I key combination.
FREE
There are four selections under this menu heading. Left, right,
both,and cut are possible selections. This will clear the left,
right, or both edit windows according to the selection made.
The cut selection will free the cut buffer if you have used it.
You will see the save files first? requester and be given a
chance to save your work before the edit windows are reset. The
keyboard shortcuts are as follows: right Amiga - L will new the
left edit window, right Amiga - R will new the right edit window,
and right Amiga - B will new both edit windows.
DIGITIZER
In addition to being a sound editing program, SoundEd can also be
used for sound digitizing. Because it has been designed to work
with various hardware configurations, you must select the
digitizing hardware from this menu. Digitizing hardware
supported at this time are SoundEd, PS_3.0 (Perfect Sound), and
Generic.(Perfect Sound 2.0)
The SoundEd selection permits sound recording with the SoundEd
digitizing hardware, for a full description of the SoundEd
hardware and it's uses, please refer to the hardware
documentation with it.
The PS_3.0 selection works with the Perfect Sound 3.0 digitizing
hardware. There is a hidden software volume control for this
hardware. Select the mouse on the word VOX beside the slider gadget and use the up/down arrow keys to set the volume.
MAIN SCREEN GADGETS
This section will describe the operation of the main control
gadgets you see when the program is started. These are the main
controls used in editing, copying, and ranging. The gadget
descriptions will be from left to right starting in the upper
row, then left to right in the lower row. Both the left and
right edit windows have the same gadgets, so the explanation for
each gadget will apply to the opposite edit window.
LEFT (RIGHT)
This box is for the left (right) side filename. It can also
contain status reports and error messages about files that are
being loaded.
LOAD
Selection of load will bring up a file requester listing
available files in the directory that SoundEd was started from.
You can select files with a double click of the left mouse
button. The filename can also be typed into the box for the name
and it will be loaded when you hit the carriage return key. When
the file is loaded, a waveform representation is drawn in the
edit window. The various gadgets in the load requester will be
covered in the section dealing with requesters.
RANG
This is the range in/out selector. The mouse can be used to
select a range in the waveform. The range selection procedure is
as follows: move the mouse pointer to the area in the file where
you want your range to begin. Click and hold the left mouse
button while dragging the pointer to the right. The area you
have dragged the pointer will now be highlighted in grey and is
your range area. If the range button is clicked, the waveform
drawing will changed to a zoomed view of the ranged area. If
RANG is selected when a file has been ranged into, the file will
range out by a factor of two to allow a larger working range.
All edit functions will work on the ranged selection. The SIZ
box will display the number of bytes per pixel when the left
mouse button is first pressed to begin range selection. The SIZ
number will increase as the mouse is moved during range
selection so the size of the ranged portion (in bytes) is known.
See also, TIM, BEG, and END.
CUT
This gadget will cut a section from the file. You must first
have a range selected in the edit window. The area colored grey
will be cut from the file. The CUT section will be held in a CUT
buffer ready for you to PASTE in either edit window. Warning if
you cut another section the first one will be lost so be careful!
The CUT function will cut as little as 2 bytes from the file. Its
best to try to cut even amounts from the file. If you want to
modify the cut section and replace it in its origional position
note the BEG time and you can paste the cut section back.
If you want to modify the cut section, paste it in the other
window then modify it as you wish. To replace it in the file
range over it using the mouse then find the position in the
file using the mouse and the BEG time you noted then use the COPY
gadget to move the modified version back to the origional file
COPY
This gadget will copy a range from one window to the other.
You must first select a range in the opposite window to use the
COPY gadget. The COPY gadget does not use a buffer. You cant copy
to the same window, use CUT/PASTE for this.
MONO - STER
This gadget toggles between mono and stereo MODE for record
and playback. If you use the STER (stereo) mode remember that the
file lengths must be the same size in order to work properly.
Also keep in mind that when you save a file this MODE will be
saved with the data. If you have STER selected both left and
right buffers will be saved. Be sure they are the same size.
PLAY
This gadget will play the file on the side you selected. If
you should have the STER mode selected both buffers will play
VOL
This is a slider gadget that allows you to change the volume
of the sound being played. The number to the right of the slider
is a number from 1 to 64 indicating the level of sound.
MAIN SCREEN GADGETS (second row)------------------------------
TIM
This box displays the time duration of the file. If you have
a range selected, it will show the time of the range. The format
for the time is MM:SS.MICROS
SIZ
This box is the size of the file or range in bytes. If
you click the left mouse button in the edit window and release,
the siz will display how many bytes are represented by one pixel
on the screen. You screen is only 640 pixels wide, so if you
have a file 1280 bytes long each pixel rpresents 2 bytes.
SAVE
This gadget will bring up a file requester for saving a
file. If you have a range selected only the range will be saved.
The file type will also be used. If you have loaded a file using
IFF and select RAW in the file requester it will be converted to
RAW. Check all your settings prior to a save.
OUT
This gadget selects RANGE out. If you have ranged into a
section of a file use this gadget to see the entire file again.
PAST
Use this gadget to paste a section you have previously CUT.
To paste a section move the mouse to the position of the file you
wish to paste to then press the left mouse button to set the
paste point. Then select the PAST gadget to perform the
operation.
EFF
This gadget selects the effects window (see the section
effects). The gadget is a toggle select. When selected the gadget
will highlight grey to close the effects window select the gadget
again.
REC
Use this gadget to select the recorder window.(see the
section RECORD for more information)
LOOP
This gadget will set loop on for playback. Loop mode is
active when the gadget is hilited grey. To turn looping off
select the gadget again and it will return to blue.
RATE
This gadget sets the playback rate in samples per second. It
also has a string gadget attached to set the playback rate to a
specific value.
MAIN SCREEN GADGETS (bottom row)------------------------------
BEG
This box indicates the BEGining time. If you select a range,
the point where you set the start of the range will be indicated
in the box as the beginning time for the range. If you do not
have a range selected this value should be 00:00.000000. This
time value is relative to the beginning of the file. For instance
if you have a file that has a total time of 2 seconds, and you
set the start of a range by clicking the mouse down half way
through the file the beginning time should be about 1 second.
<<<<
This gadget allows you to scroll through a ranged section of
the file. It will slowly move the graphic to allow you to find an
area of interest. This only works when you have a range selected.
MAIN SLIDER
When you first run the program, there is a long black bar in
the center of the screen. This is a slider gadget used when a
range has been selected. The bar will shrink to show the
percentage of file that has been ranged into and the relative
position of the range. To move to a different position in the
file grab the slider with the mouse and move it. The size of the
range wont change, just the position.
>>>>
This gadget allows you to scroll towards the end of a ranged
section of the file.
END
This box indicates the END of a range relative to the
beginning of the file. If no range has been selected, the display
will show the total size of the file (same as TIM). The format
