Copyright: Nigel R. Magnay


Contents

Welcome to Sound Gadget Pro!

Sound Gadget is designed to make editing sample files as easy as possible!

Sound Gadget is Shareware. If you like it then please consider registering it with the Author - it doesn't cost much! Help support shareware software!

Introduction

Features supported in Sound Gadget.

Reference

Help on how to perform specific tasks

Supported File Formats

Details of the file formats currently supported

Registration Information

Remove the nags by registering now!

(c) 1993-95, Nigel R. Magnay

Portions (c) Microsoft Corp.

All Rights Reserved.


Introduction

A long time ago I wrote an application for windows called 'Sound Gadget'. It's was a single-document interface, 8-bit format-only sound editor for windows. Despite it's limitations, it was one of the first graphical sound editors for Windows. Because of the support I recieved at the time from registrations, I decided to update Sound Gadget to it's current form.

Sound Gadget is designed for editing and manipulating audio sound samples. It is a multiple-document interface application, allowing a number of sound samples to be open at once. It is designed to support 8 and 16-bit samples, in both Mono and Stereo. It is designed with a unique single-channel selection feature, allowing you to cut, copy, paste and otherwise manipulate each channel of a stereo sample independantly. Simply hold down Control when making a selection. Paste is intelligent, automatically converting the clipboard's sample type to the target format.

Sound Gadget was designed with the Windows95 interface in mind, and supports the new common controls such as tabbed dialogs, spin controls, floating toolbars and a floating sample properties dialog.

The commonest sample file formats are supported (.WAV, .VOC, .AU/.SND, RAW). Other, more obscure file formats will be supported at a later date.

Sound Gadget (of course) both records and plays samples, the latter featuring a moving marker to help you identify the area of sample that you are interested in.

Other manipulations supported include fading in/out, crossfading, reversing and more. I hope you will find Sound Gadget to be an intuitive and easy to use program, and that you will consider registering it.


Reference

Guide to the Main Window

Menus:

File

Edit

Sample

View

Window: Standard MDI frame window functions.

Help: How to get here!

Toolbars:

Main

Utilities

Properties Dialog

Other features

General Navigation & Keyboard Shortcuts


The Main Window

The main windows contains the toolbars, two MDI windows containing samples (in this, the example, the top window is a mono sample and the bottom is a stereo sample), and any currently active toolbars.


File Menu

New: Start a new (empty) sample.

Open: Open an existing sound sample.

Close: Close the current sample.

Save: Save the current sample.

Save As: Save, prompting for a new filename and format.

Exit: Exit the application


Edit Menu

Cut: Cut the current selection and place it on the clipboard.

Copy: Copy the current selection to the clipboard.

Paste: Paste the current clipboard contents into the sample, converting the clipboard format as appropriate.

Delete: Delete the current selection

Properties...


Sample Menu

Play

Record

Amplify

Convert

Envelope

Peak Search

Reverse

Stereo Panning

Change Sign

Decode uLaw


Play

Play the current selection


Record

Brings up a dialog for you to select the options that you want:

Quality: The quality list allows you to quickly select the format of your sample from a list. The items on the list can be added to by pressing the presets button, which lets you define new sample qualities.

Seconds: The number of seconds you wish to allocate memory for. Allocate enough time for your sample - you can press Stop at any time in the recording progress dialog and the sample will be resized to the correct size.

Record As New Sample: If this option is checked, then a new window will be opened for the new sample. Otherwise, the currently selected sample will be overwritten.


Amplify

Amplify increases the overall volume of the sample. Volume adjustments can either be expressed as a percentage of the original volume, or in decibels.

Lock Left & Right links the left and right volumechange in a stereo sample.

Normalise is used to set the amplification to the maximum possible without clipping the sample. If you set the normalisation to over 100%, then the sample will get clipped.

DC Bias Adjust is used to offset the sample from the centre. If you check DC Bias adjust, then Sound Gadget will adjust the bias on the sample. A bias of 0 will mean that it will attempt to centre the sample. Positive and negative offsets will move the sample offcentre. This feature is useful for samples that have been recorded that include a DC component in either the input or output.


Convert

Convert will change the current sample to the destination format. Alter the format manually, or use any of the quality presets, which you can change with the Presets button.

Note that the conversion function operates in the same way as the convert button on the Properties Dialog


Envelope

The sample envelope dialog changes a sample's volume with respect to time. Manipulate the handles

in the top window to create a path for the envelope to follow.

In the above example, the selection will start off at full volume, and finish up at zero volume.

You can load and save presets with the combo-box and Load/Save buttons.

Amplification and Normalisation behave in the same way as in the Amplify dialog.


Peak Search

Peak search attempts to find the loudest point of a sample within a given selection. It is useful if you are trying to normalise a sample and only low amplifications are being given due to some piece of noise limiting the amount of amplification that can be achieved without clipping.


Reverse

Reverses the current selection


Stereo Panning

This dialog allows you to pan the sample between the left and right channel (and hence only works on a stereo sample). To use it modify the window at the top by dragging handles on the window, or by selecting a preset.

The above example will pan the sound from the right speaker to the left speaker.

Presets are managed in the same way as the Envelope dialog.


Change Sign

Changes the sign of the current selection (exclusive-OR's each sample with 0x80 or 0x8000). Useful when trying to make sense of some raw formats.


Decode uLaw

Decode uLaw encoded samples. Some formats (notably .au) encode samples on a logarithmic, not a linear scale. This function will decode them.


View Menu

Toolbars: Option for turning on/off the toolbars.

Statusbar: Option for turning on/off the statusbar.

Zoom In: Zoom in to the current selection.The right-hand mouse button can also be used to quickly zoom into a sample.

Zoom Out: Zoom out.


Main Toolbar

The main toolbar contains the most commonly used functions:

New Sample

Open Sample

Save Sample

Record

Play

Zoom In

Zoom Out

Cut

Copy

Paste

Help


Utilities Toolbar

The utilities toolbar contains further sample effects:

Amplify

Convert

Envelope

Peak Search

Reverse

Stereo Panning

Change Sign

Decode uLaw


Properties Dialog

The properties dialog allows the user to set various parameters of the currently selected sample. It is organised into 3 tabs:

The format sheet allows you to set the current metrics for the sample. Any changes made are not permanent, and can be reversed by pressing the Revert button. If you want to change the format of the sample to the new metrics, then press the Convert button, which performs the same function as the Convert dialog. Sample presets also work in the same way.

The view sheet changes the properties of the view of the sample. You can change the scale (number of samples / pixel), the style (how the sample is drawn), and change the position of the cursor or change the parameters of the current selection.

The information sheet sets extra information about the sample that will be saved if the sample is saved in .WAV format. It is useful if you want to keep a record of the source of a particular sample.


Sample Presets Dialog

The Sample presets dialog is brought up from a number of different places. It allows you to create presets for commonly used sample parameters, E.G. CD Quality = 16bit, Stereo, 44.1kHz.

Use the name field to change the name of your preset, and Save to add it.

This information is stored in the registry.


General Navigation & Keyboard Shortcuts

Mouse Shortcuts:

Zoom In	...	...	...	Right mousebutton

Select only one channel	...	...	Hold down control whilst selecting

Keyboard Shortcuts:

Cut	...	...	...	...	Ctrl + X

Copy	...	...	...	...	Ctrl + C

Paste	...	...	...	...	Ctrl + V

Delete	...	...	...	...	Del

New Sample	...	...	...	Ctrl + N

Open Sample	...	...	...	Ctrl + O

Save Sample	...	...	...	Ctrl + S

Play	...	...	...	...	Ctrl + P

Zoom In	...	...	...	Ctrl + I

Zoom Out	...	...	...	Ctrl + O


Supported File Formats

.WAV - The standard format of Microsoft Windows. Loads and saves this format.

.AU - Sun's audio file format. Comes in 8 and 16-bit flavours, both linear and uLaw. Sound Gadget automatically converts these to 16-bit; you can of course convert down to 8-bit if your soundcard doesn't support 16-bit sound. Save currently only supports linear format. .au is the standard format used on the internet.

.SND - Variation on .au

.VOC - Creative Labs Voice file format. Sound Gadget loads and saves, though it ignores any repeat information contained in the sample.


Registration Information

To register this product:

Send a Cheque/Cash/Postal Order/International Money Order for £10 (UK Sterling). to:

Nigel Magnay,

'Beavers'

South Street,

Blewbury,

Didcot,

OXON OX11 9PR

ENGLAND

Due to the high costs of changing small amounts of foreign currency, it is difficult to convert other currencies. I can probably cope with the equivalent value in US Dollars (about $20 at current rates) if this is easiest.

Registration entitles you to a code that unlocks Sound Gadget and removes the nag-dialog boxes completely, and it will work with any future versions of the program. I can send your registration details to you via Internet e-mail if you wish. Please feel free to add any comments, too!

Nigel Magnay, August 1995.

Email: magnayn@cs.man.ac.uk (probably until summer '96).