Peak allows you to customize a number of parameters of your system so that you can work with Peak as you are most comfortable. Most of these parameters are found in the Preferences menu. They range from the colors that you want for the audio document window, to the speed that you want the waveforms on your screen to redraw. Once you have set these as you like, they will stay that way until you decide to change them again.
This section explains how to set several of these param-eters. For items not covered here, please refer to the chapter of your User's Guide, entitled Peak Menus. There you will find explana-tions of each command in the Preferences menu and other Peak menus.
Setting Peak’s Main Output Volume
Peak’s Output Volume command provides a master volume control for audio playback.
To set Peak’s main output volume:
1. Choose Output Volume from the Preferences menu.
2. In the dialog that appears, set Peak’s output volume to the level that you desire by adjusting the slider or entering a number value from 0 (silent) to 7 (loudest). If you are controlling your playback volume with the volume control of your playback system, you’ll probably want to leave the output level set to 7.
3. Click OK to close this dialog. Audio playback is now set to the volume level that you selected.
Choosing Colors for the Audio Document Window
Peak allows you to customize the colors used to display the elements in audio documents. You can use this dialog to set the background color, waveform color, and colors for markers and loops. You can select either a preset color combination, or individual colors for each element in the audio document window. Changes made using the Colors dialog affect both the current audio document’s colors, and any subsequent new audio document’s colors.
To customize the colors of the waveform display:
1. Choose Colors from the Preferences menu.
2. To select a preset color combination, click the Theme pop-up menu and choose the preset that you desire.
3. Alternatively, to select individual colors for each element in the audio document window, choose Custom from the Theme pop-up menu and then select the desired colors from the Background, Waveform, Markers, and Loops pop-up menus.
4. Click Change to close this dialog. The audio docu-ment window is now set to the colors you selected.
Choosing a Time Format
The Units command allows you to choose a time format for the audio timeline in Peak’s audio document window. You can choose either samples or seconds (and milliseconds). The format you choose will depend on the nature of the project that you are working on.
To choose Peak’s time format:
1. Choose Units from the Preferences menu.
2. From the submenu, choose the time format that you desire: samples, or seconds. The timeline in Peak’s audio document window switches to the format that you choose.
Setting Peak’s Waveform Drawing Speed
The Drawing Speed command allows you to choose how much precedence your Macintosh gives to drawing and updating waveform data on your screen when you zoom in/ out, or scroll through an audio file. Since calculating and redrawing this data requires a considerable amount of your computer’s processing cycles, you can choose to give it a high or low priority by choosing the desired “speed” with the Drawing Speed command.
If you set this preference to fast, faster, or fastest, your computer will devote much of its processing cycles to redrawing waveforms—making you wait until it finishes before you can do other things such as choose menu commands, or perform other editing tasks. Unless you have a very fast Macintosh, you may wish to set this preference to Medium.
To set the speed at which Peak redraws waveforms:
1. Choose Drawing Speed from the Preferences menu and select the speed that you desire from the sub menu. Peak will use this setting to determine how much power your Macintosh allocates to screen redraw tasks.
Choosing a Scratch Disk
Because audio data can be very large, Peak utilizes a portion of your hard disk’s free space to hold audio data that hasbeen cut or copied, as well as for temporary or scratch files for undo purposes. If your hard disk is short on space, you may not be able to cut, copy, or modify large selections. If you have more than one hard drive attached to your Macintosh, the Scratch Disks command in the Preferences menu allows you to choose the drive (or “scratch disk”) that you wish to use for these temporary files. This feature automatically defaults to the largest drive currently connected to your Macintosh. If you are connected to a file server, you can utilize available storage on the server by clicking the Allow Servers checkbox. Any available servers will then appear in the Scratch Disks pop-up menu. This feature is recommended only if you have access to a high speed Ethernet, Media Net or other fast server.
To choose a scratch disk for temporary files:
1. Choose Scratch Disks from the Preferences menu. The Scratch Disks dialog appears.
2. From the pop-up menu, choose the hard drive that you wish Peak to use when it creates temporary files. If you are connected to a file server and would like to use storage available there as well, enable the Allow Servers checkbox.
• Click OK to close this dialog. Peak will use the disk you have selected as your scratch disk.
