The Wave Player

SoundStation allows you to control your computer sound card in order to both record and play back Wavform audio files to and from your hard disk.  To find out more about a particular part of the Wave player component, click on the desired button or display on the picture above.

See Also:  General SoundStation Help


The Program Button

The Program button pulls up the Wave programming dialog.  The Wave programming dialog is shown below:

The Wave Programming Dialog allows you to select a waveform file, or several waveform files, to play on the Wave component.  You may select up to 50 waveform files to play at one time.  Additionally, you may save your list of waveform files by giving the list a unique name.  Then, you can recall your list at a later time by selecting the name of the list from those that you have saved.

Supported Waveform file types

SoundStation supports both Microsoft's .WAV waveform file format and Creative Labs .VOC waveform file format.  When you select .VOC files to play, the program will create .WAV versions of the files in the TEMP directory of your hard drive, and then play those files.  The program will not delete these .WAV files and they will have the same base name as the corresponding .VOC files that they were created from.  If you wish, you can play the converted .WAV files in the future, optionally deleting the original .VOC files.  This will speed up program operation in the future.

Note that SoundStation does not support .VOC files if they are in the compressed ADPCM format.  Only uncompressed 8 bit files are supported.

Selecting and De-selecting files to play

When you bring up the Wave Programming Dialog by pressing the Program button on the Wave component of the rack system, or pressing the Prog button on the remote control while the Wave device is selected, you will be presented with the dialog illustrated above.  On the right side of the dialog are two list boxes labeled Directories and Files.  Above both of the list boxes is the currently selected directory in which to look for Wave files.

To move around your disk, choose the appropriate directory from the list in the Directories listbox.  Select the [..] symbol to move up a directory.  Double click the left mouse button on the desired directory path to change to that directory.  Your choice will be reflected by appearing above the list box.  While you move around, any Wave files that are found in the currently selected directory path will appear in the Files listbox.  If you wish to change to a different disk drive, select the desired drive by dropping down the Drives combobox, and clicking once on the drive letter you need.

Once you have found the files that you want, select the files from the Files listbox and they will appear in the Selection List listbox on the left side of the dialog.  You can do this in several ways.  First, you can select files by double-clicking the left mouse button on the file in the Files listbox, and that file will be added to the Selection List.

If you want to grab several files at a time, you can select individual files one at a time by holding down the Ctrl key while single-clicking on each desired file with the left mouse button.  Once all of the desired files are marked in such a manner, press the button labeled "<<Add" underneath the Files listbox and the selections will be added to the Selection List listbox in the order that they appear in the Files listbox, but not necessarily in the order that you selected them yourself.  Also, you can mark a continuous block of files in the Files listbox by clicking on the first or last file that you want, then dragging the mouse cursor up or down as appropriate.  The marked list will scroll as you go, marking everything along the way.  Again, once you have selected files in this manner and want to add them to the Selection List, press the <<Add button.

The Selection List listbox operates in a similar manner as the Files listbox.  You can remove files from the Selection List one at a time by double clicking on the files.  You can select multiple files to remove from the Selection List by marking them in the manners described above, and then press the "Remove" button.  Or you can clear the whole Selection List by pressing the "Clear" button.  You can also select all files in the Selection List easily by pressing the "Select All" button.

Saving a Selection List

Once you have created a list of Wave files to play, you can optionally save the list by giving the list a name.  To do this, press the "Save List" button.  An additional dialog will appear, prompting you for a name for the list.  Type in a name for the list and press the OK button.  Your list will now be saved under that name.  Note that the name you give your list is NOT a filename, so you may type in a complete sentence such as "Cartoon Sound Effects", if you wish.  Your selections and the name of your list will be added to the Wave list database.

To recall your list at a later time, select the dropdown combobox labeled "Program" at the top left of the dialog box, and press the button to drop the list down.  Scroll through the entries until you find the one you want and single-click the left mouse button on that entry's name.  The list of files assigned to that name will appear in the Selection List.  If you want to remove files from the list, use the procedure described above for removing files from the Selection List.  If you want to add new files to the list, select them with the procedure described for adding files to the Selection List.  Once your new list is where you want it, press the "Save List" button to update the database.

If you have a list currently active, you may create a new list by pressing the "New List" button.  Note that if you select or de-select files while there is a name present in the Program combobox window, that you are modifying the indicated playlist.  You will always have a chance, however, to cancel changes to an existing playlist if you attempt to make a new list.

Playing your selections

Once you have performed whatever list maintenance that you desired, and you want to play the files selected in the Selection List, press the OK button on the dialog.  You will be returned to the rack (or remote).  The program will then compile some information on the files that you selected.  Once that is complete, you are ready to play your selections. Just press the Play button and playback will start.

One final note:  You do not have to name a playback Selection List before you can play it.  You can leave it unnamed if you wish.  Note that any unsaved changes made to an existing list or to an unnamed list will cause a "Wave Program has Changed" message if SoundStation is turned off.  This gives you a final opportunity to save your changed list, and assigning a name to an unnamed list, if necessary.  If you want to discard any changes you made, just press the "Cancel" or "No" button when this reminder appears.

The Save Recording Button

The Save Recording button can be used to name an unnamed recording that you have made during the current session of SoundStation.  By default, a recorded file will have the name UNTITLED.WAV.  Rename the file as desired, changing the drive and path for the file at the same time.  If the file UNTITLED.WAV is in the current playlist, the full drive, path and name of the file will be updated at the same time.


The Mode Button

The Mode button changes the recording mode of the Wave player when the wave player is not currently playing or recording waveform files.  If supported by the sound board, the Mode button will cycle through 8 bit mono, 8 bit stereo, 16 bit mono and 16 bit stereo modes.  Availability of the various modes is also dependent on the selected recording rate as described in the section on The Rate Button.  The selected mode will be displayed in the wave player component's display area.

Note that the selected mode only affects the recording section of the Wave player.  That is, by changing the mode, you do not affect the playback mode of any waveform files.


The Rate Button

The Rate button changes the recording speed (or sampling rate) of the Wave player when the wave player is not currently playing or recording waveform files.  If supported by the sound board, the Rate button will cycle through 11kHz, 22kHz and 44kHz rates.  Availability of the various rates is also dependent on the selected recording mode as described in the  section on The Mode Button.  The selected rate will be displayed in the wave player component's display area.

Note that the selected rate only affects the recording section of the Wave player.  That is, by changing the rate, you do not affect the playback rate of any waveform files.


The Record Button

In order to record waveform audio data, you press the Record button on the Wave player to start recording.  Before pressing Record, however, you should probably set the desired recording Mode and Rate.

Also, you will probably want to select the input source from which you plan to record (as necessary).  This is covered in The Record Input (Rec) Buttons topic.

The suggested mode for initial recording startup is to set the Pauses Initially option in The Wave Player Setup Dialog.  This way, once the recording is set up and waiting to go, you can set the input mixer level(s) for the component(s) that you are recording from.  You want to adjust the input so that the dual meters in the Wave display window do not enter the yellow areas too much and so that the red areas (peak) do not light up at all, or as little as possible.  This will help to ensure a good quality recording.

Once the levels are set and/or the material that you want to record is starting, press the Pause button to release the pause mode and start recording if you have the Pauses Initially option set, or just press the Record button itself if the Starts Immediately option is set in the Recording options in The Wave Player Setup Dialog.

Once you have finished recording the selection as desired, press the Stop button.  Some disk activity will occur and then program operation will resume.  Your recording has been saved to the current recording drive and path with the filename UNTITLED.WAV.  To save your recording under a different name, go to the Wave Programming dialog and press the Save Recording button.  Use the Save Recording As dialog that appears to rename your file.

If you attempt to record a second time without having named your previous recording, you will be prompted to save the file before recording can begin.  If you select the No button from the reminder pop-up, the last recording will be discarded.

Waveform recording discussion

Some further explanation is given here on different rates and modes, and the terminology associated with each.  When you record waveform samples on your computer, the actual analog signal is converted to digital values which are eventually stored on your hard disk.  The recording rate is the number of samples per second that will be gathered while recording.  For example, if you choose 22kHz (kiloHertz, or thousand cycles per second), the sound board will store 22,000 (actually 22,050) samples for each second that you record.

A single sample is dependent on the mode that you are recording in.  For example, if you are recording at 22kHz and 8 bit mono mode, then each second of your waveform recording will require 22,050 bytes of storage.  If you change the mode to 8 bit stereo, you will double the storage requirements to 44,100 bytes per second of recording.  Changing the mode further to 16 bit stereo, you will need 88,200 bytes per second of recording for storage of the waveform.  As a final note on this subject, CD audio is stored as 44kHz, 16 bit stereo, which requires 176,400 bytes of storage for each second of sound.


The Reverse Skip Button

The Reverse Skip Button allows you to choose the previous Waveform to play.  The Wave player can be playing, paused or stopped.  The previous waveform will be ready to play from the beginning.  If you skip while playing, the previous waveform will start immediately.


The Rewind Button

The Rewind Button allows you to skip back through the current selection.  To quickly skip back one tenth of a second in the selection, press and release the rewind button once.  If you hold the rewind button, the time display will indicate that you are moving backwards through the selection, slowly at first, and then more rapidly.  Note that you cannot rewind the current selection past the beginning of the selection (it will not skip back to the end of the previous selection).


The Pause Button

This button allows you to pause Wave playback or recording (but not after recording has actually started).  To resume playback, press the pause button again (or press the Play button).  The device should be paused if the red LED on the button is on or flashing.  The device should be playing if the red LED is extinguished (and the play is on).


The Stop Button

The Stop Button causes playback or recording to stop for the player.  If you stop in the middle of a playing waveform and then press play again, the current waveform will play from the beginning.


The Play Button

The Play button starts playback of the Waveform playlist from the beginning of the currently selected track.  If a new Waveform playlist has been selected, the playback will start on waveform 1.


The Fast Forward Button

The Fast Forward Button allows you to skip forward through the current selection.  To quickly skip forward one tenth of a second in the selection, press and release the fast forward button once.  If you hold the fast forward button, the time display will indicate that you are moving forward through the selection, slowly at first, and then more rapidly.  Note that you cannot fast forward the current selection past the end of the selection (it will not skip forward to the beginning of the next selection).


The Forward Skip Button

The Forward Skip Button allows you to choose the next waveform to play.  The Wave player can be playing, paused or stopped.  The next waveform will be ready to play from the beginning.  If you skip while playing, the next waveform will start immediately.


The Wave Display

A closeup of the Wave player display is shown above.  Click on an area of the display to find out more about that area.


When playing a waveform, this area of the display shows at what rate the waveform was recorded.  When recording a waveform, this area shows the rate at which the waveform will be recorded.  Valid rates are 11, 22 and 44 kHz (kilohertz, or samples per second).


When playing a waveform, this area of the display shows in what mode the waveform was recorded.  When recording a waveform, this area shows the mode in which the waveform will be recorded.  Valid modes are Mono 8 bit, Mono 16 bit, Stereo 8 bit and Stereo 16 bit.


This area of the display is the VU meter for the Wave player.  It shows the relative output of a playing waveform, or the relative input level when recording a waveform.


The Wave Time display shows the total time of the Wave playlist when the playlist is first loaded, or the time of the current Wave.  The time display only counts up from 0.  The time format is in minutes:seconds.tenths.