< Previous | Content | Next >

AudioCutter Working Windows

The AudioCutter Cinema is divided into different parts and offers different windows and panels for specific sound processing and surround definition jobs. Some important and often used window types and panels will be described here.



The Main Window

The Main Window displays the sample waveforms of the different possible tracks and gives access to the single sampletracks, -layer and some functionalities to manipulate them.

The upper part of this window contains a toolpanel which offers the known base functions like "Open", "Cut", "Copy", "Paste" and others. An other toolpanel can be found at the lower end of the window and contains functions which allow horizontal and vertical zooming, replaying of the actual track or layer, setting and clearing marked areas and more.

On the left hand side of the mainwindow the tracklist can be found. It contains the names of all loaded or created sample tracks which belong to the actual, selected layer. Active tracks are marked with a leading "X". It is possible to (de)select single tracks fast and easy by double clicking them in this tracklist. Nearly all functions and effects take effect only on tracks of the actual layer which are active and show the leading "X". To say it in other words: tracks wich aren't visible in the waveform representation of the main window are not influenced by effects and functions.

The main part of this window is occupied by a large blue area. Here the waveforms of all tracks are displayed together with the related editlines which represent the changing positionnodes of this track. These editlines are of fundamental meaning for the surround sound processing.

The Upper Toolpanel

The buttons of this panel offer following functionalities (from left to right):


The Lower Toolpanel

Here following buttons can be seen and used:


The Tracklist and its Context Menus

The tracklist can be used to activate or deactivate tracks of the actual, displayed layer. Depending on the kind of the operation or effect deactivated tracks are not affected. To change the activation state of a track only a simple double click is required. Alternatively this can be done by marking the track(s) and using the context menus' functions "Deactivate Selected" or "Activate Selected" also (single right click the marked tracks to get the context menu which contains these functions).

Below the tracklist itself you can find a combobox which can be used to create a new Layer or to switch to an other, existing one. In every case special effects and operations (including the replay functions) use only the active, selected layer. So layers can be used to edit single parts of a large project separately without splitting the project. They also make complex operations more lucid.

Beside the functions explained above the tracklist offers a contextmenu whith following functions:

1)
  • the target layer can be selected using a submenu which contains the numbers of all existing layers; layer number "0" is equal to selection "All Layers"
  • this operation is possible only if "All Layers" is used; if a single layer is active functions "Select All" and "Deselect All" should be used
    2)
  • the target layer can be selected using a submenu which contains the numbers of all existing layers; layer number "0" is equal to selection "All Layers"
    n

    The Area Window

    This window offers different additional ways and functions to mark an area or to change an existing marked area more exact and comfortable than only by dragging the mouse inside of the Wavepanel. It can be found using the menu "Special" menuitem "Area Window". This menuitem toggles the window.

    The Area Window can't be used if there exists no waveform. If a sample was loaded or a waveform was generated the controls of this window become active. The upper two textfields contain a value which reflects the beginning and end of the marked area. They use a currency which was configured before. Changing these values modifies the related marked area immediately.

    Below these two controls an other textfield can be found which contains the length of the marked area. Here changes also take effect in the actual marked area depending by the selection of the both radiobuttons: "to left" calculates the new length starting with the end of the marked area - it modifies the beginning of it. "to right" doesn't modifies the beginning but the end of the marked area depending on the new length-value inside of the textfield.

    The following buttons modifiy the beginning and the end of an existing marked area in a similar way: "|<" extends the area to the beginning of the whole project, "<" extends the beginning by one sample to the left, ">" moves the end of the marked area by one sample to the right and ">|" extends the area to the end of the project.

    The Area List

    This list is able to manage different marked areas. It stores them and allowes it to fetch them later for usage. The Area List can be toggeled using the menu "Special" menu item "Area List".

    If this list was activated three different buttons can be seen. If an area was marked in the main window (inside of the Wavepanel ) the button "Add" is active. Clicking it appends a new entry to the list after asking for a name for it. This entry now contains the information required for restoring the actual marked area.

    After selecting an existing entry inside of the Area List the button "Del" becomes active. Now this entry can be deleted out of the list by clicking it.

    The third button, "Clear", deletes all entrys of the list completely. This button is active whenever the list contains at least one entry.

    Existing Area List entries can be fetched by double clicking it. This operation calls back the stored area and markes it inside of the Wavepanel. An existing marked area will be rejected by this operation. If the contents of this Area List needs to be stored, the AIFF-Trackformat has to be used. Thats why only this format is able to carry the additional information included in this list. So if such a file is loaded, the information for the Area List will be also restored by it.

    The Wavepanel

    The largest and most complex panel is the central positioned, blue Wavepanel. Its name follows its functionality because it shows the waveforms of the different tracks. But the graphs of the sounds is only one information showed inside of this panel. The Wavepanel also offers different functions using contextmenus and the displayed contents of the panel.

    If a soundfile was loaded the waveform of its sound (or if it includes a multi-channel-sound the waveforms of all channels) will be displayed inside of it in yellow. If such a single waveform - which is called a track here - is selected using the Tracklist, its color becomes darker.

    Below of every tracks waveform a so called red editline with at least one Position Node can be seen. These nodes and editlines are essential for creating (complex) surround sounds and interesting sounds which change its position. They are described in section The Sound Position Window below.


    Move Tracks

    If the mousepointer is moved over the displayed waveform of a track, it can be seen it changes its apperance multiple times. If it is positioned at the beginning of a tracks waveform and near the zero it gets a form which symbolizes "moving" (the apperance is platform-dependend, normally it shows 4 arrows skewed by 90 degrees).

    Now it is possible to move the audiodata of the whole track in horizontal direction (=time-axis) by holding down the left mouse button and moving the mouse. Begin and end of the tracks effective audiodata are marked by a ledger line to allow a more exact adjustment. The waveform will be fixed at its new position only by releasing the mousebutton.

    The result of this operation is identically with the manually change of the time offset.

    This function also allowes moving of more than one track at the same time. To do that, all required tracks have to be selected using the Tracklist. Now one of these marked (and therefore drawn in darker color) tracks has to be catched like described above. In difference to the procedure using a not selected track now all selected tracks are locked and can be moved together with the mouse. So the waveforms of all these tracks change their position at the time-axis. The time-differences between them will be left unchanged.


    Stretch / Shrink Tracks

    If the mousepointer is moved over the displayed waveform of a track, it can be seen it changes its apperance multiple times. If it is positioned at the end of a tracks waveform and near the zero it gets a form which symbolizes "scaling" (the apperance is platform-dependend, normally it shows 2 arrows to left and right or a single horizontal arrow).

    Now it is possible to change the length of the audiodata of the whole track by holding down the left mouse button and moving the mouse. The end of the tracks effective audiodata is marked by a ledger line to allow a more exact adjustment. The tracks original length can be seen unchanged in yellow color while the resulting waveform is displayed in red. The waveforms new size will be fixed by releasing the mousebutton. Now a resampling- and interpolation-algorythm is used to scale the audiodata with as less loss as possible. Due to the calculation time of this algorithm it may last a time until the result of the scaling-operation becomes visible and useable.

    A side effect of such a scaling function is the change of the waveforms pitch. To compensate it the PitchShift function may be used. This function accesses the stored scaling-informations and offers a pitch shift factor which fits to the scaling factor.

    How to use this special PitchShift operator which belongs to the scaling functionality is described in section The Context Menu of the Wavepanel.


    Set Positionnodes

    If the mousepointer is moved over the displayed waveform of a track, it can be seen it changes its apperance multiple times. If it is positioned near the red editline of a track it gets a form which symbolizes "selection" (the apperance is platform-dependend, normally it shows a crosshairs form).

    Now it is possible to assign a special soundposition at this juncture of the related track by double clicking or right clicking this editline. Now a so called Position Node is set and a special surroundsound editor opens which is described in section The Soundposition-Window.


    The Contextmenu of the Wavepanel

    The Wavepanel is a little bit trickier than all other panels and windows, it uses two different context menus. They open after a right mouse click but depending on the mouse's position inside the wavepanel. Because one of the boths menus belongs to the positionnodes by its functionality, it will be described in section The Positionnode Contextmenu in Wavepanel.

    If the mouse pointer is positioned between the zero of a track and the edit line, its appearance differs from the above described and it shows its standard form (normally a single arrow). That means the mouse dont have to be located at a position which can be used for moving or scaling. Here an area can be marked by dragging the mouse and holding down the left mouse button. By clicking the right mouse button the first of the possible contextmenues can be opened. It contains following menu items:


    The SoundPosition Window

    This window can't be opened directly. After a sound was loaded, the Wavepanel displays a red line above the waveform itself. This line may be broken by different red squares, the so called Position Nodes. This red line is the Editline which represents a special kind of timeline. It is used to carry the information for the soundpositions. The Position Nodes itself are a part of these information, each of them represents one single position. The sound itself is positioned static at one of these positions (if only one node exists) or it moves linear and smooth between different nodes at different positions. If an existing Position Node is selected by double clicking it with the left mouse button, the SoundPosition Window opens and this node can be edited. If a new node is required it can be created by double clicking the edit line at a position which doesn't contains Position Nodes.

    The SoundPosition Window contains a black area on the left side, which is the Editor for the soundposition in a room itself. Here the actual Position Node is drawed in white. Other preceding or sequencing nodes are displayed also and are connected in their order at the edit line by thin lines. These lines vizualizes the acoustic path of the sound across the room. Preceding Position Nodes and lines are drawn in red, subsequent nodes (and their related lines) in blue.

    Beside it an other panel can be seen which displays the time relations of the different Position Nodes. Every connection between two nodes in the left panel represents a time and a distance which is euqal to a related speed. The right panel displays the different speed-relations. The higher a bar is, the higher is the speed a sound moves between the two related Position Nodes. So this panel helps to evaluate and to modify the time- and speed-relations between the different nodes and for the whole track.

    On the lower border of the SopundPosition-Window a set of control elements can be seen which offer functionalities for editing and managing the Position Nodes. The checkbox "3D view" allowes switching between a 3D and a 2D representation of the room the sound moves in or is positioned in. The buttons "+" and "-" allow to change the number of displayed nodes. They allow to increase the clarity of the node representation or to increase the number of displayed nodes to see more than a cut-out of a larger, more complex soundpath. "<<" and ">>" allow fast jumping to preceding or sequencing Position Nodes without leaving the SoundPosition Window. "Remove" deletes the actual Position Node except it is the only existing node (every track requires at least one node which defines its static position in a room). Such a Position Node is removed completely after this operation and can be created new only by clicking the red edit line of the Wavepanel if it is needed again. The textfield beside these buttons displays the exact position of the actual Position Node on the x-axis (=time).

    The Positionseditor and its Contextmenus

    The black panel which was mentioned in the above section as the proper editor for the positions of the nodes offers 2 different modes. The handling of these modes differs a little bit. To toggle between these modes the 3D view radiobutton can be used.
    The two other radiobuttons control the method which is used to change something: The contextmenu of the Positioneditor can be reached in the well known way by clicking the right mouse button inside the black area of the editors panel. It offers a set of standard positions. If one of these positions is selected, the actual node will be moved immediatley to it.

    The Timepanel and its Contextmenus

    Beside some small possibilities to change nodes this panel is an display for information in first place. The information it gives are the velocities the sound moves in the room between two Position Nodes. But a contextmenu can be found in this panel too. The functions behind this menu allow to change the velocities by changing the absolute position of the nodes on the x-axis. The spatial positions of the nodes are left unchanged. So it may be clear a sound which has to accelerated requires more than 2 Position Nodes.

    The Position Node Contextmenu of the Wavepanel

    The following section describes the contextmenu which gives access to the Positions Editor. It is accessible in the Wavepanel, that means the Positions Editor itself must be closed before. The contextmenu opens after clicking the right mousebutton directly over the red editline of the related track in the Wavepanel. This menu offers following functionalities:

    The Effectwindows

    Independend from the special parameters the existing sound effects use, every definition window for these effects uses the same groundwork. This includes the preset panel on the left hand side of the window with its control buttons and the buttons "Cancel" and "OK" on the right lower border of the window. The last two ones close the effectwindow with or without starting the calculation of the effect using the given parameters.

    The preset panel offers the possibility to access different configurations simply by double clicking an entry in the preset panels list. In every case this list contains at least two entries. One contains the default values of the effect and one the values which was used for the last calculation of it. These two standard-entries can't be deleted out of this list.

    More complex effects also allow to store own combinations of parameter settings. The button "Add" below the preset panel list appends a new entry to it using the actual parameter settings. To remove an existing entry the button "Delete" can be used.

    Some effects also offer the possibility to use an envelope instead of an linear course. In this case the standard effect definition window contains a panel which displays a simple envelope. This envelope is used if the in this case offered checkbox "use envelope" is selected. This selection also activates the envelope-panel itself for editing. now the envelope can be changed by dragging the maximum value of it. Such points are the transition point between Attack and Decay or between Decay and Sustain (the given envelope is a simplified one which doesn't knows "Release" yet).

    The Analysis Windows

    The AudioCutter Cinema offers different methods to analyze sounds. It is possible to analyze a whole layer, a marked part of the actual layer, a track or a marked part of a track. For this analysis the Fast Fourier Transformation is used. The result of this analysis is a graph wich shows the power levels depending from the freqency or a power level-frequency-time-relation.

    This graph is displayed in a special window. Depending on the kind of analysis some handling functions may be disabled. The Analysis Window itself can be accessed using the "Analyze 2D" menuitem in menu "FX" or via the menu item "Analyze spectral" of the Wavepanels contextmenu. The analysiswindow contains following buttons:

    < Previous | Content | Next >