Editing Sound Files

Selecting the Active Window
  1. The split-screen Fast Edit waveform editor has 2 sound display windows. In general, soundfiles are opened into the bottom, or Read Only, window to be viewed and auditioned. Soundfiles and selected parts of soundfiles are copied into the top, or Modify, window where edit operations are allowed.
  2. At any given time, only one of the windows is active. When a window is active, the bar across the top of that window is Red. You can make the Read Only the active window, or make the Modify window the active window, by placing the mouse pointer inside of the desired window, and clicking the mouse.
  3. Also, you can use the up-arrow to select the Modify window, and the down-arrow to select the Read Only window. The F3 key switches from whichever window is active, to the other window.
  4. When the Read-Only window is active, the editing functions which are not allowed in the Read Only window will not be available in the menus. This includes destructive operations like Cut and Mix.
Making Selections in the Waveform Display Area
  1. When you want to use part of a soundfile for an edit operation, you can indicate what section to use by doing a "Selection". To Select a part of a soundfile, you use the "Select" feature to highlight a section of the waveform display in either the Modify or Read Only window.
  2. To Select a region, move the Edit Cursor to the beginning of the region you want to select. Then use the mouse to click on the "s" button beneath the window. The "s" button will become highlighted when the Select feature is active. When selection is initially enabled, an anchor is "dropped" at the current Edit Cursor location, defining the unmoving edge of the selection; the Edit Cursor defines the other edge as it is moved. The waveform display between the anchor point and the current Edit Cursor position is highlighted, showing the Selected region.
  3. The mouse can now be used to grab either side of a Selected region, and adjust the location. The side that is adjusted last becomes the active Edit Cursor.
  4. When the Select feature is turned off again, the highlighted region of the waveform display returns to normal (no longer highlighted), and the Edit Cursor appears at the last active Edit Cursor position on the previously highlighted region.
  5. The Select feature can also be operated from the keyboard. The F9 key turns Select on and off. The Edit Cursor can be moved with the left and right arrow keys, and the active Edit Cursor can be switched between the two sides of the Selected region using the "i" key, or by using the "b" key to place the active Edit Cursor at the "b"eginnning of the selected region, or the "e" key to place it at the "e"nd.
  6. The entire soundfile can be selected by hitting the "a" key (for Select "a"ll). If the display was zoomed-in, the "a" key will zoom-out the display to show the entire soundfile, and select the entire soundfile. If the "a" key is hit again, the Select feature will be turned off.
  7. There is also a quick-Select feature with the mouse. Place the Edit Cursor on one side of the desired Selected region. Then move the mouse pointer to where you want the other side of the selected region to be. Hold down the left mouse button while you click on the right mouse button. A highlighted region will appear between the Edit Cursor and the mouse pointer.
Cut-and-Paste Editing
  1. Cut-and-paste editing is the most basic type of editing, and involves moving around pieces of sound.
  2. Sounds from the Read Only window can only be Copied. A segment of sound is Selected, and the sound is copied into the Clipboard for use in the Modify window.
  3. Sounds in the Modify window can be Copied, Cut, Pasted, Replaced, and Deleted.
  4. The Copy command takes the Selected sound in the active window and copies it to the Clipboard. This copy of the sound in the Clipboard can be used at a later time for other operations.
  5. The Paste command takes the sound in the Clipboard and copies it into the Modify window at the location of the Edit Cursor. If the Edit Cursor is in the middle of some sound in the top window, the Paste feature splits the sound apart at the Edit Cursor, and inserts the Clipboard sound in between.
  6. The Delete command removes the Selected sound in the Modify window. If the Selected sound was in the middle of a soundfile, the remaining sound will be pulled together to close the gap left by the Deleted sound.
  7. The Cut command deletes the Selected sound, and at the same time makes a copy of the sound in the Clipboard. The Cut command makes it easy to remove a sound from one part of a soundfile, and move it to another part of the soundfile.
  8. The Copy-Paste command is a special combined command to speed up editing. The Copy-Paste command will take the selected region in the Read Only window, or the entire window if no region is selected, and copy it into the Clipboard. At the same time, it will also paste it into the Modify window, at the location of the Edit Cursor.
  9. The Replace command takes the sound in the clipboard, and replaces an equal-length segment of sound in the Modify window, starting at the location of the Edit Cursor.
  10. The Move command is a special type of cut-and-paste editing. It makes it easy to move a sound from one place in a soundfile to another place.
  11. To use the Move command, first Select the sound you want to Move. Then call up the Move command, by either selecting it from the Edit menu, or by hitting Shift+V on the keyboard. Next, grab the selected sound by putting the mouse pointer anywhere inside the Selected region, and holding down the left mouse button. An outline of the selected region will appear. Move the mouse to slide the Selected region horizontally in the window, to the new location, and release the mouse button.
  12. The old location of the sound will be replaced by a piece of silence, of equal length. If the Moved sound is put over the top of another sound, that sound will be replaced by the Moved sound. The Move operation moves a sound without changing the total length of the soundfile.
Punch In
  1. The Punch In command lets you record over a preselected section of a soundfile in the top window.
  2. To use the Punch In operation, first Select the region of sound to be re-recorded. Then call up the Punch In command by either selecting it from the Edit menu, or by hitting Ctrl+f on the keyboard. A set of level meters will appear on the screen, and the system will be cued for a playback with Punch In.
  3. To do the Punch In, start the playback of the top window. Fast Edit will play the window up to the Selected region, then it will instantly go into Record mode through the Selected region, and then will go back to Playback immediately following the Selected region. When playback is completed, the Selected region will be re-drawn with the newly recorded sound.
  4. When doing a Punch In, it is not necessary to start playback from the beginning of the soundfile. When you go into Punch In mode, a cursor appears to the left of the Selected region. This is the Start Playback Cursor. During a Punch In, you can start playback from this cursor by putting the mouse pointer over the cursor, and clicking on the right mouse button. The initial position of the Start Playback cursor, relative to the Selected region, is determined by the Audition Time option (see See Record and Playback Options.). The position of the Start Playback Cursor can be adjusted by grabbing it with the mouse and sliding it to a new position.
Mute
  1. The Mute function replaces a sound with silence. To use the Mute, first Select the region to be silenced. Then call up the Mute function by selecting it from the Edit menu, or by hitting Ctrl+t on the keyboard. The Selected region will be replaced by a section of silence of equal length.
  2. The Mute funcion does not change the length of the soundfile.
Insert Silence
  1. The Insert Silence function will add silence at the edit cursor position, increasing the length of the soundfile. The amount of silence that is added is selected by a dialog, where either a fixed duration may be specified or the length of the selected region may be used. If the check box labelled "Insert Fixed Duration" is checked, the specified duration is inserted. Otherwise, the length of the selected region is used to specify the amount of silence to insert.
  2. Note that the silence will be inserted at the edit cursor location, which may be at the beginning or end of a selected region.
Trim Silence
  1. In virtual 4-track mode, Fast Edit will add silence to the top or bottom window, whichever is shorter, to make both top and bottom windows the same length. Sometimes during editing, silence will accumulate at the end of both the top and bottom windows. The Trim Silence command will remove silence from the ends of both windows, to make the time in the windows as short as possible without deleting any recorded sounds.
Multiple Clipboards
  1. Fast Edit has 4 general-purpose Clipboards plus a Windows Clipboard. Each Clipboard can be used to temporarily store a sound saved from either the Modify window or the Read Only window. The Windows Clipboard can be used to transfer sounds between programs.
Figure 2-19
  1. Only one Clipboard is active at any given time. You can select the active Clipboard by clicking on the Clipboard button on Fast Edit screen (see Figure 2-19). The active Clipboard is highlighted. All functions that use the Clipboard use the Clipboard which is currently active.
    2. Button colors Clipboard status

    gray

    Clipboard empty and not selected

    yellow

    Clipboard selected but empty

    red

    Clipboard has sound but is not selected

    red with yellow outline

    Clipboard has sound and is selected
  2. You can audition any sound stored in a Clipboard by right-clicking on the button.
Locating Splice Points
  1. Anytime an edit operation is performed in the Modify window, Fast Edit remembers the location in the soundfile where the edit took place. These locations are called Splice Points. When one sound is pasted to another sound, for instance, the location where they come together is a Splice Point.
  2. Finding Splice Points can speed your edit operations. Splice points can be located easily with the Next Splice and the Previous Splice commands. The Next Splice jumps the Edit Cursor to the right, to the next splice point. The Previous Splice command jumps the Edit Cursor to the left.
Undo
  1. Fast Edit uses fully non-destructive editing. Because of this, Fast Edit can remember the sound in the Modify window before your last edit operation.
  2. When you don't like the result of and edit operation, you can use the Undo command, and the Modify window will return to exactly the way it was before the edit operation.
  3. Fast Edit lets you perform up to 10 Undos.
  4. You can select "Undo" off the edit menu, or hit F10 on your keyboard.
  5. To undo more than one edit operation, you can also use the Edit History List (see section Undo and the Edit History).
  6. What if, after you Undo an edit operation you change your mind, and decide you liked it after all? Just use the Redo command (see ).
Redo
  1. If you perform and Undo to get rid of your last edit operation, and then change you mind, you can bring it back with the Redo command.
  2. You can select Redo from the Edit menu, or hit F11 on your keyboard.
  3. If you have done multiple Undos, you can do multiple Redos.
  4. You can also use the Edit History List to perfom Redos (seeUndo and the Edit History).