Tools
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Fast Edit includes eight tools for processing sound files. Each tool produces a message box that indicates progress during time-consuming operations. The progress is shown as a percentage of the operation completed up to that point. There is also a "Cancel" button in the box; if you click on the "Cancel" button, Fast Edit will cancel the operation, and the Progress Dialog Box will disappear.
The Mix Tool
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The mix tool mixes the sound in the Clipboard with the sound in the Modify window, beginning at the Edit Cursor location.
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When the Mix tool is selected, the Mix Amplitudes Dialog Box appears (Figure 2-20). This dialog box lets you set the levels on the two sounds being mixed together. The "Destination" slider adjusts the volume on the sound from the Modify window, and the "Clipboard" slider adjusts the volume of the sound taken from the Clipboard.
The Fade Tool
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The fade tool is used to make smooth volume changes in a sound.
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In it's simplest use, the Fade tool will be used for a fade-in or a fade-out; for instance to fade-in the beginning or fade-out the end of a song. To use a simple fade-in or fade-out, Select the part of the sound over which the fade is to occur. Then select Fade from the Tools menu, click on the "Fade In" or the "Fade Out" in the Fade Dialog Box (Figure 2-22), and then click on "OK".
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For more complicated fades, markers can be used to help draw a customized fade curve. To do a customized fade, you must first drop markers in the Modify window. Then you use the Selection tool to select the part of the waveform that you want to perform a fade on. If you do not Select an area, the Fade tool will work on the entire top window. When you select the fade tool, you will set the level at each marker, and Fast Edit will do smooth fades between adjacent markers, and between the endpoints and the nearest markers (Figure 2-22).
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In the Fade Dialog Box, the fade profile is displayed at the top and is updated to reflect any changes made.
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The amplitudes at the starting and ending fade points are defined with the buttons in the Start Amplitude and End Amplitude regions. When you click on the Fade In button under Type, the Start Amplitude is set to -∞ dB, and the End Amplitude is set to 0 dB. When you click on the Fade Out button, the Start Amplitude is set to 0 dB, and the End Amplitude is set to -∞ dB. When you click on the Custom button, you can manually set the Start Amplitude and End Amplitude.
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The amplitudes at the marker locations are set in the Markers region in the Amplitude field. The first marker will be shown in the Name box. Click in the Amplitude box to type in the level, in dB's, at the marker position. Any integer value in the range -48 dB and 12 dB is valid. If a marker's amplitude value is deleted, that marker ceases to be a fade point. Then select "log" or "linear" to define the type of curve after the marker. Then click on the Next button. The name of the next marker will appear in the Name box. Once the levels at all of the markers are defined, the customized fade curve will appear at the top of the Fade Dialog Box.
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The type of curve for the segment before the first marker is set under "First Segment".
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When you have your custom fade set up, click on the "OK" button, and Fast Edit will process your fade.
The Manual Crossfade Tool
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The Manual Crossfade tool is useful when you want to overlap 2 sounds, with one sound fading out as the other fades in.
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In its simplest use, you place the Edit Cursor in the Modify Window between the two sounds you want to crossfade. Then you select Manual Crossfade in the Tools menu. When the Manual Crossfade Dialog Box comes up (Figure 2-23), type in the crossfade Duration (the length of time that the sounds will overlap, in milliseconds). Then select Linear or Log crossfade curves, and click on OK.
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You can customize your crossfades by entering times in the Custom Parameters boxes. The top of the Manual Crossfade Dialog Box shows you the profiles of the crossfade curves you are creating.
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The Fade Out Time and Fade In Time values set the amount of sound before and after the Edit Cursor that will be affected by the crrossfade. The Fade Out Start Time and Fade In Start Time values set a delay for the two fades.
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If you type a new number in the Duration box, the numbers in the Custom Parameters boxes are automatically reset.
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When the crossfade operation has completed, the Edit Cursor is placed at the splice point at the beginning of the crossfaded portion of the sound file.
The Reverse Tool
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This tool's function is simply to reverse the samples in the affected portion, causing the sound to be played backwards. Unlike the other tools, the reverse tool operates immediately on a sound file, or on a Selected region, if there is one.
The Gearshift Tool
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The Gearshift tool has the same effect as speeding up or slowing down a tape on an analog tape machine (varispeed). When you call up the Gearshift function, the Gearshift Dialog Box appears (Figure 2-24).
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You can move the slider bar or type in a value to set the Gearshift amount. When you set Gearshift to a positive value, playback will speed up, resulting in a higher pitch, and a shorter playback time. When you set the Gearshift to a negative value, playback will slow down, resulting in a lower pitch, and a longer playback time.
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Gearshift will work on the Selected region in the Modify window, if there is one. Otherwise, it will work on the entire Modify window.
The EQ Tool
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The EQ tool provides bass and treble shelving EQ.
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When the EQ tool is selected, the EQ Dialog Box appears (Figure 2-25). You can set the bass and/or treble to have a boost or cut of up to 20 dB. The shelf-edge frequencies can be set from 1 Hz to 1000 Hz for the bass, and 1000 Hz to 20,000 Hz for the treble. A typical value for the bass frequency might be 50 Hz, and a commonly used value for the treble frequency might be 10,000 Hz (for recordings with 44.1 kHz sampling rate).
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The EQ tool works on the Selected region in the Modify window, if there is one. Otherwise, it works on the entire Modify window.
The Gain Change Tool
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The Gain Change tool increases or decreases the amplitude of the sound file or a portion of the sound file in a range from -48 to +20 decibels.
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The Gain Change Dialog Box is shown in Figure 2-26.
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The Gain Change tool works on the Selected region in the Modify window, if there is one. If no region is selected, it works on the entire Modify window.
The Normalize Tool
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The Normalize tool automatically increases the volume of a sound to its maximum possible level before clipping.
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The Normalize tool works on the Selected region of the Modify window, if there is one. Otherwise, it works on the entire Modify window.
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When you select the Normalize tool, the Normalize Dialog Box appears (Figure 2-27). At the same time, if there is a Selected region, it will zoom in to fit the entire width of the Modify window. The Normalize Dialog Box will tell you the amount of gain change that is needed, and asks if you want to proceed.
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When the Normalize function is completed, the amplitude (vertical size) of the Modify window is re-scaled.
DirectX? Plug-inps
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At the bottom of the Tools menu is a selection for DirectX? Plug-ins (see Figure 2-28).
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When you choose "DirectX" on the Tools menu, a list of DirectX? plug-ins appears. These are plug-ins that are not included in the Fast Edit software, but are third-party DirectX? plug-ins that you have installed on your computer. DirectX? plug-ins are available from Waves, Cakewalk, Arboretum, Sonic Foundry, and many other software companies.
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When you select a plug-in from the list, that plug-in will appear in the plug-in window on the Fast Edit main screen (see Figure 2-29).
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This plug-in will now be active. It will operate in real time whenever you are playing the top window.
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If you double-click on the plug-in name in the PlugIns window, it will bring up the plug-in interface window, where you can change the parameters of the plug-in.
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You can add multiple plug-ins. They will all work in real time unless you run out of CPU horsepower (see Figure 2-30).
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You can also apply the plug-ins using off-line processing. That is, instead of applying the plug-in while the soundfile is playing, you can apply the plug-in as a edit. The plug-in will then modify the sound in the top window, and the modified sound can be saved.
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To apply a plug-in off-line, right-click on the plug-in and choose "Apply to soundfile" if you want it to work in the entire top window, or choose "Apply to selection" if you want to use it on a selected area (see Figure 2-31) You can also apply ALL of the plug-ins in the plug-in window to a soundfile or a selection..
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After you apply the plug-in, Fast Edit will ask you if you want to remove the plug-in from the Plug-ins window (see Figure 2-32). Most often you will choose "Yes". If you leave the plug-in open, then when you play back the top window, you will hear the plug-in applied twice, once from off-line processing, and again in real-time during playback.
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You can choose to not have this warning come up again. If you choose "Do not prompt again", you have the options of 1) Automatically removing the plug-in after each off-line application, or 2) Never removing the plug-in after off-line application.