This disk contains a demo of our batch sound file converter for the Macintosh : BarbaBatch.
BarbaBatch and the three utilities that come with it are mainly aimed at the production of audio
for multi-media projects. They tackle a variety of problems encountered in the production
and management of large numbers of sound files, realising huge increases in throughput.
Below you will find a brief breakdown of some key features of BarbaBatch, MoveIt, NameIt and JoinIt.
The BarbaBatch demo 1.72 yields silenced output files except when the output format is AIFF. AIFF Files give five seconds of sound, so you can evaluate the quality of the output. This only applies when no Digidesign hardware is used; board output is still silent. Output files are of accurate file format, length, sample rate and word size, containing all markers loops and regions.
This way you can measure processing time, test Digidesign hardware compatibility, file compatibility with other platforms etc.
Four files should be on in this archive:
Read Me First - This file
BarbaBatch 1.72 Demo - the BarbaBatch demo
BarbaBatch Demo Manual - a tutorial containing a few sections of BarbaBatch's manual
NameIt, MoveIt JoinIt - Demo's of these three utilities. Read about them in their on-line help menu.
Retail price of the four applications, spectacularly packaged including a very understandable yet
detailed manual (of which you will find two chapters on this demo disk) is $545 (US Dollars)
ex. VAT and shipping/handling.
Contact us for ordering and questions by fax, e-mail or phone (weekdays 9: 00-15:00 GMT):
Audio Ease
Esdoornstraat 14
3551 AJ Utrecht, the Netherlands
e-mail: ease@knoware.nl
Fax: ++31-30-2438500
phone:++31-30-2433606
You are encouraged to duplicate this (complete) demo for anyone interested in BarbaBatch.
Also all comments concerning the software are highly appreciated.
A Brief Description of BarbaBatch
BarbaBatch is a batch sound file conversion application for the Apple Macintosh.
It is mainly aimed at the production of audio for multi media.
Among BarbaBatch's key features are:
• BarbaBatch converts from and to the following sound file formats.
Sound Designer I - Digidesigns first, one channel file format
Sound Designer II - current Digidesign file format
AIFF - Audio Interchange File Format (it also reads Sonic Solutions AIFF Files)
WAV - Microsoft Windows standard sound file format (.WAV)
VOC - standard 8 bit Creative Voice sound file format mostly used for MS-DOS (.VOC)
VOC16bits - extended VOC file for 16 bits and high sample rates (SoundBlasterPro)
NeXT/SUN.snd - The linear PCM version of the native NeXT and SUN audio format
NeXT/SUN.au - The 8 bit µ-law version of the native NeXT and SUN audio format
Amiga IFF/8SVX - A popular Commodore Amiga sound file format
AVR - originally an Atari format
BarbaBatch also converts to sound-only QuickTime Movies
• Very high quality sample rate conversion to and from any rate , amazingly fast.
• Normalising to a user-editable ceiling in dB's.
• Conversion to and from 8 and 16 bits linear PCM as well as µ-law data.
• Flexible audio channel processing:
- Mixing stereo files to mono files.
- Copying only left or right channels from stereo to mono files.
- Duplicating mono files to stereofiles.
- Splitting stereofiles into separate monofiles, adding .L and .R
• Optional dithering at every stage where necessary
• Region extraction, exporting audio within regions to separate audio files, using editable fades.
• Compacting audio. Stripping audio files of audio outside regions, using editable safety margins.
• Very clear user-interface for maximum ease of use.
• Accelerated for use with Digidesign hardware (ProTools I & II, Audio Media I, II and LC,
and Soundtools I & II) on 680x0 Macs.
• Accelerated for the RISC processor by the Power PC native code in the FAT application.
• Smooth background performance during every stage of execution, even when Digidesign hardware is used.
Very important when converting thousands of files.
• One Pass Philosophy: There's no need to run a batch or a file through BarbaBatch several times to achieve a complex
conversion : everything is done in one pass. You can even run different conversions simultaneously, so you can convert one
batch to several output batches at the same time...
• Flexible Input: The input batch can consist of a mix of all (ten!) supported input file formats, different sample rates and
word sizes etc.
• True processing and recalculation of markers, loops and regions to and from several file formats
• Very detailed status window and log files
• Processing of files with more than two channels.
NameIt, MoveIt
Managing thousands of files on the Mac is no joke. Therefore BarbaBatch comes with two additional tools aimed at the management of large projects: NameIt and MoveIt.
NameIt is a batch file renamer with 8 different renaming algorithms. Among them is a sound file recogniser that will extend five sound file formats with their PC suffix (.WAV, .SND, .AIF, .AU, .VOC).
MoveIt is a textlist based batch file mover. Select a source folder, a list of files to be moved and a destination folder.
JoinIt
Also included: JoinIt, a small tool that realises batch processing using, for instance, your favourite SoundDesigner plug ins. JoinIt concatenates separate Sound Designer II files into one Sound Designer II file , wherein region definitions selecting the original files are created, bearing the original files names. Process the concatenated file using any (Plug-In) processor that maintains the regions (about everything in SoundDesigner except time stretching and sample rate conversion) and extract the regions from it using BarbaBatch.
You will find the demo's of MoveIt, NameIt and JoinIt as a self extracting archive on the demo disk.
Detailed operating instructions can be found in their on-line help menu.
