The audio editor |
Accessing the audio editor [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist] The Pizzicato audio editor window is a tool used to modify an
audio file. Once you have added an audio track to a score, you
may then edit the audio track with the audio editor. You may also open and edit an audio file that is independant
of a score by using the Open an audio file... item of
the File menu. With the Pizzicato versions with only one audio track, you may
open the audio editor through the Associated audio track...
item of the Windows menu. A dialog appears and when you
click OK (providing you have specified an audio file), the audio
editor appears. With Pizzicato Professional and Composition,
you must go in the conductor view (Windows menu, Conductor...
item) and double-click on the audio track you want to edit. The
audio tracks associated to a score may be shown by clicking on
the little icon on the left bottom of the rectangle representing
the score: In both cases, the audio editor window appears: If you do not have an audio wave file to use while exploring
this window, we suggest that you create an audio file from one of
your Pizzicato scores, as explained in the previous lesson. In
this lesson we have taken the audio file generated from the
Pizzicato example 44, as we did in the previous lesson. This
lesson will explain all aspects of this window. The various parts of the audio window [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist] The central part displays the sound wave itself. In this
example, the file is stereo, so there are two sound waves
displayed. The upper wave (in blue) is the left channel and the
lower wave (in red) is the right channel. Please note that the
display and background colors you see on your screen may be
different, according to the graphic options chosen, but this does
not affect the functionalities of the window areas. Just above the sound waves, there is a graphic area that
displays the time scale. By default, the scale is expressed in
seconds, with 6 digits after the comma to specify a precision of
one microsecond. You may change this scale to display the number
of samples or a reference to the measures and beats of the score,
with the popup menu that appears in the right part of the
toolbar: When the window is opened, the full range of the wave is
displayed. In this example the audio file has a duration of about
7 seconds in full CD quality (44100 samples per seconds) which
means that there are about 300000 sample values displayed in one
row. This is why the sound wave appears as a "thick
block" and not as a nice curve moving up and down as we
showed in the lesson on music notation. The bottom part of the window shows information regarding the
location over which you move the mouse inside the wave display
area. The values displayed are respectively: Above the horizontal scroll bar, there is an area that always
shows the full audio file, in three colored bands: The middle band shows a small representation of the sound
wave. The yellow graph on a dark gray background shows what part
of the file is visible in the main area of the window. When the
window is first opened, this is the full file. Let us see how you
may zoom into the file and display any part of it. A small gray line appears where you clicked, showing now
in the main area the detailed graph of the sound wave, for
instance: Specifying the file area to play [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist] The lower band of that area (in green) specifies what part of
the file will be played when you click on the yellow triangle in
the icons under the title bar. By default it is the full file. Notice that the corresponding green area is also displayed
in the scale area. You may use the same process as above to
select the playing area in the scale area. In both cases, you
may also extend the green area by clicking on one of its
border and by dragging it. Another way is to click outside
the green area while holding down the SHIFT key of the
computer keyboard. The green area is then extended up to that
location. This is also valid to extend the gray area. Selecting the working area [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist] When you want to modify the file, you must specify which part
of the file you want to work on. This part is called the
selection. Here is how to specify a selection in the file. The corresponding main area also becomes black, showing
the part that is selected: There is a check box to the right of the toolbar which, when
checked, automatically sets the playing area (green) equivalent
to the selection whenever you modify the selection: P=S means Play equal Selection. Modifying the selected area [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist] Once you have specified a selection, you may apply several
modifications to that portion of the file. Most modifications are
available through the use of a menu that appears when you click
with the right mouse button on the main display area: Here is a description of the various actions you can do with a
selection. The left frame lets you select the operation you want to
perform on the selection. According to the operation, there
are other items that appear in the dialog, as we will see
here. When you click on the OK button, the effect is
applied to the selection. The file duration is not modified
with those operations. An echo of a sound is the same sound delayed and heard
again with less amplitude. This happens for instance when
you are in a large hall or under a large bridge or if you
speak loudly in front of a distant wall or a mountain:
you hear your voice back with some little delay. The
delay is as long as the distance that separates you from
the wall or mountain. It is the time needed for the sound
to go from you to the wall and back to you again after
the reflection against the wall. This operation may be
added here to the content of the selection. You may
specify the delay in milliseconds (1000 milliseconds is
one second), the number of successive sound reflections
as well as the amplitude applied to the successive
reflections. A check box is provided to alternate the
echoes on both sound channels, giving the impression that
the sound bounds between left and right. This operation will add a simple note of music to the
selection. The original content of the selection is still
there, but a note has been added to it. The note duration
will be the full size of the selection. The pitch
(frequency) of the note may vary between two pitches
expressed in Hz (Hertz means here sound vibrations per
second). Those pitches may also be specified with the
popup menus of the note names and octave numbers.
Changing these popup values will compute the
corresponding pitch in the text box above them. The
timber (wave form) of the note may be selected between 6
simple wave forms: the sine wave (which is the purest
timber available: it contains no other harmonic
frequencies than the main one), the triangular wave, the
saw tooth wave, the square wave, the pulse wave in 25%
and 10% (which is the length of the sound pulse inside a
sound cycle). Each one gives a particular sound sensation
that you should try for yourself. A more technical
parameter is the phase of the added sound which may vary
between 0 (no delay) and 360° (a full cycle of the
wave). The volume sliders also apply so that you may vary
the starting and ending amplitude of the note for both
channels. With this operation, the selection will be stretched in
time. The file duration will then be modified. The stretching
factor may vary from a starting to an ending value. A value
greater than 100 % will extend the duration of the sound,
while also lowering its frequencies. A value less than 100 %
will shorten the sound while also increasing its frequencies.
Applying this effect to a voice will for instance make it
quite different. This may be used to create special effects,
for instance a piece of music playing on an old phonograph
and your finger pushing on it to slow it down. Or the effect
of rewinding a record very fast. Just try it for yourself. This operation does not affect the sound but merely helps
you to adjust an existing selection precisely. For instance,
if you want to concatenate two audio parts, you may select
the first as explained before and copy it to another place.
But if you want a precise result, without a 'click' sound in
the transition between the two audio parts, you should
specify the selection very accurately, so that the wave goes
smoothly from one audio part to the other. This is mainly
done by being sure that the last sample value of the first
audio part is quite similar than the first sample value of
the second audio part. Otherwise there will be a
discontinuity that will result in a 'click' effect. With this dialog, you have the possibility to adjust the
starting and ending points of the selection: Moreover, you may ask Pizzicato to adjust that selection: This is useful if you work with sound waves that you want
to multiply for instance to make a note sound longer without
touching its frequency. You may select a part of the wave and
then apply the up zero crossing adjustment so that the
selection is ready to be pasted a lot of times in sequence
without any discontinuities. Zooming [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist] Here are some ways to better determine which part of the file
you want to see. When you specify the gray area as explained above, the length
of that area determines the zoom that is used to display the
audio information in the main area. You may also directly
determine the zoom values, with the following toolbar items: The first popup menu tells how much pixels will represent how
much samples of the second popup menu. Remember that a pixel is
the smallest graphical area that can be displayed on a computer
screen. In the above case, there will be 5000 samples displayed
on a screen width of 7 pixels. You may select other values in the popup menus or use the
"-" and "+" buttons to go step by step. Try
some values and see how it looks like on the screen. When you click in the gray area without dragging, the zoom
value is automatically set to 1/1, which means one sample per
graphic pixel. Another zoom is available in the left part of the toolbar: This value may be increased up to 6400 % and lets you increase
the vertical scale of sample representation. For instance, at 100
% you may see a soft sound like this: Zooming to 1000 %, the wave will be displayed with more
details: When using a vertical zoom, the full range of the samples will
be higher than the vertical size of the panel that displays the
wave. To move up or down, use the vertical scrollbar to the right
of the window. At any time, by holding down the CTRL key, you may click and
drag inside the wave display area and the mouse cursor takes the
form of a hand and lets you move the wave left and right (and
also up and down if the vertical zoom is greater than 100). This
is an easy way to move in the wave slowly, so as to examine it. File operations [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist] When using the contextual menu of the wave display area
(right-click or Alt-click on Mac), a menu is displayed with the
operation that may be applied to files: Here is what you can do with this menu. You may select the audio quality that will be used in that
file. Then another dialog appears: You may specify the duration of the file, either in
samples, in seconds or to reach the end of a measure number
of the current score. When you validate, the audio window
displays the new file. Note that this file is a new one. The previous audio file
displayed was associated to the current score and stays
associated with it, but this new file has not been
automatically added to the score. If you want that file to
play with the score, you must explicitly associate it to the
score, as explained in the lesson about audio tracks. Recording an audio file [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist] We have seen in a previous lesson how to create an audio wave
file from any Pizzicato score. You may also record a new audio
sequence and insert it into the existing file. You must first
specify a selection and then the The sound source used for the recording is not selected in
Pizzicato but in the Windows record volume control panel or
in the Mac Sound panel in the System Preferences. To know how
to select a source, see the lesson on exporting a score into
a wave file. If you want to record your voice or an acoustic
instrument through a microphone, you should then select the
microphone and connect your microphone to the computer sound
card. Notice that the score with which the original sound file
is associated will be played while recording. This is useful
for instance if you want to sing on a musical accompaniment
that you made in the score. In that case, you should use a
headphone to hear the music and sing in the microphone, so
that the microphone does not also record the music you hear
(which is useless because the music is already in the score
and it would create a bad interference). The same principle
is valid if you record an acoustic instrument. Once you have selected the operation you want to do, click
on OK and Pizzicato executes the action. Modifying the wave directly [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist] You may modify the wave directly with the three following
tools, available in the toolbar: With this tool, you may correct any irregularity you find
in an audio file (a "scratch" from an old
phonograph record,...). Miscellaneous options of the editor [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist] You can open the option dialog with the contextual menu when
you right click (alt-click on Mac) in the main wave display area.
Select the Options... item and the following dialog
appears: You may select the number of undoable operations, between 2
and 15. You may also customize the various colors used when
displaying the waves. In the left part of the toolbar, you will find the following
items: Note that to see the difference, the display zoom must be
less or equal to 5 samples per pixels.
icon is used to play the green
area in loop. When it is enabled (just click on it to
enable or disable it), if you play the file with the
yellow triangle, that part of the file will be played
endlessly, each time going back to the beginning of that
part, until you either stop it or disable the loop
button.
button, which forces Pizzicato to
follow the playback graphically.
icon is used to open the audio real time
recording dialog. When you click this icon, you get the following
dialog: