User manual SONIC FOUNDRY SOUNDFORGE XP

[. . . ] 1 INTRODUCTION I NTRODUCTION I NTRODUCI NG SOU N D FORGE XP Sound Forge XP is a compact, easy-to-use digital audio editing solution for the Windows platform. With a Windows-compatible sound card, Sound Forge XP gives you the ability to record, edit and process professional-quality digital audio files. Sound Forge XP supports an extensive set of file formats, allowing you to develop audio for training and business presentations, Web content, musical recordings, computer games, and digital video productions. The latest version of Sound Forge XP offers expanded file format support, including Microsoft Video for Windows (AVI), RealAudio and RealVideo (RA, RM), and Active Streaming Format (ASF) files using Microsoft NetShow. [. . . ] If the file's status format is not set to a time format, you will need to change this first before inserting silence in seconds. Close the dialog and change the status format of the file by right-clicking on the Selection Status Fields and selecting Seconds from the pull-down menu. In the new file, use Synthesis (Tools menu) to generate four seconds of noise at -60 dB amplitude. Choose Noise from the Waveform shape list, enter 2, 000 in the Frequency field, and drag the Amplitude slider until the value is approximately -60. Next, copy all of the noise onto the clipboard and mix it to the beginning of TUTOR1. To mix, choose Paste Special from the Edit menu and select the Mix option. You should now have a file with voice and a relatively low hissing sound in the background. 126 RECORDING 5. To remove the noise during silent breaks, first analyze the amplitude of the noise. In TUTOR1, select a region with only noise (no voice), and run the Statistics function under the Tools menu. Take note of the Maximum sample value percentage. In the Noise Gate dialog, slide the threshold level to a bit over the Maximum sample value (in percentage). A value of -50 dB should be high enough to differentiate the noise from the vocals. Notice that the noise during the silent regions should have disappeared (total attenuation). The other two parameters in the Noise Gate determine how fast the gate will open and close. This will affect how the beginning and end of the sound will fade in and out. If the Attack time is too slow, the beginning of the vocals might get cut off. Likewise, if the Release time is too fast, the end of the vocals will be cut. Experiment with these times until you can remove as much noise as possible without removing any of the voice. 127 RECORDING COM P R ESSION Compressing a sound lowers the dynamic range. When you compress a sound, you lower the volume of loud sections and then raise the overall volume to compensate. This is done to keep the volume level from fluctuating too much over time. Compression and Normalization can be used together to increase the apparent loudness of a file. Make a copy of it by selecting the whole region and dragging it to an open space in the Sound Forge XP workspace. With the new file active, select Dynamics from the Effects menu. The Dynamics dialog will appear. NOTE 3. [. . . ] After creating sound data, save the modifications and close Sound Forge XP. If you did everything correctly, a Sound Forge XP Audio object will now be embedded in your document. After the Sound Forge XP Audio object has been created and embedded into the document, you can edit it at any time using Sound Forge XP by doubleclicking on the object in your document. 279 APPENDIX F TI PS AN D LI M ITATIONS As mentioned above, Sound Forge XP Audio objects are implemented as links to existing sound files on your hard disk or network server. Because of this, there are some limitations you should be aware of before using the OLE support in Sound Forge XP. LI N KS CAN B E B ROKEN, B UT NOT M EN DED The most important rule to bear in mind when using OLE with Sound Forge XP is that links can be broken, but not mended. When you create a Sound Forge XP Audio object, it stores only a link (which is a directory path) to the sound file. [. . . ]