Using keyboard arrows
The most straightforward way of changing position of the cursor within the soundfile is by using the keyboard arrows:
LEFT/RIGHT ARROW
moves the cursor by one pixel to the left/right
CTRL+LEFT/RIGHT ARROW
moves the cursor by 10 pixels to the left/right
ALT+CTRL+LEFT/RIGHT ARROW
moves the cursor by 100 pixels to the left/right
The length of the time step associated with cursor movements depends on the time resolution. Suppose, for example, that the resolution coefficient is set to 1000 for a 22.050 kHz recording. Since, in this resolution, one screen pixel represents 1000 consecutive samples, moving the cursor by one pixel (ARROW
) you change the time coordinate by approximately 45 milliseconds, moving it by ten pixels (CTRL+ARROW
) you change the coordinate by 0.45 seconds and, finally, advancing one hundred pixels (ALT+CTRL+ARROW
) you cover a distance of 4.5 seconds. To set the resolution coefficient use the PAGE UP/DOWN
keys:
PAGE UP/DOWN
increases/decreases the resolution coefficient by a factor of 2
CTRL+PAGE UP/DOWN
increases/decreases the resolution coefficient by a factor of 10
Using 'Go to' commands
Use these commands to move the cursor to specific locations.
If you want to jump to a prescribed position press G
(Go to new position) and type in a new cursor coordinate: sample number (if the time axis is calibrated in samples) or time (if the axis is calibrated in units of time). In order to change the method of calibration check or uncheck the Time scale in seconds box in the Preferences dialog.
Time can be specified in two different ways - giving the number of hours, minutes and seconds separated by colons (a digital clock notation) or seconds only. This means you can write either 1:06:40.25 or 4000.25, whichever is more convenient - DART XP Pro will accept both notations.
Apart from fixing an absolute position of the cursor, you can set its relative position within the soundfile, i.e. position expressed as a percentage of the overall file length. To achieve this, enter a positive number smaller than 100.0 and follow it with the percent sign, e.g. write 27.5%. Relative positioning can be used in a very similar way as clicking on the overview strip; it works irrespective of the adopted method of axis calibration.
In order to set the cursor at the beginning of the distinguished area (block), press F11
; to move it to the end of the block, press F12
. To move cursor to a given marker or click marker, choose Go to new position and type in ‘m’ followed by the marker label, e.g., ‘m1’ will move the cursor to the marker labeled 1 and ‘mb’ will move it to the click marker labeled B. To move cursor to the next or previous marker, press the > or < key..
Press HOME
to move the cursor to the beginning of the soundfile and END
to jump at its end.
Using 'Play' commands
You can use play commands to localize certain fragments of a recording
Coarse positioning
Press A
(Play all) to audition the entire recording. When the fragment you would like to spot is played back press the ESC
key - the playback will be terminated and the cursor will remain in its current position (stop&stay). For long files try using Play from the cursor (C
) instead of Play all.
Use the step play commands - Play local (L
), Play next local (N
) and Play previous local (P
) - to systematically comb the audio file in the area of interest. The length of the fragment (centered around the cursor), which is played back when using the local play commands, can be adjusted via the Preferences dialog.
Fine-tuning
Suppose the fragment you are trying to isolate is contained in the local area traversed by the Play local command. Press SHIFT+L
(Select local block) to distinguish (highlight) this area. From this point on you can use the Play block (B
) command to precisely localize the searched material. To adjust position of block boundaries proceed as follows:
1. Press F11
/F12
to position the cursor at the beginning/end of the block.
2. Use PAGE UP/DOWN
keys to adjust the length of the time step associated with cursor movements.
3. While depressing the SHIFT
key, use keyboard arrows to move the corresponding block boundary leftward or rightward.
4. Press B
(Play block) to audition the modified block. If not satisfied return to step 1 above.