There are a number of parameters and important notes common to all or most of the plug-in modules which are listed here. We recommend you read them carefully since this can save you time and prevent you from trying something that just cannot work.
You will find a detailed description of the parameters for the various plug-ins in the folder "sonicWORX PlugIns".
Influence of the "Preferences…" settings on calculation speed
For some plug-ins (especially the plug-ins based on neural networks) calculation speed can be significantly increased at the expense of quality by changing the 'Preferences...' settings. If you have a very fast machine you can also increase the quality of the algorithm output by using the same parameters (see also Manual Chapter 6.1.13).
Plug-in modules whose speed is affected by the "Preferences…" dialog settings are marked by a leading period (•) in the "Algorithms" menu.
Power Macintoshes and 68k computers
All edit functions and display elements of sonicWORX are the same for both computer types. However, the way plug-ins will analyze and render audio material is slightly different. The 68k routines will use a computationally less extensive rendering and analysis procedure which will make some samples sound different from a similar one created with a Power Macintosh. In most cases, you won't notice any difference so this remark will only apply to you if you are a particularly inquisitive individual.
Optimum sampling frequency
The algorithms are optimized for audio material having a sample rate of 44.1 or 48.0 kHz. If you process a file having a different sample rate you may experience a loss in quality since sonicWORX will use a general purpose processing scheme. Some plug-ins (like Virtual Room) will not work well with sampling rates different from 44.1 or 48.0 kHz.
In these rare cases, use the "Sample Rate Conversion" plug-in to convert the sample rate prior to processing the file.
The sonicWORX Online Help
Almost all of sonicWORX menu entries and parameters have an online help text available. Turn on Balloon Help in the ?-menu of the finder and place the mouse on the slider or display element you are interested in. You may also display a help text for all of the sonicWORX plug-in parameters for easy referencing without having to use the manual.
High/Low Limit Parameter
For some of the plug-ins, you can define a processing range. In these cases you have a 'High' and a 'Low' limit parameter defining the boundaries of the range to be processed.
If you set the lower boundary to a value above the high boundary, the range becomes reversed, that is, low and high values become exchanged. The setting (Low=40, High=80) and (Low=80, High=40) will therefore produce identical results.
Expert Parameter
If you aren't using a monochrome display, you will notice several different colors for the sliders of the plug-in parameters. They have the following meaning:
Blue (Easy Parameters)
These parameters usually have a great influence on the output effect produced. We recommend you try them first when experimenting with a new plug-in.
Red (Expert Parameters)
These parameters are used for 'fine tuning' the desired algorithm. In most cases, you can ignore all red parameters and use the preset factory values with good results.
Green (Mode Select)
If enabled, these parameters change the operation mode of a DSP function. Mostly used for showing the effect of an operation (e.g. in the APEM De-Reverberation plug-in you may listen to the signal portion that is removed instead of the de-reverberated signal depending on the setting of this parameter).
Magenta (Realtime Parameters)
Not available in sonicWORX Artist. These are for adjusting the Realtime DSP algorithms in sonicWORX Studio and Professional.
Black (Disabled)
The parameters displayed in black are not available on your computer or in the current edit context.
New plug-in modules
If the algorithms menu contains plug-ins that cannot be found in this manual this may be because they were released after this manual was printed. You will find a description of their parameters in a README text file on the sonicWORX Disk 1. Furthermore, several third-party developers will provide additional plug-ins in the near future. You will find them in the "3rd Party Modules" menu in the algorithms menu which will show when you have third party modules installed.
You may also obtain new modules from our web pages
Increasing the speed of sonicWORX on your computer
You may install a RAM disk on your computer if you have enough free RAM available. Copy the sonicWORX program, the sonicWORX plug-in folder and all audio files to be processed to the RAM disk. Make sure there is enough RAM disk space to hold the temporary sound files sonicWORX will create (at least two times the length of the audio file to edit). To install a RAM disk use the control panel "Memory". Refer to the user's manual of your computer if you do not know how to install a RAM disk.
Remove all unneeded system extensions and control panels from your system folder or start your computer while holding down the 'Shift'-key to start without any system extensions. We urge you to remove 'RAM-Doubler' and 'FileSaver' if you have them installed since they considerably slow down your computer.
Disable virtual memory. Use the control panel "Memory" to switch virtual memory off. Refer to the user's manual of your computer if you do not know how to disable virtual memory.
Make sure the waveform edit window is off screen or small enough to not display any waveform data during processing. This will also help to speed up performance.
