It is good practice to save regularly throughout a project to avoid losing valuable work in the event of a power failure or other unfortunate occurrence. The Save command saves the changes you have made to your audio document by writing it to your hard disk. The Save command cannot be undone.
Peak allows you to save your audio documents in a variety of common audio file formats, each of which is described below. Be aware that different formats allow different information to be stored with the file. Peak preserves this information unless you save the file into a different file format. Saving a file in a different format than its original format, however, may cause some information stored in the file to be discarded. For instance, Sound Designer “regions” cannot be stored in AIFF files. Nor can copyright, author, or other file format-specific information be saved in a format which doesn’t support it.
Peak supports the following audio file formats:
• AIFF:
This is Apple’s Audio Interchange File Format. It is also Peak’s default file format and is supported by many Macintosh software applications.
• Sound Designer II:
This is Digidesign’s audio file format for its digital audio products. Use this format if you wish to use an audio document in a Digidesign audio application.
• .WAV:
This is Microsoft’s Windows Audio File Format. It is supported by many Window’s software applica-tions and some Macintosh applications. The .WAV format is best if you plan to use an audio document in an application that supports or requires .WAV format files.
• QuickTime:
This is Apple’s audio file format for QuickTime-based multimedia. It is supported by all Macintosh software applications that support QuickTime. The QuickTime format is best if you plan to use an audio document in multimedia applications that support QuickTime, such as Adobe Premiere ™ or Macromedia Director ™ .
• RealAudio:
This is a compressed audio format for delivery over the internet in real-time. It is only available when you are using Peak on a Power Macintosh.
• System 7 Sound
This is a Macintosh sound file format that you can double click on in the Finder to hear the sound. Use this format to create new System beep sounds.
AIFF and QuickTime file formats support compression. Compression is a method of making the audio data take less space, with the tradeoff of some loss of quality. Peak supports IMA 4:1, µlaw, MACE 6:1 and MACE 3:1 compression algorithms. Choose a compression algorithm using the pop-up menu "Compressor:", or set the pop-up menu to "None" if you do not wish to use any compression. MACE 6:1 and MACE 3:1 are for 8-bit sound data, and IMA 4:1 and µlaw are only for 16-bit audio data.
To save a Peak document:
1. Choose Save from the File menu or press command -S on your keyboard.
2. Select a file format from the pop-up File Type menu. AIFF is Peak’s default audio file format.
3. Enter a name for the new audio document, and click Save.
Using the “Save As” Command
The Save As command allows you to save a copy of the current document under a different name, or in a different location on your hard disk. Since the Save As command closes the current document and lets you keep working on the renamed copy, it is useful for saving successive stages of a project. This allows you to save each major step under a different name. Later you can retrace your steps should you want to go back to an earlier version.
To save an audio document under another name:
1. Choose Save As from the File menu. The Save As dialog appears.
2. Select the desired file format from the File Type pop-up menu. AIFF is Peak’s default audio file format.
3. If you wish to save the audio document in 8-bit format (if it isn’t already) click the 8-bit checkbox. If not, leave this item unchecked. (Peak does not use dithering to convert to 8-bit format when saving this way, so you may wish to use a product such as L1™ from Waves for professional dithering before saving as 8-bit.)
4. Enter a name for the new audio document, and click Save.
