web page: <http://www.felttip.com/products/soundstudio>
Felt Tip Sound Studio is a shareware (US$25) application which lets you record and edit AIFF sound files on your Mac. It has a visual waveform editor for precise cut-and-paste editing and several filters for modifying the audio. What sets Sound Studio apart from other audio-file editors is it user interface, which is multi-threaded for responsiveness and is consistent with the Mac OS Platinum theme.
Major Features
File Features
• Opens and saves AIFF format files
• Uses Navigation Services where available
• Stores audio on scratch disk
Editing Features
• Resamples audio to any sample rate.
• Standard cut-and-paste editing
• Many filters for adjusting volume, adding effects, and equalizing the audio
• "Crop" command for trimming sound file
• Undo support for all edits
Display Features
• Visual waveform editor for precise edits
• Uses Mac OS Appearance Manager where available
• Waveform updates in background so you can edit while window is redrawing
• Two-paned view of audio: an overview of the entire file and a larger, zoomable area for editing
• Unlimited zoom level, from sample level to entire file
• Keyboard control of playback: space bar for play/pause, escape for stop
Requirements
• Mac OS 7.1 or later
• 5 MB free RAM
• Hard disk space for working with audio files
• Thread Manager (included with Mac OS 7.5)
• Sound Manager 3.0 (included with Mac OS 7.5 and with QuickTime)
License and Registration
Felt Tip Sound Studio is distributed as shareware. You have a trial period of fourteen (14) days, which only include the days that you actually launch Sound Studio. After the trial period is over, Sound Studio will start to remind you to register it. Registration is only US$25, lets you personalize your copy of Sound Studio, and keeps the shareware reminders from popping up. To register, either open "Register Sound Studio" (found in the same folder as Sound Studio), or go online and register at <http://www.felttip.com/register/>. See the "How to Register" file for more info on registration.
Packing List
1. About Sound Studio
2. Felt Tip Sound Studio
3 .How to Register
4. Register Sound Studio
If you are missing any of these items from your Sound Studio folder, please download the complete package from <http://www.felttip.com/products/soundstudio/>
How to use Sound Studio (Quick Tour)
This section points out some tips for using Sound Studio. First, there's a general tour of the windows and menus of Sound Studio.
There's a 'Sound Input' palette which shows the current input signal level and has an input gain control. The signal level meter shows the left and right channels' peak volume, and it holds the peak volume for two seconds. You might notice there's no input source selector. That's because Apple provides one in its Control Strip (it's the one with the microphone in front of a CD). There's also an input source selector in the Monitors & Sound control panel.
If you open an AIFF file or create a new one, you'll see a window for that file with controls for playback and recording. On the top right of the window, there's a playback volume control which goes from about 3% to 300%. Setting the volume above 100% can cause clipping during playback, so you should increase the system sound volume first if it's too quiet. On the bottom left, there's an info display and a zoom level display. Clicking on the info lets you resample the audio (you can undo it afterwards). The zoom level display has a pop-up menu that lets you select pre-set zoom levels.
The Stop, Play, Pause, and Record buttons are on the top left of the window. Note that the 'Record' button starts recording immediately, and puts the newly recorded audio at the end of the file when you press 'Stop' to stop recording. Keyboard shortcuts are: Space Bar for Play and Pause, Escape key for Stop.
The top part of the window includes the overview of the entire sound file, and the bottom part shows the main view of the sound file. The overview has a black box which indicates what part of the sound file the main view is showing. Click-and-drag on the overview to change what part of the audio file the main view is showing. Shift-click to extend the box, and single click to show every sample at point you clicked.
The main view has a few keyboard shortcuts: the arrow keys move the cursor around. Left and right arrow keys move the cursor one pixel, but in conjunction with the command key they move one screenful. Up arrow is for the beginning of the file, and Down arrow is for the end. Page Up and Page Down work horizontally, and Home and End work normally.
Now, on to the menus.
Resample is in the File menu, and resamples the entire file according to the your specifications.
In the Edit menu, Insert Time adds a length of silence, while Silence will make the selection silent.
The filters operate on the current selection, and if there's no selection they operate on the entire file. Backwards reverses the audio so that it plays backwards. Invert inverts the phase of the audio so that valleys become peaks and vice-versa.
If you haven't registered and entered your license code, the Register menu appears. Start Registration launches the 'Register Sound Studio' application, and Enter License Code is where you enter your license code. After entering your code, the Register menu goes away, and the About box shows your name and organization.
That's the tour of Sound Studio. If you have any questions about anything, please email me, the author, at the address below.
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Lucius Kwok (Felt Tip Software)
email: <lucius@felttip.com>
web: <http://www.felttip.com/>
snail mail: 807 Keely Place / Philadelphia PA 19128 / USA
