Quick Tip: Page (1) of 1 - 01/09/06

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Five Quick Sound Forge Lifesavers Adventures in the audio finishing chain By Frank Moldstad

A dedicated audio editor such as Sony's Sound Forge is equipped for hundreds of specialty editing and finishing tasks that might be inconvenient or impossible in an all-purpose DAW multitrack program.

Opening Converter

Here's a look at five Sound Forge features that are quick to implement and might just save your life, or at least your audio job. Chosen arbitrarily because they've proven their worth to us, they range from mono conversions to replicating multiple portions of a clip.

1) Mono Lives!
It may seem quaint in the era of surround sound, but mono still matters. This is especially true for anything that is destined for broadcast, because of the still-huge base of analog TV sets equipped with mono speakers. Even for stereo music mixes, mono-referencing is an important check to make sure there are no phase cancellations between the two channels. Checking a stereo mix for mono compatibility is easy in Sound Forge, using the Channel Converter.

Accessed from the Process menu, the Channel Converter dialog has presets for not only stereo-to-mono conversion, but a number of other things, too, including reversing channels and intermixing them. To make a straight stereo-to-mono conversion, choose "Stereo to mono -- use both channels (100 %)."  It's quick, it's easy and it's a good idea to check.

2) Who Said No Do-Overs?
You cut the wrong part of an audio track and saved the file without thinking? No problem, if you had Sound Forge's Undo Past Save mode selected. To enable it, check the "Allow Undo Past Save" box on the General tab in Sound Forge Preferences menu. This preserves the undo history until the data window is closed. And don't close the data window or exit the application unless you're sure!

Check box in Preferences

Ooops!

3) The Replicator
This is a fairly specific function, but it's a huge timesaver when you need it. Say you've got a two-minute clip, but you only want a five-second portion of that clip to repeat for the entire two minutes. The Replicate command (Edit>Paste Special>Replicate) will paste as many repetitions as will fit into the current data window of whatever you've copied to the clipboard.

First copy the portion to be replicated ...

Apply the Replicate command ...

... and it's done!

4). Direct Burning
Quick reference CDs can be burned right from the Sound Forge Tools menu by choosing "Burn Track-at-Once Audio CD." The Track-at-Once (TAO) designation means that more tracks can be added to the disc one at a time. Before it can be burned for playback in consumer machines, the disc must be closed and no further tracks can be added. For more advanced Red Book mastering, of course, Sony's CD Architect works hand-in-hand with Sound Forge.

Quick burn option

Burn dialog box

5) Obeying the Limits
Diigital audio is absolutely unforgiving when it comes to signal distortion -- it's either distorted or it's not. That's why it's a good idea to limit the signal's peak amplitude if there's any danger of distortion. Sound Forge's Volume Maximizer will provide iron-clad protection by limiting a signal's peak amplitude. To apply it, open the Wave Hammer dialog from the Effects menu and click the Volume Maximizer tab. You can choose a preset such as "Master for 16-bit" or set the limits manually.

Opening WaveHammer

Your bacon is saved.

 

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