Subject:New Sound Forge 8 Instructional Materials

Posted by: BobM

Date:10/24/2005 1:20:24 PM

Hey all... I've been looking for some good instructional materials for Sound Forge 8 and I thought I would share what I found...

Scott Garrigus has released his new Sound Forge 8 Power book and Sony endorses it as the Official Guide to Sound Forge 8. I haven't finished reading it yet, but it very good so far...

Sound Forge 8 Power - Now Available!
"Welcome to the official guide to the Sony Sound Forge 8 software (also good for Sound Forge 7 users) - one of the most popular audio editing programs available for the PC. With step-by-step examples and exercises, and thorough explanations, Sound Forge 8 Power! digs deep into the software rather than just describing the features and how they work. Whether you’re a Sound Forge 8 or Sound Forge Audio Studio user, this accessible guide will give you a thorough understanding of the software that you can put to use right away. You’ll cover everything from the basics to advanced functions such as writing scripts to automate the processing in Sound Forge 8. As long as you have a strong interest in learning how to get the most out of Sound Forge 8, this book will provide you with everything you need as you begin working within this powerful program like you never have before." For more information: http://www.garrigus.com/powerbooks.asp

I also found this Sound Forge 8 CD-ROM Tutorial, but haven't seen it...

Sound Forge 8 - Know It All! CD-ROM Tutorial
"Interactive video tutorials covering all aspects of audio recording and editing for Sony Sound Forge 8 audio production software. Also covers Sony CD Architect 5.2 CD creation and mastering software. Includes project examples. This course contains seventeen modules and is organized into four sections: There is an overview section which covers the features that are new to Sound Forge 8 and also provides an introductory tour of the Sound Forge workspace. The second section, Projects, is the heart of the course. It has a Quick Start tutorial which provides an introduction to Sound Forge editing and processing tools, followed by three in-depth modules which demonstrate editing and processing techniques using project examples. The Tool & Techniques section contains seven mini-tutorials which cover the specialized functions available in Sound Forge: Spectrum Analysis, Video, MIDI Keyboard & Triggers, Batch Converter, Acid Loops, Generating Sounds, and Finding & Repairing. Finally, there is a section on CD Architect 5.2 which covers both CD creation as well as the use of mastering tools. 2 hours and 9 minutes of Macromedia Flash interactive videos in CD-Rom format. System Requirements: Operating System: Windows 2000/XP; Minimum Screen Resolution: 1024 x 768; Main Memory (RAM): 256 Megabytes (MB); Flash: Macromedia Flash Player 6.0 or later Sound Forge: Sound Forge 8 or later." For more information: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0976422069/compmediaA/

Subject:RE: New Sound Forge 8 Instructional Materials

Reply by: MyST

Date:10/24/2005 4:38:09 PM

You didn't mention Sony's own DVD tutorial.

http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/products/showproduct.asp?PID=981

I have Acid Pro 5.0 and Vegas 5+DVD tutorial DVDs from Sony, and they're excellent.

Mario

Subject:RE: New Sound Forge 8 Instructional Materials

Reply by: garrigus

Date:11/3/2005 6:27:57 AM

Hi Bob,

Thanks for posting about my new book! I hope you're enjoying it. Let me know what you think after you've had a chance to read it.

Thanks!
Scott

--
Scott R. Garrigus - Author of Cakewalk, Sound Forge and Sound Forge 6, SONAR, SONAR 2, SONAR 3 and Sonar 4 Power! books.
** Sound Forge 8 Power The Official Guide - Now Available! ** Books up to 37% off at:
http://www.garrigus.com/

Publisher of DigiFreq. Win a free copy of Sony's Sound Forge 8 audio editing software and learn cool music technology tips and techniques by getting a FREE subscription to DigiFreq... over 17,000 readers can't be wrong! Go to:
http://www.digifreq.com/digifreq/

Subject:RE: New Sound Forge 8 Instructional Materials

Reply by: wbtczn

Date:12/27/2005 2:25:49 PM

Scott -- and all reading this...I purchased your book last week and it has helped me learn and understand quite a bit. The problem is, now that I am trying to put what I've learned into practice, I'm completely overwhelmed!

Here's my situation: Our church had a Christmas program which included a choir, orchestra, and 8 soloists. I recorded that program onto a compact flash card (MP3...found out afterward that I should have done WAV -- lesson learned!). As I listen to the recording, there are sections where the orchestra volume is too low and the soloists are too high. I've started manually manipulating the files to boost / reduce the volume in spots. Wow -- that takes a TON of time. One of my many questions is -- am I doing the right thing here, or is there a quicker / cleaner way to do this?

Sorry -- I jumped into the details there. What I'm really looking for is:

* What would you gurus out there do if I gave you these recordings?
* Do you have a methodology that you follow?
* What red flags do you look for first?

I know there are the Sony DVDs as was listed earlier in this post, but I just dropped a big chunk of change for Sound Forge. I'm doing this work as a donation to my church, I can't really drop another $100 (right after Christmas, no less!) on DVDs. In looking at the DVD description, about 1/2 of them are things I'm already up to speed on. I'm really looking for that next step. Can anyone help?

Thanks !!!

Subject:RE: New Sound Forge 8 Instructional Materials

Reply by: jumbuk

Date:12/27/2005 2:43:14 PM

The obvious way to fix dynamics problems is to use a compressor. SF includes Express FX dynamics, Graphic Dynamics and Wave Hammer. This forum is probably not the place to explain how to use a compressor - but the idea is that a compressor reduces the volume of any sound peak that goes over the "threshold" setting". The amount of the reduction is set by the "compression ratio" - higher ratio means more reduction. How does this help? Well, once you are reducing all the peaks, you can boost the overall volume by using the "makeup gain" or "output gain" control so that the recording is as loud as possible without distorting. The sounds that were quiet before are now louder. This process is an automatic way of doing what you were doing manually. Only problem, any background noise is also louder, so you may need to apply a noise gate or downwards expander first to reduce the noise floor.

Try some of the Graphic Dynamics presets to see what they do, read the Help file and fiddle with the controls until you get what you are looking for. There are some good background tutorials on the web - try the SOS site and the Waves processor site for info.

PS: try Wave Hammer - you can use the compressor to get the quiet passages up (watch for audible "pumping"!) and the limiter to maximize overall volume.

Subject:RE: New Sound Forge 8 Instructional Materials

Reply by: wbtczn

Date:12/27/2005 10:55:42 PM

Thanks for the input...it is definitely much more quicker than what I was trying to do!

Subject:RE: New Sound Forge 8 Instructional Materials

Reply by: mpd

Date:12/28/2005 8:53:48 AM

Another method, is to place a marker at each transition to make selection easier. Then you can double click each section to select it, and then work on processing each section. If you apply a fade to each transition, then it will seem a little more seamless. Personally, I would RMS normalize each section to the same value (try -20 dBFS to start with), and then use some dynamics.

An advantage to this method is that you automatically convert the tracks to regions, bring the file into CD Architect, and use the region info for the tracks, and make a CD. You can also do the fades in CDA.

Subject:RE: New Sound Forge 8 Instructional Materials

Reply by: wbtczn

Date:12/28/2005 10:22:44 AM

mpd - thanks for the input...I thought that normalizing was the last thing to do -- am I wrong?

The flash recorder we have allows us to hit a button to create a new track as we're recording. So when there was a break in the music, I'd start a new track. Some tracks have multiple songs which run together (no stop in the music), other tracks only have one song. What I've been doing in working on them a track at a time, and then planning on pulling them all together into one file and then normalizing. Am I on the right path???