Subject:"Quantized" display of zoomed in waveform in 9.0e

Posted by: fripholm

Date:10/20/2008 12:18:25 PM

Hi all,
I have SF9 now for almost a year and there is a thing that bugs me from the beginning:

Whenever I vertically zoom into a waveform the display of SF looks "quantized" as if it were displaying a really low bit file but it happens to 44.1 16-bit as well as 24-bit files. It looks like a square wave. It mainly happens on very large wave files. When further zooming in horizontally it eventually goes back to normal at 1:1 zoom ratio. Precise edits are not possible when this happens.

Anyone else experienced this or is there a way to avoid this?
regards
Thomas

Subject:RE: "Quantized" display of zoomed in waveform

Reply by: rraud

Date:10/21/2008 8:50:38 AM

Does everything else display normally. i.e. pictures, ect.?
If these are also out of whack, reset your graphics card to the default recommended resolution.
If all other apps graphics display normal, you may want to reinstall SF.

Subject:RE: "Quantized" display of zoomed in waveform in 9

Reply by: ForumAdmin

Date:10/21/2008 9:46:09 AM

Above 1:1 horizontal zoom, Forge uses the peak file (*.sfk) to draw the waveform. It is probably a pre-existing 8-bit peak file from an older version or a different app (hence the block-ish vertical zoom) .

Try Special->Rebuild Peaks or delete the existing .sfk and re-open the file in Forge. This should at least get you 16-bit peaks.

J.

Subject:RE: "Quantized" display of zoomed in waveform in 9

Reply by: fripholm

Date:10/22/2008 2:04:18 PM

Thanks for your replies. No, everything is fine with the graphics drivers. There are no problems in other applications. Rebuild peaks or deleting the SFK does not help either.

Maybe a screenshot helps to explain the problem. The first one is at 2:1 resolution and it looks very lofi, the second one is the same file at the same position at 1:1 and displays as it should. It's a 45 minute recording in 24-bit, 44.1 khz.
http://www.ttx-sound.net/q1.gif
http://www.ttx-sound.net/q2.gif

Any ideas?

Edit: I have no idea how to post links here. You have to copy the line to your browsers adress line and it should open the image.

Subject:RE: "Quantized" display of zoomed in waveform in 9

Reply by: ForumAdmin

Date:10/23/2008 7:28:54 AM

Clearly it's switching between the peak file and the audio file.

If the levels start looking blocky below roughly -75 dB or so, it's a 16-bit peak file representing a 24-bit file.

The appropriate solution for this issue is to either change the horizontal cutoff to something larger than 1:1 or add support for 24-bit peak files. In the meantime, you'll have to work at 1:1 horizontal zoom or lower if you need to see accurate waveform data at these levels.

On that note, it would be helpful if you could elaborate on the types of edits you are trying to do at this level. There may be other behaviors (e.g. snap-to-zero-crossing) that you'd find useful.

J.