Subject:More files in windows tool bar?

Posted by: Jonah

Date:10/10/2001 4:13:33 AM

When you click on Windows, it shows up to 9 windows you have open and the option to show more windows. The problem I have is that I have more than 9 windows open and it is a pain to click on more windows, scroll down in that menu and then I usually have to click on more windows again to get back to the orginal file I was working on. So, I was wondering if there is a way to make SF show more than 9 choices. This would be good, but a really awesome feature would be if there was any way that when you click on More Windows... it one, doesn't lock you out from clicking on and playing the wavs, make it into a sort of floating tool bar. Second make it so that in the More Windows box you don't have to scroll to see more than 11 wavs. I find it very annoying that I have to scroll since SF knows that to get the more windows option I have to have more than 9 windows open, and I almost always have at least 25-40 wavs open. Most of them are named sound1,2,3, etc. because I copy them out of another wav file.

This actually made me think of another feature I would like, naming of wav files without saving. Like I said I have tons of wavs opened called sound whatever, and I don't need/want to save them ever, but I would like to name them, so that I can switch back and forth more easily, with out having to listen to the sound. Thanks a lot!

Subject:RE: More files in windows tool bar?

Reply by: Rednroll

Date:10/10/2001 3:38:11 PM

Have you tried to use the region list? I have not run into the problems that you're currently having but you can select all the data in a window and give it a Name. Special-Regions-Add. Give it a name that you wish. Now make sure you have the Regions List open in the Views menu. The only problem is that you the Region list only applies to the currently active window. Another suggestion is that you can right click on the waveform and select Properties-Summary and then give the wave a name in the Title column and this will now appear at the top of the window....thus you don't need to save and now if you have open 40 different windows you can just goto the "Windows" Menu and select the Window you would like to see active, where you will also see the name you gave to it in Properties. So I guess the feature you're looking for is already there. Is there any other features you would like added?

Subject:Thanks for the help and a new feature idea!

Reply by: Jonah

Date:10/12/2001 10:46:17 AM

Thanks for the info about the regions view. That will help me out greatly. The naming of wavs feature will help me out very much as well.

Still, I would like to see more than 9 available windows. SF becomes very slow when long files are open, doing tasks like cutting, pasting, and deleting. When I like to do is select a chunk of the wav I want to edit. Then I hit ctrl+c, ctrl+e to make a new window with the chunk. Then I will do my editing on it and mix or copy it back into the original wav. Other times what I will do it run an effect or eq on the wav and then crossfade it with the original. I also make drum rolls in SF by copying, pasting a snare hit over and over and then lowering the volume of each hit. If I tried to do this in a 3 minute file it can sometimes take at least a couple seconds and in a new file it is instant. Also I like to reuse the drum rolls and other sounds I make, so I end up with a ton of windows. So I still think making the widows available as a view much like the regions list would be very helpful. Maybe only for me though :)

I do have another feature that I think would be interesting to add. It is sort of hard to explain if you have never used adobe photoshop, but I will try any way. In photoshop you can put different images in different layers and if you apply an effect or delete one of them the image is still the same, but if you select layers in the layers window you can edit any and all layers that you have selected. My idea is to apply this same technique to SF. In my opinion no multitrack editor that I have used is anywhere close to this. In photoshop you see all the images as one, in a multitrack you see 4 different windows for 4 different wavs, etc. I really like the close up editing of SF and would like the, I don't know what to call it (non-linear?) editing that a multitrack gives you. So you could mix 100s of sounds into a wav, decide you don't like the first on and SF will remove all instances of it. I would be willing to wait minutes for this feature. Photoshop also has the feature "hide layer", apply this same idea to mixed in wavs. Lots of very interesting possibilities would be avalible with a feature like this. I would imagine that the sound files might have to be lower quality or in a speacial Sonic Foundry format, until final mix down, but this would be a small price to pay for that kind of power.

I think if I explained this correctly, you will see that this is the future of audio editors :)
If you don't think so I would love to hear why........

Subject:RE: Thanks for the help and a new feature idea!

Reply by: Rednroll

Date:10/12/2001 2:54:25 PM

I'm very familiar with Adobe Photoshop, so I know exactly what you are talking about. From reading your post, it seems to me that you bought the wrong piece of software. What you really need to use for what you are doing is Vegas. This will give you the option as you mentioned about layers, but in the case of audio you are adding Effects, and you have the ability to turn them on and off....just like layers. Vegas is much faster doing copying and pasting like you're looking for, because it uses a different non-destructive editing process. To me Vegas is to audio as Photoshop is to Pictures. Vegas will do everything that you are asking for...so once again...is there any other features you would like to see? :-)