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User`s Manual - Performance Audio

1. Loop Point Grow Box The soundfile window is a visual representation of the soundfile on the desktop Much of the work you do on the soundfile will be done inside the soundfile window The soundfile window has several components whose functions are listed below INFINITY User s Manual 21 Introducing INFINITY Title Bar The Title Bar contains the name of the soundfile the close box the zoom box and either No Backup or Backup Created written next to the title of the soundfile INFINITY will create a backup file when the soundfile is first opened pro vided the corresponding Preferences dialog item is enabled When Backup Created is displayed in the title bar the Revert to Backup com mand can be used in the File Menu See Create Backup Files on page 55 Close box Clicking on the close box will close the soundfile window Zoom box Clicking on the zoom box will increase the size of the window to the maxi mum allowed by the size of your video monitor Clicking it again will return the window to its original size Overview The Overview displays the whole soundfile the insertion point loop points and the Playback Position Pointer The Overview allows you to nav igate around the soundfile easily In a stereo soundfile the left track is dis played above the right track Data can be chosen for display in the Mainview by using the view indicator described below Data can also be sel
2. D ral k Create Delete Loop Points The Loop Points icon adds loop points to a file or deletes them from a file which has them co To create loop points in a soundfile click on the Loop Points icon in the Palette or choose Create Loop Points from the Edit menu The keyboard command equivalent is P The loop points appear in the soundfile and the menu item changes to read Delete Loop Points To delete loop points from a soundfile click on the icon again The loop points will disappear and the menu item will change back to read Create Loop Points The deleted loop points can be returned to their original positions by clicking on the icon a third time Loop the selection This command place the loop points at the ends of the current selection Locating Loop Points The Mainview can be scrolled to the position of either the loop start or loop end points The Loop Start icon is labeled 1 The Loop End icon is labeled 2 co To center the Mainview on the loop start point click on the Loop Start icon The keyboard command equivalent is 38 shift co To center the Mainview on the loop end point click on the Loop End icon The keyboard command equivalent is 38 shift Hold the Option key while clicking these buttons does a full zoom out of the mainview display INFINITY User s Manual 47 INFINITY Basics Set MIDI Note Choosing this item from the Edit menu or clicking on the MIDI Note Num ber in t
3. 76 INFINITY User s Manual The Synthesis Looper This quality of hearing the loop because the varying sound repeats itself is sometimes judged as a poor quality loop It this case the loop maker is really wanting for a tool to change the sound to one which does not have as much temporal variation It is for this reason we have created the Synthesis Looper This tool gives you control over that aspect of the sound which creates temporal variation the harmonic sidelobe widths Some Theory Temporal variation occurs when two sinusoidal frequencies are not exactly in tune For example if one sine wave generator is tuned to 1000 Hz Hertz or cycles per second and another is tuned to 1001 Hz a 1 Hz beat note will be produced A temporal variation will also occur when there is any integer relation between the frequencies involved if one sine wave genera tor is tuned to 500 Hz and another is tuned to 1001 Hz a 1 Hz beat note will also be produced Many solo instruments sans vibrato generate uniformly repeated wave forms These sounds contain energy at the fundamental pitch and over tone pitches which have frequencies that are EXACT integer multiples of the fundamental frequency These frequencies are called the harmonic series For example an oboe play A 440 generates energy at frequencies 440 Hz 880 Hz 1320 Hz 1760 Hz etc Zero energy is generated at any other frequencies except for perhaps white noise gener
4. We recommend that you leave the manual within reach when first learning INFINITY When you come across something that you don t understand take a few moments to look it up in the Index and read about it The time invested will be well rewarded The Contents Of The Manual Chapter 1 Getting Started This chapter explains everything about starting INFINITY communicating with Antares Audio Technologies and using the manual Chapter 2 Introducing INFINITY This chapter explains the scope of INFINITY s functions and how it solves current problems in the electronic music studio Basic concepts in sample editing and file management are also covered The user interface is INFINITY User s Manual 13 Getting Started explained with emphasis on the anatomy of the Palette and the Soundfile Window Chapter 3 INFINITY Basics INFINITY Basics explains how to perform all the basic functions in manipu lating and editing a soundrfile The topics covered are Using Commands Viewing The Soundfile Editing The Soundfile Saving The Soundfile and Customizing Your Environment Chapter 4 INFINITY Looping Tools This chapter contains detailed instructions on how to use the looping tools We recommend this chapter as must reading for everyone Chapter 5 INFINITY Reference This chapter explains every object and function in INFINITY Items are organized in alphabetical order by name An in depth explanation of each item i
5. Amplitude Spectrum dB 5K 10K 15K Sidelobe Width Computed using MIDI note 5K 10K 15K 20K Log scale Linear scale which are integer multiples of the fundamental frequency Also the Nor mal PDF distributions in energy show up as narrow concave downward hyperbola in Decibels verses linear frequency Notice how the higher fre quency harmonics are wider These sidelobe widths are proportional to fre quency Note that the above Sidelobe Width graphs were generated using pitch detection see the note enclosed in the graph Pitch detection was used here because this note was slightly out of tune You can determine this because if the MIDI Note were used instead the graph would appear Nor Sidelobe Width Computed using MIDI mote 0 Sk 10K 15K 20K INFINITY User s Manual 85 INFINITY Looping Tools mally the sidelobe widths do not exceed 30 unless the expected harmonic frequency is not aligned to the actual harmonic frequency This will happen when the MIDI Note is used for pitch control and the note is out of tune The following graphs show the result of processing the data with the Retain Noise checkbox clear and checked respectively Retain Noise unchecked ta Amplitude Spectra dB 110 a SE 10K 15K 20k Sidelobe Width Computed using pitch detection Notice how the Sidelobe Width becomes flat above 12k Hz as was specified in the Sidelobe Wid
6. INFINITY Looping Tools Process The Loop Segment Check this item if you wish to apply the Rotated Sums process to the data inside loop When this item is not checked the slider labeled Rotation Count is inactive and no change will be made to the loop data Rotation Count The Rotation Count is the number of times that the loop data will be rotated and added in the accumulator during the loop processing phase The range of the control is from 1 to 100 More rotations give better results up to a point but take more time Merge The Attack And Loop Segments Checking this item enables the second phase of the looping process merg ing the loop segment with the attack segment of the sample Enable this part of the process only when you want to crossfade the loop data with the attack segment of the sound When this item is not checked the sliders labeled Loop Start Test Points Crossfade Length and Crossfade Taper are inactive When Merge the Attack and Loop Segments is checked in the dialog INFINITY will automatically search a number of points in the loop segment to find the point which most closely correlates to the end of the attack seg ment The number of test points that are tried during the search can be con trolled using the Loop Start Test Points control Processing time increases as more points are tried When the best merge point is found INFINITY rotates the data in the loop until the merge
7. Either re spec ify the note or use Pitch Detection If you had checked Pitch Detection then your MIDI note may be off The MIDI note was used as an initial guide by the pitch detection algorithm If the MIDI note is way off an incorrect result would occur Unfortunately if you process a short loop less than 20 cycles the Pitch Detection algorithm will not be precise and the result may be slightly out of tune Next review the Sidelobe width graph Normally the sidelobe widths do not exceed 30 unless the expected harmonic frequency is not aligned to the actual harmonic frequency This will happen when the MIDI Note is used for pitch control and the note is out of tune In this case use Pitch Detection Next go back to the Synthesis Looper tool and check Retain Noise Finally specify a Sidelobe Width curve that resembles the one on your report and press the Do It button This is a quality control step and should result in a loop very close to your original sound INFINITY User s Manual 87 INFINITY Looping Tools Now the fun begins Select Retain Noise as desired Experiment by care fully adjusting the Sidelobe Width curve to have less width than the original and press Do It Remember to Undo between trails A Final Note Remember this Ensemble sounds vary When you make a loop you will hear the variations repeat over and over and over and over You can make a static sound
8. It works as in the Rotated Sums Looper Crossfade Length This control sets the amount of the loop that is blended with the attack seg ment It is variable from 0 to 100 of the attack duration A large cross fade length will cause the attack to slowly blend into the loop sound A smaller crossfade length will create a quick but blended transition between the two segments of the sample A setting of zero creates no crossfade Attack Loop Segment Segment Crossfade Taper This control adjusts the taper shape of the crossfade that is used in the attack loop merge It is adjustable from 0 linear taper to 100 equal power taper It should be adjusted to provide the smoothest transition between the attack and loop segments of the sample Linear taper should be used for editing simple periodic wave forms like solo instruments Equal power taper should be used when editing complex non periodic waveforms like string sections noise etc 100 equal power taper 0 linear taper INFINITY User s Manual 75 INFINITY Looping Tools The Synthesis Looper Introduction The Synthesis Looper tool can be used to selectively smooth out lumpy sounding frequencies in chorused and ensemble sounds The new sound is more stable and loop repetitions are less noticeable This control is achieved by allowing you to specify the sidelobe widths of the harmonic series as a function of frequency You can control the sidelobe widt
9. Synthesis Looper Report window to be generated This window belongs to the Synthesis Looper Report Soundfile brass A 3 Fundamental Hz Amplitude Spectrum dB 5K 10K 15K Sidelobe Width Computed using MIDI note 5K 10K 15K 20K Log scale Linear scale INFINITY User s Manual 83 INFINITY Looping Tools sound file The data in the window is computed from the soundfile s loop data at the moment you pressed the Report button You may generate as many reports for a soundfile as you desire You may close a report by clicking the go away box in the top left If you close a soundfile all the reports for that soundfile are closed automatically You can also press the space bar or the speaker icon in the palette window to play back the sound file to which this report belongs Remember though if you modified the soundfile after generating the report you will hear the new soundfile The Fundamental Hz number is the fundamental frequency It is com puted using the MIDI Note number or the Pitch detection method selected when you pressed Report The Amplitude Spectrum dB is the amplitude square root of energy of the loop expressed in Decibels Decibels are 20 log value Every 6 dB is a approximately factor of 2 in amplitude The Sidelobe Width graph shows the sidelobe width computed from the loop as a percentage of the fundamental frequency The scale presented is the same as th
10. Title Bar Close box Zoom box Overview View Indicator Playback Position Pointer Vertical Annotation Il 11 11 11 12 12 12 12 12 12 13 13 13 13 13 14 14 14 14 14 14 15 15 17 17 19 20 21 21 22 22 22 22 22 23 23 Mainview Track Divider and Zero Crossing The Horizontal Annotation Loop Points Grow Box The Palette Mode Icons Status Display The Action Icons Get Info Disk Based Files Envelope Files Backup Files Balloon Help CHAPTER 3 INFINITY Basics Using Commands Using Keyboard Command Equivalents Undoing A Command Viewing The Soundfile Scrolling The Soundfile Data Changing The Display Resolution Using The Display Scale icon Using The Fit Selection Icon Using Zoom Mode In The Overview Using Zoom Mode In The Mainview Using Momentary Zoom Mode Using Full Zoom In and Full Zoom Out Changing Separators Units and Scales Show Zero Crossing Show Track Dividers Vertical Scale Units Horizontal Scale Units Managing Multiple Windows Hiding The Overview Listening to The Soundfile Setting up Sound Playback Playback Auto Reset Scroll After Playback 23 23 24 24 24 25 25 26 27 28 28 29 30 INFINITY User s Manual Using The Speaker Icon 37 Editing The Soundfile 38 Specifying Where To Change Sound Data 38 Using Selection Mode In The Mainview 38 Placing The Insertion Point 38 Selecting Data 39 Using Selection Mode In The Overview 40 Using Momentary Selection
11. point This is called a crossfade This tends to make the transition from loop end to loop start less abrupt No technique will ever loop a non periodic sound without leaving irregu larities somewhere in the loop The problem with a crossfade loop is all of the different frequencies in the sound make a transition from one phase to another during the crossfade This causes different combinations of con structive and destructive interference Because this happens for all frequen cies at the same point in the loop a noticeable bump is produced by the crossfade loop The illustration below shows the process of creating a crossfade loop The waveform segment labeled attack is the part of the sound that is heard before the loop begins The line labeled A is the loop start point The line labeled B is the loop end point Tas attack zi loop Aani 1 Loop start and end points are placed at the best sounding tapered data 2 Data near the loop end point is tapered faded out 3 A section of data just before the loop start point is copied and tapered faded in to create the transition data A transition data h i segment S 4 The transition data is roA oaetiee o gt added to the loop end data to create a smoother return to the loop start transition function 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 time in milliseconds A B INFINITY User s Manual 19 Introducing INFINITY Used with
12. A Paste will similarly identify independent leading and trailing blend regions around the selection or insertion point Paste will then compare its leading blend region with the leading blend region of the Clipboard and choose the smallest Similarly for the trailing blend time The Paste is then performed with these new blend times Note that blending occurs outside of the original selection and outside of the Paste s selection A Cut removes precisely the number of samples selected in the file In order to blend the result samples on both side of the beginning of the selection are merged with samples on both sides of the ending selection provided that blending is enabled and there is a non zero blend time The size of the merge is given by the blend time It must be noted therefore that cutting some samples does not necessarily completely remove them To completely remove the center most samples the selection size must be larger than the blend time Clear Unselected does no blending Clear is the same as Cut except no samples go to the Clipboard Blending in Clear works the same as blending in Cut Normally when Pasting or Mixing with an insertion point the new data is inserted before the first sample of the group of samples represented by the pixel under the insertion point The exception to this rule is when the inser tion point is on the last pixel in the soundfile window In that case the new data is added after the last sample
13. Crossfade Taper This control adjusts the taper shape of the crossfade that is used in the attack loop merge It is adjustable from 0 linear taper to 100 equal power taper It should be adjusted to provide the smoothest transition between the attack and loop segments of the sample Linear taper should be used for editing simple periodic wave forms like solo instruments Equal power taper should be used when editing complex non periodic waveforms like string sections noise etc 100 equal power taper 0 linear taper Do It Clicking on the Do It command button executes the Freeze looping process Pressing lt esc gt or lt command period gt terminates the process INFINITY User s Manual 67 INFINITY Looping Tools The Rotated Sums Looper Rotated Sums Looper Soundfile E Process the Loop Segment Rotation Count Lie EJ Merge the Attack and Loop Segments Loop Start Test Points Crossfade Length ail mk Dy Crossfade Taper Oto Linear Equal Pwr Use this tool on pre looped soundfiles only Doit The Rotated Sums Looper creates seamless loops by randomly distributing sonic irregularities throughout the loop It is very effective with sounds that have non periodic waveforms like chorus string orchestra complex synth patches sounds that include noise and so on NOTE Sounds must be pre looped before using the Rotated Sums Looper Any clicks pops or other irregularities w
14. Mode 40 Using The Editing Functions 41 Cut 41 Copy 42 Paste 42 Clear 43 Clear Unselected 44 Clear Beyon Loop End 44 Mix 44 Invert 45 Reverse 45 Silence 45 Normalize 46 Change Gain 46 Create Delete Loop Points 47 Loop the selection 47 Locating Loop Points 47 Set MIDI Note 48 Auto Zero 48 Show Clipboard 49 Using Edit Blending 50 Adjusting The Blend Parameters 52 Saving The Soundfile 53 Save 53 Save A Copy 53 Reverting To The Last Saved Version 54 Customizing Your Environment 55 Enable Clipboard 55 Enable Undo 55 Blending 55 Create Backup Files 55 Customizing The Soundfile Window 56 INFINITY User s Manual vii CHAPTER 4 INFINITY Looping Tools Managing Loop Points Real Time Loop Adjust Undo Loop Move Loop Points and Clipboard Loop Points During Edits Loop Points In Other File Formats The Crossfade Looper About Smart Auto Scan Understanding The Dialog Controls Soundfile Menu Looping Display Auto Scan Arrows Auto Scan Matching Value Auto Scan Settings Crossfade Length Crossfade Taper Audition Crossfade Do Crossfade The Freeze Looper How It Works Understanding The Dialog Controls Soundfile Menu Pitch Control Radio Pre condition Data Crossfade Length Crossfade Taper Do It The Rotated Sums Looper How It Works Understanding The Dialog Controls Soundfile Menu Process The Loop Segment Merge The Attack And Loop Segments The SPR Looper How It Works Performance Note Understanding SPR C
15. Points and Clipboard The loop points are copied onto the clipboard This occurs with a cut or copy if both loop points are included in selection Valid loops points in clip board show up as at least one non zero value for the begin or end loop time see the Show Clipboard option in the Edit menu The values displayed in Show Clipboard are relative to the beginning of the selection when the cut or copy was performed When Paste is used and loop points are in clip board they are always pasted into the document Loop Points During Edits The loop points are moved only if all tracks are selected in Cut Clear Paste and Reverse operations Loop points are always moved for Clear Unse lected The loop points are never moved for Silence and Invert operations If both loop points are in an area that is cut from the data they are deleted Undo restores the previous loop points During Cut and Clear operations a loop point that is within the selection is moved to the new insertion point If this happens to both loop points the 58 INFINITY User s Manual The Crossfade Looper loop is deleted Loop points after the selection end point are moved for ward stuck to their respective sample During Paste operations where there is a selection a loop point in the selected region stays at the same number of samples after the selection start point unless the pasted region is smaller than that offset In that case it is moved
16. Selection Mode and the Over view is in Zoom Mode The mode of a display determines what work can be done on the data in that display See Using Zoom Mode In The Mainview on page 34 and Using Selection Mode In The Overview on page 40 for instructions on changing the mode of a display The mode icons are Selection Mode Icon Selection Mode allows data to be selected in the display See Specifying Where To Change Sound Data on page 38 Zoom Mode Icon Zoom Mode allows specification of a region to be dis played in the Mainview See Changing The Display Resolution on page 33 Status Display The Status Display on the Palette gives information about the location of the cursor Four fields of information are displayed which show various fields depending on the current usage of the software Track This field displays the track where the cursor is located co C This field displays the absolute time at the cursor location co Amp This field displays the vertical location of the cursor s active pixel co C I This field displays the horizontal position of the cursor relative to the insertion point when the insertion point is present During a selection this field reads Select and shows how much data has been selected When the loop points are being dragged and the cursor is in the Main view this field reads Loop and displays the amount of data inside the loop INFINITY User s Man
17. When scaling occurs the user is notified with an alert which indicates how much the data was scaled The scaling information will allow you to maintain volume control of your samples If you are getting clipping in the fade from 72 INFINITY User s Manual The SPR Looper the attack segment check out that the crossfade taper may be set more towards linear taper Performance Note Sometimes the Rotated Sums Looper and the SPR Looper have an undesir able effect on the output loop The energy of any transient sound in the loop will be distributed evenly over the length of the loop Clicks and pops will be output as relatively steady state noise For example when looping a close miked cello the bow rasp which nor mally occurs in phase with the rest of the waveform is distributed ran domly across the loop The result sounds like the cello mixed with tape hiss We recommend that these two tools be used only with instrumental groups or other random non periodic waveforms Understanding SPR Controls The SPR Looper divides the looping process into two distinct phases pro cessing the loop data and merging the attack and loop segments These can be controlled separately and executed at different times With both phases of the process enabled the loop data and the attack data are altered every time the SPR process is run It is sometimes desirable to disable the attack loop merge phase of the process and do several t
18. a soundfile that has no samples the soundfile will acquire the sample rate and MIDI Note Number of the first data pasted or mixed into it Normally when Pasting or Mixing with an insertion point the new data is inserted before the first sample of the group of samples represented by the pixel under the insertion point The exception to this rule is when the inser tion point is on the last pixel in the soundfile window In that case the new data is added after the last sample in the soundfile Invert The Invert function changes the sign of the soundfile data In other words it inverts the phase of the waveform by 180 degrees co To invert the soundfile data select the region to be inverted Choose Invert from the Edit menu The selected data are then changed Reverse The Reverse function reverses the order of the sample data in time end for end e g a backwards cymbal roll co To reverse the soundfile data select the region to be reversed Choose Reverse from the Edit menu The data are then switched in order the last sample coming first Silence The Silence function zeroes selected data in the soundfile co To silence soundfile data select the region to be silenced Choose Silence from the Edit menu The sample values of the selected data are then zeroed INFINITY User s Manual 45 INFINITY Basics Normalize The Normalize function increases the gain of a selected region until the
19. become the most popular electronic musical instruments because of the realism and fidelity made possible by digital recording techniques This realism comes at the price of ever increas ing memory requirements needed to produce the sustained tone of natural instruments Since samplers have finite memories rudimentary looping techniques have been used to create the illusion of sustained tones but often with less than satisfactory results The Problem With Looping An ideal loop sounds like a uniform sustained tone An imperfect loop is detectable because one hears repetitive changes in the tone Using standard looping techniques it is possible to create an ideal loop only under special conditions These conditions are 1 The waveform being played must be perfectly uniform during the duration of the loop which may be thousands of cycles long and 2 The loop must start and end at the same point in the period of the waveform This means that a perfect loop can only be created by using a sustained peri odic waveform But this type of sound is only a small sub set of the sounds used in music making Sustained sounds come in two varieties co Periodic sounds Sounds recorded monophonically which have stable tone loudness and pitch Examples are solo wind and brass instru ments organ and so on INFINITY User s Manual 17 Introducing INFINITY co Non periodic sounds Some examples of non periodic waveforms are instr
20. in the Over view and Mainview Vertical Scale Units This item allows either percentage of full scale or sample value to be dis played on the Vertical Annotation in the Mainview and the Status Display Area of the Palette INFINITY User s Manual 35 INFINITY Basics Horizontal Scale Units This item allows the units shown on the Horizontal Annotation of the Mainview and all other time displays to be chosen The pop up menu choices are Samples Hours Minutes Seconds Milliseconds SMPTE 24 FPS SMPTE 25 FPS SMPTE 30 FPS and SMPTE 30 FPS Drop Managing Multiple Windows Windows can be arranged by using the Tile Windows and Stack Windows commands in the Windows menu To Do This Show all open windows without overlapping Select Tile Windows To stagger all open windows at maximum size Select Stack Windows Hiding The Overview More space in the active soundfile window can be created by using the Hide Overview command in the Display Menu Selecting this command causes the Overview of the active window to disappear When the active window has its Overview hidden the menu item reads Show Overview Selecting Show Overview will put the Overview back in the active window Listening to The Soundfile Setting up Sound Playback The Sound Playback menu contains a list of the devices which are currently installed Choosing an item will direct the soundfile playback through the selected device Choosing Mac 8 or Mac 16 co
21. in the soundfile Blending occurs between the end of the original sound and the pasted data INFINITY User s Manual 51 INFINITY Basics Adjusting The Blend Parameters INFINITY allows the length and taper of the crossfade used in edits to be adjusted Clicking on the Blend command button in the Preferences dialog will evoke the Edit Blend Settings dialog shown below Edit Blend Settings Blend Time msec Oi BD Blend Taper Loui Linear Equal Pwr Cancel ox Blend Time To change the length of the crossfade use the Blend Time scroll bar or type directly into the text box to adjust the duration The initial setting is 10 mil liseconds The range is from 0 milliseconds to 2 000 milliseconds The most useful range for normal editing functions is from 10 to 50 milliseconds The scroll bar has exponential scaling so there is plenty of resolution around the most useful settings The illustration below shows the effect of changing the Blend Time control Blend Time 0 milliseconds Blend Time 10 milliseconds Blend Time 25 milliseconds Blend Taper The slope of the crossfade can be changed by using the Blend Taper scroll bar or text box The range of settings is from 0 linear to 100 equal power 52 INFINITY User s Manual Saving The Soundfile The initial setting is 0 full linear The illustration below shows the effect of changing the Blend Taper control Linear tape
22. is pressed When the key combination is released all displays go back to their previous modes 40 INFINITY User s Manual Editing The Soundfile Using The Editing Functions This section describes the edit functions shown in the Edit menu as they operate without the use of the Blending feature See Using Edit Blending on page 50 for the details of how this feature effects the edit functions All of the functions described below can be reversed using the Undo com mand in the Edit menu provided that Undo is enabled in the Preferences dialog See Customizing Your Environment on page 55 for the details When an edit operation is done on a soundfile the contents of the Clip board is stored as the soundfile s previous Clipboard For a Cut or Copy the following steps take place The application Clipboard is updated co The soundfile stores the new Clipboard as it s new Clipboard co For a Clear Clear Unselected or Paste the soundfile stores undo infor mation to undo the edit co You can go back to any document any time after it has been edited and do an undo co The soundfile uses the new Clipboard or the undo information whichever is available to undo the edit co If the soundfile s new Clipboard information was used and if that information is the same as the application Clipboard then the applica tion Clipboard is replaced with the soundfile s previ
23. skill and patience crossfade looping techniques can result in marginally usable loops in some non periodic sounds The level of quality that results is currently considered acceptable but is in fact mediocre com pared to what can be achieved by INFINITY s unique DSP tools The Costs Of Current Methods The time and effort required to make a good set of looped samples is more than most musicians are willing to invest With complex sounds like pianos string sections chorused synths and so on it is extraordinarily difficult to make good crossfade loops Lumpy loops have necessarily become accept able The third party sound design business is booming License to use pre looped sounds which are often of less than satisfactory quality costs hun dreds of dollars While this saves time and effort even the best commercial samples have audible loops 20 INFINITY User s Manual The INFINITY Environment The INFINITY Environment Even experienced sound designers are advised to read this section carefully It contains basic information on the display and manipulation of digital sound that is essential to using INFINITY The Soundfile Window Title Bar Close Box Overview gt View Indicator Vertical Annotation Track Divider Mainview gt Playback Position Pointer Horizontal Annotation 25 000 50 000 75 000 100 000 MIDI Note Number
24. that you can type in numbers giving you more accuracy than dragging the point on the graph Note that the sidelobe width is specified as 10 times the percentage that is typing a 7 means 7 Merge The Attack And Loop Segments Checking this item enables the second phase of the looping process merg ing the loop segment with the attack segment of the sample Enable this part of the process only when you want to crossfade the loop data with the INFINITY User s Manual 81 INFINITY Looping Tools attack segment of the sound When this item is not checked the sliders labeled Loop Start Test Points Crossfade Length and Crossfade Taper are inactive When Merge the Attack and Loop Segments is checked in the dialog INFINITY will automatically search a number of points in the loop segment to find the point which most closely correlates to the end of the attack seg ment The number of test points that are tried during the search can be con trolled using the Loop Start Test Points control Processing time increases as more points are tried When the best merge point is found INFINITY rotates the data in the loop until the merge point is located at the loop start The loop is then merged with the attack segment The type of crossfade that is used only modifies the attack segment The length and taper of the crossfade that is used to merge the two segments can be controlled Loop Start Test Points This contr
25. time and disk space used to copy data into and out of the Clipboard Enable Undo When the Undo function is enabled INFINITY creates a temporary Undo file every time an edit occurs Unchecking the Enable Undo option decreases the time and the disk space needed to complete edits on large portions of data Blending Checking this item enables the Blending function This function was dis cussed above in Using Edit Blending on page 50 Create Backup Files When this item is checked opening or saving a soundfile will create a tem porary backup copy of the file This allows the Revert to Backup command in the File menu to be used INFINITY User s Manual 55 INFINITY Basics Files that are opened with Create Backup Files checked will display the phrase Backup Created in their title bar This indicates that there is a copy of the last saved version of the soundfile Each time Save is used this backup copy is deleted and the current sound is used to create a new backup file Creating backup files can take an inconveniently long time when working with large soundfiles Also there may be insufficient space on your hard disk to store the backups If either of these conditions apply uncheck the Create Backup Files item The title bar for a file opened in this condition will display the phrase No Backup NOTE Be forewarned that when No Backup is displayed in the title bar any changes you make to the soundfi
26. to maintain volume control of your samples If you are getting clipping in the fade from the attack segment check out that the crossfade taper may be set more towards linear taper Understanding Synthesis Looper Controls The Synthesis Looper divides the looping process into two distinct phases processing the loop data and merging the attack and loop segments These can be controlled separately and executed at different times With both phases of the process enabled the loop data and the attack data are altered every time the Synthesis Looper process is run It is sometimes desirable to disable the attack loop merge phase of the process and do sev eral takes of processing the loop data without merging the loop with the attack This saves time and allows for selecting the best sounding loop before the attack segment is altered by merging After the best sounding loop is found the merge can be done separately by disabling the loop pro cessing phase 80 INFINITY User s Manual The Synthesis Looper Process the Loop Segment In the Process the Loop Segment section there are three controls The Pitch Control allows you to choose MIDI Note or Pitch Detection Selecting the MIDI Note radio button will cause the harmonic series fre quencies to be determined using the MIDI note If the loop data is not in tune incorrect harmonic amplitudes will be computed Selecting the Pitch Detection radio button will cause
27. to the first sample after the new pasted region Loop points after the selection end point are stuck to their respective sample During Paste operations where there is an insertion point loop points after the insertion point are moved backwards stuck to their respective sample During the Clear Unselected operation loop points in the discarded regions are moved to the first or last sample of the soundfile Loop points within the selected region are stuck to their respective sample During the Reverse operation loop points in the selected region are reversed as if stuck to their respective sample Loop Points In Other File Formats Two loop points exist in the AIFF and the Sound Designer I formats the sustain loop and the release loop Currently INFINITY only deals with the sustain loop In Sound Designer II the sustain loop is called Loop 1 and the release loop is called Loop 2 INFINITY will read only Loop 1 from a Sound Designer file as the sustain loop When INFINITY writes to a Sound Designer II file all other loops are lost The Crossfade Looper The standard crossfade loop is created by blending part of the attack seg ment into the end of the loop segment of the soundfile to create a smooth transition back to the loop start INFINITY s Crossfade Looper allows for precise control of the process and contains many enhancements including a scalable looping display a non destructive audition feature f
28. NCR ENE TY DSP LOOPING TOOLS FOR THE MACINTOSH User s Manual AN ITARES REALLY COOL STUFF FOR MAKING MUSIC INFINITY DSP Looping Tools for the Macintosh 1999 Antares Audio Technologies All Rights Reserved Antares Audio Technologies 464 Monterey Ave 2nd Floor Los Gatos CA 95030 408 399 0008 888 332 2636 web www antaresTech com INFINITY DSP Looping Tools software and this user manual are protected by copyright law Making copies adaptations or derivative works without prior written authorization of Antares Audio Technologies is prohibited by law and constitutes a punishable violation of the law Antares Audio Technologies retains all ownership rights to the INFINITY software and other software offered by Antares Audio Technologies and their documentation Use of INFINITY is limited by the license agreement packaged with the envelope containing your original diskette INFINITY was written with MacApp 1985 1999 Apple Computer Inc APPLE COMPUTER INC MAKES NO WARRANTIES WHATSOEVER EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED REGARDING THIS PRODUCT INCLUDING WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO ITS MERCHANTABIL ITY OR ITS FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE The MacApp software is proprietary to Apple Computer Inc and is licensed to Antares Audio Technologies for distribution for use in combina tion with INFINITY DSP Looping Tools for the Macintosh INFINITY End User License Carefully read all the terms and cond
29. NFINITY Basics Deselect a region Place an insertion point anywhere Using Selection Mode In The Overview Data can also be selected in the Overview by placing the Overview in Selec tion Mode The insertion point and data selection behaviors are exactly the same as in the Mainview To put the Overview in Selection mode 1 Click on the Selection icon in the Palette The icon begins to blink and the message Choose a Window for Selec tion Mode appears in the Status Display area of the Palette 2 Move the cursor into the active window and click in the Overview The cursor becomes the I beam cursor The Selection icon on the Palette video reverses Use the I beam cursor to select any region in that Over view To put the Overview back into Zoom Mode 1 Click on the Zoom Mode icon in the Palette The icon begins to blink and the message Choose a Window for Zoom Mode appears in the Status Display area of the Palette 2 Move the cursor into the active window and click in the Overview The cursor becomes the cross cursor The Zoom Mode icon on the Palette video reverses to show that the Overview is in Zoom Mode Using Momentary Selection Mode INFINITY can be put into Selection Mode temporarily by pressing lt shift option gt This is useful for quickly selecting a region in the Overview The cursor will become the I beam cursor and all active displays will remain in Selection Mode as long as this key combination
30. Scrolling The Soundfile Data 32 scrolling the soundfile data 32 Selecting Data 39 Selection Icon 25 Selection Mode 40 INFINITY User s Manual XCV Selection Mode In The Mainview 38 Selection Mode In The Overview 40 Selection Mode momentary 40 Set MIDI Note 48 Show Clipboard 49 Show Overview 36 Show Track Dividers 35 Show Zero Crossing 35 Sidelobe Width 84 sidelobe widths 76 Silence 45 Smart Auto Scan 60 solo instruments 76 Sound Designer I 54 Sound Designer II 54 Sound Playback 36 Soundfile Window 21 Speaker Icon 26 Speaker icon 37 Spectral Phase Randomization 72 SPR Looper 72 Stack Windows 36 Status Display 25 Amp 25 C 25 C I 25 Track 25 Synthesis Looper 76 T temporal variation 77 The Crossfade Looper 59 Tile Windows 36 Title Bar 22 Track Divider 23 Track divider lines 56 U Undo Loop Move 58 Undoing A Command 32 uniformly repeated waveforms 76 vV Vertical Annotation 23 56 Vertical Scale Units 35 View Indicator 22 Viewing The Soundfile 32 xcvi INFINITY User s Manual Z Zero Crossing 23 Zero crossing lines 56 Zoom box 22 Zoom Icon 25 Zoom Mode 33 35 INFINITY User s Manual xevii
31. Segment Segment A segment of data from the attack is crossfaded into data at the end of GZ GG the loop This creates a gradual transition at the end of the loop to the sound at the beginning The Crossfade Length 9 control de termines the amount of the attack seg ment or loop that is crossfaded Gwhichever is smaller 30 INFINITY User s Manual CHAPTER 3 INFINITY Basics Press lt Command gt X to perform a cut This chapter will introduce you to the basic functions of INFINITY We rec ommend that you read through this chapter once and then refer to it as needed while becoming familiar with INFINITY Using Commands Using Keyboard Command Equivalents The keyboard can be used to choose many commands If a command has a keyboard equivalent it usually appears on the menu or on the Palette Undo Undo Loop Move Cut 3H Copy C Paste U Clear 3B Clear Unselected T Clear Beyond Loop Pressing lt shift option gt opt shift will temporarily put arrow keys INFINITY into scroll data Selection Mode lt Opt gt lt arrow gt for full zoom l space 3 gt Pressing the lt space bar gt trae F actuates the Speaker icon a P 36 38 Mik 2M Invert Reverse Silence Normalize INFINITY User s Manual 31 INFINITY Basics The shift option command 3 and control keys are called modifier keys They don t
32. akes of processing the loop data without merging the loop with the attack This saves time and allows for selecting the best sounding loop before the attack segment is altered by merging After the best sounding loop is found the merge can be done separately by disabling the loop processing phase Soundfile Menu This menu has the same function as in the other loopers Process The Loop Segment Check this item if you wish to apply the SPR process to the data inside loop When this item is not checked the slider labeled Pre condition Data is inactive and no change will be made to the loop data INFINITY User s Manual 73 INFINITY Looping Tools Pre condition Data The Freeze Looper and the SPR Looper both use the Pre condition Data fea ture before processing the loop data The purpose of this feature is to taper the data at the loop start and loop end so that all the energy components in the loop begin and end on zero The control has a range from 0 to 100 Any setting larger than a few percent leaves little or no energy at the loop points to cause a click which might inject unwanted noise into the process Increasing the Pre conditioning percentage favors the timbre of the sound near the middle of the loop Using different values gives different aural qualities to the resulting sound The diagram below shows the effect of changing the amount of the loop tapered by the Pre conditioning process The taper does not
33. ame count then the envelope file is recomputed automatically If the soundfile has been modified by some other sample editing program the envelope is considered to be out of date If this out of date condition exists and the file is sufficiently large the dialog shown above is posted If Recompute is chosen the envelope is recomputed If Use Old is chosen then the envelope file is touched so the condition does not reoccur and no prompt will occur for the stale condi tion even though the envelope file may be stale Backup Files If the Create Backup Files function in the Preferences dialog is enabled a backup file is created when a soundfile is opened Upon closing a soundfile the backup file is deleted Note that other temporary files are created as a result of edit operations involving the Clipboard and undo able edits These are automatically managed by INFINITY INFINITY User s Manual 29 Introducing INFINITY Balloon Help INFINITY incorporates sophisticated on line help using Apple s System 7 Balloon Help feature Click on Show Balloons in the D menu to turn on Balloon Help Crossfade Looper Balloon help is available for every item in INFINITY s user interface Some items have graphics to explain complex processes KEI Autop KC Autom Auto pP Loop End Loop Start Crogsfade Length 4 125R m A Crossfade Length Attack Loop
34. ated at all frequen cies by air rushing through the instruments The second chair oboe who does not have as much precision in pitch might play an A 440 out of tune yielding energy at frequencies 441 Hz 882 Hz 1323 Hz 1764 Hz etc Notice how the differences in pitch increase pro portionately with the harmonic index 1 2 3 etc These two players play ing together will generate a sound with a 1 Hz beat note a 1 second repeated variation in sound Now suppose there were 100 oboes playing together with vibratos What would the energy as a function of frequency look like Remember the bell shaped curve Draw a line in the dirt stand back and throw 100 pennies at the line Most of them will land close to the line and some of them will land INFINITY User s Manual 77 INFINITY Looping Tools far from the line The number of pennies per inch will be highest at the line and lower farther from the line If you draw a graph of the number of pen nies per inch verses distance you will plot a bell shaped curve This is technically described as a Normal Probability Density Function or Nor mal PDF If there were 100 oboes players each playing their version of A 440 together with or without vibratos the energy distribution of the fun damental pitch as a function of frequency would form a Normal PDF around 440 Hz The width of the distribution would depend on how good the players were If they were very good players playin
35. ati cally Fully adjustable Edit Blending This editing feature allows the taper and length of the blend crossfades used during edit operations to be adjusted to suit the sound you are work ing on Complete Sample Editing Environment The INFINITY environment provides all the basic tools necessary to create professional quality samples easily and quickly INFINITY is robust It lets beginners get results which are superior to pro fessionals using other programs For professionals INFINITY provides a level of quality speed and ease of use inapproachable by any other sample editor 12 INFINITY User s Manual How To Use This Manual How To Use This Manual INFINITY has a transparent user interface has excellent Balloon Help and is extraordinarily easy to use However the operation of the DSP Looping Tools and some functions of the user interface will not be immediately obvi ous because they do things which have never been done before We strongly recommend that you read the following sections of the manual to take full advantage of the quality and speed that INFINITY makes possible co See The INFINITY Environment on page 21 co See Viewing The Soundfile on page 32 co See Editing The Soundfile on page 38 Saving The Soundfile on page 53 co See Customizing Your Environment on page 55 co Chapter 4 INFINITY Looping Tools on page 57 For Those Who Hate To Read Manuals
36. ck Click again to remove it There is a variety of ways to select data in INFINITY Selected data become video reversed to show that they are selected The Mainview will automati cally scroll during the selection if the cursor is dragged beyond the data dis played in the Mainview To Select a region in one track Select a region in both tracks Lengthen the selection Shorten the selection Extend the selection to the other track Select a whole track Select all the data in the soundfile Select the data inside the loop points Do this Drag through the region or lt option gt click at the start then lt shift gt click at the end Drag across the two tracks or click at the start of the region then lt shift gt click in the other track at the end Point at the new start or end and lt shift gt click You can then drag to a different end point Point near the current end lt shift gt click then drag to a different endpoint Hold down the lt control gt key and click in the other track Click again to remove it Double click in the track or place the insertion point in the track and choose Select All 46 A from the Edit menu Double click in one track and drag to the other or lt shift gt double click in the other track or place the insertion point in both tracks and choose Select All 36 A from the Edit menu Choose Select Loop 48 L from the Edit menu INFINITY User s Manual 39 I
37. crolled both horizontally and vertically 32 INFINITY User s Manual Viewing The Soundfile To Do this Scroll by small increments Click on an arrow in a scroll bar or press the appropriate arrow key Scroll by one window increments Click on a grey area in a scroll bar or press lt shift gt and the appropriate arrow key Scroll full left and center vertically Press the lt Home gt key Changing The Display Resolution Using The Display Scale icon The display resolution of the Mainview can be changed by using the Display Scale icon on the Palette or the keyboard command equivalents To Do this Double the vertical display resolution Click on the up arrow or press 3 Halve the vertical display resolution Click on the down arrow or press 4 Double the horizontal display resolution Click on the right arrow or press Halve the horizontal display resolution Click on the left arrow or press 8 Zoom to the extreme setting Press lt option gt and click on the appro priate arrow or press the appropriate arrow key Using The Fit Selection Icon Clicking on the Fit Selection icon will cause a selected region to fill the Mainview Display The keyboard command equivalent is 38 F Using Zoom Mode In The Overview When a soundfile is opened the Overview is in Zoom Mode In Zoom Mode a view indicator can be dragged around the area of the soundfile you want to see in the Mainview This area then fills the Mainview di
38. ction or at an insertion point co To mix data starting at the insertion point place the insertion point where the mixture is to begin Then select Mix from the Edit menu The data in the Clipboard will be mixed with the soundfile in a 1 1 ratio starting at the insertion point and going to the end of the Clipboard When mixing to an insertion point the Clipboard selection is placed at the insertion point Initial blending if enabled occurs before the inser tion point After the insertion point all of the Clipboard is mixed even if this means extending the length of the soundfile co To mix data into a selected region choose Mix from the Edit menu The Clipboard is mixed with the selected data from the beginning of the selection through the duration of the Clipboard or the selected region whichever is shorter When mixing into a selection with no blend the mixed data is limited to the minimum of the soundfile selection or the Clipboard selection This keeps changes within the selection When there is a blend the blend is done outside the selection and different blends are used for beginning and end whatever can be worked out between the soundfile and the Clipboard 44 INFINITY User s Manual Editing The Soundfile In blending during the mix the soundfile is never tapered The Clipboard is tapered up in the beginning and down at the end depending on the amount of data available to construct the blend When mixing into
39. do anything by themselves but they can modify the next key stroke or mouse click In INFINITY they are also used in combination to momentarily put the program in either Selection Mode or Zoom Mode For details of how this is done see Using Momentary Selection Mode on page 40 and Using Momentary Selection Mode on page 40 The following are examples of keyboard command equivalents and instruc tions on how to execute them For a full listing of all the keyboard com mand equivalents To execute Do this X Hold down the lt command gt key and press X shift opt Press the lt shift gt and lt option gt keys at the same time shift Hold down the lt shift gt and lt command gt keys and press Undoing A Command Commands which change the soundfile can be undone by choosing Undo from the Edit menu The keyboard command equivalent is Z This function is possible only if Enable Undo is checked in the Prefer ences dialog See Enable Undo on page 55 Viewing The Soundfile After you open or create a soundfile INFINITY allows the soundfile to be viewed in a variety of ways designed to increase the speed and ease of edit ing the data This section explains how to scroll the data change the magni fication of the display and manage multiple windows Scrolling The Soundfile Data INFINITY provides several convenient options for scrolling the soundfile data in the Mainview The soundfile data can be s
40. e Sidelobe Width input graph in the tool This side lobe width is computed for the fundamental and each harmonic as the stan dard deviation of the energy distribution around the fundamental or harmonic It is expressed as a percentage of the fundamental frequency Note that whenever this window is selected and your cursor is over the Amplitude Spectrum dB or Sidelobe Width graphs you can view the coordinates of the cursor location on the Status Display Area palette window At the bottom of the report are Radio buttons labeled Log scale and Lin ear Scale The Log scale allows more resolution at the low frequencies where the audio content is the most important The Linear scale should show an approximate linear increase in sidelobe width as a function of fre quency for ensembles where the instruments are playing the same notes with octaves allowed The report above is shown using the log scale The report below is the same report shown in linear scale The data is that of a string section Notice how the sidelobe width increases approximately linearly with frequency Use the linear scale on a report of unprocessed loop data to help you estab lish what settings to use in the Synthesis Looper Sidelobe Width 84 INFINITY User s Manual The Synthesis Looper graph In this graph you can easily see that the harmonics have frequencies Synthesis Looper Report Soundfile brass A 3 Fundamental Hz 466 2
41. e Edit menu or by clicking on the Loop Points Icon on the Palette The Loop Points can be deleted by clicking on the Loop Points Icon or by select ing the Delete Loop Points item in the Edit Menu Grow Box Dragging the grow box allows you to resize the window The Palette Pressing on the Palette in an area where row keys there are no 71 439 scroll data icons reveals the 18 lt Opt gt lt arrow gt key command 16 341 for full zoom equivalents for space 3 the icons The Palette is always present on the desktop It contains information and tools for editing the soundfile data It is divided into three sections the Mode Icons co the Status Display and co the Action Icons The area in the middle of the Palette is the Status Display It is used for ver bal messages and as a cursor tracking display The icons above the Status Display are the Mode Icons The icons below the Status Display are the Action Icons Icons which cannot be selected are grayed out 24 INFINITY User s Manual The INFINITY Environment Track GC Amp Select 71 439 18 16 341 The Palette can be dragged anywhere on the desktop by pressing on the grey bar at the top of the Palette and dragging it to the desired location Pressing on the Palette in an area where there are no icons will reveal the keyboard equivalent commands for the icons Mode Icons When INFINITY starts the Mainview is in
42. e first step in editing the soundfile data is to identify which data are to be changed In INFINITY as in many other Macintosh applications data is selected by using the insertion point and the I beam cursor Data can be selected in both the Overview and the Mainview Using Selection Mode In The Mainview When a soundfile opens the Mainview is in Selection Mode Selection Mode is used to change the current selection or insertion point When the cursor is moved into the active Mainview display it becomes the I beam cursor The Selection icon on the Palette video reverses to indicate that the Mainview is in Selection Mode The I beam cursor can be used to place the insertion point or make a selection anywhere in the soundfile Placing The Insertion Point The insertion point is the blinking vertical line which appears in both the Overview and the Mainview It can be moved only in Selection Mode by 38 INFINITY User s Manual Editing The Soundfile using the I beam cursor It marks the place where data will be inserted or a boundary of a region to be selected To Place the insertion point Place it in only one track Extend it to the other track Selecting Data Do This Click once in the Mainview at the desired location In a stereo soundfile the insertion point appears in both tracks Hold down the lt option gt key and click at the desired location Hold down the lt control gt key and click in the other tra
43. ected in the Overview by placing it in the Selection Mode using the Palette See Using Selection Mode In The Overview on page 40 for details of how this is done View Indicator The view indicator is a dotted rectangular box which shows the borders of the region of the soundfile which is currently displayed in the Mainview Any change in the Mainview is reflected by a change in the view indicator The region displayed in the Mainview can be changed by redrawing the view indicator The details are discussed in Using Zoom Mode In The Overview on page 33 22 INFINITY User s Manual The INFINITY Environment Playback Position Pointer The Playback Position Pointer appears in both the Overview and the Main view It is a non blinking vertical line with terminals at each end that moves across the screen as the soundfile plays It shows where playback is occur ring so that you can correlate the sound and the graphic display of the soundfile Vertical Annotation The Vertical Annotation allows you to measure the amplitude of the wave form in the Mainview The units displayed are either per cent of full scale or decimal sample values The units for the Vertical Annotation are chosen in the Preferences dialog The Vertical Annotation and the soundfile data can be moved up or down by using the vertical scroll bar when the scale is expanded Mainview The Mainview always displays the part of the soundfile shown in the view i
44. egments Loop Start Test Points 20 4 7 Crossfade Length Ji Dy Crossfade Taper hole Linear Equal Pwr CD You can view the Synthesis Looper window by selecting it from the Loop ing Tools menu item First you can use the pop up menu at the top of the dialog to select any of the open soundfiles for processing or playback You INFINITY User s Manual 79 INFINITY Looping Tools can also press the space bar or the speaker icon in the palette window to play back the selected sound This tool performs one or both of two functions chosen using the check boxes Process the Loop Segment and Merge the Attack and Loop Seg ments The latter function is the same as that in the SPR Looper and Rotated Sums Looper It allows you to combine a looped sound into the attack portion of the sound You can use both tools simultaneously or you can first create a satisfactory loop with Process the Loop Segment and later merge it using Merge the Attack and Loop Segments Please see the Infinity User s Manual and or balloon help for assistance with Merge the Attack and Loop Segments If the computations cause the loop data to exceed 90 of maximum the entire file will be scaled so that the loop data are 90 of maximum and thereby do not clip Thus data are scaled so no overflow occurs When scaling occurs the user is notified with an alert which indicates how much the data was scaled The scaling information will allow you
45. eriodic waveforms like string sections noise etc 100 equal power taper 0 linear taper Audition Crossfade When the Audition Crossfade checkbox is checked clicking on the Speaker icon or pressing the space bar will compute the crossfade loop and play it INFINITY User s Manual 63 INFINITY Looping Tools until the Speaker icon is clicked again This feature allows you to hear the crossfade without permanently changing the soundfile Do Crossfade Clicking on the Do Crossfade command button executes the crossfade loop process Pressing lt esc gt or lt command period gt terminates the process The Freeze Looper Freeze Looper Soundfile Pitch Control MIDI Note Pitch Detection Pre condition Data Crossfade Length 14D Crossfade Taper Linear Equal Pwr The Freeze Looper is an automatic looping algorithm that creates a per fectly seamless loop with no sonic variations It is excellent for making short loops in relatively periodic sounds like solo instruments and for freezing the timbre of decaying instruments that have clearly defined harmonics like harp piano guitar notes etc If the sound to be looped has nearly uniform waveshapes the Freeze Looper will change the aural qualities of the sound very little and result in a continuous uniform loop If the Freeze Looper is used on a more complex sound the resulting loop will sound v
46. ery different from the original The crossfade used in the Freeze Looper is different from a normal cross fade loop in that a portion of the loop segment is blended into the attack rather than a portion of the attack being blended into the loop This modifi cation of the attack segment occurs every time a Freeze Loop is created 64 INFINITY User s Manual The Freeze Looper How It Works The Freeze Looper quantizes all the sound energy in the loop to a precise harmonic series giving a waveform that is perfectly repeated in every cycle The Freeze Looper outputs a constant pitch equal to the average pitch of the original loop segment The Freeze Looper uses the MIDI Note Number to set internal processing parameters Because these settings effect the results the MIDI Note Num ber should be set to the approximate pitch of the sound being looped The size of the loop segment is reduced by processing with the Freeze Looper The loop end point is moved to shorten the loop The loop start is left where it was before processing This shortening is necessary because the Freeze Looper uses an FFT algorithm that requires the number of samples in the loop be equal to a power of two The finished loop is also shortened slightly so that it contains an integral number of waveform periods So the output loop end point will be earlier than that which was input If the computations cause the loop data to exceed 90 of maximum the entire file w
47. esigner II Type a new file name in the Save Soundfile As text box Use this format Audio IFF Sound Designer I Sound Designer II Click on Save Choose a file format from the three options listed To save as a Apple Audio Interchange File Format document Digidesign Sound Designer I mono soundfile Digidesign Sound Designer II mono or stereo soundfile A copy of the active soundfile will be stored on disk with the name and file type specified Reverting To The Last Saved Version Choosing Revert to Backup from the File menu causes the soundfile to revert to the version last saved with the Save command This command is enabled only if a backup file has been created for the active soundfile 54 INFINITY User s Manual Customizing Your Environment CustomizingfouEnvironment When INFINITY is first started the look of the soundfile windows is prede termined The appearance of the soundfile windows can be customized and some of INFINITY s behaviors can be modified by using the Preferences dialog in the Display menu Preferences K Enable Clipboard A Blending K Enable Undo O Create Backup Files Enable Clipboard Unchecking Enable Clipboard discards the Clipboard contents and disables Cut and Copy Because no Clipboard exists Paste and Mix cannot be used and are therefore disabled Clear Clear Unselected Invert Reverse and Silence are still enabled Unchecking this item saves the
48. eze Looper algorithms or any derivatives of them in any software or hardware without the express written consent of Antares Audio Technologies 4 sub license lease lend rent or grant other rights in all or any portion of INFINITY or any copy to others 5 use INFINITY to make samples intended for sale to the public as samples or for use in the firmware of a musical instrument These uses of INFINITY require a Commercial License Term of the Agreement This agreement is effective until terminated by you or Antares Audio Technologies You may terminate the agreement at any time by notifying Antares Audio Technologies and destroying all copies of the manual and erasing INFINITY from all machine readable media whether on line or on archival copies In the event of breach of any of the terms of this agreement you shall pay the attorney s fees of Antares Audio Technologies that are reasonably necessary to enforce the agreement plus resulting damages Limited Warranty and Disclaimer INFINITY AND ACCOMPANYING MATERIALS ARE PROVIDED AS IS WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FIT NESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE Antares Audio Technologies does not warrant that the functions contained in the program will meet your requirements The entire risk as to the use quality and performance of INFINITY is with you Antares Audio Technologies warrants
49. g in tune and no vibratos the width would narrow If they were unskilled and or added vibratos the width would be wider Since this Normal PDF is energy as a function of frequency concentrated at a single frequency it is described as a frequency with Sidelobe energy These 100 players would also generate energy at the harmonic frequencies The energy distribution of the harmonics as a function of frequency would also form a Normal PDF As with two players in the example above these differences in pitch increase proportionately with the harmonic index Add to this some elementary arithmetic about playing in octaves and we get the following rules co Rule 1 An ensemble composed of instruments playing the same note or notes in octaves will form an energy distribution as a function of fre quency having energy at the fundamental frequency and integer multi ples of the fundamental frequency co Rule 2 The energy distribution at the fundamental frequency will form a Normal PDF whose sidelobe width depends on the intonation quality of the players in tune players will generate a narrower sidelobes than players who are more out of tune co Rule 3 Each harmonic will have an energy distribution at its respective harmonic frequency that forms a Normal PDF The sidelobe width of each harmonic will increase in proportion to frequency with the first harmonic being two times wider than the fundamental etc There is a final rule for which the author
50. he soundfile INFINITY will paste data into the soundfile at the insertion point or replace a selected region with the Clipboard data Since the original data remains on the Clipboard it can be pasted any number of times The keyboard com mand equivalent is 38 V When Pasting into a soundfile that has no samples the soundfile will acquire the sample rate and MIDI Note Number of the first data pasted into it Normally when Pasting or Mixing with an insertion point the new data is inserted before the first sample of the group of samples represented by the pixel under the insertion point The exception to this rule is when the inser tion point is on the last pixel in the soundfile window In that case the new data is added after the last sample in the soundfile Blending occurs between the end of the original sound and the pasted data co To paste at the insertion point place the insertion point where the region of pasted data is to begin Then select Paste from the Edit menu The data to the right of the insertion point is moved over and the Clipboard data is inserted 42 INFINITY User s Manual Editing The Soundfile co To replace a selected region with the Clipboard select the region to be replaced Then select Paste from the Edit menu The selected data is deleted and the Clipboard data is inserted in its place Data to the right of the selection is moved to fit the newly pasted region Attempting to paste a stereo Clipboa
51. he soundfile window displays the following dialog Soundfile strings A 4 MIDI Note Number A 4 f mA Concer C The MIDI Note Number tells INFINITY the pitch of the soundfile It is used in INFINITY s looping algorithms and is critical to the operation of the Freeze Looper Empty soundfiles will acquire the sample rate and MIDI Note Number of the first data pasted or mixed into them co To change the MIDI Note Number choose Set MIDI Note from the Edit menu Data can be entered by typing in the text box or by using the scroll bar Either the MIDI Note Number or the musical pitch e g C 3 can be entered Clicking in the grey area increments by one octave Auto Zero SS Mono Strings No Backup Positive Going Zero Crossing When this item is checked in the Edit menu INFINITY constrains the boundaries of selected regions to positive going zero crossings in the sam ple data This helps you to avoid creating pops and clicks when you cut and paste INFINITY will always expand the selection to the positive going zero crossings closest to the initial selection boundaries When two tracks are selected Track 1 is used as the guide track 48 INFINITY User s Manual Editing The Soundfile co To constrain the selection boundaries to positive going zero crossings in the soundfile check Auto Zero Show Clipboard Choosing Show Clipboard in the Edit menu calls the following dialog Cli
52. hs to continuously range from the wide sidelobes of the original ensemble sound to the zero width sidelobes of the Freeze Looper This tool is appropriately used on chorused and ensemble sounds where the instruments are playing the same notes or notes in octaves This tool can also be used as a sophisticated chorusing effect to generate an ensem ble sound from a solo instrument sound This tool is designed for use on monaural sounds Stereo sounds can be processed however the phase relationships that determine stereo position ing will be lost The resulting stereo sound will have a random phase rela tionship yielding a distributed spatial quality Commentary There are two classifications of sound The first classification is solo instru ments sans vibrato These generate uniformly repeated waveforms A generic crossfade loop can be used to loop these sounds however the best results will be had using the Freeze Looper The second classification is all other sounds These are sounds that change over time Crossfade loop quality becomes worse as the sounds become more complex The SPR Looper and Rotated Sums are most often used to loop these sounds How ever a basic problem remains No matter how perfectly the end of the loop is connected to the beginning of the loop the sound in between is still of a quality that changes over time Hence you will always hear the loop because the varying sound repeats itself over and over again
53. ill be distributed throughout the loop and show up as noise Use the Crossfade Looper to smooth out the loop data before processing with the Rotated Sums Looper Use the Smart Auto Scan feature of the Crossfade Looper to place the loop points before processing with the Rotated Sums Looper This will insure that the resulting loop will more closely match the tone color of the original data If the computations cause the loop data to exceed 90 of maximum the entire file will be scaled so that the loop data are 90 of maximum and thereby do not clip Thus data are scaled so no overflow occurs When scaling occurs the user is notified with an alert which indicates how much the data was scaled The scaling information will allow you to maintain volume control of your samples If you are getting clipping in the fade from the attack segment check out that the crossfade taper may be set more towards linear taper 68 INFINITY User s Manual The Rotated Sums Looper How It Works In a crossfade loop all of the different frequencies in the sound make a tran sition from one phase to another during the crossfade This causes different combinations of constructive and destructive interference at the location of the crossfade Because this happens for all frequencies at the same point in the loop a noticeable bump is produced by the crossfade looping process The Rotated Sums Looper creates a seamless loop by adding together many ra
54. ill be scaled so that the loop data are 90 of maximum and thereby do not clip Thus data are scaled so no overflow occurs When scaling occurs the user is notified with an alert which indicates how much the data was scaled The scaling information will allow you to maintain volume control of your samples If you are getting clipping in the fade from the attack segment check out that the crossfade taper may be set more towards linear taper Understanding The Dialog Controls Soundfile Menu The Soundfile Menu shows the name of the last active soundfile All open soundfiles are listed in the menu The Freeze Looper operates on the sound file which is displayed in the menu Pitch Control Radio Previously Freeze Looper had Pitch Detection built in This means the harmonic series energy distribution and output tuning was determined by INFINITY User s Manual 65 INFINITY Looping Tools an algorithm that detected the exact pitch of the original loop The MIDI note was used as an initial guide such that if the MIDI note was way off an incorrect result would occur This algorithm is used when you select the Pitch Detection radio Unfortunately if you process a short loop less than 20 cycles the Pitch Detection algorithm will not be precise and the result may be slightly out of tune Also it may be the original sample was out of tune and you wish to tune it up In these cases you should select the MIDI Note radio Thi
55. ith the Cut and Clear functions 1 Select a region of data 2 Choose either Cut or Clear from the Edit Menu Selected Region 3 Data on both sides of the selection boundaries are tapered The remaining selected data are removed from the soundfile Blend Taper 4 The data on the right are moved to close the gap and are crossfaded with the data on the left Blend Time The illustration below describes the effect of Blending on the Paste function 1 Place the insertion point at the location where data is to be pasted 2 Select Paste from the Insertion Point Edit menu 3 Data on either side of the insertion point is tapered The data on the right are moved to create a gap to fit the Clipboard data 4 Clipboard data are tapered and crossfaded with the soundfile data Clipboard Selection Size 50 INFINITY User s Manual Editing The Soundfile A Cut or Copy will put the selected data in the Clipboard If blending is enabled and the blend time is greater than zero the leading and trailing samples will also be put on the Clipboard If the selected region is at the end of a file fewer or no trailing samples will be captured If the selected region is at the beginning of a file fewer or no leading samples will be captured You can see how many leading and trailing samples are captured with Show Clipboard These are labeled Begin Blend Size and End Blend Size respectively
56. itions of this license agreement prior to instaling INFIN ITY If you do not agree with the terms and conditions of this Agreement delete INFINITY from your system and return the disk envelope unopened along with the rest of the package to Antares Audio Technologies Software License Agreement Antares Audio Technologies grants you a non transferable non exclusive license to use IN ii INFINITY User s Manual FINITY under the terms and conditions stated in this agreement Use of all or any portion of this package indicates your agreement to the following terms and conditions License You may 1 use INFINITY on only one computer at a time 2 physically transfer the program from one computer to another provided that the program is used on only one computer at a time You may not 1 make copies of INFINITY or of the user manual in whole or in part Your right to copy INFINITY and the user manual is limited by copyright law Making copies verbal or media translations adaptations derivative works or telecommunication data transmis sion of INFINITY without prior written authorization of Antares Audio Technologies is prohibited by law and constitutes a punishable violation of the law 2 make alteration or modifications to INFINITY or any copy or disassemble or de com pile INFINITY or any copy or otherwise attempt to discover the source code of IN FINITY 3 incorporate the SPR Looper Rotated Sums Looper or Fre
57. largest sample in the region is at 100 amplitude Normalize insures the maximum signal to noise ratio from your sample playback instrument co To normalize soundfile data select the region to be normalized Choose Normalize from the Edit menu The selected region will be increased in amplitude until the largest sample in the region is at full scale Change Gain The Change Gain dialog allows the level of the soundfile to be adjusted to avoid clipping during processing Selecting Change Gain from the Edit menu will cause the following dialog to appear Soundfile strings A 4 Change Gain db _ Of mA The gain of the selected data can be changed by using the slider or by typ ing in the text box The range of the control is from 12 dB to 12db Click ing on the arrows will increment the setting by 1 dB Clicking in the grey area will increment the setting by 3 dB A typical application for the Change Gain function is adjusting the level of a normalized soundfile downwards before mixing it with another soundfile After processing the soundfile can be returned to its original level by changing the gain an equal amount in the opposite direction co To change the amplitude of soundfile data select the data to be scaled Choose Change Gain from the Edit menu Set the desired gain change using the controls Click OK to process the data Changing Gain can be undone 46 INFINITY User s Manual Editing The Soundfile
58. le will be permanent unless Undo is enabled Customizing The Soundfile Window The appearance of the soundfile window can be changed by using the soundfile window options in the Preferences dialog Show Zero Crossings Show Track Dividers EJ Overview E Overview EJ Mainview EJ Mainview Vertical Scale Units of Full Scale w Horizontal Scale Units To Do this Display the dotted zero crossing lines Check the box next to Over view or Mainview Display track divider lines Check the box next to Over view or Mainview Change the units on the Vertical Annotation Use the pop up menu to select Sample value or percent of full scale Change the units on the Horizontal Annotation Use the pop up menu See the reference section for more information about these options 56 INFINITY User s Manual CHAPTER 4 INFINITY Looping Tools The looping tools in INFINITY are easy to use and provide extraordinary results To use them most effectively requires some understanding of the types of sound you are working on and the way the tools operate on the sound data The following chapter explains in detail the operation of INFINITY s looping tools Managing Loop Points Real Time Loop Adjust INFINITY allows the location of the loop points to be changed during play back To move a loop point during playback drag it to its new location by pressing somewhere near the base of the loop point in the Horizontal Anno ta
59. lution Halve the horizontal display resolution ae Go to minimum vertical display resolution lt option gt Go to maximum vertical display resolution lt option gt t Go to minimum horizontal display resolution lt option gt Go to maximum horizontal display resolution lt option gt Fit the current selection in the Mainview a6 F Full zoom to the loop start function lt option gt Full zoom to the loop end function lt option gt File Commands To Key Command Create a new soundfile N Open an existing soundfile 0 Close a window EW Save a soundfile update the backup file 38S Get information about a soundfile 381 Quit INFINITY Q 90 INFINITY User s Manual Edit Commands To Cut data from the soundfile into the Clipboard Copy data into the Clipboard Paste data from the Clipboard into the soundfile Clear data from the soundfile delete To Clear Unselected data from the soundfile Mix Create or delete loop points Select the loop data Select all the data in the soundfile To drag both loop points simultaneously Looping Tools To Call the SPR Looper Call the Rotated Sums Looper Call the Freeze Looper Call the Crossfade Looper Palette To Momentarily put the active window in Zoom Mode Momentarily put the active window in Selection Mode Play Stop the active soundfile Key Command x C vV 3B or lt delete gt Key Command T 36M 38P 36L A lt option gt d
60. ndicator in the Overview When a file is opened the Mainview initially dis plays the whole soundfile The amount of data displayed in the Mainview can be changed by redrawing the view indicator in the Overview or by using the Display Scale Icon on the Palette The Mainview can also be placed in the Zoom Mode See Using Zoom Mode In The Mainview on page 34 The data in the Mainview can be scrolled using several methods See Scrolling The Soundfile Data on page 32 Track Divider and Zero Crossing The tracks in both the Overview and the Mainview can be separated by a track divider line There can also be a dotted zero crossing line in each chan nel These choices are made in the Preferences Dialog See Customizing The Soundfile Window on page 56 The Horizontal Annotation The Horizontal Annotation is located below the Mainview and runs the full width of the window It allows you to measure time in the soundfile The units for the Horizontal Annotation are selected in the Preferences dialog There are three display formats Samples Time and SMPTE formats INFINITY User s Manual 23 Introducing INFINITY Loop Points The Loop Points show the region of data in the soundfile that will be looped when the soundfile is played The Loop Points can be moved by dragging them horizontally They can also be dragged during sound playback Loop Points can be created by selecting the Create Loop Points menu item in th
61. ndom rotations of the input loop thereby distributing the irregularity of the crossfade bump throughout the loop This is a time domain solution to the crossfade bump problem in complex sounds The more rotations that are chosen the better the results up to a limit that exists because of the natural variations in the sound The Rotated Sums Looper does not change the length of the loop Because the Rotated Sums Looper chooses random amounts by which to perform loop rotations different trials using the same input sound will yield different results Understanding The Dialog Controls The Rotated Sums Looper divides the looping process into two distinct phases processing the loop data and merging the attack and loop seg ments These can be controlled separately and executed at different times With both phases of the process enabled the loop data and the attack data are altered every time the Rotated Sums process is run It is sometimes desirable to disable the attack loop merge phase of the process and do sev eral takes of processing the loop data without merging the loop with the attack This saves time and allows for selecting the best sounding loop before the attack segment is altered by merging After the best sounding loop is found the merge can be done separately by disabling the loop pro cessing phase Soundfile Menu This menu has the same function as in the other loopers INFINITY User s Manual 69
62. ne is found the loop point marker is moved to the new location INFINITY will continue to search until it finds a matching value which is greater than or equal to the value of the Matching Threshold set in the Auto Scan Settings dialog If none is found an audio signal will sound indicating the end of the search The loop points will remain in their origi nal locations Pressing lt esc gt or lt command period gt will terminate the search Clicking on a single arrow will move the loop point one pixel in the direc tion of the arrow Pressing on a single arrow will cause the loop point to move and slowly accelerate The longer the arrow is pressed the faster the loop point will move Auto Scan Matching Value This displays the matching values found during Auto Scan searches Watching this value during the search gives you an idea of how closely the sound at the loop points is matching Use this information to change the Matching Threshold in the Auto Scan Settings dialog if necessary Auto Scan Settings Clicking on the Auto Scan Settings command button will bring up the dialog shown below fAuto Scan Settings Matching Threshold 40 i A Match Trial Points 200E Wl DI ox 62 INFINITY User s Manual The Crossfade Looper Matching Threshold The Matching Threshold determines how closely the loop end must match the loop start The range of the control is from zero to 100 Higher numbers require a clo
63. nnects INFINITY the Apple Sound Manager Mac 8 bit presents 8 bit data to the Sound Manager and Mac 16 bit presents 16 bit data to the Sound Manager The Sound Man ager 3 0 or later must be present If not Mac 16 bit will present 8 bit data to the Sound Manager Interpolation of data occurs when the sample rate of the Mac is different than the sample rate of the data The Sound Manager 36 INFINITY User s Manual Listening to The Soundfile distorts the sound when there are not enough machine cycles to interpolate the data If this occurs there are two things to try The first is to use Mac 8 bit since the Mac is faster at interpolating 8 bit data The second is to set the sample rate of the Mac to the Sample rate of the data See the Sound control panel to adjust Sound Manager sample rates Playback Auto Reset If this item is checked playback will occur from the beginning of the sound file unless a region is selected If this item is not checked playback will begin from the point where it stopped the last time This item should remain checked for most applications Scroll After Playback This item is initially not checked when you start INFINITY Checking this item causes the Mainview to automatically scroll to the position where playback stopped This feature is most useful when working with the Main view at high display resolutions Using The Speaker Icon The soundfile can be played by clicking on the Speake
64. older which INFINITY creates Envelope files are saved in the Envelope Folder after the soundfile is closed When data in the soundfile is shifted as a result of an edit the envelope is also shifted hence avoiding more lengthy computations involving the soundfile Unfortunately the envelope can only be shifted to an accuracy of 10 samples Hence the envelope may be slightly inaccurate In this cir cumstance a stale flag is set in the envelope file Only the first envelope is shifted The remaining envelops are recomputed from the first envelope This means the remaining envelopes will have fewer errors Specifically each envelope frame sample will contain errors of up to ten sound samples however the second third fourth etc enve lopes represent 400 8000 160 000 etc sound frames each Thus the worst error will be 10 out of 400 10 out of 8 000 10 out of 160 000 etc 28 INFINITY User s Manual The INFINITY Environment The next time the soundfile is opened the stale flag is checked and if the file is sufficiently large the following message appears The envelope file is older than the soundfile but the envelope file has the correct number of samples Choosing either command button will reset the stale flag and the mes sage will not reappear until the next edit When a soundfile is opened if the envelope file is not found or if the sample counts don t agree with the envelope fr
65. ols the number of points that are tested during the search phase of the merging process It works as in the Rotated Sums Looper Crossfade Length This control sets the amount of the loop that is blended with the attack seg ment It is variable from 0 to 100 of the attack duration A large cross fade length will cause the attack to slowly blend into the loop sound A smaller crossfade length will create a quick but blended transition between the two segments of the sample A setting of zero creates no crossfade Attack Loop Segment Segment 82 INFINITY User s Manual The Synthesis Looper Crossfade Taper This control adjusts the taper shape of the crossfade that is used in the attack loop merge It is adjustable from 0 linear taper to 100 equal power taper It should be adjusted to provide the smoothest transition between the attack and loop segments of the sample Linear taper should be used for editing simple periodic wave forms like solo instruments Equal power taper should be used when editing complex non periodic waveforms like string sections noise etc 100 equal power taper 0 linear taper The Synthesis Looper Report But how should you set the Sidelobe Width control How should you choose MIDI Note or Pitch Detection The Synthesis Looper Report will assist you in deciding these issues Select the Report button at the bottom of the Synthesis Looper window This causes the
66. ontrols Soundfile Menu Process The Loop Segment viii INFINITY User s Manual Merge The Attack And Loop Segments 74 The Synthesis Looper 76 Introduction 76 Commentary 76 Some Theory 77 How it Works 79 Understanding Synthesis Looper Controls 80 Process the Loop Segment 81 Merge The Attack And Loop Segments 81 The Synthesis Looper Report 83 How To Loop A Sound 87 A Final Note 88 APPENDIX A Keyboard Shortcuts 89 Scrolling Data 89 Changing Display Scaling 90 File Commands 90 Edit Commands 91 Looping Tools 91 Palette 91 Other 92 INFINITY User s Manual 1x X INFINITY User s Manual CHAPTER 1 Getting Started Introduction Imagine being able to take a raw sample and then with just a few mouse clicks create a loop so perfect that you can t tell when it started or where it repeats Imagine doing that with sounds that are impossible to loop smoothly using your current sample editor like string orchestra choirs fat analog synths chorused guitar and so on INFINITY lets you do that quickly and easily INFINITY is a powerful DSP which uses unique DSP technologies to auto mate and improve the looping process the part of sample editing that takes the most time and skill Some of INFINITY s special features are Real Time Loop Adjust INFINITY makes fine tuning the loop easy by letting you move the loop points anywhere in the soundfile during real time playback Synthesis Loo
67. ools for looping samples ever created With your purchase of INFINITY you have begun a relationship with our company which I hope will be long and gratifying As a registered user of INFINITY you are entitled to notification of software upgrades technical support and to special introductory offers on our upcoming products We will be in contact with you to announce new opportunities and to solicit your feedback At Antares Audio Technologies we are committed to excellence in service quality and technological innovation You can count on us to listen to you and to keep our promises to you Again thanks The Whole Antares Crew iv INFINITY User s Manual Table of Contents CHAPTER 1 Getting Started Introduction Real Time Loop Adjust Synthesis Looper SPR Looper Rotated Sums Looper Freeze Looper Crossfade Looper with Smart Auto Scan Fully adjustable Edit Blending Complete Sample Editing Environment How To Use This Manual For Those Who Hate To Read Manuals The Contents Of The Manual Chapter 1 Getting Started Chapter 2 Introducing INFINITY Chapter 3 INFINITY Basics Chapter 4 INFINITY Looping Tools Chapter 5 INFINITY Reference Appendix A Keyboard Equivalent Commands The Equipment You ll Need Minimum System Requirements Owner Registration Technical Support CHAPTER 2 Introducing INFINITY The Problem With Looping Crossfade Loops The Costs Of Current Methods The INFINITY Environment The Soundfile Window
68. ous Clipboard co This has the effect of undoing the Clipboard as well as the soundfile edit co You can go back to any document any time after it has had an undo and do a redo co If the undo had the effect of undoing the Clipboard then redo will have the effect of restoring it Cut Cut removes precisely the number of samples that are selected Any data to the right of the cut is shifted left by exactly that amount Blending is per formed by combining data just inside the selection with data that was not cut on the opposite end of the selection Hence if you use cut to remove a INFINITY User s Manual 41 INFINITY Basics noise spike you may find depending on the size of the cut and the amount of blending used that part of the spike still remains If an Undo Cut occurs later the cut data is replaced in the soundfile and the previous Clipboard data is returned to the Clipboard co To cut data select the data to be removed Then choose Cut from the Edit menu The keyboard command equivalent is 38 X Copy The Copy function copies data into the Clipboard without removing it from the soundfile Since the Clipboard can hold only one item at a time any data previously in the Clipboard is lost co To copy data select the region to be copied Then select Copy from the Edit menu The keyboard command equivalent is C Paste The Paste function inserts data from the Clipboard into t
69. pboard Source sound file brass A 3 Selection size 10 121 Track count 1 Sample rate 44100 Begin blend size 0 End blend size 0 Begin loop 2 200 End loop The dialog gives information about what data is currently in the Clipboard Source Sound File The name of the soundfile from where the current Clipboard contents originated Selection Size The size of the selected region in terms of the currently selected units used in the Horizontal Annotation in this case samples Track Count The number of tracks in the Clipboard Sample Rate Expressed in Hertz Begin Blend Size The number of samples or duration before the selected region which will be used to blend the region when pasting or mixing End Blend Size The number of samples or duration after the selected region which will be used to blend the region when pasting or mixing Sound data which has been copied into the Clipboard in INFINITY cannot be shared with Sound Designer or Alchemy as these programs have incom patible Clipboard formats INFINITY User s Manual 49 INFINITY Basics Using Edit Blending Enabling the Blending function causes INFINITY to blend the edges of data segments that are moved during Cut Paste Clear Mix Invert Reverse Silence Normalize and Change Gain operations This smooths the transi tion so that abrupt changes in the sound are avoided The following figures show the effect of blending as used w
70. per The Synthesis Looper tool calculates the energy at each fundamental and harmonic frequency and allows you to specify the width of the sidelobes the resulting looped sound will have In this way you could take the lumpy sound of a highly out of tune ensemble and change it to the smoother sound of a higher quality ensemble making the variations in the loop repe tition less noticeable INFINITY User s Manual 11 Getting Started SPR Looper This tool automatically randomizes the spectral components of the sound inside the loop points to create a virtually seamless result in sounds that have irregular waveforms like string orchestra chorus analog synths cym bal rolls and so on Stereo samples retain their ambience and dimensional ity The SPR Looper is protected by US patent law Rotated Sums Looper This looping tool uses a convolutional approach to randomizing irregulari ties inside the loop points Like the SPR Looper it is excellent for use with all sounds that have irregular non periodic waveforms Freeze Looper The Freeze Looper creates perfect loops in sounds like winds brass bells and other sounds that have a pure harmonic series It s also good for freez ing the timbre of decaying strings like piano or guitar Crossfade Looper with Smart Auto Scan This is an enhanced crossfade tool with an intelligent loop point scanner It uses a sophisticated DSP algorithm to find the right loop point autom
71. point is located at the loop start The loop is then merged with the attack segment The type of crossfade that is used only modifies the attack segment The length and taper of the crossfade that is used to merge the two segments can be controlled Loop Start Test Points This controls the number of points that are tested during the search phase of the merging process It is variable from 0 to 100 points A large number of test points results in a better attack loop merge but will also increase the processing time Crossfade Length This control sets the amount of the loop that is blended with the attack seg ment It is variable from 0 to 100 of the attack duration A large cross 70 INFINITY User s Manual The Rotated Sums Looper fade length will cause the attack to slowly blend into the loop sound A smaller crossfade length will create a quick but blended transition between the two segments of the sample A setting of zero creates no crossfade Attack Loop Segment Segment Crossfade Taper This control adjusts the taper shape of the crossfade that is used in the attack loop merge It is adjustable from 0 linear taper to 100 equal power taper It should be adjusted to provide the smoothest transition between the attack and loop segments of the sample Linear taper should be used for editing simple periodic wave forms like solo instruments Equal power taper should be used when editing complex non periodic wavefo
72. r icon in the Palette Click the icon again to stop playback Pressing on the lt space bar gt is the keyboard command equivalent for the Speaker icon Playback in the active soundfile window is determined by the following conditions If Then No data is selected The track s containing the insertion point play from the beginning of the soundfile The soundfile has loop points The track s containing the insertion point are played from the beginning and continue to loop until the Speaker icon is clicked again Data is selected Just the selected region is played INFINITY User s Manual 37 INFINITY Basics The selection contains both loop points The selection is played and loops until the Speaker icon is clicked again Only the loop data is selected Just the loop will play until the Speaker icon is clicked again A looping tool is the active window Both tracks of the soundfile are played from the beginning regardless of any insertion point or selection Note In a stereo soundfile data is played back through the audio channel that cor responds to the track number Data on Track 1 plays through the Left channel data on Track 2 plays through the Right channel Editing The Soundfile In addition to automated looping tools INFINITY has a sophisticated waveform editing environment The following section describes how to select data and use the editing tools to change it Specifying Where To Change Sound Data Th
73. r should be used for editing simple periodic wave Blend Taper 100 equal power forms like solo instruments Equal power taper should be used when editing complex non periodic waveforms like string sections noise etc Blend Taper 0 linear Saving The Soundfile Save Because INFINITY uses disk based documents changes to the soundfile are saved as they occur The Save command in the Edit menu updates the backup file if one exists so that a Revert to Backup command will revert the soundfile to the most recently saved backup The Save command in the Edit menu is selectable after a change has been made in the soundfile If the soundfile has been changed and a backup file exists closing the soundfile will cause the following dialog to appear A Save changes to the Infinity document Carillon 1 EPS before closing Save A Copy Use the Save a Copy command to save the soundfile in a different folder with a different file name or in a different file format This command is use ful to make a series of samples for later comparison INFINITY User s Manual 53 INFINITY Basics To use the Save a Copy command 1 Choose Save a Copy from the File menu The Save a Copy dialog box appears Save soundfile as Carillon 1 EPS with SPR Loop Audio IFF i test sounds Y 9 envelope Files Fa 12 string Al E 12 string F 3 Zj brass A 3 Ea Carillon 1 EPS Sound Designer Sound D
74. racks 2 Duration 133 912 Sample Rate 44100 File Size 546K Begin Loop 83 316 End Loop 108 300 Sound File refers to the title of the active soundfile File Type refers to the file format in which the soundfile is stored Tracks refers to the number of data channels that exist in the file one track for mono files two tracks for stereo files Duration of the file is given in the current time format Sample Rate refers to the sample rate of the soundfile File Size of the soundfile is shown in kilobytes Unused HD states the amount of empty space that is currently available on the hard disk of the currently active soundfile INFINITY User s Manual 27 Introducing INFINITY Disk Based Files Unlike most Macintosh applications which store their open files in RAM INFINITY uses disk based files Changes made to the soundfile are auto matically written to the disk when the change is made Soundfiles how ever are played and processed from RAM If a file is too large to fit in RAM you can select and play a smaller portion Envelope Files In order to display a soundfile INFINITY creates an envelope file These files are stored in a folder called envelope Files in the same folder as the sound file Envelope files are used to store information which allows INFINITY to quickly draw the soundfile on the screen They occupy about one tenth the disk space that the soundfile uses and are stored in a special Envelope F
75. rag Key Command 1 2 3 4 Key Command lt control shift gt lt shift option gt lt space bar gt INFINITY User s Manual 91 Create or delete loop points 36P Scroll the Mainview to the loop start aE Scroll the Mainview to the loop end Fit the current selection in the Mainview F Other To cancel playback and many processing operations lt esc gt or lt gt 92 INFINITY User s Manual A Action Icons 26 Amplitude Spectrum dB 84 Attack loop merge 70 Audio IFF 54 Audition Crossfade 63 Auto Scan 60 Auto Scan Arrows 62 Auto Scan Matching Value 62 Auto Scan Settings 62 Auto Zero 48 B Blend Parameters 52 Blend Taper 52 Blend Time 52 c Changing The Display Resolution 33 chorused sound 76 chorusing effect 76 Clear 43 Clear Unselected 44 Clipboard 49 Close box 22 Copy 42 Create Delete Loop Points 47 Create Delete Loop Points 47 Create Backup Files 55 Crossfade Length 67 Crossfade Length 63 Crossfade Loops 19 Crossfade Taper 63 67 71 72 75 83 Cut 41 D Disk Based Files 28 Display Scale Icon 26 33 Display Scaling 90 Do Crossfade 64 E Edit Blend Settings dialog 52 Edit Blending 50 Edit Commands 91 Editing Functions 41 Editing the Soundfile 38 Enable Clipboard 55 Enable Undo 55 INFINITY User s Manual xciii ensemble sounds 76 Equal power taper 53 63 67 71 75 83 equal power taper 67 F File Command
76. rd into one track evokes this dialog Fewer tracks are indicated than are in the clipboard Press OK to ignore extra clipboard tracks Attempting to paste a mono Clipboard into two tracks evokes this dialog More tracks are indicated than are in the clipboard Press OK to paste zeros in extra tracks Clear The Clear function is the same as Cut except the Clipboard remains unchanged The data to the right of the cleared region are moved to fill up the gap co To clear data select the region to be cleared Then select Clear from the Edit menu The keyboard command equivalent is 36 B or lt delete gt INFINITY User s Manual 43 INFINITY Basics Clear Unselected The Clear Unselected function clears all the data around a selected region of the soundfile After the unselected data are cleared the selected region is moved to the front of the soundrfile co To clear unselected data select the region to be left unchanged Then choose Clear Unselected from the Edit menu The keyboard command equivalent is 36 T Clear Beyon Loop End This option clears data after the loop Mix The Mix function combines the contents of the Clipboard with the soundfile data in a 1 1 ratio INFINITY will mix data into the soundfile starting at the insertion point or mix into a selected region The keyboard command equivalent is 38 M There must be data in the Clipboard for the Mix func tion to be enabled You can mix into a sele
77. rms like string sections noise etc 100 equal power taper 0 linear taper INFINITY User s Manual 71 INFINITY Looping Tools The SPR Looper SPR Looper Soundfile EJ Process the Loop Segment Pre condition Data 40 4 i DI EJ Merge the Attack and Loop Segments Loop Start Test Points 50 4 gt A Crossfade Length 27 4 DD Crossfade Taper Lith Linear Equal Pwr The SPR Looper uses a patented process which randomizes the phase of each spectral component in the loop SPR means Spectral Phase Random ization It is excellent for looping sounds which have very non periodic waveforms It is especially good at looping complex sounds which require exact preservation of the original tone color like string sections choirs and so on How It Works The SPR Looper is similar to the Rotated Sums Looper in that it rotates loop data a random amount through the loop The difference with the SPR Looper is that it treats every constituent frequency of the loop separately This approach is more thorough than the Rotated Sums Looper Because the SPR Looper rotates each spectral component randomly different trials using the same input sound will yield different results If the computations cause the loop data to exceed 90 of maximum the entire file will be scaled so that the loop data are 90 of maximum and thereby do not clip Thus data are scaled so no overflow occurs
78. s will force the the harmonic series energy distribution and output tuning to be determined using the MIDI Note number of the sample and the stan dard that A3 is 440Hz Pre condition Data The purpose of the Pre condition Data feature is to taper the data at the loop start and loop end so that all the energy components in the loop begin and end on zero The control has a range from 0 to 100 Any setting larger than a few percent leaves little or no energy at the loop points to cause a click which might inject unwanted noise into the process Increasing the Pre conditioning percentage favors the timbre of the sound near the middle of the loop Using different values gives different aural qualities to the resulting sound The diagram below shows the effect of changing the amount of the loop tapered by the Pre conditioning process The taper does not show up in the finished loop os tron ot recoron 255 lili Data Percentage soss al 100 wlan 66 INFINITY User s Manual The Freeze Looper Crossfade Length This control sets the amount of the loop that is blended with the attack seg ment It is variable from 0 to 100 of the attack duration A large cross fade length will cause the attack to slowly blend into the loop sound A smaller crossfade length will create a quick but blended transition between the two segments of the sample A setting of zero creates no crossfade Attack Loop Segment Segment
79. s 90 Fit Selection Icon 26 Fit Selection icon 33 Freeze Looper 64 Full Zoom In 35 Full Zoom Out 35 fundamental 77 Fundamental Hz 84 G Get Info 27 Grow Box 24 H harmonic series 76 hear 76 hear the loop 76 Hide Overview 36 Horizontal Annotation 23 56 Horizontal Scale Units 36 l Ideal loop 17 Invert 45 K Keyboard Command Equivalents 31 89 L Linear Scale 84 linear taper 67 Listening to The Soundfile 36 Log scale 84 Loop End Icon 26 Loop Points 24 Loop Points During Edits 58 Loop Points Icon 26 Loop Points In Other File Formats 59 Loop Points locating 47 Loop Start Icon 26 Loop Start Test Points 70 75 82 Looping 17 Looping Display 61 xciv INFINITY User s Manual M Mainview 23 Match Trial Points 63 Matching Threshold 63 Merge the Attack and Loop Segments 70 74 81 MIDI Note 48 Minimum System Requirements 14 Mix 44 Mode Icons 25 monaural 76 monaural sounds 76 N Non periodic sounds 18 Normal PDF 78 Normal Probability Density Function 78 O overtone 77 Overview 22 36 Owner Registration 15 P Palette 24 Paste 42 Periodic sounds 17 Pitch Control Radio 65 Playback Auto Reset 37 Playback Position Pointer 23 Pre condition Data 66 74 Pre condition Data 66 74 R Real Time Loop Adjust 57 Reverse 45 Revert to Backup 54 Rotated Sums Looper 68 Rotation Count 70 S Save 53 Save a Copy 53 Scroll After Playback 37 Scrolling Data 89
80. s a loop point which always creates good crossfade loops i e without unwanted phase cancellations of the major harmonics The illustration below shows the 60 INFINITY User s Manual The Crossfade Looper result of a Smart Auto Scan the alignment of the waveforms is exact The slopes at the loop interface will blend after the crossfade is complete inaa OOO E AtA Loop End Loop Start Understanding The Dialog Controls Soundfile Menu The Soundfile Menu shows the name of the last active soundfile All open soundfiles are listed in the menu The Crossfade Looper operates on the soundfile which is displayed in the menu Looping Display The Looping Display shows the interface between the loop end and the loop start The vertical line in the middle of the display shows the interface point The left half shows the Loop End region the right shows the Loop Start region Certain combinations of display resolution and loop point positions will show the loop point in the opposite display In this case the loop point marker is shown as a vertical line The display resolution can be changed using the Display Scale Arrows on the Palette The position of the cursor is also shown in the Palette cursor tracking display INFINITY User s Manual 61 INFINITY Looping Tools Auto Scan Arrows Clicking on a double arrow will cause INFINITY to begin searching for a matching loop point in the direction of the arrow When o
81. s do not take credit Energy cannot be created or destroyed Nor can energy change its frequency Acoustic energy can change its form to heat None the less if you are listening to two flutes playing slightly out of tune then at the moment at which there is silence at your ears there is also at least one loud sound somewhere else in the room Be advised that by moving your head you will change what you hear 78 INFINITY User s Manual The Synthesis Looper How it Works The Synthesis Looper tool calculates the energy at each fundamental and harmonic frequency and allows you to specify the width of the sidelobes the resulting looped sound will have In this way you could take the lumpy sound of a highly out of tune ensemble and change it to the smoother sound of a higher quality ensemble making the variations in the loop repetition less noticeable There are other possibilities too For example you can change the first few harmonics to focus the energy in the sidelobes to zero This will stabilize the sound and still provide the warmth of the ensemble at the higher fre quencies You could also in the extremes make a soloist into an ensemble or an ensemble into a soloist Synthesis Looper Soundfile EJ Process the Loop Segment Pitch Control MIDI Note Pitch Detection Retained Noise O 4 A Sidelobe Width Left Point Freq gxi g 50 0 0 SK 10K 15K 20K EJ Merge the Attack and Loop S
82. s given Appendix A Keyboard Equivalent Commands This appendix contains a list of all the keyboard equivalent commands and shortcuts that can be used with INFINITY The Equipment You ll Need Minimum System Requirements INFINITY will run on Macintosh Power PC s only 14 INFINITY User s Manual Owner Registration Owner Registration Your purchase of INFINITY entitles you to technical support special intro ductory offers on new products from Antares Audio Technologies and noti fication of software updates Software updates will be published regularly as the program evolves Major updates and new products currently in development will be announced at a significant discount but only to regis tered users Please fill out and return the Owner Registration Card The information on the card will allow us to communicate more effectively with you and will enable us to serve you better in the future Technical Support If you have some problem using INFINITY that can t be solved by reading the manual call technical support at 888 332 2636 or 408 399 0008 Mon day through Friday between 9 AM to 5 PM Pacific Standard Time Also you might find what you want at our web page www antaresTech com You can also e mail techsupport antaresTech com INFINITY User s Manual 15 Getting Started 16 INFINITY User s Manual CHAPTER 2 Introducing INFINITY Samplers and sample players have
83. ser match A value of 100 equals a perfect match Non periodic sounds typically have lower matching values than periodic sounds Match Trial Points This control changes the number of locations in the soundfile which are searched during an Auto Scan The soundrfile is first divided by the number of Match Trial Points then the search begins in the direction of the arrow which was clicked The range is from 10 to 1000 Crossfade Length This control adjusts the amount of attack data which is crossfaded with the loop end to create a smooth transition back to the loop start For a review see Crossfade Loops on page 19 The range is from 0 to 100 of the attack segment If the loop segment is shorter than the attack segment then the crossfade length percentage refers to the amount of the loop data which is effected by the crossfade Crossfade Taper This control adjusts the taper shape of the crossfade that is used to blend the attack and loop segments It is adjustable from 0 linear taper to 100 equal power taper It should be adjusted to provide the smoothest transi tion between the attack and loop segments of the sample Use equal power taper for string sounds choruses and other non periodic sounds Linear taper is best used with periodic waveforms like solo instruments Linear taper should be used for editing simple periodic wave forms like solo instruments Equal power taper should be used when editing complex non p
84. show up in the finished loop c Loop Data Amplitude as a tin sirecnon alll Percentage asa OOO i 100 peen Merge The Attack And Loop Segments Checking this item enables the second phase of the looping process merg ing the loop segment with the attack segment of the sample Enable this part of the process only when you want to crossfade the loop data with the attack segment of the sound When this item is not checked the sliders labeled Loop Start Test Points Crossfade Length and Crossfade Taper are inactive When Merge the Attack and Loop Segments is checked in the dialog INFINITY will automatically search a number of points in the loop segment to find the point which most closely correlates to the end of the attack seg ment The number of test points that are tried during the search can be con trolled using the Loop Start Test Points control Processing time increases as more points are tried 74 INFINITY User s Manual The SPR Looper When the best merge point is found INFINITY rotates the data in the loop until the merge point is located at the loop start The loop is then merged with the attack segment The type of crossfade that is used only modifies the attack segment The length and taper of the crossfade that is used to merge the two segments can be controlled Loop Start Test Points This controls the number of points that are tested during the search phase of the merging process
85. splay To chose an area of the soundfile for viewing in the Mainview 1 Move the cursor into the Overview display INFINITY User s Manual 33 INFINITY Basics Us The cursor turns into a cross The Zoom icon on the Palette video reverses to show that this display is in Zoom mode Place the cursor at the corner of the area you want to display and then click drag the mouse over the area A view indicator box appears around the area you have chosen Release the mouse The view indicator remains around the area you have chosen The Main view now displays the selected area ing Zoom Mode In The Mainview The view indicator can be used directly in the Mainview itself by placing the Mainview in Zoom Mode To 1 put the Mainview in Zoom Mode Click on the Zoom Mode icon in the Palette The icon begins to blink and the message Choose a Window for Zoom Mode appears in the Status Display area of the Palette Move the cursor into the active window and click in the Mainview The cursor becomes the cross cursor The Zoom Mode icon on the Palette video reverses to show that the Mainview is in Zoom Mode You may now drag a view indicator around any region in the Mainview The display will automatically scroll if the view indicator is dragged past the edge of the display The view indicator can also be dragged from the first click inside the Mainview To fe put the Mainview back into Selection Mode Click on
86. th of the Synthesis Looper tool With Retain Noise checked Amplitude Spectra dB K 10K 15K 20K Sidelobe Width Computed using pitch detection 86 INFINITY User s Manual The Synthesis Looper Compare the above graph to the report of the unprocessed data and notice how the noise floor has been computed to vary with frequency similar to the initial data Also notice that the presence of noise causes the Sidelobe Width computation to be slightly excessive in frequencies where the noise is nearly the same amplitude as the harmonic How To Loop A Sound First set the sample s MIDI Note to as near the correct pitch as possible using A3 440Hz Second set the loop points Note that the Synthesis Looper will make the loop smaller to the next power of two approxi mately Open the Synthesis Looper tool Set the Pitch Control radio to MIDI Note if you believe your sample should be in tune according to the A3 440Hz equal tempered scale If not set it to Pitch Detection Next press the Report button On the report select Log scale and place your cursor precisely at the fundamental peak Check that the Fun damental Hz number is within a pixel s accuracy of the Hertz number on the floating palette If it is not then you are going to have pitch prob lems If you had checked MIDI Note you either specified the wrong note or the data is not tuned to A3 440Hz equal tempered scale
87. that doesn t vary use zero Sidelobe Widths or use Freeze Looper but that won t sound like an ensemble You can t have it both ways However this tool lets you determine the trade off giving you unprece dented control of the of the result 88 INFINITY User s Manual APPENDIX A Keyboard Shortcuts The keyboard command equivalents listed below are grouped by function For instance commands that scroll the data in the Mainview are grouped together Keys that have names like shift will be shown as lt shift gt Two named keys that are used together look like lt shift option gt Pressing on the Palette and using Balloon Help will show many keyboard shortcuts Scrolling Data To Key Command Scroll the Mainview to the right Scroll the Mainview to the left Scroll the Mainview up t Scroll the Mainview down Scroll right by one windowful lt shift gt Scroll left by one windowful lt shift gt Scroll up by one windowful lt shift gt t Scroll down by one windowful lt shift gt Scroll full left and center lt Home gt Scroll the Mainview to the loop start 36 Scroll the Mainview to the loop end Full zoom to the loop start function lt option gt Full zoom to the loop end function lt option gt INFINITY User s Manual 89 Changing Display Scaling To Key Command Double the vertical display resolution t Halve the vertical display resolution a6 Double the horizontal display reso
88. the Selection Mode icon in the Palette The icon begins to blink and the message Choose a Window for Selec tion Mode appears in the Status Display area of the Palette Move the cursor into the active window and click in the Mainview The cursor becomes the I beam cursor The Selection Mode icon on the Palette video reverses to show that the Mainview is in Selection Mode You may now select data in the Mainview as before 34 INFINITY User s Manual Viewing The Soundfile Using Momentary Zoom Mode INFINITY can be put into Zoom Mode temporarily by pressing lt control shift gt This is useful for quickly zooming a region in the Mainview The cur sor will become the cross cursor and all active displays will remain in Zoom Mode as long as this key combination is pressed When the key combina tion is released all displays go back to their previous modes Using Full Zoom In and Full Zoom Out The horizontal display resolution of the Mainview can be set to its extreme in one step To Do this To zoom to minimum resolution Select Full Zoom Out from the Display menu or double click on the Mainview in Zoom Mode To zoom to maximum resolution Select Full Zoom In from the Display menu Changing Separators Units and Scales Show Zero Crossing This item places dotted lines at the zero crossing of tracks in the Overview and Mainview Show Track Dividers When checked this item places solid lines between the tracks
89. the diskettes on which the program is fur nished to be free from defects in materials and workmanship under normal use for a period of ninety 90 days from the day of delivery to you as evidenced by a copy of your receipt An Tares System s entire liability and your exclusive remedy as to the diskettes will be the re placement of the diskettes SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW LIMITATIONS ON HOW LONG AN IM INFINITY User s Manual iii PLIED WARRANTY LASTS SO THE ABOVE LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU THIS WARRANTY GIVES YOU SPECIFIC LEGAL RIGHTS YOU MAY ALSO HAVE OTHER RIGHTS WHICH VARY FROM JURISDICTION TO JURISDICTION Limitation of Liability IN NO EVENT WILL ANTARES AUDIO TECHNOLOGIES BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES INCLUDING LOSS OF DATA LOST PROFITS OR OTHER SPECIAL IN CIDENTAL CONSEQUENTIAL OR INDIRECT DAMAGES ARISING FROM THE USE OF INFINITY OR ACCOMPANYING MATERIALS THIS LIMITATION WILL APPLY EVEN IF ANTARES AUDIO TECHNOLOGIES OR ITS AUTHORIZED AGENT HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THE LICENSE FEE REFLECTS THIS ALLOCATION OF RISK SOME JURIS DICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR IN CIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES SO THE ABOVE LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU dy antaresTech com Welcome On behalf of everyone at Antares Audio Technologies we d like to offer both our thanks and congratulations on your decision to purchase the finest software t
90. the harmonic series frequencies to be determined by the loop data using the MIDI note as a guide This is accu rate unless the data is too short Retain Noise The second control is the Retain Noise slider and number box Some sounds have a characteristic background noise that when removed makes the sound less natural An example of this would be a cello section where the action of the bow on the string adds noise at all frequencies Other sounds may have backround noise that is undesirable If this control set to 100 the noise floor on the output will be the same as on the input If it is set to 0 the noise floor will be completely removed Intermediate values set the noise floor energy proportionately Sidelobe Width The third control is the Sidelobe Width graph This specifies the out put sidelobe width as a percentage of the fundamental frequency This per centage is multiplied by the fundamental frequency to get a frequency variation that is used as the standard deviation of the Normal PDF energy distribution You use this graph by dragging either of the points to a desired location to specify the desired sidelobe widths Note that whenever this window is selected and your cursor is over this graph you can view the coordinates of the cursor location on the Status Display Area palette window The sound of the result is very sensitive to the position of the left point For this reason the two text boxes are provided so
91. tion The loop points can be dragged over each other The loop point which is on the left then becomes the Loop Start co To move both loop points simultaneously while preserving the loop length press lt option gt while dragging either loop point The real time loop adjust feature can be used to rough set the loop points when working with sounds that change over time If you are working on a stable loop set the loop points around a region which is relatively stable in pitch timbre and loudness If you are making a loop which includes a vibrato or tremolo set the loop start and end to include several vibrato cycles INFINITY User s Manual 57 INFINITY Looping Tools A more precise way to set the loop points is to use the Smart Auto Scan fea ture described below Undo Loop Move Undo Loop Move is on the edit menu Undo Loop Move is enabled only after loop points have been dragged in the sound window or moved using the crossfade dialog window Pressing Undo Loop Move undoes the previ ous loop move Pressing a second time redoes the previous loop move Edits cut clear paste clear unselected and reverse when they change the loop positions will disable Undo Loop Move If the loop points are not changed by edits Undo Loop Move remains enabled Please remember that normal edit Undo recovers any loop points changed by the edit Using any of the looping tools except the Crossfade Looper will disable Undo Loop Move Loop
92. ual 25 Introducing INFINITY When the cursor is in the sound view of the Crossfade Looper this field reads either Side Loop Start or Side Loop End depending on which side the cursor is located The Action Icons co The Speaker Icon is used to play the soundfile If a region is selected only that region will play See Using The Speaker Icon on page 37 co The Display Scale Icon is used to change the display resolution of the Mainview See Using The Display Scale icon on page 33 co The Fit Selection Icon fills the Mainview completely with the currently selected region See Using The Fit Selection Icon on page 33 The Loop Points Icon creates or deletes loop points in a soundfile See Create Delete Loop Points on page 47 co The Loop Start Icon scrolls the Mainview so that the Loop Start point is in the center of the screen See Locating Loop Points on page 47 co The Loop End Icon scrolls the Mainview so that the Loop End point is in the center of the screen See Locating Loop Points on page 47 res be lem ES 2 26 INFINITY User s Manual The INFINITY Environment Get Info Keyboard Equivalent Command 38 1 Selecting Get Info will cause the Information dialog shown above to appear It contains information on the currently active soundfile Data cannot be edited in the Information dialog Information Soundfile strings A 4 File Type Audio IFF T
93. ully adjustable crossfade parameters and an intelligent loop point scanning technology called Smart Auto Scan This section explains these features and their con trols INFINITY User s Manual 59 INFINITY Looping Tools Crossfade Looper Looping Display gt Auto Scan Arrows ta Loop End A Loop Start Auto Scan Matching Value Crossfade Length 100 mA Crossfade Taper Laue Linear Equal Pwr O Audition Crossfade Auto Scan Settings Do Crossfade The soundfile can be auditioned while the Crossfade Looper is the active window Playback works by pressing the space bar or clicking on the Speaker icon If the cursor is in a text box playback can be started only with the Speaker Icon Terminate playback by clicking on the Speaker icon or pressing the space bar During playback unusable controls are grayed About Smart Auto Scan This algorithm searches the soundfile for places where the sound at one loop point matches the sound at the other loop point The closeness of the match and the number of places in the soundfile that are searched are con trollable using the Auto Scan Settings dialog shown below Conventional auto functions move the loop points to the nearest zero crossing or the nearest zero crossing with the same slope Smart Auto Scan compares the amplitude and the phase of the major harmonics at the loop points and searches until a good match is found The result i
94. umental ensembles like string sections brass sections choirs cho rused guitar and keyboard sounds and many waveforms from the older analog synthesizers Sounds that change tone as they decay like piano harp timpani bells cymbal rolls etc are also non periodic Periodic Waveform Digiwave Non periodic Waveform Violin Section Clearly most of the sustained sounds that are used for music making are non periodic It is impossible to make an ideal loop of a non periodic sound The simple fact that the sound changes with time will cause the repetitive nature of the loop to show up The problem becomes even more difficult when considering the stereo case If there are even slight changes to the shape of the two waveforms then it becomes impossible to find loop points where the waveforms precisely match A stereo loop cannot have a separate loop point for the left and right channel because doing so would not preserve the stereo relationship between the channels in the reproduced output The illustration below shows a segment of a stereo recording of a violin section playing a single pitch Note that the two waveforms don t even resemble each other Violin Section Left Channel Violin Section Right Channel 18 INFINITY User s Manual The Problem With Looping Crossfade Loops One common compromise for looping non periodic sounds is to blend the sound leading up to the loop end point with sound around the loop start

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