Integrating the Making of Sounds and the Assembly of a Piece
on the Sound Loom.
Trevor Wishart (July 2009)
In Sound Loom version 12.0.4, the Quick Editor mixing facility has been developed to allow easy
passage, back and forth, between making new sounds, and assembling them into a composition.
Imagine that, while still making sounds, you want to start assembling these sounds into (a section of) a piece.
We begin by establishing a Main Mix which we can then access, directly from the Workspace,
with a few keystrokes.
We can then pass back and forth between editing this mix, and making or modifying sounds.
- First choose (some of) the sounds you want to assemble into the piece,
placing them on the Chosen Files list.
(You can add more sounds later as you gradually put together the final mix).
- go to the Process Page,
- Select MIX : Create a mixfile : and (for example) end to end.
- Run the process.
- Name the mixfile that is generated (let us call it new_piece).
- Return to the Workspace, and highlight new_piece.
- On the SELECTED FILES OF TYPE menu, choose MIXFILES - ESTABLISH AS MAIN MIXFILE.
The Loom will now remember that this is your principal mixfile.
From the Workspace
- Now hit Control-M 3 times (not too quickly).
- This takes you directly to the Quick Editor Page, where your main mix is displayed.
Note that, you can now run other mixfiles,
and then return, immediatley to the main mix with these 3 key strokes.
(Also note that using Control-m (rather than Control-M) recalls simply the last mixfile you used).
The Quick Editor Page has been modified to allow you to mix the sounds and hear the results
without having to leave this page.
On the upgraded Quick Editor page you can
- Set the Start Time and End Time of the mix, and the Mix Gain, without returning to the parameters page.
- Run the mix (after each edit you make) (SAVE AND RUN MIX VERSION).
- Hear the outputs, at each stage (VIEW LAST MIX OUTPUT).
- Save the sound output and the edited mixfile itself (KEEP VERSION MIXED HERE),
which returns you to the Parameters Page, where you can then finally
- Name the sound output file.
You can also check, and automatically adjust, the overall level of the output (MaxSamp button at foot of display).
In addition
- Hitting DO WHOLE MIX will ensure that the entire duration of the mixfile is mixed,
even if you add new sounds to the end of the mix.
- Hitting ALL SOUNDS IN MIX TO WKSPACE will ensure that the properties of all the sounds in the mix
are known to the mix editor.
This ensures e.g. that calculations involving the duration of a soundfile in the mix can be made.
Most importantly, you can add further sounds to, or modify existing sounds in the mix, as you proceed.
For example, if you decide you need to time-stretch a sound in the mix (lets call it sndshort)
- Highlight sndshort in the Quick Editor display.
- Hit SOUND TO WKSPACE (optionally saving the current edited state of the mixfile).
- This takes you to the Workspace, with the selected file already on the Chosen Files list.
- Now perform the time-stretching (or any another) operation on the file, in the normal way.
The result of any process you run will be placed at the top of the Workspace.
- From the Workspace, hit Control-M three times, returning you to the Quick Editor mix page.
- Highlight sndshort again on the QikEdit display.
- Hit the CHANGE FILE TO button to the right of the display.
- A list of the Workspace files will now appear, with your new sound at the top.
(You can, of course, choose any other sound from this list, search the list, or listen to the sounds)
- Select the sound you want.
- You will be returned to the Quick Editor Page, with your new sound replacing sndshort.
New sounds can also be created and added to the mix in a similar fashion.
- Hit Keep Edited Version, and return to the Workspace.
- Create you new sound (lets call it newsnd) in the usual way.
- From the Workspace, hit Control-M three times, returning you to the Quick Editor mix page.
- Set a time at which to add the new file, in the Value box at the top right.
This can be done in many ways apart from typing in a value. (See Specifying Timing Information In The Mix below).
- Hit the ADD NEW FILE (AT) button to the right of the display.
- A list of the Workspace files will now appear, with newsnd at the top.
- Select the sound you want.
- The new sound appears at the specified time in the Quick Editor display.
In addtion, an entire existing mix can also be added to the main mix, at a specified time.
(See details below, under Partial Mixes and Submixes).
The timing, spatialisation and level/balance of the mix can be altered in numerous ways
by entering parameter values in the Value box (top right)
and using the buttons on the right of the display.
The Help button will display information about what each of these operations does.
You can also
- Hear any part of the mix, by Muting (MUTE LINES) out lines you do not want to hear.
- Test alternative sounds by muting one and not the other, then switching between the two (SWAP MUTING PAIR)
To remove sounds from the mix you must first mute them.
The start times of sounds in the mix can be modified using the MOVE TIME buttons in the right hand panel.
The timings used by these buttons use the value written in the Value box at the top right.
Timings can be typed in, or derived from numerious sources (see next section).
There are a great many ways you can specify times to use in the mix, apart from just typing in values.
- Use the start time of an existing line.
Under PARAM(S) IN LINE you can
- Grab the start time of an existing highlighted line.
- Find and grab the end time of a sound in a highlighted line.
(Note that this will be the endtime of the soundfile - if the soundfile has silence at its end,
this will not be the end of the sound actually heard).
- Find the difference in time between two highlighted lines (e.g. to create an equal time-step to a new sound entry).
- Find the sum or difference between the start time in a line and a value already in the Value box (say X),
e.g. for adding a new sound at X beyond the sound you have highlighted.
- Point to a time within an existing mix.
- If you have mixed the mixfile previously (with SAVE AND MIX VERSION),
then VIEW LAST MIX OUTPUT will display (and play) a graphic of the sound output.
You can mark a block of time on the graphic display, and then output (to the Value box) either
- The start time of the block:
this enables you to position any new event at a precise time relative to the existing output.
- The duration of the block.
This allows you to measure some feature in the existing output, and use it in calcuating a time for a new event.
- Point to a time within a sound used in that mix.
- You can display (and play) a graphic of any highlighted sound in the mix, with VIEW SELECTED SOUND.
You can mark a block of time on the graphic display, and then output (to the Value box) either
- The start time of the block.
This will be output as the time within the mix at which your marked event occurs.
- The duration of the block.
- Use the end time of the existing mix.
Under END-OF-MIX you can find
- The time at which you have instructed the mix to stop (the mixfile end time parameter on the params page).
- The endtime (in the mix) of the mixed output.
Note that, if the first sound in the mix does not begin at time zero (but, say, time N),
this will not correspond to the true duration of the output soundfile (which you can also grab from this menu).
- Enter a time by Tapping twice on the TAP TIME button.
- Specify a Metronome Mark (MM), and then enter time as a number of beats in that MM.
- Begin (or end) the mix at the start time of any particular sound in the mixfile,
by using TIME IN LINE : TO MIX PARAM START or END.
(You can also perform numeric calculations on these times by sending them to the Calculator).
- Define a Clicktrack
by..
- Marking any existing line in the mix as a Clicktrack, , with MARK AS CLICK.
- Creating a new Clicktrack at a specified MM, using MAKE CLICK.
- Switch the Clicktrack on and off, with CLICK ON/OFF.
- Under PARAM(S) IN LINE you can
- Grab the Level of a sound in a highlighted line.
- Grab the Position of a sound in a highlighted line.
- Under SOUND PROP you can
- Grab the Duration of a sound in a highlighted line.
- Grab the Maximum Possible Gain which can be applied to a sound in a highlighted line.
You can
- Preserve the current state of the mix (before going on to make further changes)
using KEEP COPY OF MIX WITH NEW NAME.
- Mix just some of the sounds in the mixfile as a Submix, by highlighting those sounds, and hitting
SOUNDS TO SUBMIX.
- Add an existing mix to the main mix, starting at the time specified in the Value box
while preserving the relative timings (and all other information) in the submix, using ADD MIXFILE(AT).
You could, for example,
- extract several of the sounds in the mix to a submix.
- mix those sounds, independetly, in the submix.
- reinject the sound-output of that submix into the original mix, replacing the several sounds
extracted to make that sumbix.
- Commenting out
- To prevent you from modifying a mix in some fashion you later regret (!) all modifications made
to mix lines preserve the pre-alteration version of the line(s), but commented out.
- You can override this comment-preservation (use the checkbox at top right) but only for one operation at a time.
- Edit History
- The Quick Editor page now has a complete memory of the changes you make in the mix, while in the Quick Editor window.
- Any previous state of editing can be recalled from RECALL A PREVIOUSLY MIXED VERSION.
- Backtracking
You can
- Restore the immediately previous state of the mix with GET PREVIOUS STATE.
- Revert to the state of the mix when you opened the Quick Editor window, with Abandon(no edit).
- Revert to the state of the mix when you first entered the parameters page
(before any number of calls to Quick Editor) with RESTORE ORIGINAL.
- Preserving mix sources
Sounds used in mixiles (particularly in the main mixfile) sbould be backed up to directories
to archive them for future use (or for any necessary later reconstructions of the main mix).
With your mixfile selected in the Chosen Files list
- You can see which files in a mix are not backed up to directories, by hitting Control-b,
when any non-backed-up files will replace the mixfile on the Chosen Files display.
- Select a backup directory on the top right of the Workspace.
- Hit Enter Chosen Files Mode once or twice (so you are no longer in Chosen Files mode)
and these non-backed-up files will become highlighted on the Workspace.
- Hit BACKUP SELECTED NEW FILES, which will backup those sounds.
The mixfile itself will be automatically updated to use the renamed files.
- Hitting the Last Mix button at the bottom left of the Workspace, will return the mixfile to the Chosen File display.
Alternatively, Control-M 3 times will take you to the main mix, back on the Quick Editor page.
- You can see all the sounds in a mixfile (if it is on the Chosen Files list) by hitting Control-B.