GoldWave Manual Copyright © 2002, 2005 GoldWave Inc. Do not upload or include this document on a website. March 2002 Table of Contents I. Introduction 1. Features 2. How to Use This Manual 3. Notation II. Getting Started 1. System Requirements 2. Installation a. Installation From a Downloaded Program (Exe) File b. Installation From a Downloaded Zip File c. General Installation Instructions i. Adding a Shortcut ii. Setting Audio Devices iii. Additional Settings III. Using GoldWave 1. Interface Overview 2. Device Controls Overview a. Properties i. Playback Properties ii. Record Properties iii. Volume Properties iv. Graph Properties v. Device Properties b. Playing Sounds c. Pausing Playback d. Stopping Playback e. Rewinding and Fast Forwarding f. Recording Sounds g. Volume and Balance Faders h. Speed Fader 3. Editing Overview a. Selecting Part of a Sound b. Editing the Waveform with the Mouse c. Mixing and Cross-Fading 4. Storage Overview a. Direct-to-Disk b. RAM c. Flash 5. File Menu Commands a. File Format b. New c. Open d. Close e. Information f. Batch conversion g. Save h. Save as i. Save selection as j. Exit k. File History 6. Edit Menu Commands a. Undo b. Cut c. Copy d. Copy to e. Paste new f. Paste and Paste at g. Mix h. Replace i. Delete j. Trim k. Insert silence l. Select view m. Select all n. Channel o. Marker i. Set ii. Recall positions iii. Store positions iv. Drop start/finish v. Snap to zero-crossing p. Deflash 7. Effects Menu Commands a. Special Controls for Effects i. Presets ii. Shape Controls b. Doppler c. Dynamics d. Echo e. Expand/Compress f. Filter i. Noise gate ii. Noise reduction iii. Low/Highpass iv. Bandpass/stop v. Equalizer vi. Parametric EQ vii. Pop/Click viii. User defined g. Flange h. Interpolate i. Invert j. Mechanize k. Offset l. Pitch m. Reverse n. Silence o. Stereo i. Exchange channels ii. Pan iii. Remove vocals p. Time warp q. Volume i. Change ii. Fade in iii. Fade out iv. Maximize (Normalize) v. Shape r. Playback rate s. Resample 8. View Menu Commands a. All b. Other c. Previous zoom d. Selection e. User f. Zoom in g. Zoom out h. Zoom 10:1 and 5:1 i. Zoom 1:1 j. Zoom 1:10, 1:100, 1:1000 k. Vertical zoom all l. Vertical zoom in m. Vertical zoom out n. Start and Finish 9. Tools Menu Commands a. Cue points b. Expression evaluator c. CD player d. Volume controls e. Device controls f. CD audio extraction 10. Options Menu Commands a. Colours b. Controls c. File d. File types e. Tool bar f. Window 11. Window Menu Commands 12. Help Menu Commands IV. General Information 1. Warranty, Trademarks, and Copyright 2. Support and Updates A. Appendix: An Introduction to Digital Audio 1. Digital Audio Attributes 2. Byte Swapping and Sign 3. Frequency and Pitch a. Frequency Ranges b. Frequency Range and Sampling Rate c. Frequency Spectrum Graphs 4. Problems with Recording B. Appendix: Keyboard Commands C. Appendix: Expression Evaluator 1. Overview 2. Evaluation Range, Variables, and Constants a. Using Time in an Expression b. Using the Sample Index in an Expression c. User Variable f d. Conversion Between Variables 3. Group name and Expression name 4. Evaluator Operators and Functions 5. Signal Generation 6. Custom Filters D. Appendix: Troubleshooting and Q&A 1. Troubleshooting 2. Common Questions and Answers 1 Introduction GoldWave is a comprehensive digital audio editor that plays, records, edits, and converts audio on your computer. This section lists some of the features of GoldWave and outlines the notation and organization of the manual. Features GoldWave includes a full set of features that rival even the most expensive audio processors: • An intuitive and customizable user interface makes editing easy. • An independent Device Controls window provides direct access to audio devices. It contains controls for playback, rewind & fast forward, recording, volume, and speed. LED meters and real-time graphs display the sound during playback and recording. • A multiple document interface (MDI) allows many files to be opened at one time, simplifying file-to-file editing. • Huge files can be edited using hard disk storage. Small files can be edited quickly using RAM storage. • Sounds are displayed graphically as a waveform and the level of detail can be changed by zooming in or out. The waveform can be reshaped directly with the mouse when zoomed in. • Many audio effects, such as Reverse, Echo, Pan, Flange, Dynamics, and Time warp, enhance, distort, or alter sounds in various ways. • Sophisticated filters such as the Noise reduction and Pop/Click filters help restore audio. • The Batch conversion command converts a group of sound files to a different format and type. It can convert stereo to mono, 8 to 16 bits, or any combination of attributes supported by a file type. With an MPEG codec installed, you can compress audio to a fraction of its original size while still keeping excellent quality in MP3 format. • The CD Audio Extraction tool copies audio from a CD to a file on your system. Audio can be extracted directly to MP3 format to minimize storage space. • An Expression Evaluator allows you to generate everything from simple tones to complex filters. Expressions for telephone dial tones, waves, and effects are included. How to Use This Manual Familiarity with the Windows interface, such as property dialogs, tool bars, etc., is recommended before reading this manual. For those who are unfamiliar with digital audio, Appendix A briefly introduces some of the fundamentals of computer audio. It also provides some solutions to common recording problems. Appendix D contains troubleshooting information and answers to common questions. Section 2: Getting Started, covers system requirements and installation. Section 3: Using GoldWave explains the interface and menu structure in detail. Topics are covered in the order that they appear in GoldWave's menu. Section 4: General Information, provides support, copyright, and warranty information. Notation Bold text and a vertical bar are used to denote menu commands. File | New, for example, means to select the New command from the File menu. This notation is used to refer to other sections within this manual as well. In the above example, you can find information by looking for New under the File Menu Commands section. If the first word is Start, select the command from the Windows task bar menu structure. A pointing hand emphasizes helpful information and techniques. An exclamation mark emphasizes warnings and other important information. 2 Getting Started System Requirements The minimum system requirements for GoldWave are: • Pentium based PC or compatible ® ® ® • Microsoft Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0 or higher • 32 Megabytes of RAM (64 MB recommended) • 2 Megabytes of hard disk space • Mouse • Sound card with a Windows driver If you need to edit large files, you will need a large amount of hard drive space. One minute of CD-quality sound requires 10 megabytes of storage. GoldWave may require 20 to 40 megabytes per minute when editing an existing file and the Undo feature is enabled. For editing audio in movie files and editing mp3 files, you must have the new DirectX Media extensions installed. You can install the new Media Player available from Microsoft's website to get these extensions. Installation The following two sections give instructions for installing GoldWave on your system. Before running GoldWave make sure that you have an appropriate Windows 95 sound driver installed. If you need to add one, use the "Add New Hardware" item under Start | Settings | Control Panel. The driver and installation instructions should be included with your sound card. The current settings for your sound card are listed under the "Sound, video, and game controllers" item of the Device Manager. The Device Manager is found under "My Computer" Properties or the System icon in the Control Panel. Installation From a Downloaded Program (Exe) File If you downloaded the self-installing version of GoldWave, simply run the program. You can specify a destination folder where GoldWave will be installed. A desktop shortcut and Start menu entries can be created automatically. Installation From a Downloaded Zip File To install GoldWave from a zip file, you will need PKUNZIP version 2.04g (or compatible): http://www.pkware.com Create a new folder called "GoldWave", or select your current GoldWave folder and unzip the GoldWave zip file into it. Follow the general instructions below to complete installation. General Installation Instructions Check the readme.txt file for any additional information not available at the time this manual was created. New versions of GoldWave can be downloaded from the web site: http://www.goldwave.com Adding a Shortcut To add a GoldWave icon to your desktop, right click the mouse pointer on an unused area of your desktop to display the context menu and select New | Shortcut. Choose Browse, find and double click on goldwave.exe, then click on Next. Type in "GoldWave" for the name of the shortcut, then click Finish. To run GoldWave, either double click on the new GoldWave icon or use the Start | Run command. Setting Audio Devices GoldWave allows you to choose which devices to use for playback and recording. Choose the properties button on GoldWave's Device Controls window, then choose the Device tab. Drop down lists of installed playback and recording devices and their capabilities are presented. Select appropriate devices from the lists. Note that if your device only supports 8 bit recording, you must select the Microsoft Sound Mapper device so that GoldWave can record. Additional Settings • Use Options | File to set your sound folder. • Use Options | Tool bar to customize tool bars.