Editing a waveform in Sonar?

  • Thread starter Thread starter adam
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adam

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I know you can cut and paste (though I can't seem to figure out how to do this to any great effect in the looping construction view).

My question is, can you edit the waveform shape at all? For instance, I ripped a song from a CD and there is a loud pop in it. I believe I could cut it out, but, wouldn't there be a gap of silence as well? Is it possible to tone down the wave form where the pop occurs, so it isn't so loud? Thanks!

adam
 
Select the waveform from the beginning to the end of the pop, and lower its volume. Make it so the peak there is at close to the same level as the waveform at either side. As long as it's an instantaneous pop this should make it pretty indiscernable.
 
thanks, I'll give it a try when I get home. You do this in the track view correct? Do you use the envelop setting then to lower the volume? It didn't seem like you could just click and drag on the waveform.

Thanks! At some point you should be hitting up Cakewalk for some consulting and support fees, given your support on this board.

Now that I think about it, I've been here for 2 years now, and I have noticed a big drop-off in participation across all the boards. Also, the Dragon Cave went away and came back, but went away again. Is it the same spamming issue? ANy idea?
 
wtf!?

Okay, I may be a total idiot, but I just tried editing an audio clip in Sonar and I can't get it to do anything -- not even highlight!

In CW9, you would just double click on an audio clip and you could highlight the area you wanted to cut, copy, paste, etc. When I double click on an audio file in Sonar it takes me to the Loop Construction view (which looks the same as the old CW9 audio editing view), but I literally can't get anything to happen in there. I'm double clicking, click-n-dragging, standing on my head -- nothing!

Can someone please tell me how I get anything to happen on theat screen? And more importantly, how I would get something productive done in there, such as highlighting, cutting, pasting, etc. Please help!

J
http://www.30SoS.com
 
You have to place split points to mark the boundaries of what you want to work on. Then select the area of interest. The Edit menu then has all the stuff you can do...
 
Okay, at the risk of sounding even more dense -- how do you create split points? And do you do it in the loop construction view or in the main view? Why is there no audio editing view? And why can't you just highlight a section like in CW9? And why isn't there a better tasting diet cola...?

Sorry if I'm getting a little out of hand, but I just started getting comfortable with CW and switche dto Sonar, whichy offers some great benefits, but if they changed (or worse yet, removed) the audio editing view, I'll be deeply disturbed (moreso than I am already).

Please let me know if you can offer anymore insight into this issue. Thanks!

J
http://www.30SoS.com
 
Yes, the audio view has been removed from Sonar. You do your audio editing directly in the track view. You should be able to do most everything you formerly did in audio view directly within the track view window (except personally I still miss the pencil tool, which has also been taken away).

To create split points, position the cursor where you want to make the split and hit "s" on your keyboard.

You will find the new slip editing feature pretty useful. Once you make a split in the track, if you position the mouse at the split the cursor will turn into a square. You can then drag the edge of the clip left or right to "cover up" things. This is similar to deleting them, except they don't actually go away. Drag the edge of the track back, and voila you will get the audio back.

I'm not on my DAW at the present time, but I think you can also select sections by holding down the alt key and dragging the mouse across the section you want to highlight.
 
stunned

Thanks for the help, everyone. I'll have to toy with some trial editing when I get home...

However, I'm just stunned that they removed the audio editng view from Sonar!? I suppose the logic (if you can call it that) is that it'd be easier to do it all from one screen, but I like to have my tracks small and narrow in the track view to see as much of the project as possible and I got accustomed to opening the audio editing view for a much closer look.

I'm sure I work a little differently than most people (who know what they're doing), but that seems like a VERY big feature to take out... Just me whining... Thanks again.

J
http://www.30SoS.com
 
...but I like to have my tracks small and narrow in the track view to see as much of the project as possible and I got accustomed to opening the audio editing view for a much closer look.
Click to expand...

The way it works now if, there's a sort of expand/collapse button on the left of the track, and so you can either have it be a skinny strip like before, or a wide strip where you can see the waveform clearly enough to work on it when you want.
 
Curing Clips and Pops

If you export the audio track to something like SoundForge (I use SF-XP 4.5) you can zoom right in on the wave form, locate the offending peak/s and use the pencil tool to smooth them out. Just draw a nice round shape to replace the sharp spike caused by a momentary clip. Voila!

Breath pops can be cured the same way, but the pop portion of the wave form will be rounder in shape and may extend a few cycles.

In both cases you need to redraw the wave form. Simply lowering the volume will only reduce the loudness of the crack or pop.

I can't believe how many audio takes I did over and over because of one clip until I figured this out. Since then I've gone hours without swearing.
Kev
 
If you were used to double-clicking a track to go to the audio edit view when you do that now it takes you to the loop view. You can't edit like you are used to from there. Like AlChuck said, use the buttons on each track. They look just like Windows buttons. When you hit the box, or the maximize button, then you are in the audio edit window you are used to. The main difference there is you do not get all of your options with a right click like in Pro Audio. You get your plug-ins, envelopes and track properties with a right click. You can also split a track with a right click from this view. To normalize, fade, reverse, 3db quieter or louder you have to go to edit/audio. It kept me confused for a while too. When you are done hit the dash, or minimize, button and you are back to viewing all of your tracks.

You can also select an area to work on without setting splits by holding the alt key and dragging on the desired area. If you have the "snap to" button selected it will snap to the nearest parameter you have selected in your "snap to" menu. To do it free hand just turn the "snap to" button off.

Sash
 
12Kevin -- that is exactly what I am talking about, actually manipulating the waveform. I did lower the volume, but that doesn't do the trick exactly.

AlChuck -- any suggetions? Can you do this in Sonar? I'll be bummed if I can't
 
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