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The Effects

The AudioCutter Cinema offers different extensive effects (also named as "FX" here) to manipulate the audiodata in many different ways and with different results. Some of these FX work automatically and do not need any parameters or user input. That means these effects start immediately and don't use a so called Definition Window to set or change parameters.

Effects which own parameters use such windows. The base structure and the usage of it is nearly identically for all. Therefore this chapter only explains the usage of the special parameters and their influence to the result but not the usage of the Definition Window itself.

Additional the FX can take effect to a project, layer or track in different ways: The menu items of the effects also use the symbols which illustrate these functionality like described in the preceding chapter.

The following section is divided into different parts wich reflect the categories of effects and which are identically with the menu structure (the single effects itself can be found in submenus): Additional there are some sections describing functions which can't be classified as effects:


Volume FX

These effects manipulate the volume (or loudness) of audio data.

Fade Volume

This effect enables fading of the volume or changing of it using a factor over the whole length. Start- and endvolume can be choosen separately. To get an changing volume both parameters only need different values. This allowes to realize fade-ins or fade-outs. If start- and endvolume are set to the same value, the volume will be modified from the FX but with no changing over time.

If the volume of a complete single track has to be modified it is recommended to use the function Change Volume included in the WavePanel

Parameters:
Can be applied to:

Optimize Mainvolume

It analyzes the amplitudes of every track of the project and changes the volumes of all tracks together to the maximum if it is necessary. This FX doesn't changes the amplitude-differences between single tracks, only the amplitude of the whole project will be set to the maximum which is possible. So all tracks are amplified with the same amplification factor by this effect.

Parameters:
Can be applied to:

Optimize Layervolume

It analyzes the amplitudes of every track of the actual layer and changes the volumes of all these tracks together to the maximum if it is necessary. This FX doesn't changes the amplitude-differences between single tracks of this layer, only the amplitude of the whole layer will be set to the maximum. So all tracks are amplified with the same amplification factor by this effect. In difference to the preceding FX, this effect changes the volume of the actual layers tracks in relation to the others layers tracks.

If this effect is used if all layers are selected, its functionality is identically with Optimize Mainvolume.

Parameters:
Can be applied to:

Maximize Trackvolume

This effect analyzes the amplitudes for every single track of the actual layer and amplifies them separately to the maximum. In difference to the preceeding Volume FX this one changes the relative volume differences between tracks and sets each track to its own possible maximum.

Parameters:
Can be applied to:

Dynamic Compressor

This FX decreases the dynamic range of a signal. It amplifies quiet parts and extenuates the louder parts.

Parameters:
Can be applied to:


Surround FX

Effects which belong to the group "Surround" are related to differend kinds of surround sound modes. But the primary functionality of these effects is not to create a specific output format for a surround mode, but the creation and manipulation of tracks which results in listenable surround sound afterwards.

To hear and to estimate the effect these FX have to the resulting sound, an audio hardware is required which is able to play back these sounds in an adequate quality. Detailled informations about it can be found in chapter Basic Information about Audio Technologies.

Echo

This effects creates a realistic spatial echo like known from (large) rooms. To make it as realistic as possible the calculation of it uses a virtual room with defineable sizes. Therefore the parameters of this effect can't be given like in common audio software in form of delay times. This FX requires information about the size of the room (in meters) which has to be simulated. Out of this size the FX calculates the runtimes of the sonic, the movements of a tracks sound, all reflexions and delays itself. Additional the Doppler effect which can be heared if a source of a sound moves and which influences and changes the pitch of it, can be calculated also.

Please note: For every dimension of the room (width and depth) two new tracks are created containing the reflections of the sound on every related wall. These new tracks also contain Sound Positions with the resulting movement depending on the source-tracks movement.

It is recommended to use a track with this effect only, if all necessary Sound Positions of a track are created and edited completely and which are located inside the rooms virtual walls. The effect also works with Sound Positions outside the calculated room but that means echoes will be calculated which come from outside of a closed room. A side effect of such an calculation would be a less realistic result.

Because this FX creates new tracks and doesn't modifies the source track(s), the UNDO-function isn't available for it. To take back all changes made by this effect, simply remove all tracks created by it.

Parameters:
Can be applied to:

Hall

This FX is different to the preceding Echo FX in some points. So it doesn't calculates the hall using the size of a room. As a result of this, this FX doesn't produces an exact spatial result fitting to a room but an hall which sounds "undefineable" spatial instead. The results can be used versatile.

The Hall effect uses delay times as parameter and creates only one new track for every source track. This new track is positioned in x-direction like the source track or it follows the source-track in x-direction over time.

It is recommended to use this effect only for tracks which own completely edited Sound Positions. Hall doesn't uses a special room for its calculations. Therefore the source track positions can use every possible position, also outside of the virtual room.

This effect creates new result-tracks and leaves the source tracks unchanged. Therefore the UNDO-Function isn't available here. To take back a calculation, only all new generated tracks have to be removed.

Parameters:
Can be applied to:

Decoder

The Surround Decoder is an FX which decodes audio information out of a stereo signal, which are included as phase-shifted data there. This method extracs a surround channel. The decoding algorithm is able to extract audio information which were encoded using the "2.0 Surround" mode of the AudioCutter Cinema or a compatible encoding method like known from Dolby-Surround or Circle-Surround.

The Decoder requires stereo tracks. That means as source 2 tracks with fixed positions at "L" (front left) and "R" (front right) are needed. After decoding process, these two tracks don't contain the encoded surround data any longer and a third track is available which now includes these audio information. This new track will be positioned at "S" (rear center) automatically.

Parameters:
Can be applied to:

Encoder

The Encoder uses all tracks of the project or of the actual layer and generates new tracks out of it depending on the encoding method. So this effect is a converter from position- and sound-related tracks to tracks which represent the different speaker positions directly. A required parameter specifies the encoding method:

encode method
(changeable parameter)
number of tracks after calculation compatible or channel-/speaker-compatible with confi guration remarks
1.0 Mono 1 (C) Mono no spatial sound possible, no width-stagger in front area
2.0 Stereo 2 (L, R) Stereo no defined spatial sound, width-stagger in front-area possible
2.0 Surround 2 (L, R) Stereo, Circle-Surround, Dolby-Surround real encoding of the surround data but requires a decoder, backward-compatible with 2.0 Stereo and 1.0 Mono
3.0 Surround 3 (L, R, S) special stage before encoding in 2.0 Surround no "real" soundmode; this setup allowes changes in the volumes of the resulting channels before next encoding step and therefor it makes the setup of a perfect 2.0 Surround encoded sound easier
4.0 Quadro 4 (L, R, SL, SR) Quadro, Aureal 3D, Environmental Audio, ... encoding of the surround-channel into L and R (to Aureal 3D / Environmental Audio) requires an separate step
5.0 Surround 5 (L, R, C, SL, SR) 2/2 Dolby-Digital encoding to a Dolby-Digital data stream requires a separate step
5.1 Surround 6 (L, R, C, SL, SR, LFE) dts, 2/3 Dolby-Digital encoding to a Dolby-Digital or dts data stream requires a separate step
6.0 Surround 5 (L, R, C, SL, SC, SR) dts ES, Dolby Surround EX encoding to a Dolby-Surround-EX or dts ES data stream requires a separate step; this encode method is available in AudioCutter Cinema XS only
6.1 Surround 7 (L, R, C, SL, SC, SR, LFE) dts ES, Dolby Surround EX encoding to a Dolby-Surround-EX or dts ES data stream requires a separate step; this encode method is available in AudioCutter Cinema XS only
dts and dts ES are registered trademarks of Digital Theater Systems Inc.
Dolby, ProLogic, Dolby Digital, Dolby Surround and Dolby Surround EX are registered trademarks of Dolby Laboratories Inc.
All other trademarks are registered trademarks of their respective owners.


Parameters:
Can be applied to:


Stereo FX

These effects are designed especially for the stereo-mode. So they can be used meaningful with stereo-tracks only. That means there have to exist 2 tracks located at the positions "L" (front left) and "R" (front right).

DeCorrelate

This FX generates some kind of pseudo-stereo out of two tracks also if they contain identically audiodata. The result of course only sounds like stereo but it doesn't exists a real width-stagger with localizeable sounds. This FX "widenes" the both tracks "L" and "R" acustically also if they don't contain stereo-information before.

Parameters:
Can be applied to:

BaseStretch

The stereo-base typically is defined by the distance between the left and the right speaker. This FX now expands this width acustically. The used algorithm tries to do that by manipulating the sound using some properties of sound-runtimes and the overlapping of the left and right channel throug a room to the listeners ears.

For this reason this effect requires as most as possbile exact parameter settings. Because the algorithm tries to outfox the human brain, the result depends on the exactness of the given parameters.

In difference to the preceding one, this FX requires stereo-data to work with.

Parameters:
Can be applied to:


Size FX

All FX of this category can be used to manipulate and to change the length of a sound/track.

Scale

Tracks length can be changed with this FX nearly completely free. With the change of the length also the pitch will be changed: if a track becomes longer, it will sound deeper, if it becomes shorter it gets a higher pitch.

Parameters:
Can be applied to:

TimeShift

This effect also changes the length of tracks but in difference to the preceding one, it modifies the tracks sounddata to leave the pitch unchanged.

Depending on the change of the length, the sounddata have to be modified more or less. So extreme changes in a tracks length or the usage of this FX for much more than one times with the same audio data could cause in noise and distortions.

Akin to this effect is the FX PitchShift which is described below.

Parameters:
Can be applied to:


Sound FX

All these effects, described here in this section modify the sound or the pitch of audiodata. Normally these FX do not change the volume, but in some cases the result may appear louder. This can be caused by different acoustic side effects.

DoubleFreq

This FX doubles the frequency (pitch) of an sound (without changing its length) using a special algorithm for it. The selectable calculation modes differ in calculation speed and resulting quality. But depending on the kind of audiodata it may be possible, the result of mode "fast" also offers the better quality than "smooth".

If both modes doesn't deliver an acceptable result, it is recommended to try the effect PitchShift with a pitch factor of 2 instead.

Parameters:
Can be applied to:

HalveFreq

This FX halves the frequency (pitch) of an sound (without changing its length) using a special algorithm for it. The selectable calculation modes differ in calculation speed and resulting quality. But depending on the kind of audiodata it may be possible, the result of mode "fast" also offers the better quality than "smooth".

If all available modes doesn't deliver an acceptable result, it is recommended to try the effect PitchShift with a pitch factor of 0.5 instead.

Parameters:
Can be applied to:

PitchShift

Different to TimeShift or Scale this effect changes the pitch of an sound and leaves its length completely untouched.

Parameters:
Can be applied to:

Equalizer

An equalizer is a special kind of tone regulator which allowes to change amplitudes for more than only two frequency bands. The result depends on the amount of changes for all frequency ranges of the audio signal.

Parameters:
Can be applied to:

Graphic Equalizer

This FX is a special variant of an Equalizer.It not only allowes modification of relatively wide frequency bands but also of highly resolved, small frequency ranges or single frequencies of an audio signal. The Graphical Equalizer which was realized here uses a maximum resolution smaller than < 1Hz. To allow easy editing of changes in the frequency spectrum, changes aren't done with normal sliders like in normal FX Equalizer but directly by editing a graph by hand which represents the new spectrum. The appearance of this graph is identically with the known 2D-FFT-Analysis graph.

This graph can be changed by drawing and dragging it directly using the mouse.

Parameters:
Can be applied to:

SubNoise Booster

This FX is a very special variant of an equalizer. It is specialized for very deep frequencies only and can be used to amplify the deep frequencies of a sound - including the infrasonic parts of it. Infrasonic can't be heared but is it often used for effects which can be feeled by the listener.

Parameters:
Can be applied to:

SubNoise Creator

Some sounds don't own any deep frequencies or infrasonic parts. To create deep bass effects with them, these frequencies have to be added because the preceding FX can't amplify things, which don't exist. This job is done by the effect SubNoise Creator.

Please note: Adding infrasonic to a sound followed by excessive amplification of the deep frequencies may "destroy" the sound and result in an undesired low frequency noise.

Parameters:
Can be applied to:


Noise FX

All effects of the section (and menuitem) "Noise FX" can be used to remove or at least reduce noises or other distortions of a sound and to improve its quality. Because of the different possible kinds of noises and distortions, also different specialized FX have to be used.

KillNeedles

This effect helps to remove needles (also so called spikes or peaks). Such needles produce disturbing cracks in a sound. To let the remove-algorithm take effect, following conditions have to be fulfilled:
  • the needles have to be larger (or at least equal) than the amplitude of the desired signal
  • the cracking noises mustn't be produced by a distorted waveform, the algorithm is only able to remove noises caused by real (visible) needles

    Parameters:
    Can be applied to:

    Threshold

    This FX works like some kind of threshold switch. All Sampledata with an amplitude below a defineable threshold will be blocked and set to 0, all data above this threshold will be left untouched. So it is possible to remove noises which can be heard at silent parts of an sound.

    Parameters:
    Can be applied to:

    DeNoise

    This FX extenuates noises in a sound which can't be removed by the preceding effect. It works with an wide frequency range but it is most efficient in higher frequency areas. So it is possible to remove noise wich is caused by magnetic tapes or electronic components.

    Please note: effect strengths which are too large may remove also desired parts of audio data. This results in a thud sound.

    Parameters:
    Can be applied to:

    DeDistort

    Oversteered sounds got lost some parts of the waveform. Typically it is cut above a special (maximum) level. This effect now tries to get back these lost parts by interpolation of the waveform. So this effect is a very special one: it only removes distortions caused by oversteering and cut-off of waveforms parts.

    Parameters:
    Can be applied to:

    Remove DC

    DC parts in a sound typically result in an offset from zero over the whole waveform. This FX tries to measure a constant DC value and to remove it.

    Parameters:
    Can be applied to:

    Remove Variable DC

    Equal to the FX Remove DC this one also removes DC parts in a sound. But different to the preceding effect it is also able to remove variable (but nearly linear) offsets. To do that, this FX requires information of the offsets heights at the beginning and the end of a sound (or marked area). This has to be specified by marking an area of a sound where the variable DC has to be removed. The beginning of it defines the start-offset and the end defines the end-offset which has to be removed. If no area is marked, the amplitude of the sample at the begin and end of the whole track is used for it.

    Parameters:
    Can be applied to:


    Special FX

    All following FX are not categorizeable non-ambigous and do different, sometimes very special jobs. Therefore they can be found as submenu of the menuitem "Special FX".

    Repeat Range

    This effect produces a special, very synthethic sound. It repeats sampleblocks of a defineable length (can be set using parameter "Range") and rescales it to hold the length of the sound constant. This also results in a pitch shift, depending on the number of repeats.

    To even this out and to get an completely new sound again, the FX PitchShift may be used. The required pitch shift factor can be calulated out of the number of repeats: Factor=1/number of range-repeats.

    Parameters:
    Can be applied to:

    Swap Range

    Similar to the preceding one this FX produces synthetic sounds and works with ranges of a defineable length. But in difference to it, it uses pairs of them and swaps their positions in an audio stream.

    Parameters:
    Can be applied to:

    Time Range

    This FX delays the fall of and upswing of a waveforms flanks over a defineable amount of time in a defineable strength. Depending on the effects strength, the result is more or less similar to a superposition with a rectangle. The resulting audiodata also sound synthethic.

    Parameters:
    Can be applied to:

    Reverse

    This effect reverses the audiodata over time. So afterwards the sound is played backwards or - if the effect is used twice with the same audiodata - forward again.

    Parameters:
    Can be applied to:

    Reverse Mix

    This effect reverses the audiodata over time and mixes the resulting data with the source data. So afterwards it sounds like it is played backwards and forward at the same time.

    Parameters:
    Can be applied to:

    Pitch Resonance

    This is an very experimental effect wich can produce very different, strange and/or interesting results. It overlaps sampledata of an defineable frequency 90 degrees phase shiftet. This results in doubling of the defined frequency and all its whole-numbered multiples. For all frequencies beside the defined one different interferences occur.

    Parameters:
    Can be applied to:


    Modulation FX

    All effects in this section modulate existing waveforms in different ways.

    Amplitude

    The amplitude modulator is able to change the amplitude of a signal over time. It modulates the desired signal with different defineable and defineable changing frequencies at the same time. Depending on this frequencies very different results are possible. So with very low ones, some kind of dynamic fade-in and -out can be realized. With other deep frequencies some kind of vibrato is possible.

    Parameters:
    Can be applied to:


    Analyze 2D

    This function isn't a effect in the proper meaning of the word. It doesn't modifies the audiodata or creates new tracks out of the existing ones. This function analyzes the actual tracks or the marked area of them using FFT. The result will be displayed 2-dimensional and contains informations about the different frequencies of a signal and their levels. The frequencies can be seen on the X-axis in unit Hz and the levels of it on the y-axis using unit dB.

    The 2-dimensional analysis doesn't displays any information about the frequency-course and its levels over the time. To get this, the spectral analysis has to be used.

    The result of the Analyze 2D function will be displayed in the known standard analysis window.



    Generate Tones

    This also isn't a effect which changes existing audiodata. Instead of it this function creates a new track and synthesizes audiodata for it. Therefore it can't be found in menu "FX" but in menu "Project", menuitem "Generate", submenu "Tones".

    This function creates a track which contains a sound consisting of one or more defineable fixed or linear changing base-waveforms. Depending on the parameter settings this function already creates interesting sounds which can be used as instruments or sound-effects.

    Parameters:



    Generate Noise

    This also isn't a FX which can be used for editing and changing sounds. Therefore this function can't be found in menu "FX" but in menu "Project", menuitem "Generate", submenu "Noise".

    This function creates a new track and fills it with a defineable noise.

    Parameters:


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