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ANTARES Infinity user manual

1. To run Infinity the computer on which it runs needs to be authorized using a challenge response authorization technique The first time you launch this software you will be presented with a string of words the Challenge and will be asked to enter another string of words the Response Note When initially installed this software will run for ten days without authorization So even if you can t authorize it right away you can still use your software During this period click the Try It button whenever you are presented with the Trial Period screen at launch But don t procrastinate too long After those ten days are up you can t launch Infinity until you enter the correct Response CHALLENGE RESPONSE AUTHORIZATION You can obtain a Response via the Antares web site email or fax Web authorization an automated process is available 24 hours a day Email and fax authorization involve the participation of actual live people and depending on when you send your challenge may take from one to three days to provide a response For web authorization follow these directions Launch Infinity To access Challenge Response authorization press Next at the Trial Period screen to access the Challenge screen The Challenge screen displays the Challenge string To receive the appropriate Response you will need to provide us with both the Challenge string and the registration code that was included on the yellow card in your
2. 3 lt option gt option 67 68 CHANGING DISPLAY SCALING TO Double vertical display resolution Halve vertical display resolution Double horizontal display resolution Halve the horizontal display resolution Go to minimum vertical display resolution Go to maximum vertical display resolution Go to minimum horizontal display resolution Go to maximum horizontal display resolution Fit the current selection in the Mainview Full zoom to the loop start function Full zoom to the loop end function FILE COMMANDS TO Create a new soundfile Open an existing soundfile Close a window Save a soundfile update the backup file Get information about a soundfile Quit Infinity 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 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 KEY COMMAND 36 up arrow 3 down arrow 36 right arrow 36 left arrow option down arrow option up arrow gt lt option left arrow gt lt option right arrow gt 36 F lt option gt option KEY COMMAND 36 N 3 O 36 W 36 S 36 I 3 Q KEY COMMAND 36 X 36 C 36 V 36 B or lt delete gt 36 T 36 M 36 P 36 L A lt
3. 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 segment 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 includ ing a scalable looping display a non destructive audition feature fully adjustable crossfade parameters and an intelligent loop point scanning technology called Smart Auto Scan This section explains these features and their controls Crossfade Looper soundfile LOOPING DISPLAY AUTO SCAN ARROWS AUTO SCAN MATCHING VALUE Crossfade Length 2 100 6 Me Crossfade Taper la p mp Op Linear Equal Pwr O Audition Crossfade Ruto Scan Settings Do Crossfade Loop End Loop Start 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 41 42 ABOU
4. Process The Loop Segment Check this item if you wish to apply the Ro tated 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 process ing 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 merging 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 49 50 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 segment The number of test points that are tried during the search can be controlled using the Loop Start Test Points control Processing time in creases 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 th
5. controlled using the Loop Start Test Points control Processing time in creases 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 controls 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 segment It is variable from 0 to 100 of the attack duration A large crossfade 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 100 EQUAL POWER TAPER 0 LINEAR TAPER Linear taper should be used for editing simple periodic waveforms like solo instruments
6. Doit NOTE Sounds must be pre looped before using the Rotated Sums Looper Any clicks pops or other irregularities will 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 HOW IT WORKS In a crossfade loop all of the different frequencies in the sound make a transition 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 Su
7. Toreplace 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 Clipboard into one track evokes this dialog Fewer tracks are indicated than are in the clipboard Press OK to ignore eutra clipboard tracks 25 26 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 un changed The data to the right of the cleared region are moved to fill up the gap To clear data select the region to be cleared Then select Clear from the Edit menu The keyboard command equivalent is B or Delete 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 soundfile To clear unselected data select the region to be left unchanged Then choose Clear Unselected from the Edit menu The keyboard command equivalent is T CLEAR BEYOND LOOP END This option clears data after the loop MIX The Mix function combines the contents of the Clipboard with the soundfile d
8. Unselected or Paste the soundfile stores undo information to undo the edit You can go back to any document any time after it has been edited and do an undo The soundfile uses the new Clipboard or the undo information which ever is available to undo the edit e 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 previous Clipboard This has the effect of undoing the Clipboard as well as the soundfile edit You can go back to any document any time after it has had an undo and do a redo e 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 performed 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 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 To cut data select the data to be removed Then choose Cut from the Edit menu The keyboard command equivalent is 3 X COPY The C
9. ar PRESSING THE EF SPACE BAR Peer is ACTUATES THE Clear Unselected T enna JPL Clear Beyond Loop Min EM Invert Reverse Silence The shift option command 3 and control keys are called modifier keys They don t do anything by themselves but they can modify the next keystroke 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 23 and Using Momentary Zoom Mode on page 18 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 see page 67 TO EXECUTE DO THIS 36 X Hold down the Command key and press the x key Shift Option Press the Shift and Option keys at the same time 36 Shift Hold down the Shift and Command keys and press the key 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 Preferences dialog See Enable Undo on page 36 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 editing the data This section explains how to scroll the data change
10. 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 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 frequencies 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 the harmonic series frequencies to be determined by the loop data using the MIDI note as a guide This is accurate 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 background 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 output sidelobe width as a percentage of the fundamental frequency This percenta
11. come in two varieties PERIODIC WAVEFORM DIGIWAVE PERIODIC SOUNDS Sounds recorded monophonically which have stable tone loudness and pitch Examples are solo wind and brass instruments organ and so on NON PERIODIC WAVEFORM mE ened erent Le enger usd ener SOTT EPP 3 DELES TEL Rel Geen TER eee beer e er D ETOR PN ET Pr eens CO CIGIT nn VIOLIN SECTION NON PERIODIC SOUNDS Some examples of non periodic waveforms are instrumental ensembles like string sections brass sections choirs chorused 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 VIOLIN SECTION LEFT CHANNEL VIOLIN SECTION RIGHT CHANNEL 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 illustra tion be
12. 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 gel pl Blend Taper we Ug Linear Equal Pwr Lo 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 milliseconds 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 O 101220 muuseconos 007 i o scons Pas BLEND TIME 25 MILLISECONDS 33 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 The initial setting is O full linear The illustration below shows the effect of changing the Blend Taper control BLEND TAPER 100 EQUAL POWER BLEND TAPER 0 LINEAR Linear taper should be used for editing simple periodic waveforms like solo instruments Equal power taper should be used when editing complex non periodic waveforms like string sections or noise SAVING THE SOUNDFILE 34 SAVE Because Infinity uses disk based documents c
13. 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 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 message 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 frame count then the envelope file is recomputed automatically If the soundfile has been modified by some other sample editing program the envelope is consid ered 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 condition even though the envelope file may be stale BALLOON HELP IS AVAILABLE FOR EVERY ITEM IN INFINITY S USER INTERFACE SOME ITEMS HAVE GRAPHICS TO EXPLAIN COMPLEX PROCESSES BACKUP FILES If the Create Backup Files function in the Preferences dialog is enabled a backup file is created when a soundfile is
14. 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 Freeze Looper soundfile Pitch Control MIDI Note Q Pitch Detection Pre condition Data 100 p Crossfade Length 2 o e w p Crossfade Taper Laie T BS Linear Equal Pwr 45 46 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 soundfile 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 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
15. software package if you bought a retail package or supplied with your download To obtain your Response have your registration code and Challenge string at hand If you will be accessing the web from the same com puter that will be running your software you can press Copy Chal lenge at the Challenge screen and then simply paste the Challenge into the appropriate field on the web page below Point your web browser to https transactions antarestech com and simply follow the directions Be extremely careful to enter the registration code and Challenge string accurately If for some reason you do not have access to the web but do have email copy and paste your Challenge string and registration code into an email along with your name and the product name e g Infinity for MAS and send it to register antarestech com You will receive your Response string by return email If you do not have access to the web or email fax your Challenge string along with your registration code to us at 831 461 7801 Be sure to include your fax number We will fax the Response string back to you at that number Note You may optimize defragment the hard disk containing the Challenge Response authorization or even reinstall your system without losing the authorization However if you reformat the hard drive or if it fails contact Antares for the re authorization procedure you are a registered user right Chapter 1 Get
16. the magnification 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 scrolled both horizontally and vertically 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 Shift and the appropriate arrow key Scroll full left and center vertically Press the Home key CHANGING THE DISPLAY RESOLUTION E USING THE DISPLAY SCALE ICON ZI The display resolution of the Mainview can be changed by using the Display Scale icon on the Palette or the keyboard command equivalents To double the vertical display resolution click on the up arrow or press up arrow To halve the vertical display resolution click on the down arrow or press 3 down arrow To double the horizontal display resolution click on the right arrow or press right arrow Halve the horizontal display resolution click on the left arrow or press 38 left arrow Zoom to the extreme setting press Option and click on the appropriate arrow or press the appropriate arrow key PI 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 3 F USING ZOOM MODE IN THE OVERVIEW When a soundfile is o
17. tions 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 loop is deleted Loop points after the selection end point are moved forward 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 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 formats the sustain loop and the release loop Currently Infinity only deals with the sustain loop
18. with the leading blend region of the Clipboard and choose the smallest Similarly for the trailing blend time The Paste is then per formed with these new blend times Note that blending occurs outside of the original selection and outside of the Paste s selection 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 insertion 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 ADJUSTING THE BLEND PARAMETERS Infinity allows the length and taper of the
19. 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 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 pennies per inch verses distance you will plot a bell shaped curve This is technically described as a Normal Probability Density Function or Normal PDF If there were 100 oboes players each playing their version of A 440 together with or without vibratos the energy distribution of the fundamental 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 playing 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 playi
20. 26 Full Zoom Out 26 SPR Looper 51 Fundamental Hz 62 Synthesis Looper 55 G m Get Info 12 Mainview 9 18 21 Placing the Insertion Point 21 H Selection Mode 18 21 Hide Overview 26 Zoom Mode 18 Managing Loop Points 39 Loop Points and Clipboard 40 Loop Points During Edits 40 Loop Points In Other File Formats 41 Real Time Loop Adjust 39 Horizontal Annotation 37 Horizontal Scale Units 19 How To Loop A Sound 65 J Undo Loop Move 40 Installation ix Match Trial Points 43 Invert 27 37 Matching Threshold 43 Merge The Attack And Loop Segments K 49 53 59 Keyboard Command Equivalents 26 a Note 37 Keyboard Shortcuts 67 Mix 26 37 Changing Display Scaling 68 Mode Icons 10 Edit Commands 68 Selection Mode Icon 10 File Commands 68 Zoom Mode Icon 10 Looping Tools 69 Other 69 UN Palette 69 Normalize 28 Scrolling Data 67 O Overview 8 19 23 26 Hiding 19 Using Selection Mode 23 P Palette 10 15 69 Paste 25 26 Pitch Control Radio 46 Placing the Insertion Point 21 Playback Auto Reset 26 36 Pre condition Data 46 53 Process The Loop Segment 52 Process the Loop Segment 59 Process The Loop Segment 49 R Real Time Loop Adjust 1 39 Retain Noise checked 65 Reverse 27 37 Revert to Backup 35 37 Rotated Sums Looper 1 48 Crossfade Length 50 Crossfade Taper 51 How It Works 49 Loop Start Test Points 50 Merge The Attack And Loop Segments 49 Process The Loop Segment 49 Rotation Count 49 Soundfile Menu 49 R
21. 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 100 EQUAL POWER TAPER 0 LINEAR TAPER Linear taper should be used for editing simple periodic waveforms like solo instruments Equal power taper should be used when editing complex non periodic waveforms like string sections or noise THE SYNTHESIS LOOPER 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 widths 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 ensemble sound from a solo instrument sound This tool is designed for use on monaural sounds Stereo sounds can be processed howe
22. AT THE BEST SOUNDING POSITIONS IN THE SOUNDFIELD DATA NEAR THE LOOP END POINT IS TAPERED FADED OUT A SECTION OF DATA JUST BEFORE THE LOOP START POINT IS COPIED AND TAPERED FADED IN TO CREATE THE TRANSITION DATA SEGMENT THE TRANSITION DATA IS ADDED TO THE LOOP END DATA TO CREATE A SMOOTHER RETURN TO THE LOOP START ATTACK LOOP TAPER FUNCTION TAPERED DATA TRANSITION FUNCTION TRANSITION DATA REPOSITIONED TRANSITION e gt 0 110 120 30 40 50 60 70 TIME IN MILLISECONDS A B 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 hundreds of dollars While this saves time and effort even the best com mercial samples have audible loops 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 VIEW INDICATOR VERTI
23. CAL ANNOTATION TRACK DIVIDER MAINVIEW PLAYBACK POSITION POINTER HORIZONTAL ANNOTATION MIDI NOTE NUMBER 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 ZOOM BOX strings A 4 No Backup 25 000 50 000 75 000 100 000 dem GROW BOX LOOP POINT 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 command can be used in the File Menu See Create Backup Files on page 36 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 maximum 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 navigate around the soundfile easily In a stereo soundfile the left track is displayed above the rig
24. Designer II Digidesign Sound Designer II mono or stereo soundfile 4 Click on Save 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 CUSTOMIZING YOUR ENVIRONMENT 36 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 OBlending Blend ff Create Backup Files bd Playback Huto Heset Scroll After Playback BLENDING Checking this item enables the Blending function CREATE BACKUP FILES When this item is checked opening or saving a soundfile will create a temporary backup copy of the file This allows the Revert to Backup command in the File menu to be used 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 tim
25. Equal power taper should be used when editing complex non periodic waveforms like string sections or noise 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 Synthesis Looper Report window to be generated Synthesis Looper Report Soundfile brass A 3 Fundamental Hz 466 2 Amplitude Spectrum dB 5K 10K 15K Sidelobe Width Computed using MIDI note 5K 10K 15K 20K O Log scale 9 Linear scale 62 This window belongs to the soundfile The data in the window is com puted 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 soundfile to which this report belongs Remember though if you modified the soundfile after generating the report you will hear the new soundfile Fundamental Hz The Fundamental Hz number is the fundamental frequency It is computed using the MIDI Note number or the Pitch detec tion method selected when
26. Infinity DSP SAMPLE LOOPING TOOLS ye 30000 Owner s Manual 2002 Antares Audio Technologies All rights reserved All trademarks are the property of their respective owners Antares Audio Technologies 231 Technology Circle Scotts Valley California 95066 USA voice 831 461 7800 fax 831 461 7801 email info antarestech com web www antarestech com Rev 1 0rgb v3 18 11 2002 THE OBLIGATORY LEGAL MUMBO JUMBO The Antares Infinity software and this User s Manual are protected by copyright law Making copies adaptations or derivative works without the 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 its documentation Use of Infinity is limited by the following license agreement Please carefully read all the terms and conditions of this license agreement At the time of installation of the Infinity software you will be presented with a copy of the agreement and asked whether or not you agree to it Continuing with the installation process beyond that point constitutes such agreement INFINITY LICENSE AGREEMENT Antares Audio Technologies grants you a nontransferable nonexclusive license to use Infinity under the terms and conditions stated in this agree ment Use of Infinity indicates your agreement to the following terms and conditions
27. SK 10E 15E z k Notice how the Sidelobe Width 96 becomes flat above 12k Hz as was specified in the Sidelobe Width 96 of the Synthesis Looper tool With Retain Noise checked Amplitude Spectra dB m Irt K 10F 15K ZOE sidelobe Width Computed using pitch detection 0 SK 10E 15E z k 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 96 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 66 Next press the Report button On the report select Log scale and place your cursor precisely at the fundamental peak Check that the Fundamental 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 problems If you had checked MIDI Note you either specifie
28. T 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 controllable using the Auto Scan Settings dialog shown below pm o 4d autoldalapfautodd Loop End Loop Start 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 is a loop point which always creates good crossfade loops i e without unwanted phase cancellations of the major harmonics The illustration below shows the 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 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 resolu
29. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS 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 SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW LIMITATIONS ON HOW LONG AN IMPLIED 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 BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES INCLUDING LOSS OF DATA LOST PROFITS OR OTHER SPECIAL INCIDENTAL CONSE QUENTIAL OR INDIRECT DAMAGES ARISING FROM THE USE OF Infinity OR ACCOMPANYING MATERIALS THIS LIMITATION WILL APPLY EVEN IF ANTARES OR ITS AUTHORIZED AGENT HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBIL ITY OF SUCH DAMAGE YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THE LICENSE FEE REFLECTS THIS ALLOCATION OF RISK SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUEN TIAL DAMAGES SO THE ABOVE LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU Whew Now that that s over let s get on to the good stuff Contents Welcome Infinity Technical Support vii Installation and Authorization viii Chapter 1 Getting Started Infinity Features 1 Chapter 2 Introducing Infinity The Problem with Looping 4 Crossfade Loops 5 The Soundfile Window 7 The Palett
30. You may 1 Use Infinity on only one computer You may not 1 Make copies of Infinity or of the user manual in whole or in part except as expressly provided for in this agreement Your right to copy Infinity and the user manual is limited by copyright law Making copies verbal or media translations adaptations derivative works or telecommuni cation data transmission of Infinity without prior written authorization of Antares is prohibited by law and constitutes a punishable violation of the law 2 Make alteration or modifications to Infinity or any copy or disas semble or de compile Infinity or any copy or attempt to discover the source code of Infinity 3 Sublicense lease lend rent or grant other rights in all or any portion of Infinity or any copy to others TERM OF THE AGREEMENT This agreement is effective until terminated by you or Antares You may terminate the agreement at any time by notifying Antares 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 that are reasonably necessary to enforce the agreement plus resulting damages LIMITED WARRANTY AND DISCLAIMER INFINITY AND ACCOMPANYING MATERIALS ARE PROVIDED AS IS WITH OUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED
31. ack count 1 Sample rate 44100 Begin blend size End blend size Begin loop 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 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 with the Cut and Clear functions 1 Select a region of data 2 Choose either Cut or Clear from the Edit menu SELECTED REGION 3 D
32. ata are then zeroed 27 28 NORMALIZE The Normalize function increases the gain of a selected region until the largest sample in the region is at 100 amplitude Normalize insures the maximum signal to noise ratio from your sample playback instrument 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 R4 Change Gain db oe BY port The gain of the selected data can be changed by using the slider or by typing in the text box The range of the control is from 12 dB to 12db Clicking 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 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 control
33. ata 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 3 M There must be data in the Clipboard for the Mix function to be enabled You can mix into a selection or at an insertion point 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 insertion point After the insertion point all of the Clipboard is mixed even if this means extending the length of the soundfile 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 In blending duri
34. ata on both sides of the BLEND TAPER selection boundaries are tapered The remaining selected data are removed from the soundfile p 4 The data on the right are moved to close the gap and lt a are crossfaded with the data on the left BLEND TIME 32 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 INSERTION POINT 2 Select Paste from the Edit i EB AER 3 Data on either side of the insertion point is tapered CLIPBOARD DATA The data on the right are movedto create a gap to fit the Clipboard data 4 Clipboard data are tapered and crossfaded with the CLIPBOARD SELECTION SIZE soundfile data 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 Paste will similarly identify independent leading and trailing blend regions around the selection or insertion point Paste will then compare its leading blend region
35. ce how the sidelobe width increases approximately linearly with frequency Use the linear scale on a report of unprocessed loop data to help you establish what settings to use in the Synthesis Looper Sidelobe Width graph In this graph you can easily see that the harmonics have frequencies which are integer multiples of the fundamental frequency Also the Normal PDF distributions in energy show up as narrow concave downward hyperbola in Decibels verses linear frequency Notice how the higher frequency harmonics are wider These sidelobe widths are proportional to frequency 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 sidelobe Width 5 50 Computed using MICI 25 SK 10E 15E z k Normally the sidelobe widths do not exceed 3096 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 Amplitude Spectra dB 10 B 410 5K 10K 15K 20K Sidelobe Width 50 Computed using pitch detection 25
36. change the display resolu tion of the Mainview Fit Selection The Fit Selection icon fills the Mainview completely with the currently selected region Loop Points The Loop Points icon creates or deletes loop points in a soundfile Loop Start The Loop Start icon scrolls the Mainview so that the Loop Start point is in the center of the screen Loop End The Loop End icon scrolls the Mainview so that the Loop End point is in the center of the screen Information Soundfile strings 4 File Type Audio IFF Tracks 2 Duration 133 912 Sample Rate 44100 File Size S46K Begin Loop 23 5316 End Loop 108 300 Unused HD 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 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 DISK BASED FILES Unlike most Macin
37. ction Mode allows data to be selected in the display See Specifying Where to Change Sound Data on page 21 Zoom Mode Icon Zoom Mode allows specification of a region to be displayed in the Mainview See Specifying Where to Change Sound Data on page 17 M esa B mem SE 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 C This field displays the absolute time at the cursor location Amp This field displays the vertical location of the cursor s active pixel 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 Mainview this field reads Loop and displays the amount of data inside the loop When the cursor is in the Soundview 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 Speaker The Speaker icon is used to play the soundfile If a region is selected only that region will play Display Scale The Display Scale icon is used to
38. d the wrong note or the data is not tuned to A3 440Hz equal tempered scale Either re specify 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 96 graph Normally the sidelobe widths do not exceed 3096 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 96 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 Now the fun begins Select Retain Noise as desired Experiment by carefully adjusting the Sidelobe Width 96 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 that doesn
39. e Mode Icons 10 Status Display Action Icons 11 Get Info 12 Envelope Files 13 Chapter 3 The Basics of Infinity Basic Commands 15 Viewing the Soundfile 16 Changing the Display Resolution 17 Listening to the Soundfile 20 Editing the Soundfile 21 Editing Functions 24 Saving the Soundfile 34 Customizing Your Environment 36 Chapter 4 Looping Tools Managing Loop Points 39 The Crossfade Looper 41 The Freeze Looper 44 The Rotated Sums Looper 48 The SPR Looper 51 The Synthesis Looper 55 How To Loop a Sound 65 Appendix A Keyboard Shortcuts 67 Index 70 Welcome e at Antares Audio Technologies offer both our thanks and congratulations on your decision to purchase Infinity the world s best sample looping toolkit Before proceeding please register and authorize your copy of Infinity You can skip ahead a few pages to the Authorization and Installation instructions We ll wait Also if you plan to discard that lovely Infinity jewel case write down the serial number that appears on the back for future reference As a registered Infinity owner you ll receive notification of any software upgrades technical support and advance announcements of upcoming products But we can t send you stuff unless we know who and where you are So please register Note that we do not share this information with people who will pester you At Antares we are committed to excellence in quality customer service and technolog
40. e Q Pitch Detection Retained Noise ole w p Sidelobe Width 75 Left Point Freq x10 50 0 SK 10K 15K 20K Merge the Attack and Loop Segments Loop Start Test Points Crossfade Length 2 ao e w 9 Crossfade Taper pode Linear Equal Pwr Cai 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 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 several takes of processing the loop data without merging the loop with the attack This saves time and allows for selecting the best sounding loop
41. e Taper 60 How It Works 57 Loop Start Test Points 60 Merge The Attack And Loop Segments 59 Process the Loop Segment 59 Report 61 Sidelobe Width 59 Some Rules 57 Some Theory 56 Synthesis Looper Report Amplitude Spectrum dB 62 Fundamental Hz 62 Log Scale or Linear Scale 62 Retain Noise checked 65 Sidelobe Width 62 T Technical Support viii Tile Windows 26 Track divider lines 37 U Undoing A Command 26 Units 19 Using Selection Mode 21 23 Sy Vertical Annotation 37 Vertical Scale Units 19 26 Viewing The Soundfile 26 Ww Windows 19 Get Info 12 Mainview 9 Managing Multiple 19 Overview 8 Soundfile 7 Title Bar 8 L Zero crossing lines 37 Zoom Mode 17 18 26 Momentary 18 Zoom Mode Icon 10 73
42. e 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 corresponds 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 wave form editing environment The following section describes how to select data and use the editing tools to change it SPECIFYING WHERE TO CHANGE SOUND DATA The 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 in
43. e 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 soundfile will be permanent unless Undo is enabled PLAYBACK AUTO RESET If this item is checked playback will occur from the beginning of the soundfile 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 Mainview at high display resolutions 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 s Overview Ff Overview 3 HMainvieu kA Mainview Horizontal Scale Units Samples ok To display the dotted zero crossing lines check the box next to Over view or Mainview To display track divider lines check the box next to Overview or Mainvie
44. ects 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 Manager 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 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 USING THE SPEAKER ICON The soundfile can be played by clicking on the Speaker 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 The selection contains both loop points Th
45. eir ambience and dimen sionality 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 freezing 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 automati 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 working 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 profes sionals using other programs For professionals Infinity provides a level of quality speed and ease of use inapproachable by any other sample editor HOW TO USE THIS MANUAL Infinity has a transparent user interface has excellent Balloon Help and is extraordinarily easy to use H
46. en checked this item places solid lines between the tracks in the Overview and Mainview VERTICAL SCALE UNITS This item allows either percentage of full scale or sample value to be displayed on the Vertical Annotation in the Mainview and the Status Display Area of the Palette 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 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 20 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 conn
47. en 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 segment It is variable from 0 to 100 of the attack duration A large crossfade 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 LR THE SPR 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 100 EQUAL POWER TAPER 0 LINEAR TAPER Linear taper should be used for editing simple periodic waveforms like solo instruments Equal power taper should be used when editing complex non periodic waveforms like string sections or noise The SPR Loo
48. ended 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 100 EQUAL POWER TAPER 0 LINEAR TAPER Linear taper should be used for editing simple periodic waveforms like solo instruments Equal power taper should be used when editing complex non periodic waveforms like string sections or noise Do It Clicking on the Do It command button executes the Freeze looping process Pressing esc or command period terminates the process 47 THE ROTATED SUMS LOOPER 48 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 Rotated Sums Looper Soundfile gt Process the Loop Segment Rotation Count gem D J Merge the Attack and Loop Segments Loop Start Test Points 46 4 p Crossfade Length 2 354 p Crossfade Taper de Linear Equal Pwr Use this tool on pre looped soundfiles only
49. ents 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 100 EQUAL POWER TAPER 0 LINEAR TAPER Linear taper should be used for editing simple periodic waveforms like solo instruments Equal power taper should be used when editing complex non periodic waveforms like string sections or noise 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 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 The Freeze Looper is an automatic looping algorithm that creates a perfectly 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 con tinuous uniform loop If the Freeze Looper is used on a more comp
50. feature described below 39 40 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 previous 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 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 clipboard 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 dis played 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 clipboard 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 Unselected The loop points are never moved for Silence and Invert opera
51. g clipping in the fade from 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 undesirable 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 normally occurs in phase with the rest of the waveform is distributed randomly 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 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 SPR process is run It is sometimes desirable to disable the attack loop merge phase of the process and do several 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
52. ge 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 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 96 Merge The Attack And Loop Segments Checking this item enables the second phase of the looping process merging 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 59 60 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 segment The number of test points that are tried during the search can be
53. hanges 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 Carillon 1 EPS before closing Save changes to the Infinity document 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 useful to make a series of samples for later comparison To use the Save a Copy command 1 Choose Save a Copy from the File menu The Save a Copy dialog box appears Audio Files gt c Macintosh HD OG envelope Files Eject E F2 ASaz 02L F2 ASa2_02 R 3 F2 Ionped AIFF 1 1 New Cj F2 Iooped AIFF I R Save soundille as Strings with SPR LOOP CQ Audio IFF Q sound Designer Audio IFE Sound Designer il 2 Type a new file name in the Save Soundfile As text box 3 Choose a file format from the four options listed USE THIS FORMAT TO SAVE AS A Audio IFF Apple Audio Interchange File Format document Audio IFC Apple Audio Interchange File Format C document Sound Designer Digidesign Sound Designer mono soundfile Sound
54. he part of the soundfile shown in the view indicator in the Overview When a file is opened the Mainview initially displays 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 18 The data in the Mainview can be scrolled using several methods See Scrolling the Data File on page 16 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 channel These choices are made in the Preferences Dialog 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 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 the Edit menu or by clicking on the Loop Points Icon on the Palette The Loop Points ca
55. ht track Data can be chosen for display in the Mainview by using the view indicator described below Data can also be selected in the Overview by placing it in the Selection Mode using the Palette See Using Selection Mode in the Overview on page 23 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 17 PLAYBACK POSITION POINTER The Playback Position Pointer appears in both the Overview and the Mainview 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 occurring 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 waveform in the Mainview The units displayed are either percent 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 t
56. ical innovation With your purchase of Infinity you have created a relationship with Antares which we hope will be long and gratifying Let us know what you think You can count on us to listen Again thanks The Whole Antares Crew Technical Support n the unlikely event that you experience a problem using Infinity try the following 1 Make another quick scan through this manual Who knows You may have stumbled onto some feature that you didn t notice the first time through N Check our web page for tips techniques or any late breaking information http www antarestech com 3 Call your local Antares dealer 4 Email our tech support department by pointing your web browser to http www antarestech com support etech shtml and filling in the form there 5 Call us at 831 461 7814 Monday through Friday between 10am and 5pm USA Pacific Standard Time or leave a message any time and we ll get back to you For options 3 4 or 5 please be prepared to provide the Registration Code of your copy of Infinity viii Installation and Authorization INSTALLING INFINITY To install Infinity simply copy the Infinity installer to your hard drive double click the installer and follow the resulting directions If you have purchased Infinity as a download decompress the downloaded file and double click the installer In either case be sure to read the Read Me file for any late breaking news AUTHORIZING INFINITY
57. ion 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 generator 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 generated 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 proportionately with the harmonic index 1 2 3 etc These two players playing 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
58. lex sound the resulting loop will sound very different from the original The crossfade used in the Freeze Looper is different from a normal crossfade 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 modification of the attack segment occurs every time a Freeze Loop is created 44 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 Number 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 will be scaled
59. low 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 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 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 Used with 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 compared to what can be achieved by Infinity s unique DSP tools LOOP START AND END POINTS ARE PLACED
60. ms Looper creates a seamless loop by adding together many random 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 several 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 processing phase Soundfile Menu This menu has the same function as in the other loopers
61. n also be dragged from the first click inside the Mainview To put the Mainview back into Selection Mode 1 Click on the Selection Mode icon in the Palette The icon begins to blink and the message Choose a Window for Selection Mode appears in the Status Display area of the Palette 2 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 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 cursor 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 combination 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 Wh
62. n be deleted by clicking on the Loop Points Icon or by selecting the Delete Loop Points item in the Edit Menu GROW BOX Dragging the grow box allows you to resize the window THE PALETTE MODE ICONS STATUS DISPLAY ACTION 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 e Mode Icons Status Display Action Icons Arrow keys scroll data sOpt gt sarkow gt for full zoom space 3 The area in the middle of the Palette is the Status Display It is used for verbal 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 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 Selection Mode and the Overview 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 18 and Using Selection Mode in the Overview on page 23 for instructions on changing the mode of a display The mode icons are Selection Mode Icon Sele
63. n 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 frequencies You could also in the extremes make a soloist into an en semble or an ensemble into a soloist You can view the Synthesis Looper window by selecting it from the Looping 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 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 checkboxes Process the Loop Segment and Merge the Attack and Loop Segments 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 57 Synthesis Looper Soundfile 4 Process the Loop Segment Pitch Control amp MIDI Not
64. ng in octaves and we get the following rules Rule 01 An ensemble composed of instruments playing the same note or notes in octaves will form an energy distribution as a function of frequency having energy at the fundamental frequency and integer multiples of the fundamental frequency Rule 02 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 e Rule 03 Each harmonic will have an energy distribution at its respec tive 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 authors 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 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 I
65. ng 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 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 insertion 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 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 Toreverse 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 To silence soundfile data select the region to be silenced Choose Silence from the Edit menu The sample values of the selected d
66. 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 BALLOON HELP Infinity incorporates on line help using the Balloon Help feature Choose Show Balloons in the menu to turn on Balloon Help ti Crossfade Looper 5oundfile C CET JC 222 2 NN e Lose End Loco Stat sfade Length 2k 28 EEE Deiari Loreyth 8E segreto data from the altack i crogpgfaded into dila M the end of Wa kep Thit creed gradual bration at fe end of Ga Kop do tek poured t Hae bain ing The Credifede Letih 2 control de brennen Pee arripiunt gf He g bedt ping mend pron that amp r crags aded whichever Ex anit Chapter 3 The Basics of Infinity his chapter introduces you to the basic functions of Infinity We recommend lt that you read it through once and then refer to it as needed while becom ing 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 shift entri Undo aee PPS WILL TEMPORARILY i opt shift Undo Loop Move PUT INFINITY INTO L GE GE SELECTION MODE arrow keys scroll data Lut ge Opt gt zarrow gt for full zoom Copy C Paste ag Li space oF
67. ops 5 Crossfade Taper 44 47 51 54 60 Customizing Your Environment 36 Blending 36 Create Backup Files 36 Playback Auto Reset 36 Scroll After Playback 37 Soundfile Window 37 Cut 24 26 D Disk Based Files 12 13 Display Scale 11 Display Scale Icon 17 26 Do It 47 Edit Blend Settings dialog 37 Edit Blending 31 37 Edit Commands 68 Editing Functions 24 26 Adjusting Blend Parameters 33 Auto Zero 30 Change Gain 28 Clear 26 Clear Beyon Loop End 26 Clear Unselected 26 Copy 25 Create Delete Loop Points 28 Cut 24 Edit Blending 31 Invert 27 Locating Loop Points 29 Loop the Selection 29 Mix 26 Normalize 28 Paste 25 Reverse 27 Set MIDI Note 29 Show Clipboard 30 Silence 27 Editing the Soundfile 26 L Enable Clipboard 37 Enable Undo 37 Envelope Files 13 License Agreement iii Listening to The Soundfile 26 Locating Loop Points 29 Log Scale or Linear Scale 62 d Loop End 11 File Commands 68 Loop Points 11 Fit Selection 11 Loop Points In Other File Formats 41 Fit Selection Icon 17 Loop Points locating 37 Fit Selection icon 26 Loop Start 11 Freeze Looper 2 29 44 Loop Start Test Points 50 54 60 Crossfade Length 47 Loop the Selection 29 Crossfade Taper 47 Looping 4 Do It 47 Looping Display 42 Looping Tools 39 69 Crossfade Looper 41 Freeze Looper 44 Managing Loop Points 39 Rotated Sums Looper 48 How It Works 45 Pitch Control Radio 46 Pre condition Data 46 Soundfile Menu 46 Full Zoom In
68. option gt drag 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 Create or delete loop points Scroll the Mainview to the loop start Scroll the Mainview to the loop end Fit the current selection in the Mainview OTHER To cancel playback and many processing operations KEY COMMAND 3 1 3 2 3 3 3 4 KEY COMMAND lt control shift gt lt shift option gt lt space bar gt 38 P 3 3 38 F esc or period 69 Index Symbols Retain Noise 59 A Action Icons 11 Display Scale 11 Fit Selection 11 Loop End 11 Loop Points 11 Loop Start 11 Speaker 11 Adjusting Blend Parameters 33 Amplitude Spectrum dB 62 Antares Audio Technologies ii Audio IFF 37 Authorization ix Auto Scan Arrows 42 Auto Scan Matching Value 43 Auto Zero 30 37 Backup Files 14 Blend Parameters 37 Blend Taper 37 Blend Time 37 Blending 36 e Change Gain 28 Changing Display Scaling 68 Changing The Display Resolution 17 26 Clear 26 Clear Beyond Loop End 26 Clear Unselected 26 Clipboard 37 Copy 25 26 Create Backup Files 36 37 Create Delete Loop Points 28 Crossfade 33 70 Crossfade Length 47 50 54 60 Crossfade Length 96 43 Crossfade Looper 2 41 Crossfade Lo
69. opy 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 To copy data select the region to be copied Then select Copy from the Edit menu The keyboard command equivalent is 3 C PASTE The Paste function inserts data from the Clipboard into the 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 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 insertion 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 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
70. otation Count 49 S Save 37 Save A Copy 34 37 Scales 19 Scroll After Playback 26 37 Scrolling The Soundfile Data 26 scrolling the soundfile data 26 Selecting Data 22 26 Selection Mode 18 26 Momentary 23 Selection Mode Icon 10 Selection Mode In The Mainview 26 72 Selection Mode In The Overview 26 Selection Mode momentary 26 Separators 19 Set MIDI Note 29 Show Clipboard 30 37 Show Overview 26 Show Track Dividers 19 26 Show Zero Crossing 19 26 Sidelobe Width 59 61 62 Silence 27 37 Smart Auto Scan 2 39 42 Arrows 42 Crossfade Length 43 Crossfade Taper 44 Looping Display 42 Match Trial Points 43 Match Trial Points 43 Matching Threshold 43 Matching Value 43 Settings 43 Soundfile Menu 42 Sound Designer 37 Sound Designer II 37 Sound Playback 26 Soundfile 7 13 16 20 21 34 Editing 21 Listening to 20 Revert to Backup 35 Save A Copy 34 Saving 34 Specifying where to change sound data 21 Viewing 16 Soundfile Menu 42 46 49 52 Soundfile window 7 Speaker 11 Speaker Icon 20 26 Spectral Phase Randomization 51 SPR Looper 1 51 Crossfade Length 54 Crossfade Taper 54 How It Works 52 Loop Start Test Points 54 Merge The Attack And Loop Segments 53 Performance Note 52 Pre condition Data 53 Process The Loop Segment 52 Soundfile Menu 52 Stack Windows 26 Status Display 11 Synthesis Looper 1 55 61 65 Retain Noise 59 Commentary 55 Crossfade Length 60 Crossfad
71. owever the operation of the DSP Looping Tools and some functions of the user interface will not be immediately obvious because they do things which have never been done before We recommend that you read the following sections of the manual to take full advantage of the quality and speed that Infinity makes possible The Infinity Environment on page 7 Viewing the Soundfile on page 16 Editing the Soundfile on page 21 Saving the Soundfile on page 34 e Customizing Your Environment on page 36 Chapter 4 Infinity Looping Tools on page 39 THE CONTENTS OF THE MANUAL Chapter 1 Getting Started This chapter explains everything about starting Infinity and communicating with Antares Audio Technologies 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 ex plained with emphasis on the anatomy of the Palette and the Soundfile Window Chapter 3 The Basics of Infinity Infinity Basics explains how to perform all the basic functions in manipulat ing and editing a soundfile The topics covered are basic commands and editing functions changing the display resolution viewing listening to editing and saving the soundfile and customizing the Infinity environment Chapter 4 Infinity Looping Tools This chapter contains detailed in
72. pened 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 display To chose an area of the soundfile for viewing in the Mainview 1 Move the cursor into the Overview display 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 Mainview now displays the selected area USING ZOOM MODE IN THE MAINVIEW The view indicator can be used directly in the Mainview itself by placing the Mainview in Zoom Mode To put the Mainview in 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 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 ca
73. per uses a patented process which randomizes the phase of each spectral component in the loop SPR means Spectral Phase Randomiza tion 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 SPR Looper Soundfile EJ Process the Loop Segment Pre condition Data ae Pl Merge the Attack and Loop Segments Loop Start Test Points Crossfade Length Crossfade Taper de Linear Equal Pwr 52 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 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 gettin
74. plays the following dialog Soundfile strings A 4 MIDI Note Number n 4 EM p ox 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 e 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 29 POSITIVE GOING e ZERO CROSSING AUTO ZERO When this item is checked in the Edit menu Infinity constrains the bound aries of selected regions to positive going zero crossings in the sample 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 Mono Strings No Backup 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 Clipboard Source sound file brass A 3 Selection size 10 121 Tr
75. r 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 shift option 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 is pressed When the key combination is released all displays go back to their previous modes 23 USING THE EDITING FUNCTIONS 24 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 31 for the details of how this feature effects the edit functions All of the functions described below can be reversed using the Undo command in the Edit menu provided that Undo is enabled in the Prefer ences dialog See Customizing Your Environment on page 36 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 The soundfile stores the new Clipboard as its new Clipboard For a Clear Clear
76. 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 This will force the harmonic series energy distribution and output tuning to be determined using the MIDI Note number of the sample and the standard 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 compo nents 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 vf ox LOOP DATA AMPLITUDE AS A FUNCTION OF PRE CONDITION DATA PERCENTAGE 25 100 Crossfade Length This control sets the amount of the loop that is blended with the attack segment It is variable from 0 to 100 of the attack duration A large crossfade length will cause the attack to slowly blend into the loop sound A smaller crossfade length will create a quick but bl
77. s Click OK to process the data Changing Gain can be undone CREATE DELETE LOOP POINTS The Loop Points icon adds loop points to a file or deletes them from a file which has them 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 key board command equivalent is 3 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 To center the Mainview on the loop start point click on the Loop Start icon The keyboard command equivalent is 38 Shift Tocenter 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 SET MIDI NOTE Choosing this item from the Edit menu or clicking on the MIDI Note Number in the soundfile window dis
78. sertion 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 using the I beam cursor It marks the place where data will be inserted or a boundary of a region to be selected TO DO THIS Place the insertion point Click once in the Mainview at the desired location In a stereo soundfile the insertion point appears in both tracks Place it in only one track Hold down the Option key and click at the desired location Extend it to the other track Hold down the Control key and click in the other track Click again to remove it 21 22 SELECTING DATA 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 displayed in the Mainview TO Select a region in one track Select a region in both tracks Lengthen the selection Shorten the selection Extend selection to the other track Select a whole track Select all the data in the soundfile Select data inside the loop points Deselect a region DO THIS Drag through the region or Optionclick at the start then Shift click at the end Drag across the two tracks or click at the start of the region then Shift click in the o
79. structions on how to use the looping tools We recommend this chapter as must reading for everyone Appendix A Keyboard Equivalent Commands This appendix contains a list of all the keyboard equivalent commands and shortcuts that can be used with Infinity Chapter 2 Introducing Infinity amplers and sample players have 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 stan dard 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 periodic waveform But this type of sound is only a small subset of the sounds used in music making Sustained sounds
80. 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 unprec edented control of the of the result Appendix A Keyboard Shortcuts PRESSING SHIFT OPTION WILL TEMPORARILY PUT INFINITY INTO SELECTION MODE PRESSING THE SPACE BAR ACTUATES THE SPEAKER ICON shift entr opt zhift Arrow keys scroll data Opt gt arrow for full zoom space 38 SCROLLING DATA TO Scroll Mainview to the right Scroll Mainview to the left Scroll Mainview up Scroll Mainview down Scroll right by one windowful Scroll left by one windowful Scroll up by one windowful Scroll down by one windowful Scroll full left and center Scroll Mainview to the loop start Scroll Mainview to the loop end Full zoom to loop start function Full zoom to loop end function 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 shift 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 KEY COMMAND right arrow left arrow up arrow down arrow lt shift right arrow shift left arrow shift up arrow lt shift down arrow home 36
81. 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 Pre condition Data The Freeze Looper and the SPR Looper both use the Pre condition Data feature 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 show up in the finished loop T ox LOOP DATA AMPLITUDE AS A FUNCTION OF PRE CONDITION DATA PERCENTAGE 25 100 Merge The Attack And Loop Segments Checking this item enables the second phase of the looping process merging the loop segment with the attack segment of the sample Enable this part of the process onl
82. ther track at the end Point at the new start or end and Shift click You can then drag to a different endpoint Point near the current end Shift click then drag to a different endpoint Hold down the Control 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 38 A from the Edit menu Double click in one track and drag to the other or Shift double click in the other track or place the insertion point in both tracks and choose Select All from the Edit menu Choose Select Loop from the Edit menu Place an insertion point anywhere USING SELECTION MODE IN THE OVERVIEW Data can also be selected in the Overview by placing the Overview in Selection 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 Selection 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 Overview 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 fo
83. ting Started magine 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 sound file during real time playback SYNTHESIS LOOPER 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 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 cymbal rolls and so on Stereo samples retain th
84. tion 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 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 one 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 original 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 A
85. tosh applications which store their open files in RAM Infinity uses disk based files Changes made to the soundfile are automati cally written to the disk when the change is made Soundfiles however 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 Folder 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 circumstance 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
86. uto Scan Settings Clicking on the Auto Scan Settings command button will bring up the dialog shown below Ruto Scan Settings Matching Threshold 49e Tw p Match Trial Points 200e pl Cm 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 closer 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 soundfile 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 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 43 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 transition between the attack and loop segm
87. ver the phase relationships that determine stereo position ing will be lost The resulting stereo sound will have a random phase relationship 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 However 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 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 55 56 SOME THEORY Temporal variat
88. w To change the units on the Horizontal Annotation use the pop up menu See the reference section for more information about these options Chapter 4 Looping Tools he 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 playback 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 Annotation The loop points can be dragged over each other The loop point which is on the left then becomes the Loop Start To move both loop points simultaneously while preserving the loop length press the Option key 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 A more precise way to set the loop points is to use the Smart Auto Scan
89. y 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 segment The number of test points that are tried during the search can be controlled using the Loop Start Test Points control Processing time in creases 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 53 54 Loop Start Test Points This controls 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 segment It is variable from 0 to 100 of the attack duration A large crossfade 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
90. you pressed Report Amplitude Spectrum dB 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 Sidelobe Width 96 The Sidelobe Width 96 graph shows the sidelobe width computed from the loop as a percentage of the fundamental frequency The scale presented is the same as the Sidelobe Width 96 input graph in the tool This sidelobe width is computed for the fundamental and each harmonic as the standard 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 96 graphs you can view the coordinates of the cursor location on the Status Display Area palette window Log Scale or Linear Scale At the bottom of the report are radio buttons labeled Log Scale and Linear 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 frequency 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 Noti

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