VoxPro 4.1 User Guide

G. The Edit View, or waveform display, depicts the audio data around the current file position, which is marked by the vertical red cue line in the center.

H. The Clock Bar contains two timers: a count-up timer showing the current position, and a count-down timer showing the time remaining to the end of the file. Tick marks along the top of the clock bar are spaced at one-second increments (1/100 second in zoom mode).

I. The Master Button provides access to the original, unedited, version of the current file.

J. The File List (a.k.a. Edit List, File Window, Edit Window) displays the contents of the current folder (as indicated in the Title Bar). Click on the column headers to sort by name, length, date, etc.

K. The Headroom Slider changes the scale of the vertical dimension of the Edit View, and thus acts as a zoom.

L. The VU Meters display peak output in dB below full scale, integrated 30 times per second. Technically speaking, these are Peak Program Meters, not VU meters, but we’ll fudge the terminology for the sake of common understanding.

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Basic Concepts

User Accounts

VoxPro facilitates work and collaboration in a shared environment by providing individual users with private, password-protected spaces called user accounts. When VoxPro is first installed, two user accounts are created automatically: a Guest account, which anyone can use, but which has limited capabilities; and the special Administrator account, which is used to manage VoxPro under the hood, and to create normal user accounts. Unless you purchased VoxPro for your own personal use (in which case you would probably always login as the Administrator), we highly recommend that a separate account be created for every VoxPro user.

Advantages to separate user accounts are numerous. Access to files and folders will be faster than if all the users are sharing one account. Users can customize many features of the VoxPro interface to their own liking, and maintain their work in private folders not accessible by others. Collaboration between users on a team (a jock and a producer, for example) is nonetheless enabled by any of several techniques:

The administrator may create an account which is shared by all members of the team, into which they may all login simultaneously.
Team members can ask the administrator to grant mutual access rights to individual team members' accounts, making it possible for team members to access each other's folders through the main Folders menu.
Any user may copy a file (or multiple files) to any other user at any time.

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Passwords

When a user account is first created it has no password. (This holds for the administrator's account as well.) A password for an account may be set at any time through the Settings/Change Password menu. Passwords are case-sensitive. You may "unset" your password by changing it to be the same as your user name. This once again disables the password field in the login window, and allows anyone to access your account. The administrator's password can be used to login to any password-protected account, or to change any user's password. It is not possible to assign a password to the Guest account.

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Files and Folders

All work in VoxPro is kept in files, which are organized into Folders. Every user can create his/her own folders, and move amongst them at will. If you ever forget who and where you are, just check the title-bar at the very top of the main VoxPro window, which displays both the current user and the active folder.

We often use the word Edit interchangeably with the word File. You might think of an Edit as a state of being, and the File as the thing itself. The edit is the current manifestation of the file, the sum total of all editing and effects operations on the file to date. The term edit is also useful as a distinction from the Master, which is the original manifestation of the file, before performing any edits or applying any effects . At one time in VoxPro's history, Edits and Masters were separate and distinct files, but now they are simply different views of the same file.

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Recording

The Usual Method

The normal Record function always records to a new file; it never overwrites an existing file. To start recording, use any of these methods:

Press the Record button on the control panel.
Press the R key.
Select the File/New Edit menu.

To stop recording, use any of these methods:

Press the Record button on the control panel .
Press the Stop button on the control panel .
Press the R key.
Press the spacebar.

After the recording is stopped, you are given an opportunity to name the file, or to accept a default name (“Untitled”). You may also rename a file at any time.

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Insert-Recording

The Insert-Record function allows you to record into the current active file, starting at the cue line. To start insert-recording, use either of these methods:

Press the Insert Rec button on the control panel .
Press the I key.

To stop insert-recording, use any of these methods:

Press the Insert Rec button on the control panel .
Press the I key.
Press the spacebar.

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Cancelled Recordings

Recordings and insert-recording may also be cancelled rather than stopped, by either of these methods:

Press the cancel key on the control panel.
Press the escape key on the keyboard.

For safety, cancelled recordings are not deleted but placed instead in the Deleted Files folder (see the discussion below on Files and Folders), with the default name "Untitled". Cancelled insert-recordings, however, are deleted immediately and cannot be recalled.

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Automatic Gain Control (AGC)

If properly configured, AGC can improve the quality of your recordings by automatically boosting the volume of quiet signals and reducing the volume of overly loud signals, during the recording process itself. AGC must be enabled by the administrator (see discussion in Part II of this guide), but once it is enabled it is used by default whenever you record. You may verify its operation by noticing the yellow "AGC Enabled" indicator that appears in the lower left corner of the waveform view while recording.

Sometimes AGC is not desirable during a recording (for example, in music or any other situation where differences between loud and soft are used for effect). To disable AGC, simply switch it off using the Settings/Automatic Gain Control menu. It will remain disabled until you re-enable it, or until the next time you login.

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Mono Mix

Users may choose to record two-channel input as a mono mix, in which case the independent signals in each channel are mixed (after a 6dB attenuation) and presented in both channels simultaneously. Mono Mix recording is enabled from the Settings menu. Files which are imported are not mixed in this manner.

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Playing

Play and Stop

There are three "flavors" of the playback function:

Play from cue (i.e. play from current position).
Play from beginning.
Play selection (selection is discussed below, under Editing).

To play from cue, use either of these methods:

Press the Play button on the control panel.
Press the spacebar.

To play from beginning, use either of these methods:

Press the Play Beg button on the control panel.
Press the P key.

To play the highlighted selection, use either of these methods:

Press the Play Sel button on the control panel.
Press the S key.

To stop playing, use any of these methods:

Press the Stop button on the control panel.
Press the Play button on the control panel.
Press the spacebar.

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Playback Direction and Output Options

Playback direction (left to right, or right to left) is an individual preference which you can set from the Settings/Play Direction menu.

Playback options are available from the Settings/Play Options menu, and affect how the audio signal is presented to your audio hardware (soundcard) for playback. Playback options apply only to 2-channel files. The VoxPro administrator's playback option is the default setting for all normal users, but users may override the setting on a per-session basis (meaning that you can change it at will, but the next time you log in it will be set back to the administrator's setting). The playback options allow you to play the file as is (that is, with discrete left and right channels), to produce a mono mix on the fly (the -6dB option ensures no clipping), or even to play just the left or just the right channel.

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Scrubbing

The Scrub Keys

Scrubbing is a term used to describe forward or reverse playback, at any speed, for the purpose of locating an edit point. The scrub controls are quite versatile and can be customized to your own personal taste.

Fast-forward/rewind is triggered by either of these methods:

Press and hold the double left arrow/right arrow buttons on the control panel.
Press and hold the left arrow/right arrow keys on the keyboard.

Normal speed forward/reverse is triggered by either of these methods:

Press and hold the single left arrow/right arrow buttons on the control panel.
With the shift key held down, press and hold the left arrow/right arrow keys on the keyboard.

Slow speed forward/reverse is triggered by either of these methods:

Press and hold the small left arrow/right arrow buttons on the control panel.
With the control key held down, press and hold the left arrow/right arrow keys on the keyboard.

The fast-forward/fast rewind controls may operate in either a one-phase or two-phase mode. In one-phase mode, fast-forward/rewind cause the waveform to scroll left or right silently, without actually playing any sound. In two-phase mode, fast-forward/rewind is initially audible, but then enters the silent (and potentially much faster) phase after a pre-determined span of time. To customize these modes, select the Settings/Scrub menu. In the window that pops up, the top slider controls the scrub speed used in one-phase mode and in the second (silent) phase of two-phase mode. Two-phase mode (audible scrub) is enabled with the "first part of scrub is audible" option, and the time span of the audible first phase is set with the second slider.

Note that you can also drop in and out of scrub mode while playing: for example, you can hold down the normal speed forward (single right arrow) button on the control panel while pressing and releasing the fast forward (or reverse) button. This moves you quickly around the file, while allowing you to intermittently confirm your location.

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Other Ways to Get Around

In addition to the scrub keys, there are other ways to move around within a file:

Spin the jog wheel on the control panel.
Press the go to left ()) and go to right (*) buttons on the control panel.
Press the home and end keys on the keyboard.
Mouse click in the timeline above the waveform view.
Mouse click-drag on the position indicator in the timeline above the waveform view.
With the control key on the keyboard held down, click-drag in the waveform view (see the Settings/Scrub menu for an option to perform this action without the control key).

On some older control panel models, you can also:

Rock the shuttle ring around the jog wheel.
Press the Goto Beg button.
Press the Goto Beg button with the Option button held down (for Goto End).

Note that there is also an option to remap the Edit/Master button on older control panels so that it functions as Go to End. This option is available from the Settings/Control Panel menu.

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Editing

Making a Selection

The basic editing operations cut, copy and delete are performed on selected (highlighted) portions of the waveform. The paste operation takes place at the cue line.

To select a portion of the audio waveform, use any of these methods:

Click and drag the mouse in the waveform view (depending on which option you have selected in the Settings/Scrub menu, you may have to hold down the control key on the keyboard while performing this action).
Press the Mark Left and Mark Right buttons on the control panel to place the left or right selection boundary at the cue line.
Press the [ and ] keys on the keyboard to place the left or right selection boundary at the cue line.

To extend (or contract) an existing selected region, use any of these methods:

Click the right mouse button (right-click) in the waveform view.
Scroll the waveform so that the desired new boundary is under the cue line, and press the Mark Left or Mark Right button on the control panel.
Scroll the waveform so that the desired new boundary is under the cue line, and press the [ or ] keys on the keyboard.

To select the entire file, use either of these methods:

Choose Select All from the main Edit menu.
Press the A key on the keyboard (control +A also works).

To unselect an existing selected region, use any of these methods:

Choose Deselect from the main Edit menu.
Press the Deselect button on the control panel.
Press the K key on the keyboard (control +K also works).

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Basic Editing Operations

The copy operation is used to copy the selected region of the audio waveform in order that it may then be pasted into the same file at another location, or into a different file altogether. To copy a selection, use any of these methods:

Choose Copy from the main Edit menu.
Press the Copy button on the control panel.
Press the C key on the keyboard (control +C also works).

The delete operation removes the selected region of the audio waveform. To delete the selection, use any of these methods:

Choose Delete from the main Edit menu.
Press the Delete button on the control panel.
Press the Delete key on the keyboard.

The cut operation is actually a combination of copy followed by delete. In other words, a cut selection can then be pasted elsewhere. To perform the cut operation, use any of these methods:

Choose Cut from the main Edit menu.
Press the Cut button on the control panel.
Press the X key on the keyboard (control +X also works).

The paste operation inserts the last copied (or cut) selection into the current file starting at the cue line. To paste a copied region, use any of these methods:

Choose Paste from the main Edit menu.
Press the Paste button on the control panel.
Press the V key on the keyboard (control +V also works).

Note that when pasting audio from one file to another, you must use the Copy/Paste combination. The Cut/Paste combination only works within a single file.

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Undo/Redo

You may undo the last edit operation with any of these methods:

Choose Undo from the main Edit menu.
Press the Undo button on the control panel.
Press the Z key on the keyboard (control +Z also works).

You may change your mind and undo the undo with any of these methods:

Choose Redo from the main Edit menu.
While holding down the option button, press the Undo button on the control panel.
Press the Y key on the keyboard (control +Y also works).

Note that the Undo and Redo operations may be applied repeatedly, allowing you to undo all editing operations back to your original recording, and then to reapply them all again in sequence.

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Master Mode

Master mode allows you to temporarily return a file to its pristine, un-edited state. It is equivalent to "undoing" a file all the way back to its original condition, except that no editing or effects operations other than Copy are allowed in Master mode. Thus, Master mode allows you to return to your "master" and fetch a segment of the file that you may have subsequently edited out. Audio selected from a file in Master mode may be pasted to the same file after toggling out of Master mode, or it may be pasted to another file altogether.

To toggle in and out of Master mode, use any of these methods:

Choose Master from the main Edit menu.
Press the Edit/Master button on the control panel (not available on all models).
Press the Tab key on the keyboard.
Click the Master button at the top left corner of the Edits list.

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Effects

The Effects Menu

All of the effects available in VoxPro can be applied through the main Effects menu. Like the editing operations, effects are performed on, or applied to, a selected region of audio. (The Insert Silence effect is the sole exception.) VoxPro provides a basic, standard set of effects, and provides access to Microsoft Direct Music Objects (DMOs) for more advanced effects. Like the editing operations discussed in the preceding section, the undo and redo actions can be applied to all of the effects as well.

The basic effects are these:

Adjust Volume allows a volume change of up to 30dB on either or both channels or the selected region.
Bleep replaces the selected region with a 1000Hz sine tone.
Insert Silence inserts the specified duration of silence starting at the cue line.
Mute completely silences either or both channels of the selected region.
Noise Reduction removes background hiss and hum from recordings. This effect searches for the quietest section from the center of the selected region and uses the ambient noise in that section as a pattern which is subtracted from the remaining selection.
Normalize adjusts the volume on either or both channels of the selected region by an amount calculated to place the new peak at -1dB below full range.
Reverse reverses the selected region, so that it plays backwards.
VOICESLIP shifts one channel of the selected region past the other, so as to eliminate host-caller "talk-over" (not applicable to monophonic files).

A set of three sophisticated effects allow you to change the pitch (frequency) and/or duration (timing or tempo) of the selected region. These effects allow you to experiment with the effect in a preview mode, and then to commit the effect once you are satisfied with the result:

Change Pitch allows the pitch to be changed without a corresponding change in the duration.
Change Tempo allows the duration to be shortened or lengthened without a corresponding change in the pitch.
Change Rate changes pitch and duration together, as though you were playing a tape or vinyl record at the wrong speed.

Additional effects, available through the Advanced Effects submenu, are provided by Direct Music Objects installed as part of Microsoft's DirectX (9.0) package. VoxPro has augmented the interfaces on these effects to provide preview and commit modes, as well as a means to apply the effect to either or both channels of the selected region. Two of the effects - echo and reverb - are provided as one-button shortcuts in the main