Awave Studio

ave Studio, Copyright 2000, 2012, FMJ-Software, All rights reserved

Audio Converter - Instrument Editor - Music Performer

Welcome to Awave Studio!This manual will teach you the basics of using the program. It is recommended that you read through it at least once. This is a many-talented multi-purpose piece of software with many features that are not "obvious" - a quick reading of the manual may save you both time and frustration later on!

→ Continue to the next section...

Historical footnote:The first precursor to Awave Studio first saw light of day in late 1993 when the author wanted to extract some samples from an Amiga tracker module (.MOD file) and save them as instruments for the early but excellent Gravis UltraSound wavetable synthesis PC-card (.PAT files). So, he wrote a small MS-DOS program called Mod2Pat. As he thought that perhaps other people might find it useful too, he released it on the Internet. As some programs tend to do, this one soon grew beyond all bounds. In response to user demands, more and more input file formats were added. It was ported to Windows and the user interface steadily improved. The name was now something of an understatement so it was shortened into 2Pat. It didn't take very long until though, before that too was something of a misnomer so it was finally metamorphosed into Awave (pron. 'A-Wave'). Today, several complete rewrites later, it can read more than 250 audio carrying file formats, as well as write to most popular, as well as many obscure, file formats. To boost, it also sport a rich set of audio and wavetable instrument editing, playback and auditioning features. The latest incarnations in this family history, named Awave Studio, added many new features, among these, the ability to handle MIDI song data and package MIDI music and to render it to audio clips using a built-in high quality software synthesizer. It also returned full first circle to the early days by adding support for convertingentire MOD files with instruments, song data and all, into MIDI format. Among the latest innovations are the capability to convert from FM-synthesis to wavetable-synthesis.

This product would never have been possible without the support of our many dedicated users.

Thank you all!

Created by: FMJ-Software, c/o Dimdal, Katrinebergsbacken 30, 117 61 Stockholm, Sweden

What can Awave Studio do?

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Introduction:Awave Studio reads a veritable host of audio carrying file formats from different platforms, synthesizers and trackers. It can be used in a variety of ways: as an audio file format converter, an audio editor, an audio and MIDI player, and, last but not least, as a wavetable synthesizer instrument editor and converter. Here are just a few examples of common tasks:

Convert different types of audio files between more or less obscure file formats.

Buy a "sample-CD" or download instruments from then net, then use Awave Studio to convert them to a format that your own synth can read. Besides a vast array of different synth-formats, it also supports MIDI SDS, and SCSI SMDI transfers.

Play MIDI songs that comes with custom 'instrument banks', or rendern them to an audio clip (eg. a MP3) using the built in high-quality software synthesizer.

Do audio editing tasks such as resampling, fading in and out, normalizing amplitudes, applying effects, and much more.

Use it as an instrument editor for your synthesizer, sound card, or soft-synth. You can edit a large number of instrument synthesis parameters.

A more complete list of features:Do conversions from the ~290 audio related file formats that it can read (no kidding - you read that right!) into any of the ~135 audio file formats that it can write! No other software even comes close to such a wide format support!

Read and write the instrument formats of many commercial synthesizers, hardware modules, sound-card based synths, as well as many popular software synths. This including formats from Ensoniq, Akai, Korg, Kurzweil, Roland, Yamaha, Native Instruments, Creamware and many more. High quality conversion can be made between most formats - presrving the most important synthesis parameters!

Read several disk format that can normally not be accessed by Windows, including formats used by AKAI S-1000 CD's, AKAI S-3000 CD's, Roland S-5xx and S-7xx series CD's and floppy disks, Kurzweil "native" format CD's...

Convert MIDI (and similar) song data between several formats (e.g. you can convert MOD-tracker modules into MIDI-format accompanied by custom instruments!).

Convert your MIDI songs (with or without custom instruments) into audio clips with superior audio quality using the bult-in Awave Software Synthesizer (which can also be used for real-time auditioning of instruments, i.e. software synthesis as you play).

Convert melodies between different mobile phone ring signal formats (from simple monphonic beeper-songs, to current MP4 audio clips - and also including support for accurate emulation of the FM-instruments used by japanese phones using the Yamaha MA-chip series).

Send or receive waveforms to professional synthesizers using standard SDS transfers over MIDI or really fast SMDI transfers over SCSI.

Convert FM-synthesis (phase modulation synthesis) instruments into wavetable synthesis (sampling synthesis) instruments – with conversion support for all major Yamaha DX-series



SysEx formats as well as PC Adlib file formats.

A 'Batch Conversion Wizard' makes converting large numbers of audio files extremely simple! With optional effects processing!

The 'Audio Processing Wizard' makes it very easy to accomplish many common editing tasks like resampling, fading, cutting and pasting, merging and combining waveforms, normalizing, time stretching, pitch scaling, smothing, recombining, searching and replacing text and much, much more! 'DirectShow audio effect filters' (a.k.a. DirectX plug-ins) are also supported opening up whole world of 3rd party effect processing modules. And it lets you these things on multiple items simultaneously as easily as on a single one! A nice example is the 'cross-fade loop' function. Using this, you no longer have to search in vain for that elusive optimal loop point. Just select a likely portion of the waveform and cross-fade it and voilá - you have a good sounding loop!

Up to 32-bit floating point wavesample data precision is fully supported. And lower precision source data is automatically up-converted to higher precision whenever you do any audio processing or editing that would otherwise introduce quantization errors – thus the highest audio fidelity is always assured.

Several studio quality resampling algorithms available, including one that provides >24-bit signal to noise ratio.

The 'Instrument Processing Wizard' will in many cases help you avoid having to manually do repetitive editing tasks on multiple instruments.

Awave Studio is a fully featured DLS level 1 & 2 and SoundFont 2.x wavetable instrument editor. You can also use it as an editor for a lot of other instrument formats! For some, it is the only PC editor. You can customize the editing user interface for your particular soundcard by using the 'parameter set' feature. Predefined sets for common synthesizer soundcards are available!

Loaded data is displayed in an easy to use "two panes" layout - with a hierarchical instrument 'tree' to the left, and waveforms (samples) to the right.

Graphical editors available for instrument parameters! E.g., the much applauded loop editor let's you easily find the best loops. Refined to perfection based on feedback from our users!

Play MIDI files using the 'MIDI Player', including support for custom instruments.

Audition (i.e. play & listen to) your instruments directly. Use the PC keyboard or an external MIDI keyboard to play. Or use the 'Audio Player' (with real-time oscilloscope or frequency analyzer display) to play back audio files.

Record new waveforms using the Waveform Recording Wizard.

Sorry about giving you such a long list to read through - but this program simply does so many things - many more even than listed here!


Windows and menus



The first thing that you see when you start the program is the 'main window' (well, if you run the unregistered version, it's actually the second thing after the initial 'nag box'). It consists of several parts:

The 'Collection pane'. This is the 'left pane' that takes up about one third of the window. It is used to hold a 'collection' of synthesizer instruments as a hierarchical tree of 'instruments', 'layers' and 'regions'. It can also contain 'MIDI songs', which are placed below the instrument tree, and have one or more 'tracks' as sub-items. If you are not going to use Awave Studio for dealing with songs or with synthesizer instruments, then you can usually ignore this pane...

The 'Waveforms pane'. This is the 'right pane' that makes up most of the remainder of the main window. It contains a list of all loaded 'waveforms' (digitally recorded sounds, a.ka. samples, a.k.a. audio clips). The list contains not only the names of the waveform but also several columns with additional information like e.g. length and sample rate.

Tips: You can use the mouse to drag the split between the two panes. You can also change the width of the waveform pane columns by dragging the 'split' between the column headers! And you can sort the instruments or the waveforms by clicking on one of the labeled buttons at the top of the panes!

The 'Command bar'. This is a hybrid of an application menu and a toolbar - there are icon-buttons for quick access of the most common commands, while drop-down menus contains a large selection of commands.

The 'Status bar'. When you select something (by clicking on it with the mouse) in the collection or the waveforms pane, additional information about the selected item will be shown in the status bar at the bottom of the window. Many commands also report their 'completion' status here.

The 'Context' menus. Clicking with the right mouse button on an item will pop up its context menu containing the most useful commands for that particular item. This is often the quickest way to accomplish tasks!

The main window is the 'container' for your work in Awave Studio. But there are also a number of 'dialog windows' that you can use in various situations. For example:

All of the 'items' in the two panes have their own 'property sheets'. These allow you to view and edit the detailed properties (settings, parameters) for the item. See the Editing in general.

There are a number of 'wizards' (see the Tools menu) - that helps you do specific tasks:

The 'Batch conversion wizard' is used to when you want to convert large numbers of files (see Batch conversions).



The 'Audio processing wizard' is used to apply effects on waveforms (see the Audio processing wizard).

The 'Instrument processing wizard' frees you from many boring repetitive editing tasks (see the Instrument processing wizard).

The 'MIDI processing wizard' does the same for MIDI songs & tracks (see the MIDI processing wizard).

The 'Create instrument wizard' helps you create instruments (a friendly guide if you're new to the program).

The 'Audio recording wizard' helps you record audio (see Recording new waveforms).

There is a program preference (options and settings) dialog. See the Program options.

There is an 'Audio Player' window which you can use to play waveforms. There is also a corresponding 'MIDI Player' to play MIDI songs (using a combination of GM instruments and the any custom instruments that you have loaded!).

The commands on the I/O menu among other things helps you read such CD and floppy formats as Windows do not recognize.

BTW, if ever you have trouble with something in Awave Studio, be sure to browse through the FAQ section of this help file for a possible answer. And if wonder about what exactly a certain control in a dialog box or property sheet does, try selecting it and then press F1. If there's some technical mumbo-jumbo word that you don't understand, try looking it up in the Glossary.


Converting audio files

The basic building block in Awave Studio is the waveform. You may also have seen it called a 'sample', a 'sound clip' - basically it all means an 'audio recording'. The waveform is the actual recorded and digitized sound that is played back by your computer. It is also the basic building block of so called wavetable synthesizers (a.k.a. samplers). With 'audio file' in this section we mean any computer file that contains a single waveform. (A more strict defintion is that in Awave Studio, a waveform refers to a temporal sequence of linearly spaced wavesamples - where a wavesample in turn is a number describing a finite sample of the sound wave pressure).

To open (import) an audio file, either press or select File → Open new, then select a file using the dialog box that pops up. This will replace all currently loaded "items" with the contents of the file you open. The open file dialog has its own status bar where the detected file format is shown - and it can usually find out the correct format even though it may have an incorrect file extension. If you want, you may select several files in order to open them all at once. To later open more files without throwing away any already loaded items, use or File → Merge files. The number of files that you can simultaneously have opened is limited only by the amount of memory in your computer. It will normally wait with loading the actual waveform data until it is first needed (so called 'lazy loading'). But when it is needed, all of the waveform data must be able to fit in memory.Click OK in the 'open file dialog' to load the file(s) that you have selected.



Tips: You can also 'merge' a file by simply dragging it from the Windows Explorer and drop it into the main window.

When you have opened one or more waveforms, they will appear as a list in the (right side) waveforms pane. They can be recognizad by a small icon to the left, either for mono, or for stereo waveforms. Whenever you want to perform an 'action' on an item you must select it by clicking on it with the mouse. Just like when you select files in the Windows Explorer you can select multiple items in Awave Studio by holding down the shift key and clicking to select a range of items; or the control key and clicking to add an individual item to the selection. Unlike in the Windows Explorer, in Awave Studio this way of selecting multiple items also works in the 'tree view' in the (left side) 'collection pane'. BTW, with the term 'item' we usually refer to any thing that has a small icon and a name tag, not only waveforms but also instruments and MIDI songs (see the next few sections).

To play one of the waveforms that you have loaded, select it and press (or use the corresponding Play audio command). This will bring up the 'Audio Player' window which stars playing back the waveform. To close the Audio Player click [X] or [>>] (the difference between them is that [>>] will proceed with playing the next selected item in case you had selected more than one waveform).

To edit a waveform, select it and hit (or select the Properties command). More on that under Editing in general.

Now let's try saving an audio file!

Select the waveform(s) that you want to save and then press (or Save waveforms, either under File, or from the 'right click' context menu). Notice that there is no command simply named 'save' -you must always first select the particular item(s) that you want to save and then use a Save <item-type> as command. This is because you can load up many waveforms at once, but the file formats that you can save them to, can generally only contain a single one. So you need to select which one!Anyway, this brings up a save file dialog where you browse the disk and type in a file name as normal. In the File format list you select what file format you want to save it in. There is also a Data format list - there you can select what 'data format' that it should be saved in (the available choices depends on the capabilities of the selected file format - e.g. PCM 16-bit or PCM 24-bit). You'll often (but not always) also see a data format selection named Auto (which if available, is usually selected by default). This choice let's the program itself decide which data format is most suitable. There's also a Channel format list, with one or more of the choices Auto, Mono and/or Stereo. Selecting Auto will let the program decide (mono saved as mono, and stereo as stereo). Finally press OK to save the waveform or Cancel to abort.

Tips: In both the open file and the save file dialogs, there is a Recent drop down list which you can use to quickly navigate go to a directory that you've used before - this can save you from a lot of directory browsing!

Tips: You can select multiple waveforms and select save them in the same manner - you'll just get a 'save file' dialog for each of them in sequence.

Note: A few file formats (WMA, OGG, RA, MP2, MP3, AAC and FLAC to be specific) requires that you install some (free) 3-rd party DLL files to be able to read and/or write them. These DLL's can be found on the Awave Studio → Resources section of our web site.


Converting instruments & collections



To read a file containing a synthesizer 'instrument' or a 'collection' of such instruments (sometimes called a 'bank'), follow the same procedure as for opening audio files (the same things also applies for opening multiple files). Some file types contains both both a collection and a 'song' that uses the instruments in the collection - for some of these it will road both the instruments and the song, for others only the instruments (and any waveforms that they use) can be read.

The collection now pane displays a hierarchical representation of the various component items of the instruments. It is a 'tree-view' with the collection as the 'root', instruments as branches, which in turn leads to layers, that go to regions, that each has a waveform as a 'leaf'. The various levels holds different types of information. The waveforms pane holds a list of all loaded waveforms (with more information than in the collection pane - each waveform may also be shared so that it is a leaf used in more than one place in the collection tree). Some other symbols may also appear: stereo waveforms and drum kits (drum-kits are really treated like any other instrument, only the state one small flag differs).

Note: All these 'items' follows a superset of the 'DownLoadable Sounds level 2' architecture (DLS 2 for short) - a standard for how to represent wavetable instruments in a way so that they can be shared between different kinds of hardware.

Select any item (e.g. an instrument) by clicking on it with the mouse. If auditioning is enabled, you can now play it using your MIDI keyboard and/or computer keyboard (see Auditioning sounds for more details). You can also press or use Play audio... to launch the Audio Player window and listen to all the waveforms that the item maps to, played back in sequence.

When you select one or more items in the collection pane (with exception of the collection root item), you might see that all the waveforms that it ultimately maps to in its 'leaves' will automatically be selected in the waveforms pane. Similarly, when you select one or more waveforms in the waveforms pane, all items in the collection pane that is using that waveform is automatically selected in the collection pane. You see which of the two panes has the current 'input focus' by the darker coloring of the selection marks (this will be the one that 'auto-selects' the items in the other pane). NB; you can disable this 'auto-selection' behavior if you want using the toggles Options → Auto-select waveforms and Options → Auto-select collection items.

Tips: If you want to do something with all waveforms that is used by an instrument (e.g. audio processing), then first select the instrument in the collection pane. Then (if the auto-select option is on) all the waveforms that it use is selected in the waveforms pane. However, the 'selection focus' is still on the instrument in the collection pane. Now press the 'Tab' key to move the focus to the waveforms in the waveforms pane (without deselecting them).

To save an item, first select it ( , , , or - the other items types ( , ) are not so useful for saving, although it is possible wih some file formats. Next use (or Save item-type as... from the context menu of the File menu). Here 'item-type' will be the name of the 'type' (e.g. 'instrument' or 'layer') of the currently selected item(s). A standard file dialog box will appear - and the same thing goes here as for saving waveforms. The selections made will apply to all the data stored in the output file. A few file formats list an Auto selection in the Data format list - those format supports saving different waveforms in different formats within the same file. If you select a specific data format then all will be saved with that format, but if you select Auto then the format (or closest match to the format) selected under Prefered data format for saving in each waveforms properties will be used.If you want to save the whole instrument collection to the same file as you loaded it from, then use

.

Note: Many of the export formats only support saving waveforms (and not instruments et c.), or only instruments and not a whole collection, et c. See the symbols in the File formats list for which formats



support what. Moreover, the capabilities of the various 'instrument capable' file formats targeted at different synthesizers vary greatly, see Ensuring cross-platform compatibility on how to create instruments that can be used as widely as possible. An especially thorny issue is how to best convert articulation data (lfos, envelopes...) between formats for different synthesizers as they can be implemented quite differently - however the program will try achieve good translations for you under all circumstances!


Converting songs & melodies

This program can also read and write many file format containing songs and melodies - from 'MIDI like' formats to various 'mobile phone ring-tone' (call signal) formats. They all have in common that in one way or another, songs are represented as 'note data' and not as recorded audio. To open one, follow the same procedures as described for reading audio files. When one is opened, it is automatically converted to standard MIDI-format song data and vice versa when writing.

In the 'collection pane', you will find a hierarchical representation of the 'component' items of any loaded MIDI songs (you can have more). They will appear 'below' the instrument collection as MIDI songs, with one or more MIDI tracks as 'leaves'.

The button, or the Play MIDI... command, will open the 'MIDI Player' and start playing the selected song or track. Songs can use custom instruments - any instruments set with bank and program change messages in the MIDI data will use instruments from the loaded collection. If an instrument is not defined in the collection, then an instrument from the GM (General MIDI) instrument set will. The 'default' DirectX/DirectMusic synthesizer is used for playback - normally the 'Microsoft Software synthesizer (and not as you might expect, the Awave Software Synth - it is currently too slow for real-time song synthesis).

To save an item, first select it, then use on the toolbar (or use the Save MIDI song as...command).

MIDI to Waveform conversion:When saving a song or a track, the output file formats list will first list all supported file formats that can store MIDI-like data. After that, the list continues with all file formats that can store waveform type data. Whenever you save to the latter type, the MIDI data is automatically rendered to a temporary waveform that is then saved. At any time you can also manually initiate a (permanent) such"MIDI to Waveform" conversion by right clicking on a MIDI item and selecting Render song/track to Waveform... (the same command is also available on the Tools menu). A dialog box pops up that shows the rendering progress (note: you can abort the rendering at any time by pressing the [x]button).

The built-in Awave Software Synthesizer is used for these MIDI to Waveform conversions. The advantages of using it are several:

All instrument synthesis parameters supported by Awave Studio are also supported by the synth.

All processing is done using 32-bit floating point calculations, thus eliminating quantization noise (for all practical purposes).



Arbitrary sample rates are supported.

Very high quality sample rate conversion - our best FIR resampling algorithms are used -providing much higher sound quality than what is available with normal 'real-time' synths (be they hardware or software).

Smoother parameter changes - envelopes, LFO's, MIDI controllers (interpolated ramps), et c, et c - everything is updated on a per-sample basis. It is very common that synths update some or all of these only every few hundred samples or worse - which saves many CPU cycles but degrades the sound quality.

Accurate mathematical functions are used throughout instead of approximating 'look-up tables'.

Rendering is not done in real-time. Simple passages in a song may be rendered faster than real-time, while more complex passages will take more time to render.

A special note on the RMI and MSS file formats:

These supports MIDI songs with embedded DLS collections - and the collection will automatically be included when you save to one of these file formats. Although currently not widely used, this could be a very nice way to distribute your compositions along with your own custom instruments! Just like in the old 'tracker' module days...

A note on various so called 'tracker module' formats:

Reading from these formats are generally not supported (only the instruments and waveforms). However, there is one notable exception to this: There's a 'MOD to MIDI' converter. This means that you can convert old .MOD format PC and Amiga modules into MIDI songs, including the custom instruments. Not all 'effect' types and parameters are converted - but most of them are, and certainly all of the more common ones. To use it, simply open a .MOD and a MIDI song will be created along with the instruments. Now try playing it with the MIDI Player!

And a note on writing RTTTL, .EMY or .IMY mobile phone ring-tones:

These formats are very limited - the way it works when converting from a more complicated melody (e.g. from a MIDI file) is:

Only the first track containing any notes is used, and from that track notes are only considered if they have the same MIDI channel as the first note encountered (for better control you might wish to pick a single track to save instead of the whole song).

When multiple notes falls within the same period of time, only the highest note is used -producing a monophonic output.

Notes outside the supported range of the output format are completely ignored.

Note and rest lengths are rounded to the nearest supported length.

NB: Other mobile phone formats are much more capable and will convert very well to and from MIDI format.




Program options

Let's look quickly through the program options, so select Options → Preferences... (alternatively, click on ). BTW, don't be scared by the length of this section, there's usually not that much to configure, we just want to walk you through the options as they relate to things that you can do with the program.

You'll now will find a number of 'tabs':

Miscellaneous: Here are options for program behaviour - e.g. what to call the "middle C" note.

File load: These options controls what things will be done automatically for you whenever you load a file.

Audio playback: Here you select your prefered device for audio playback.

Auditioning: To term 'Audition' refers to the feature 'playing' an instrument or a waveform - using either your computer keyboard or an external MIDI keyboard - and hear, or audition, how it sounds. In the Synth list, select any of the wavetable synthesizers for which Awave Studio have 'native' support. Default is the built-in Awave Software Synthesizer. Should you experience pops and crackles when using this synthesizer, then first try increasing the Latency option (the delay from that a key is pressed until you can hear the sound from the instrument). If that doesn't help, then try lowering the Sample rate option. NB, you get the best sound quality if you select the same sample-rate as is used internally by your sound-card (usually 48000 or 44100 Hz). In the MIDI-in list, choose what device you want to use for 'playing'. If you don't have MIDI-keyboard attached, then select <none> from this list. With Enable virtual keyboard you can also use the computer keyboard to play on. The drawback with having auditioning enabled can be that it does slow down working with the program somewhat (whenever you click on an item, a copy of it has to be sent to the synth). Therefore, the command bar contains a toggle for quickly turning this feature on or off. Read more under Auditioning sounds.

Helper apps: It is possible to use an external (specialized) application of your choice for recording, editing, or otherwise processing waveforms. You which external app in the Waveform editor field (press [..] to browse the disk for it - then add any command line switches that you want the program to start with, e.g. "c:\foo\myeditor.exe -load". The name and path of a wav-format file will be appended to the end of this when starting the editor, which should cause it to load the wav file). Analogously, there's a MIDI song editor field where you can select an external application (e.g. a MIDI sequencer) that you want to use for editing MIDI songs.The On-screen keyboard field allows you to select the app that can be started using View → On-screen keyboard.

Parameter set: If you are planning on using this program as an instrument editor for a particular synthesizer, then this page allows you to restrict the parameters available for editing to only those available in your target synth. More on this under A customizable synth editor.

Synth to Wave: These parameters control the conversion of other 'Synthesis models' (e.g. FM-synthesis) into waveforms.

MIDI to Wave: These options control the conversion of MIDI songs into waveforms (sound clips). This is done using the built in Awave Software Synth. Of particular importance is the Default GM bank setting - any instrument that is used by a MIDI song that can not be found among the currently loaded instruments will instead be retrieved from this default bank. By default it points to the Roland



GS bank that is installed with Microsoft DirectX. If you have a bigger & better GM or GS sound bank that you prefer, then you can change to that here. Any file format that is supported by Awave Studio is ok!

Format options: Here can be found file format specific options (e.g. what types text meta-data tags to write to MP3 files).

When you're done configuring, click OK to close the dialog.

Tips: You can often click on [?] to turn the cursor into a question-mark that you then click on anything that you want to know more about.


Batch conversions

There are two ways to do a 'batch conversion' (i.e. converting a whole bunch of files in 'one go'):

The first, and easiest way, is to use Tools → Batch conversion wizard.... This brings up a dialog where you select whether you want to convert waveforms, instruments, collections, or MIDI songs. The choice you make here will determine what types of files you can use as input and what file formats will be available for output. Press Next to reach a dialog where you have the tools to construct a list of the input files. You can add files one or more at a time, you can let the program scan a whole directory plus subdirectories for files, you can play files, you can delete files, you can search for files, and you can drop files from the Windows Explorer. When you are done with your input file list, press Next again. Now you select the output options - the output file format, the data and channel format, the output directory and 'existing files overwrite' policy. You can also specify a few optional audio processing functions - resampling, normalization, and leading & trailing silence removal. Furthermore, you optionally can select up to four DirectShow effect filters (a.k.a. "DirectX plug-ins") to be used to process waveforms. To go ahead and start the batch conversion, just press Start!

The second way of doing batch conversion is doint it semi-manually within the normal operational context of Awave Studio (i.e. the main window). This is much more flexible and gives you more control over what happens. But it also takes a little more work to use, and for very large jobs it runs a risk of running out memory.

You start by opening all the files that you want to convert as usual with the Open and/or Merge filescommands. Please note that this only loads information about the contents of the files and reading the actual waveform data is deferred to until later. You may want to keep this in mind and refrain from doing very large batch jobs using this method (although they will 'load' all right, they will start eating up a lot of memory first when their waveform data has to be pulled from disk and this could cause the program to exit with an 'out memory message' in the middle of the work). The 'Batch vonversion wizard' works differently in this respect because it will convert one file at a time and free the memory used by each one after it has been processed.

Next, you may want some processing function to be performed on all items - for this you can use the Audio processing wizard (for waveforms), the Instrument processing wizard (for regions, layers, instruments, or the whole collection), and the MIDI processing wizard (for songs or tracks). All of them can work on multiple items at once as easily as on a single one - simply select the items you want to process, then right click on the selection and select Process... from the context menu. See the appropriate sections on those wizards for details, but here's just a few examples of what you can



do with these:

Using the Instrument processing wizard: Split all stereo waveforms into dual mono waveforms and convert any layers using them into 'dual layers'; one layer panned full left using the left mono waveforms and another corresponding layer for the right. Very few wave-table synthesizers can handle real stereo but instead use 'dual layered' mono waveforms to achieve the same affect. Thus this option will be useful if you want to use stereo waveforms in your instruments. If you do not do this manually, then when you save an instrument containing a 'real' stereo waveform to a file format that does not support it, it will automatically be converted to and saved as mono (with the two channels mixed into one). In fact this is such a common operation that you can select it from the Tools menu if you don't want to go through the wizard.

Using the Audio processing wizard: Resample the all waveforms to a common sample rate.

Using the Audio processing wizard: Convert the loop format. Some synthesizers do not support reverse or bi-directional loops. If you try to save to a file format that do not support a certain loop type, it will be saved as forward loops with no further conversion. This may sound awful. Using this feature you can convert such loops to forward loops by constructing a forward loop that emulates the reverse and/or the bi-directional loop. This will enlarge the waveform(s) a little but will sound correct on all synthesizers. You also have an option to remove everything after the loop end point except some padding bytes to keep 'loop interpolation' happy. This will shrink the waveform(s) by removing this potentially wasted/unused end part.

Of course you can also use all of the usual editing functions to edit individual items.

The normal way of saving a set of waveforms would be to select them in the waveforms pane, then selecting Save waveforms as (from the file menu or the context menu) and supply an output file name (and file format) for each of them. But it can be tiresome to have to supply name for each and everyone if you have a lot of them. The solution is to 'batch save' all the loaded instruments depending on the file format you select (some save waveforms only, some save instruments... Saving to file formats holding entire collections is perhaps a little bit pointless as all items would go into the one collection file as normal...). To accomplish this, use File → Save all in multiple files. This first brings up a dialog where you choose 'how' the output files should be automatically constructed. It is not self-evident how this should be done so you are presented with a choice of a few 'naming schemes'. Next press Continue. A new dialog comes up, looking just like the normal 'single save' dialog. Here you can enter a 'base name' for the naming scheme that you selected. You also select the file format that you want to save to. All of the output files will share these selections. Note! If you need to use old 8.3 file names you must yourself ensure that the naming scheme that you have chosen will not give rise to too long file names.


Editing in general

To edit the name of an item, do a 'slow double click' on it (alternatively press F2, or select Renamefrom the context menu) and then edit the name.Editing an instrument name has one more twist (at least if you haven't disabled Display instrument bank and program numbers in the preferences) - you'll seem something like this: 001:120 : Solo flute.The first number here is the major bank number (i.e. MIDI CC0 bank select), the second number is the program number (MIDI program change), and finally comes the actual instrument name. The numbers are not really part of the instrument name, but this allows you to easily edit them in the same



way as you edit the name and saving you from having to open a property-sheet to do it. If you just want to change the name, then it is okay to wipe out all of the text (incl. the numbers) and type in the new name (the old bank and program numbers will then be retained).

For all other parameters, select the item and press (or select Properties from the context menu -which will also contain a list other useful commands). This brings up its property sheet - try it for all the various item types (collection, instruments, layers, regions, waveforms, ...) and explore all the tabs! You will find, among other things, a visual loop point editor, a waveform editor, a layer key-map editor and an audio processor wizard! Use the 'context help' (select a control then press F1) if you want information about any particular parameter.

Note! When using auditioning, you must click Apply or OK in a property sheet before you can hear any edits that you have made (this downloads the edited instrument to the synth).

Tips: If you turn on Options → Auto property sheet (or use the toggle), then there will always be a property sheet open, showing the properties for the most recently selected item.

Tips: You can also double click on a waveform in the waveforms pane to bring up its property sheet.

To add new items to the collection, you can work in two ways. Either right-click on the 'parent' (e.g. the collection if you want to add a new instrument) and select Add new X (where X is the item type that you want to add). Alternatively, you can use an existing item as a 'template' by using drag and drop while holding down the shift key in order to copy it instead of moving it (if you drag with he right mouse insted, you'll get a pop-up menu with choices; you can also right click on a waveform or an instrument and pick Clone from the context menu). You can also create new instruments, layers, and/or regions by dragging a waveform from the waveforms pane to a suitable 'parent' in the collection pane. Note that when dragging a waveform to a layer, a new region will not only be created in the layer, but the region properties dialog will also pop-up. This way you can select the key range for the region before it is finalized in the layer (this is useful since creating a new region, or copying one from another layer, might overwrite or modify any existing region(s) with colliding key-ranges inside the layer).

One thing that can often come in handy is 'copy and paste'. It works like usual, you select things, and then copy or cut them to the clip-board. Next you can paste them back in as 'new' items. This also works between files. E.g. open a collection, copy and instrument that you like, open another collection and paste the instrument to it. You can of course also have two instances of Awave Studio running and copy and paste between them!

There is also a fairly large selection of 'processing' functions that you can apply to waveforms using Tools → Audio processing wizard (this can also be reached from the context menu or from waveform properties). If you right click on a waveform and and select Properties... then go to the Editor tab, you'll find a graphical diusplay of the waveform. Here you can zoomed in on portion of it, do simple cut and paste operations et. c. (the 'zoom level' is adjusted by the leftmost scrollbar and the display position by the rightmost bar). |> is used to play the waveform. You can select a portion of it by dragging with the mouse over it while holding down the left mouse button. |<->| is used to select the entire wave and ->|<- to zoom in on the currently selected part. NB, you can also zoom 'vertically' - right click on the waveform graph to get a complete list of commands in a pop-up menu. Anyway, back to the 'Audio processing wizard' - activate it by clicking the Process button - and up pops a list with the different things it can do for you!

If you need even more waveform editing and processing power, then you can use almost any external editor as a helper application for this purpose. You can select which app to use in the Program options. To use it, simply select a waveform, then Run editor app from the context menu. The waveform will then be saved to a temporary file on the disk and the external editor will be launched with this file as a command line parameter. While you use the external editor, Awave Studio will



'freeze up'. When you are done editing, save it and close the external editor. Awave Studio will then 'unfreeze' and automatically reload the waveform (and delete the temporary file).

To record a new waveform, select Tools → Audio recording wizard (similar to record MIDI data useTools → MIDI recording wizard ).

To help you get stared at creating a new instrument, you might also want to use Tools → Create instrument wizard, which will attempt to guide you through the procedure.

If you want to use Awave Studio as an instrument editor for a particular synth, rather than just as a converter, then you might want to customize what parameters should be editable, if so check out A customizable synth editor.

Tips: A handy way to quickly create instruments from loaded waveforms is Edit → Autocreate instruments - this will create an instrument for each waveform. If you'd rather create a single drum kit using all the waveforms, then create an empty drum kit with one layer, next go to the layer properties and the Drum kit tab, where you'll find an Auto create button!


Audio processing wizard

To access the 'Audio processing wizard', select one waveform, then Properties and go to the Editortab and hit Process. Another way to use it is to select one or more waveforms in the waveforms pane - that is right, it is okay to select multiple waveforms for 'batch processing' them all - next right click on the selection to bring up the context menu and there select Process. You can launch the wizard from the Tools menu (in this case, if you haven't selected any waveform, it will default to work on all loaded waveforms).

When the wizard id started, you'll first see a list of available audio processing functions. Some of the functions works on the current 'selection' made in the editor page, while other functions always work on the complete waveform (to do a selection in the editor tab, you hold down the left mouse button and drag with the mouse over the wavesample range that you want - alternatively, you can press the |<->| button to make a selection covering the whole waveform). Some functions may appear, or not, depending on various characteristics of the waveform, e.g. 'convert to stereo' only appears for mono waveforms. Also, a few selections are only available when working on a single waveform since they don't make sense in the context of multiple waveforms.

List of available audio processing functionsAppend/combine waveforms.Auto loop finderAuto tune.Calculate tuning.Convert bi-directional to forward loop.Convert reverse to forward loop.Convert to stereo.Convert to mono.Cross-fade loop.Cut away selection.DirectShow audio effect filters - 'DirectX' plug-ins.Double the loop section length.



Enable/Disable loops.Fade in/out selection.Insert silence.Insert another waveform.Invert sign (throughout selection).Maximize amplitude.Mix out = a*wave1 + b*wave2 + c.Normalize.Parse root key from waveform name.Phase vocoder.Pitch scale.Remove DC offset.Remove silent sections.Resample (convert sample rate).Reverse selection.Search and replace text in names.Set copyright text.Set 'Preferred data format' parameter.Set loop points to selection.Set selection to loop points.Set waveform names from the file namesSmooth out the selection.Split waveform at silent sectionsStatistics.Swap left and right channels.Time stretch.Trim data after loop end point.Trim waveform to selection.

Select one of the functions, then hit Next. This brings you to a new screen where you can optional parameters for the function (if any are available for that particular function).Most of the functions also have a small 'preview window' with a waveform graph allowing you to see and hear the effect that the function will have before you commit to (irrevocably) apply it. NB, this is only available if you are working on a single waveform - if you have selected multiple waveforms andare processing them, then the preview window will be grayed out. Also note that this preview is not updated automatically; for performance reasons you must always hit Calculate before you can see the effects of the function (if you then change a setting, you'll have to press calculate again to see the changes). After calculating a preview, you may also use Play to listen to it. Restore reverts the original (unmodified) waveform to the preview window.

Press Finish to apply the function to all the selected waveforms!

About using DirectX plug-ins (a.k.a. DirectShow filters)An especially versatile option in the audio processing wizard is the DirectShow audio effect filters - DirectX plug-ins selection. It gives you access to a wide range of 'plug-in effects' developed by other manufacturers (if you have installed any such effects - usually called "DirectX plug-ins"!). These have become something of a de-facto standard for audio editing software. You can find a number of vendors of such plug-ins on the Internet; some of them also have free plug-ins for you to download!To use it, first bring up the audio processing wizard as usual and select DirectShow audio effect filters - DirectX plug-ins and Next. This will bring up a list of all installed filters/plug-ins that can be used for audio-processing purposes. NB; the first time you do this (after starting the program) you may have to wait a little while for this list to be constructed. Select the filter you want then press



Finish. If the filter has any 'setup dialog' for parameter settings, then it will be displayed now. Adjust any setting you want to change, and then press OK to accept them or Cancel to abort it (if there is more than one page of settings, then there is a Next button instead of the OK button in all but the last page). When you press OK, the filter will be applied to the waveform. That's it!


Recording new waveforms

You can use your sound card and a microphone (or any other signal source) to record a new waveform. To do it, select Tools → Audio recording wizard...

The process involves three steps:

1. Select the device to record from (if you have more than one sound card). Select the waveform format you want to record in, e.g. 44100 Hz stereo. The recording will be stored as a .wav file on disk - so you also need to enter a file name for that (the file is automatically opened after the recording is finished). Click Next.

2. Connect a microphone to the Mic-input of your sound card, or perhaps some other sound source to the Line input. Open up your sound card mixer application (either the standard 'volume control' that comes with Windows, or a custom one that is supplied with your sound card) and set the 'recording source' in it appropriately (see you sound card's manual for details on that). Next you need to use the mixer to set an appropriate recording level. If it is too high, sound will be 'clipped', if it is too low, there'll be more noise and you will not get the maximum 'dynamics' that is possible if it is properly adjusted. Any sound coming through will be indicated by the 'input level bars' in Awave Studio. If they anytime reach the maximum value, then you should probably lover the recording volume a little. When you think you have the level right, just click Next to start recording audio!

3. To stop recording, click Finish. Alternatively, click Back if you want to restart. Remember that you can always do some editing and cleaning up afterwards so if you got a little bit of silence at the beginning (which is normal) then it's no big deal to remove. That's it!


Waveform parameters

If you look at the waveform property dialog and it's General tab, you'll find a number of parameters that you can edit. E.g. sample rate and optional comment and copyright text fields. There are also a number of parameters that are associated with the usaging a waveform in an instrument. NB, these can also (optionally) be 'overridden' by setting corresponding override-parameters for each region in an instrument (a region is an object in an instrument that maps a waveform to a range of keys on the MIDI-keyboard. A region that has 'waveform parameters override' enabled will have a small w in its icon. Note that any given waveform can be used by more than one region (which is the whole point of having region override parameters!). Here is a description of these waveform parameters:

Sample rate Defines the sample playback rate of the waveform.




Looping waveforms

During instrument playback, a section of the waveform can be looped, giving an 'infinitely long' continuous sound instead of the normal 'one-shot' playback. Of course it will not usually be played 'forever' but faded out when you release the MIDI key (using an amplitude envelope - more on that in the next section). To enable looping, go to the Loop tab of the waveform properties and check the Enable box.

There are several variations of looping. The 'forward loop' (the default loop type) is the most common

Root key Defines the MIDI key at which the waveform will be played back at its original pitch. Lowering the root key will raise the pitch of the sound at other keys. Correspondingly, increasing it will lower the pitch.

Fine tune Allows you to make adjustments to the pitch smaller than one semitone (the root key let's you adjust it in semitone steps). E.g. setting fine tune to -50 cents will lower the pitch by one quartertone.

Volume adjustment

Here the playback volumne of the waveform, when used in an instrument, can be adjusted. NB, many synths only allows this to be used for damping (i.e. no amplification is allowed, and only values < 0 will have any effect).

Preferred data format for saving

This let's you select which data format should preferably be used when saving waveforms and 'Auto' is select as data format in the save file dialog. If the output file format in question does not support the selected format, then the program will use an equivalent format or a higher precision data format if available. If that's not available either, then a default is used. When reading a file, the program does it's best to initialize the 'preferred data format' suitably (but you may sometimes want to change it yourself!).Note that his provides a mechanism to write 'mixed data format' collection files (for the few file formats that support it) - e.g. a DLS file can have a mix of 'PCM 8-bit'' and 'PCM 16-bit' waveforms if you select your preferred data format for each individual waveform, and then save using the 'Auto' option.

Auto-tune This button is used to automatically set the root key and fine tune to values determined by looking at the strongest 'peak' in the frequency domain of the waveform. Alternatively you can let it keep the root key and fine tune and adjust the sample rate parameter instead.

Resample This button lets you resample the waveform, i.e. convert the sample rate without changing the 'pitch' which is normally what happens if you just edit the sample rate parameter.

Normalize This button uses a psychoacoustic algorithm to adjust the playback volume relative to a given target value.

Looping There are several parameters concerning (optional) looping of a waveform. These are described in further detail in the next section. You find them under their own Loop tab in the dialog.



one (and is supported by all synths - the other loop types are only supported by some synths). When the playback reaches the loop end point, it immediately 'jumps' to the loop start point (the end point sample is thus never played) and continues playing from there until it reaches the loop end point again, where performs a new jumps... Then there is the reverse loop (check the Reverse box) which plays like normal until it reaches the loop end point for the first time. There it reverses the playback direction and starts playing 'backwards' towards the loop start point, at which it jumps back to the loop end point and once more plays towards the loop start point... Finally, there's the bi-directional loop (the Bi-directional box), which is like a cross between forward and reverse. When playback has reached the end point it reverses direction and plays until it reaches the start point, where it again reverses direction and plays 'forward' towards the end point, et c... This is also known as a 'ping-pong' loop!The Sampled release box, when enabled, will allow it to loop while the MIDI key that triggered it ispressed down, but then stop looping when the key is released (it will then continue playing from whatever the current position is, and until the end of the waveform). Again not all synths support this feature.

Ok, so how do you set a loop point? Well, if you are a genius, you can type in the absolute sample values directly into the corresponding edit boxes. If you want to make it easy for yourself, you can instead simply use the 'auto loop finder' function in the 'Audio processing wizard' - see the tips below. But normally, you use the set of four sliders to manually try to find a good loop point. Alternately, you can simply hold down the mouse on the loop graph display while dragging with the mouse to move a loop point (click and drag on the right half of the graph to move the loop start, or on the left half to move the loop end). Finding the best loop point is not easy, it's an art form! Anyway, the upper two sliders control the loop start point and the lower two control the loop end point. The lower slider in each pair is a 'fine tune' slide while the upper one is for course adjustments. During all editing you'll see the areas around the loop 'jump' updated in real time in the loop graph. In dark lines in the graphs left half you see the waveform immediately before the loop end point. Similarly in the right half you see the part immediately following the loop start point. The 'weaker' line that is visible beneath the darker lines is the 'continuation' (if any) of the waveform after the loop end point (in the right half) and before the loop start point (in the left half) respectively. If you want to move both the loop start and end points 'on parallel, then check the Lock length box and move either of the sliders.

Tips: If you get the 'dark' and the 'weak' lines to match up well, you generally have a good or at least a decent loop!

Tips: You can use the 't-slider' to the right of the loop graph to control the time-window of the graph. Similarly use the 'a-slider' to control the amplitude window in order to get the 'perspective' on the loop that you want...

One thing to consider is that each wavesample output during playback is interpolated from several wavesamples in the source waveform, and not just one! (The exact numbers depend on the synth, earlier synths used only two, today they can use as much as 8 or more wavesamples). So the playback position can often be somewhere 'in-between' wavesamples - i.e. a 'fractional' position. This means that the loop 'jump' occurs when the playback first reaches or pass the loop end point (for forward loops). It also means that not only need the waveform line up nicely 'across' the 'jump' points but all several neighboring wavesamples should also line up nicely in order to keep the synths interpolation algorithm happy. On a related subject, some synths allow you to actually specify fractional loop points as well. This is also supported in this program, but it can be disabled for 'more truthful' editing on synths that do not support it. Enabling or disabling support for fractional loop points is done using the Allow fractions checkbox.

Tips: The Find! button will launch a very helpful function from the 'Audio processing wizard' called 'Auto loop finder'. It will try to automatically find a good loop point for you. Of course it won't ever be as good with really 'difficult data' as a human can be - given enough patience and experience. But it can be a good helper to get a 'suggestion' for a loop point. Then if you don't like it, change it



manually. BTW, be patient - it can sometimes take a long time for this function to finish! This function also has an option for cross-fading the newly found loop - see below.

Tips: The X-Fade button will launch another truly useful function called 'Crossfade loop' that will let you 'cross-fade' the wavesamples at the end of the loop with the wavesamples just prior to the loop. This makes the loop start and end 'blend' into each other. This is an easy way to create good sounding loops without much work but can perhaps sometimes give a little more 'muddled' or boring sound. You don't even have to find a very 'good looking' loop region before doing the cross-fade to get a decent sound but it is important (though not always so easy) to make sure that there is an 'integer' number of 'periods' in the loop first! I.e. that the distance between 'zero crossing's should be about the same; otherwise you can get very bad 'interference' effects.

Tips: Sometimes you will reach the extreme ends of the loop 'fine position' sliders. If you want to continue moving the dine position slider 'beyond the ends', i.e. you do not wish to use the coarse position slider, then hit the Center button. This will re-center the range of the fine position slider and allow you new room to move it around.

Ok, so how can you hear your loop? Well, if you have a MIDI keyboard and are using the auditioning feature (described in a later section). You can always hit the Apply button to download it to your synth and play it on the MIDI keyboard. But thereäs also another alternative; hit one of the 'play' buttons. The |--|>--| button continuously plays the loop until you hit it again to stop it. The +-|-|>-| button works similarly but starts playing at the beginning of the waveform rather than at the beginning of the loop (the actual loop part will of course play the same though). There are a few limitations to these buttons though - they can only play forwards loops and the loop section must not be too short or the sound may crack up. The good point here is that while a sound is playing you will hear the change automatically when you change a loop point position! (there'll be about two seconds delay though).

Here's a useful procedure for creating a loop:

1. First go to the Editor tab in order to get the 'big picture' of how the waveform looks like. After a little study, select a part of the waveform that you feel ought to be suitable for looping and set a 'coarse loop' by choosing Process → Set loop points to selection.

2. Next go to the Loop tab and try to set as good a loop as possible in the 'traditional manner'. Try the play loop button so you can hear the changes you make to the loop positions 'in real time' (well, to be honest there is a two or three seconds delay before you can here the change). It's not uncommon that a good-looking loop in fact doesn't sound very well at all... If you can't get anything that sounds at least a little decent, then go back to step 1. If you on the other hand are perfectly happy with the loop, go on to step 4!

3. If the loop section is long and there is a feeling of 'different tonality' at its beginning versus its end, or if it in some other way not 'perfect', then finish by using the X-fade function. This can sometimes make a big improvement for hard-to-loop sounds.

4. Enjoy your new loop!


About articulation

Simply playing back sampled waveforms (optionally with looping) in an instrument can sometimes



give the impression of a somewhat 'static' or 'dead' sound. What you need to make it feel more 'alive' are means to transform and 'vary' the sound during playback so that it seems to evolve over time. Maybe you also want it to sound a little differently depending on how fast you hit a MIDI key like a real instrument does, or perhaps depending on how you move the MIDI modulation wheel 'in real time'. The processes that you have to achieve these things are collectively called 'articulation' and are defined by a set of 'articulation parameters'.

You can set articulation parameters on three different 'articulation levels' - on the instrument level, on the layer level and on the region level. Any parameters set on one of the lower levels 'overrides' all theparameters set on a higher level. In the end the articulation is always used when playing back a single region-waveform link (i.e. the link to the lowest level in the 'hierarchy'), so think of it like there is a set of global 'default values' for everything. Then when you enable articulation on the instrument then you set new 'per instrument' default values. Similarly when you enable articulation on the layer level then you set new default values that are local only to that layer. If you enable articulation on the region level, then you choose to set the exact values that should be used when playing back the waveform specified by the region, and no default values are used.

When articulation has been enabled for a given level, the corresponding item in the collection pane tree view will have a ~ symbol overlaid on its icon. Note that most synthesizers do not support articulation on all the three different levels - the program will handle translation of that automatically for you, buy might still only want to use it on the level(s) that your particular synth supports. Much more on this issue in the section on A customizable synth editor.

How do you enable and use articulation on a given level?

Open the property dialog for the corresponding item (instrument, layer, or region), and go to the Articulation tab. Here check the Enable <n> articulation box. If not already there, this should pop up several other tabs in the property dialog! These extra tabs describe the different articulation 'sources' that you have at your command and to control volume, pitch and filtering of the sound.

An in depth discussion of the articulation architecture(s) commonly used by wavetable synths would be too extensive to include in this text, but basically, besides 'control sources' like MIDI key number, note velocity, and controllers, there are two kinds of articulation sources:

LFO's (low frequency oscillators) provide a cyclic time varying control value.

EG's (envelope generators) provide a 'one shot' ramp structure.

There are basically three different things that these 'sources' can 'control':

The playback 'Pitch'.

The output 'Volume'.

An option low pass frequency 'Filter'.

Tip: More information on these concepts can be found in the Glossary section.

Here is a brief overview of the different articulation 'tabs':

Articulation - Here you find various 'output mixing' settings such as panning and reverb level.

LFOs - Here you have two Low Freuency Oscillators, and associated parameters.



EG1 and EG2 - These are two Envelope Generators (EG1 is used for volume, and EG2 for pitch and/or filter control).

Pitch - Here you find the playback pitch control parameters.

Volume - Here you find the output volume control parameters.

Filter - Here find filter control parameters.


Auditioning sounds

Using the auditioning feature, you can directly 'play' your instruments and waveforms - simply select an item in the collection pane or in the waveforms pane and then play using either an attached MIDI keyboard or the computer keyboard. To see the options for this feature go to Options → Preferences... → Auditioning. Here you can select what Synth should be used for playback (the built-in Awave Software Synth is the default). Here you also select what MIDI-in device that your MIDI keyboard is connected to (select <none> if you have no MIDI keyboard). If you check the Enable virtual keyboard box, then you can also use the computer keyboard to play with.

The auditioning feature works by downloading the instrument and waveforms to either a hardware or a software synthesizer. These are the currently supported synthesizers options:

Awave Software Synthesizer (here's its MIDI implementation chart).

Microsoft Synthesizer.

Creative Labs SoundBlaster X-Fi!, Live!, or Audigy-series of sound cards.

Creative Labs SoundBlaster AWE32, SB32, or AWE64 (EMU 8000 based cards).

A download to the synth is done whenever you change the selection in the panes, or when you hit Apply or OK in a property dialog box. For large items it may take a while for it to download - hence the toggle, which let's you quickly toggle the auditioning feature on or off. NB, there is often a limit to the size of items that can be auditioned (due to memory limitations, and specific for each synth) -so if you hear anything from a really big item, then that might be why.

The 'virtual keyboard' uses the following 2½-octave note-layout:

___________________________________||S|D|||G|H|J|||2|3|||5|6|7|||9|0||||_|_|||_|_|_|||_|_|||_|_|_|||_|_|||Z|X|C|V|B|N|M|Q|W|E|R|T|Y|U|I|O|P||_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| | Mid-C

Ctrl-Up arrow - Increase note velocity Ctrl-Down arrow - Decrease note velocity Ctrl-Right arrow - Transpose one octave up Ctrl-Left arrow - Transpose one octave downShift keys - Acts as Sustain pedal



If you have a 'non-standard' (non-QWERTY) keyboard layout, then you can Edit the key layout.

You can also use the space-bar (even when the 'virtual keyboard' is turned off) to auditing the current item. It will play at the root key (for waves and regions) or at middle-C (for layers and instruments).


A customizable synth editor

Eeach synthesizer model support it's own 'parameter set' (e.g. having different numbers and setups of envelopes and LFOs). Awave Studio uses a fairly generic parameter set that can encompass the most commonly used features from a wide variety of synthesizers. It is a superset of the 'DLS level 2' interchange architecture as defined by the MIDI Manufacturers Association. These synthesis parameters, called 'articulation data', can optionally be set on three 'articulation levels' - on the instrument level, on the layer level, and on the region level. If articulation is not enabled on one level then it 'inherits' it's values from the next higher-level. I.e. if articulation is enabled on a lower level, then it 'overrides' all articulation parameters that may have been set on a higher level. Above the instrument level there is a set of 'default' articulation parameters is used whenever articulation has not been enabled anywhere on the 'path' from the top to the individual waveforms that are linked to by the regions.Awave Studio is more flexible and supports a larger set of articulation parameters than what is available on many commercial synths (e.g. some only support articulation parameters on the layer level). When saving to a particular file format (that is tailored to the capabilities of a particular synth card), algorithms are used to automatically 'transform' Awave Studio's full set into a set that is suitable for the particular file format. Similarly, in cases where the input format use parameters that does not fit into the set used by Awave Studio, they are often transformed into a 'close approximation'.

You can define your own parameter set by disabling selected parts of the full parameter set. You can also select among several predefined sets corresponding to common synthesizers and standards (e.g. 'DLS level 1' or 'Sound Font 2.1'). When a parameter is disabled, the corresponding control(s) will be 'grayed out' in the relevant property sheets. When you load a file, all items in it will partly be transformed into your chosen parameter set with as little loss of information as possible. To set up the parameter set, first go to the program options dialog and the Parameter set tab. The drop-down list contains all the pre-defined sets. Double click on the items in the list box to construct your own set by enabling or disabling a parameter.

When doing conversions, it can often be a good idea to have the full parameter set visible even thoughyour target synth may not support all of it. That way you can manually inspect instruments to see if there is going to be a problem (e.g. when trying to convert a multi-layered instrument to a format that doesn't support multi-layering). Sometimes you can manually fix it much better than what the program could do automatically (e.g. by manually splitting multiple layers it into several single-layered instruments, a task which BTW, can be automated using the Instrument processing wizard). On the other hand, when using Awave Studio as an editor rather than as a converter, you would probably prefer not to be bothered with a lot of parameters that are of no use for your target synth, right? That's when parameter sets comes in handy!

What if you'd like to author instrument that can be used on as many platforms as possible?

The 'DLS level 1' set was designed as a 'least common denominator'. Also have a look at our guidelines for Ensuring cross-platform compatibility. However, if you are satisfied with 'more or less' compatibility with something like 95% of current synthesizers, then you can use the much more capable 'SoundFont 2' or 'DLS level 2' parameter sets instead.




Instrument processing wizard

To access the 'Instrument processing wizard', select one or more regions, layers, and/or instruments, or the entire collection if you want, then select Process from the context menu (alternatively use Tools → Instrument processing wizard...).

Once it's up, you'll see a list of available instrument processing functions. These will work on various places in the 'instrument hierarchy' (collection → instrument → layer → region) so some of them may not be available depending on what kind of item(s) that you have selected.

List of available instrument processing functionsAdd down-sampled waveforms at every octave.Adjust common parameters.Adjust region key ranges.Adjust region velocity ranges.Auto-extend region key ranges.Change volume adjustments.Format text in names.Merge all into a single multi-layered instrumentMerge mono waveform pairs to stereo.Merge non-colliding layers.Move articulation level.Move instruments between banks.Move region waveform overrides to waveform.Move up articulation level if all equal below.Remove items not used by any MIDI song.Search and replace text in names.Set articulation parameters for all items.Set region/wave parameters for all items.Split drum-kit into multiple melodic instruments.Split multi-layered instruments.Split stereo waveforms to dual layers.

Select any one of these functions and then hit the Next button. This will bring you to a new screen where you can enter any optional parameters (if available for that function). Click Finish to apply theprocessing!


MIDI Processing Wizard

To access the 'MIDI processing wizard', select one or more MIDI songs and/or tracks, then Processfrom the context menu (alternatively Tools → MIDI processing wizard...). This brings up a list with the following processing functions (NB, many of these are only available for MIDI songs, not tracks).



List of available MIDI processing functionsChange Tick-rate.Convert MIDI format.Convert Bank MSB to Bank MSB + LSB 0 messages.Replace Note-On with velocity 0 with Note-Off.Filter MIDI messages.Transpose notes.Trim from start until first Note-On event.Trim start and/or length.

Select any one of these functions and hit Next This will bring you to a new screen where you can enter any optional parameters (if available for that function). Press Finish to apply the processing!


More information

Hopefully you now have a general idea of how to work with Awave Studio!

But there are yet several features that haven't been mentioned.You may wish to continue with the topics of the Reference section.Or have a glance through the Frequently Asked Questions list.For how to exchange data with certain hardware, see Special I/O formats.

Happy Awave-ing!




Documents

Awave Studio