This tutorial steps you through some simple loop editing. To follow this tutorial, you
need a soundfile. At the end of this document you'll find some additional
Tips and Tricks that you may find useful.
Creating a Simple Loop
- To start a project, launch 3D Mixer; the Time Viewwindow opens.
Note that, by default, you can't open 3D Mixer by double-clicking a
soundfile; you must open the
application first, and drag a sound file into it
(or use the File > Open Project... command).
You can have only one project window open at a time.
- Drop a soundfile into the window. The file (or "track")
automatically opens in a track view, just below the time line.
- Click and hold on the track to
pop up a red-bordered box that displays time information
about the track. Drag the sound along the track to see this information
updated in real time. Notice the vertical lines that appear at either end of
the sound when you begin to drag it; these help you to locate the sound
in time (against the time line).
- Hold down the control key while dragging
the sound to force it to snap to a tick mark.
- Change the height of a track by grabbing and dragging the triangle in the track's
lower-left corner.
- Drag the red line in the Zoom Control at the bottom left of the
window to the left to zoom out and enlarge the sound file.
This lets you see more easily where the file actually begins and ends,
and also magnifies it component parts for easier editing.
- Hold down the shift key, grab the dark left edge of
the sound, and drag. The track "viewer" moves relative to the
sound. You use this method to "trim" the beginning of a sound.
- Select a portion of time by dragging across the time line. The app
will automatically loop the portion of your sound
that falls within the time selection.
- Select Misc > Ticks from Time Selection
and change the number of divisions (in the panel that pops up) to 16.
- Hold down the control key and drag the red tab at the bottom right
of the sound out to snap the length of the sound to the duration of the time line
selection.
- Extend the time line selection by shift
clicking "into the future". Your sound will no longer fill up the entire "loop space"—
in other words, instead of "DingDingDing", you'll hear
"Ding Ding Ding ".
- To fill the newly extended loop space with your
sound—to create copies of your sound in the silent portion of the loop—
grab the shaded right end of the sound and drag out so
it fills the time line selection. The "gray" sound that's dragged out is a looped copy
of the original sound.
- Run 3D Mixer in a workspace set to 8 bits/pixel for best performance.
- Click the grid in Space View and press D on your keyboard
for automatic stage rotation; press D again to disable rotation.
- When resizing the vertical size of a track, hold down the
shift key to resize all the tracks at the same time.
- Click anywhere in Space View and press P
pyrotechnics; press P again to disable the show.
The Be User's
Guide,
for BeOS Release 4.5.
Copyright © 1999 Be, Inc. All rights reserved.