Wave Edit Pro Manual

Note: All information marked (*EE*) is for the Enterprise Edition of Wave Edit Pro only.

Installation

Install Wave Edit Pro by double clicking on WaveEditPro.prc, and then perform a hotsync. Wave Edit Pro can be stored either in RAM or on a memory expansion card.

Requirements

Palm OS: 5.0+ (This includes devices such as Tungsten T, Tungsten T2, Tungsten T3, Tungsten C, Tungsten E, Zire 71).
Resolution: Minimum 320x320.
Memory expansion card: Required to load/save samples (you can still test the program without it). If you haven't got a memory card, you could use an applications such as PalmRamDisk to use parts of your RAM memory as a simulated memory card.
Free RAM memory: The more the better, atleast 2-3Mb (Wave Edit Pro temporarily stores all data in RAM).

Installing Wave files

Although Wave Edit Pro was initially developed to edit voice memos (that are stored directly on your Palm), there is nothing preventing you from installing Wav files for playing/editing from your desktop computer. Currently, Wave Edit Pro supports uncompressed Wav's (most Wav files are in this format), and IMA/DVI ADPCM compressed Wav's (the compression used internally by Palm OS5 for storing voice memos).

To install Wav files, launch the Palm 'Install Tool' on your desktop computer. Click and drag the files you want to transfer from (e.g.) Explorer to the Install Tool. The files will be transfered to your Palm memory expansion card (typically to the directory /Audio) the next time you perform a Hotsync.

You can also use a hardware card reader/writer to install Wav files to your memory expansion card.

Moving voice memos from RAM to a memory expansion card

Wave Edit Pro can only read/write files stored on a memory expansion card. Therefore, if you wish to edit a voice memo stored in RAM, you have to transfer it. To do this, launch the 'Voice Memo' application on your Palm. Click on the voice memo that you want to move, then select category 'Card' in the upper right corner. Select 'Yes' when the application asks you if you want to move the file to the expansion card.

Note:You cannot perform this operation simply by moving a voice memo from RAM to an expansion card using a file handler (such as FileZ or FileProg). The representation of a Wav file is different in RAM, and won't be understood if simply moved to an expansion card.


Using Wave Edit Pro

Startup and buttons

When you launch Wave Edit Pro, there is no sample open for editing. First, you need to either create a new sample by pressing the New button, or load one from your memory card by pressing the Open button (you can also create new/load from the menu).

Apart from these two buttons, there are four others: Play, Pause, Stop, Record. The first three will behave as expected. Tap Record to begin recording at the selected start position (see below). Tap Stop after beginning a recording to stop recording.

Making a selection

By tapping inside the area showing the current sample data in the middle of the screen, you will set the start offset position. This will affect where the program starts playing if you press the Play button. It also affects where new data is inserted (for example when selecting Paste from the menu, or when doing a recording).

Additionally, you can drag the pen while keeping it down to select a range of the currently open sample. Your selection can then be copied, deleted, transformed, etc. by selecting an action from the menu.

(*EE*): After making a range selection by dragging the pen, you can fine-tune it by pressing the four hard-buttons (DateBook, AdressBoo, ToDo, and NotePad). The first two adjust the left end of the selection, and the second two the right end. Each press adds or subtracts about 0.05 seconds to the selection. This is especially useful when handling large files.

Zooming

To make precise selections, edit out small "clicks", and to investigate the wave data in detail, zooming is an invaluable tool. There are seven zooming modes: 2x zoom, 4x zoom, 8x zoom, 16x zoom, 32x zoom, 64x zoom, and 128x zoom. Zooming can be controlled either from the menu, OR by using the 5-way navigator buttons.

The level of zooming can be selected from the 'Zoom' menu. To flip between sample pages, use your stylus to drag the slider/scroll bar that appears in the space below the name of the currently open sample while in zoom mode.

(*EE*) Enterprise Editon additional zooming controls:
To increase or decrease the zooming level, press Up/Down on the 5-way Navigator.
To restore to no zooming, press the Selector button on the 5-way Navigator.
To flip between pages while zooming, OR press Left/right on the 5-way Navigator.

While zooming, you can set the start offset position or make range selections just the way you would when not zooming. Additionally, while dragging with the pen, positioning the pen at the outmost left/right of the currently visible page will flip to the previous/next page.

Time indicators

Just above the six bottom buttons, there are three time indicators. The first one shows the start and end of the current selection. The second one shows the current playing position while playing a sample. The third one shows the length of the entire sample.

Creating a new sample

When creating a new sample, there are two settings that can me made: Sample rate, and whether the sample should be Mono or Stereo.

The resolution cannot be chosen, all samples in Wave-Edit Pro are 16-bit.

In general, you should use Mono, not stereo. Stereo may sound slightly better, but both file sizes and RAM usage is doubled when stereo is used. Additionally, it is currently not possible to save stereo samples using compression.

The sample rate also affects the quality of sound (sample rate means the number of sample values per second). The higher the value, the better the quality of the sound (although, for some reason, when recording on a Palm, there is increased background noise for higher sample rates). However, higher sample rates also consume a lot more RAM and storage reources (44100Hz uses up over 5 times as much resources as the 'Palm standard', 8000Hz).

In short, don't edit 44100Hz samples in stereo unless you have a lot of free RAM, or are working with short files.

Loading/File Navigator

By tapping the 'Open' button or by selecting 'Load' from the menu, you open up the File Navigator.

The File Navigator is not only a tool to pick a file for editing, it also contains several important features to view and modify your sound files.

By tapping a folder/directory, you go into that folder.
By tapping a file, you select it for an action, choosen from the ones listed below:

Note: Wave Edit Pro only works internally with 16-bit samples. Thus, it is possible to load an 8-bit sample, but it is automatically converted to a 16-bit sample.

Saving

There are three save commands available from the menu: Save, Save As, and Save Selected. 'Save' overwrites the current sample file using the storage type (compressed/uncompressed) of the open sample. 'Save As' saves the current sample as a new file. 'Save selected' saves the current selection as a new file.

While in the Save dialog, you can select whether you want to save compressed or uncompressed, by tapping 'C' or 'U' respectively. The advantage of compressed saves is file size (approximately 25% the size of an uncompressed sample). The disadvantages is possible reduction of quality and slower loading/saving.

By tapping a folder/directory, you go into that folder.
By tapping a file, its name is copied to the Name Edit field.

Tap 'Save' to save, using the name you specify in the Name Edit field (the extension '.wav' is automatically added). Tap 'X' to cancel without saving.

Important note: ADPCM (compressed format, used by e.g. voice memos) is a lossy format. Thus, saving (and especially re-saving using the 'Save' command), may affect the sound quality of the file. If you're going to change and edit(load/save) a sample many times, it might be a good idea to save it as uncompressed, and compress it once you think you are done with editing it.

Editing

Editing works in a fashion you would be used to from any standard Windows program, i.e. you can Copy, Cut, Delete, and Paste to/from the currently open sample. A more thourough explanation follows below: If Undo has been enabled in the Preferences dialog (see below), all editing operations (as well as transformations, see below) can be undone (that is, restored to its previous state). Undo is only one level deep, thus, if you perform two editing operations in a row, only the last operation will be possible to undo. Keep in mind that Undo can use up a lot of RAM memory as it has to save the full state of the sample before the last editing operation.

A note on Merging Files: Merging two files is easy: 1. Select all of the first sample, and Copy it. 2. Open the second sample. 3. Paste the current clip at the beginning or the end of the open sample. (Note though that unless the files use the same sample rate, the two parts will be played at different speeds).

Transforming

Transformation effects affect the wave data in the current selection in various ways. Note: If there is no selection, transformation effects automatically work on the entire sample.

Changing the sample rate

By changing the sample rate (which is done from the 'Edit' menu), you affect the number of sample values Wave Edit Pro reads per second while playing/recording. This means that changing the sample rate can be used for 'fun' effects such as creating smurf voices and slow-motion effects. (E.g. if you do a voice recording in 8000Hz, and then change the Sample rate to 16000, the speaker will appear to talk twice as fast). You can change the sample rate and record several times to create samples containing of a multitude of sample rates.

Changing card

If your device has more than one Memory card (also includes RAMdisk constructed cards), you can switch between them by selecting 'Change Card' from the File menu. In the Dialog, click on the card you would like to use for file operations and press Ok. This is also useful if you have removed an SD card while the program was running and then inserted a card again. If the program then refuses to read the card, bring up the 'Change Card' dialog and select the card.

(*EE*) Defining colors

In the Enterprise Edition of Wave Edit Pro, you can define your own colors to be used in the program. Bring up the color dialog by selecting 'Color Setup' from the menu. Change colors by first selecting (by tapping on it) the type of interface item color you would like to modify, and then tap on the palette at the top of the dialog to change the appearance of the interface type into any 16-bit color you want. There is also a 'Default' button, which will restore all colors originally used.

Preferences

In the Preferences dialog, selectable from the menu, you can change some behaviours of Wave Edit Pro.

First of all, you can set the volume level used for both plaing and recording.

There are also four checkboxes that can be set to on or off:

Additional information

Known bugs and limitations

Version history

(*EE*) Enterprise Edition only.

Version 1.2 (2003-11-17): Version 1.1 (2003-10-06): Version 1.0 (2003-09-29): First release of Wave Edit Pro.

Feedback

If you have bug reports, questions or suggestions about Wave Edit Pro or other products developed by NewBornGear/NewBornGames, feel free to contact our support center at support@newborngames.se. Also make sure to check out our website at http://www.newborngames.se for program updates and bug fixes.

Credits

Programming: Mikael Sollenborn.
Graphics: Björn Larsson.
Original idea: Peter Karlsson.

Legal issues

NewBornGear takes no responsibility for any damage that this software could cause to you, your software, or your machine. Wave Edit Pro is protected by copyright laws and international copyright treaties, as well as other intellectual property laws and treaties.

Copyright(c) 2003 NewBornGear/NewBornGames. All rights reserved.