Working with Audio
This page contains the following sections:
- Recording Audio
- Epic Recording
- Working with Audio parts
- Automation
- Bounce
- Audio Import and Export
- Clip Editor
Recording Audio in OOM is simple, and follows a fairly general acceptance of the process in modern DAWs.
An OOM Audio track requires a source to record from, in our case, an Input Buss, and an output, either out to an Audio Buss, or an Output Buss, like the MASTER.
By default when an audio track is created, it's output is MASTER, so you may want to change this if desired, in the Connections Manager. ( F2 )
Audio tracks, like all Audio types in OOM, can be Mono or Stereo. It's important you set this first, when creating the track and making the connections. By default, when an Audio track is created, it's Stereo.
To change the channel state of the track, create the track, then select the mixer tab in the Orchestra Pit. A track mixer strip will appear, and in the strip toolbar, click on the channel selector. The channel state of the track will change.
(pic of strip toolbar here)
Create an input for the Audio Track, in the Connections Manager, and record arm the track by pressing the record button in the track, or with the shortcut R.
When you're ready, press the global record icon in the Transport toolbar, or press R again. You can check the global record state at any time, by looking at the transport toolbar.
Commence your recording by pressing the SPACE bar, and when you've finished, press the SPACE bar again to stop recording.
A new part has appeared in the track, which is your recorded material, and you'll see the wave displayed in the part. Note that whether the part recorded is Mono or Stereo, if the track height is minimized, it will show as a single wave. Don't panic, you can increase the height of the track, and your stereo will appear.
Although Epic Recording is part of our powerful Midi workflow, and plays an big role in increasing greater speed and efficiency in large Midi projects, Epic Recording has its place in Audio as well.
The principles of creating an Epic audio view are similar to that of Midi. Create a new Epic view containing multiple Audio tracks, check the Record checkbox and apply. A new Epic view is created, and each time you select and load the view, those tracks will appear, all record armed, ready for recording. Once playback stops, recording will stop, and those Epic view tracks will be disarmed.
As always, common sense should prevail when recording multiple Audio tracks at the same time. Your computer hardware and soundcard capability will determine how many tracks you can record at once, so when building Audio Views, it may be more prudent to limit the number in each view, if your hardware setup is fairly modest.
Audio parts in OOM are editable in the Composer, and the functions are as follows:
When an Audio part is created, fade in and out nodes are visible at the top of the part, on the extreme left and right. These are what we call lazy select, so you don't need to be a astronaut to position the cursor exactly on the center of the node, close enough is ok. Click and hold on the node and mve it left or right. You can't move the nodes outside the part, but you can move them the length of a part if you wish. When a Fade is move the area from the end of the part to the Fade line changes shade, so you can clearly see, as an additional visual cue, how much fade you've applied, and no matter how many parts with varying degrees of fade you have in the Composer canvas, each one can be quickly identified.
Autocrossfading in OOM is entirely automatic, giving the user more time to get on with other taks in the project. We have 2 types which functions as follows:
Overwrite
Overwrite is a special crossfade that works when adding a part directly over another. This is useful for adding a small part directly on the top of an existing part, as a replacement for a small section in what would otherwise be a decent take.
As an example, a part is recorded for a duration of 4 bars. At the beginning of bar 3 in that part is a one bar section the user intends to record again, then substitute over the original. He creates the new 1 bar section, then "slides" it over the existing part. Overwrite kicks in, and automatically replaces the existing section with the new one, with no clicks, or dirty transition noise. OOM fades of all types are sample accurate.
Crossfade
OOM crossfade is the second automatic type, and works for partially overlapping parts, where the end of one is crossfaded with the next. When the second of the parts is slid backwards over the first, the overlapping zone is automatically crossfaded, and the fade out and in for both parts automatically change to the end of one part and the beginning of the other, with visual fades applied across the duration of the overlap. Again, this a sample accurate process, with no clicks.
Splitting parts in OOM is carried out by positioning the cursor at the point you wish to split the part, and rightclick, opening the part menu and selecting Split, or you can use the shortcut J to switch to the split tool, and then click on the part where you want the split to occur. The shortcut A returns you to the pointer tool. If you want to undo the split, then press CTRL + Z.
Audio parts can have their right edges shortened or lengthened by selecting the pencil tool ( shortcut is D ), positioning the pencil over the part, and either click to shorten the part to the current position of the pencil tool, or click and hold, then drag the part along the timeline in either direction.
You can't change the beginning of the part to a different length in either direction, so when you record your part, ensure you've got some silence if required before the actual sound starts. If have a silent lead in that's a little noisy, then apply some track automation to it. If you've recorded a little or early in the timeline, simply shift the part itself.
Audio parts can be Copy/Pasted as you want in any Audio track, whether it's the same track or not. Select the part, press and hold the SHIFT key, then drag the part, which will be a copy of the original, to the new location.
If you wish to Copy a part to a new track, instead of going through the process of creating a track, and then doing the paste, just select the part, hold the SHIFT key, and drag the part down to below the last track, into the empty canvas. A new track will be created automatically for you.
Cloning parts is a bit like Copy/Paste, but with a difference. When a part is cloned, you're actually creating a reference to the original part, not a unique copy of the part. So although you'll see a new part, it's actually just a visual marker, and OOM will play the original part at the new location. To clone a part, Copy it CTRL + C , then use the shortcut CTRL + SHIFT + V to clone it to the playback cursor position, or use the Paste Clone to track shortcut CTRL + SHIFT + B to Paste the clone where you want.
If you've cloned a part and want to change it's status to a real part, and not a clone of something else, then right click on the part, and select de-clone in the part rightclick menu.
There are some additional functions you can apply to Audio Parts, which are as follows:
- Colour Parts will appear using the default colour scheme set for the track. You can apply a different colour to a part, by right clicking on the part, and selecting a new colour from our considerable selection.
- Rename Parts can be renamed by rightclicking on the part and selecting Rename from the menu. The part will change to a textbox where you can enter the new name. Press Enter when you're done, and the part will revert to its normal appearance.
- Export Audio parts, like Midi parts can be exported. See the section lower down this page for a more detailed explanation of Importing and Exporting parts.
- File info Rightclick the part and select File info in the menu. A window will open giving you details of the part, and the associated Wav.
- Delete and Cut Parts can deleted and cut by using the rightclick menu or the shortcuts Delete To delete a part, and CTRL + X to Cut a part.
OOM audio parts are layered, that is they use a priority system with the part selected as top being the highest priority, and the bottom part the lowest. When 2 parts are overlapped, with the part later in the timeline having a lower priority, then the first part will play all the way to its end, and the later part is will not sound until the other part has finished.
The reverse is also true. If the first part in the timeline is a lower priority part, and the second part is the top priority, then the second part will begin to play immediately from its left edge, and the first part will stop playing at that point.
To change the priority of a part, right click on the part and select the layer priority you want from the Part Layer sub-menu.
Note. When Overwrite and automatic Crossfade fade in and outs are applied, the index for part layer priority is automatically set.
Automation in OOM is track based, but we've added the ability to copy/paste sections of automation elsewhere in your project. In order to more completely cover the function and use of Automation, it's a separate wiki page which can be found here:
The OOM Bounce function is capable of two functions:
- bounce a Master to file or track
- bounce an Audio track, part, or multiple selected parts, to a file or audio track, quite possibly as part of a mixdown for like instruments, i.e. all 1st violins to one stereo track, or orchestra percussion to the same.
For a Master bounce to file, simply press the record button in the MASTER, and a dialog will appear, asking you to set the range of bounce with the left/right indicators. Set the indicators and press MASTER record again.
Once you've done this, a new dialog will appear when you press the Master record button, with options to record the wave to your desired location, and the format of the wav file you want, being Stereo, Mono, or 5.1, and Wav 16bit, 24bit, or 32bit float.
For channel type:
For bounce recording type:
Note that in the example images, there is a text box at the top, called File Path. This is where you specify the destination directory for your bounce recording to file.
To bounce to an audio track, when bouncing from MASTER or without selecting any audio parts in OOM, you will be prompted to select a destination track. If you wish to bounce to an existing track, choose that, and if you wish to bounce to a new track, then create one, name it, and make sure it's selected. When the bounce commences you'll see the playback cursor make it's way across the screen, recording all your audio into the track.
To record an Audio part or multiple parts to another track,select all the parts, highlight the track you wish to bounce to, then go to the Audio Menu, and select bounce to track. The bounce recording will commence, with a new part being created in the destination track.
Audio clips can be Imported into OOM, using the File menu entry Import Audio file, or directly from an audio track header, by right-clicking on the header and in the popup menu, choose the entry Import Audio File. Clips will be imported to the current playback cursor position, and if the sample rate of the clip differs from that set for OOM, you will be asked if you wish to import the clip anyway, or cancel.
OOM also has an import/export part feature, where individual parts can be exported from a project into a file, and imported into other projects. This works for both Midi and Audio parts, and parts can be saved as .mpt.
To import an Audio part, go to the File menu again, and select import part. There are 2 radio buttons at the bottom left of the import part dialog, which are:
- Import songdata and configuration
- Import songdata only.
Select the one you want, and the part will be imported to the current playback cursor position.
Individual Audio parts can be exported from OOM, as parts, in the .mpt format. Right-click the part, and select export. A browser dialog will open in which you can select where you want the part to go. The part can be named when exporting, so if you have, for example, multiple parts to export, from the same track, you can give each one a unique title, making any consequent part import easier to identify.
The OOM Clip List Editor displays the clips currently present in your project. Each entry shows a clip name, and the start and end points for the clip. At the moment, you can only view the clips you have, and not change the start or end position of a clip or do any further adjustment, but we've got this one on the list for the future, for further development.