Topic: how did you learn Sound Forge?

[DCDireWolf]

This is not an easy program to jump into as a newbie.  At least that's the way it seems so far.  Any tips or tricks on using it?  Is there a users guide or faq out there somewhere?

[mirth]

Help is always a great resource.

Oh, learned thru trial and error.... and Help

[firmdragon]

i actually thought sound forge was easy to learn. even easier to learn than cool edit.  easier learning how to do something if you know what you want to do.  but yea trial and error too.

[jpschust]

just gotta play with it, honestly its got a slight learning curve at first, but overall its a pretty easy piece of sw to use once youve got it down

[F.O.Bean]

i taught myself and some help w// you cats

and help def helps

[kskreider]

and help def helps

Funny how that works, eh Bean?

I learned by trial and error and by clicking the HELP button a lot and reading a lot. 

God bless the 'undo' feature.

And SF is easy compared to other programs like Wavelab.

Good luck and if you have specific questions don't be shy...post 'em.

[F.O.Bean]

see, i always thought wavelab was easier personally, thats the first program i had tho

[nic]

I first started with CEPro and thought the interface wa very clunky so I tried Soundforge, found it much easier to navigate the menues.
trial and error taught me most of it.

there is a pretty cheap book(@ $20) called 'soundforge power' that you can get at most big music stores(sam ash, guitar center, etc...)

[John R]

so what do you guys think about sonic foundry cd architect?  i was given a copy and not sure about it.  goldwave is what i use currently, easy.

jr

[DCDireWolf]

I guess my real problem is not how to use Soundforge, but more of not knowing what I can do with it.

I'm doing my first file here, and I've separated it into tracks, deleted the places where the signal was lost, but after that I'm not sure what i can do to improve the sound?

Initial questions, do I leave the bit rate at 16 or change it to 24 or higher?

What exactly does it mean to normalize the thing and when would I want to do that and to what -db levels?

How do I fix the fact that the left mic picked up a lot more sound than the right?

Are there other functions on this thing that I can use to improve the sound?

Thanks!

[kskreider]

I guess my real problem is not how to use Soundforge, but more of not knowing what I can do with it.

I'm doing my first file here, and I've separated it into tracks, deleted the places where the signal was lost, but after that I'm not sure what i can do to improve the sound?

Initial questions, do I leave the bit rate at 16 or change it to 24 or higher?

What exactly does it mean to normalize the thing and when would I want to do that and to what -db levels?

How do I fix the fact that the left mic picked up a lot more sound than the right?

Are there other functions on this thing that I can use to improve the sound?

Thanks!

Bit rate is going to depend on what your source is at.  If you are doing DAT>HDD then leave it at 16 bits.  If you are mastering with SF like on a lappyt taping a show, then by all means go up to 24 bits if your sound card supports it.  Expect 24bit/48k or 24bit/96k to gobble up your HDD space VERy fast.  Like approximately 1GB per 30 minutes of taping.

Personally, I usually avoid normalizing.  If you normailze to a point close to 100% then it brings your sound up to a point where it is close to zero, BUT what it does is finds the distance betweeen the loudest and quietest passages and makes that distance smaller.  So quiet passages are made louder.  If you have quiet spots it is less destructive to the dynamic range to just increase the gain on the entire recording closer to zero rather than change the distancebetween peaks and valleys.  YMMV.

If you have one channel that is lower than the other you can find the peaks for both sides and then balance them out by increasing the gain on the low side so that it is closer to the louder side.

"Improve" can be such a subjective term.  One person may like a sound that might have some slight compression, while others think that you are bastardizing the raw sound of a performance.  Just find some of the plug-ins and goof around with them some.  I became VERY familiar with the SF NR 2.0 plug-in as I was cleaning up a lot of analog transfers.  I also began to become familiar with the Waves plug-ins before I switched to Wavelab for taping purposes.