Audio tab

The Audio tab is used to configure your sound card(s) and drivers. Many performance problems can be solved here, although the default values should work in almost all situations. 

Quick fede edges are visible on the split on the top event. The bottom event starts at the beginning of the media file and does not need a quick fade edge. 

This tab controls which MIDI devices will be available on the track header for MIDI tracks for playback. More information on using this tab in conjunction with MIDI tracks is detailed in Chapter 10. 

The first item allows you to select which devices (hardware and/or software synthesizers) are used for MIDI playback and tune code generation. Selected items will show up on the device list in the track header for MIDI tracks. Although you can select from a number of devices for playback, only the default Master hus (DirectX SoftSynth) will allow you to render projects with MIDI files. 

The MIDI thru device for recording is the device (such as a MIDI keyboard connected to the MIDI In port) that is used to record MIDI performances as MIDI data to a. mid file and into a MIDI track and event in ACID. 

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Although you can set up the project properties when you first create a new project, these settings can be changed at any time. Furthermore, you can always change the settings on the Audio tab at the time that you make the final render. 

On the Audio tab, enter the Number of additional stereo busses. This is important if you have multiple audio outputs (that is, multiple sound cards) on... 

Also on the Audio tab, set up the quality of the song. The default settings for the Sample rate (Hz) and Bit-depth are 44,100 Hz (44.1 kHz) and 16-bit, which is CD quality. These settings can all be changed when you create the final version of the song for publication. 

The Audio tab in the Preferences dialog contains the quick fade options. 

On the Audio tab, make sure Show volume control on the taskbar is chosen (see Figure 5.3). 

Also in the Preferences dialog box on the Audio tab, if Microsoft Sound Mapper is selected from the Audio device type field, you cannot select different hardware devices (in cases where you may have two or more sound cards on one computer). Select a device other than Microsoft Sound Mapper (for example, Windows Classic Wave Driver) and then, in the Record dialog box, select the device you want to record from on the Record device list. 

To change this behavior, select Preferences from the Options menu and, on the Audio tab, change the Open files as loops if between (seconds) item. 

While there are a large number of ways to interpret and play back MIDI data on your computer using any number of hardware and software devices, there is only one way to use MIDI to render a project in ACID. On the Track Header for MIDI tracks, the track must be routed through the Master device, which is the DirectX SoftSynth that ACID uses internally to process MIDI data. Click the Device Selection button (the Bus Selection button on audio tracks—see Figure 10.2) to see the list of available devices. The specific device that is available is set up on the Audio tab in the Preferences dialog box (see Figure 10.2). 

The Audio tab is similar to many other audio tabs in ACID rendering. Details are presented in the next chapter. The last tab for the. mov format is the Streaming tab. There are a few options here that are specific to streaming video from a QuickTime Streaming Server installed at your ISP. Contact your ISP for information on streaming the. mov format and which options are available. 

Set the balance of bitrates between the Audio tab and Video. There is no way to do this except to experiment. 

Some stuttering and performance problems may be caused by more complex factors involving the interaction of the various parts of your computer. One of the first places you should start to troubleshoot these sorts of problems is on the Audio tab of the Preferences dialog box. 

On the Summary tab, enter the optional song composition, engineering, and copyright information. Some audio file formats you create for publication will save this information along with the song. Otherwise, this information is for... 

The type of track into which an audio file is inserted can be changed in the Track Properties window. To view the Track Properties window, from the View menu, select Track Properties or press Alt + 6 on your keyboard. To see a specific track s properties, click that track the Track Properties window will immediately display that track s properties. The General tab in the Track Properties window has the Track type list, which displays and lets you change the type of track for that media file. 

Loop tracks and the media files that they contain that come from Sonic Foundry have beat, pitch, tempo, and type information saved with the file. Any audio files below about thirty seconds in length will be inserted as loops into loop tracks, with ACID s best guess about the beats and tempo. Pitch information will not be included, although pitch is an important aspect of Loop tracks. This is because Loop tracks can be pitch shifted automatically or manually. The Stretch tab in the Track Properties dialog is used to control this information. While most loop files contain pitch information, this is not really necessary for loops that are not primarily tonal in nature, such as drum and percussion parts. Most percussion loops are inserted as loops into Loop tracks and can have pitch information added, but they do not have a root note selected on the Stretch tab. 

The Audio format basically adjusts whether the fde is in stereo and the overall quality. The Video quality sets the overall video quality, but there are many more controls that are used to adjust the video on the various tabs. Neither of these gives you precise numerical control over the stream click the Advanced button to define the settings for each preset. 

Bitrate is the most critical factor in streaming video. The total bitrate is the audio bitrate plus the video bitrate together. No matter what you select on the other tabs, the final file will have a bitrate that is equal to the one selected on this tab. It is possible to select audio bitrates that are higher than the total bitrate on the Bitrate tab. 

Before you can write an audio CD (called burning), ACID must be configured to recognize your CD-writing hardware. From the Options menu, select Preferences and click the CD tab. In the Write drive box, select your CD writer from the list. In the Write speed box, select Max. Unless you have problems with CD writing errors, the driver used to do the writing will automatically select the fastest possible writing speed. Some older CD writers and their drivers may cause problems and you may have to set the Write speed manually in this box. 

The CD tab is used to configure both the burning of ACID projects to CD-R and the extraction (ripping) of tracks from audio CDs to media files on your hard disk. 

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