Zooming in on loop start / end markers

[crduval]

I must be missing something obvious here, but is there any way to zoom in on a sample waveform at the loop start or end markers? I don't see anything in the manual and have tried various command / control / shift scrolling combinations with no luck. I can zoom in fine but the start or end points walk off the screen.

I just know that this will end up being something so simple...


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[egelmett]

On a Mac, hold the Option key, then use a scroll wheel of a mouse, or two finger swipe up or down....it really is a PITA!

I wish there were a function on the GUI like most DAWs have to zoom in on a waveform...(hint, hint MOTU).

[crduval]

Thanks egelmett - I have that part down!

I was hoping there was a way to zoom at a loop start or end point - in other words zoom in so that the loop start point does not move as you zoom in.

I'd like to try to pick my loop points at zero crossing points.


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[monkey man]

I assume you're looping traditional-style oscillators, static drones or drum loops as zero-crossing ones, crduval. This approach will mean little on any evolving sound, even if it's volume-only variance, although heavy compression could conceivably make this feasible.

I highly recommend say, a 10% crossfade, where a portion of the pre-loop audio is crossfaded into the area leading up to the end-loop marker. That way, as the timeline approaches the turnaround point, it "slowly" (specifiable through the % amount) morphs into what leads up to the start-loop time of the waveform. Works a charm, usually with little adjustment. You can drag the loop end position around and the crossfade will stay in place and be recalculated quickly enough so as to not be an imposition... get it? Position? Oh man... I'm waaay out of form.

Hope this helps. If you're already all over this it may assist someone else someday.

[crduval]

Hi Monkey Man, great to see you active in the forum again!

The specific situation was that I had a sample of a mono sung vocal that sustained a note, but I wanted to add a loop to extend the sustain. I set up a loop and then tried to use a crossfade to get rid of the artifact I heard on the loop. I was able to reduce the artifact, but not eliminate it. I tried to zoom in to get the loop points to zero cross, but only was marginally successful, as once I got zoomed in that far, it was difficult to go back and find the loop points, and I couldn't see a way to set the points to my cursor position (maybe this feature is in there somewhere too and I don't know about it).

Anyway, I never ended up with a really successful loop even with a crossfade. Mind you it could have been that the singer was not trained, and was moving around the mic, so tonally there were fluctuations that I couldn't do much about, and that may have been the thing that I kept hearing rather than a poor loop, but I could not be sure. And of course, operator error with adjusting that crossfade is always a possibility too!

The last sampler I used was my Kurzweil K2500 - that had a very neat screen view for precisely setting loops that had been roughly set up. The screen was split in two, with the dividing line showing the loop point. The right hand side showed the waveform at the beginning of the loop, and the left side showed the waveform at the end of the loop. You could zoom in all the way down to bit by bit resolution and easily "connect" the waveforms by moving along them on either side until they were equal to create a seamless loop. That would be a cool GUI feature for M5 IMO...

I'll keep at it with crossfades and maybe I can get this to work - or maybe I'll just have the singer back in to give me a better performance!

Chris

[monkey man]

Hey there, Chris. Thank you for the kind words.

That UI sounds fantastic. I've seen ones like that before but can't remember where. It may have been on any one of the AKAI, EMU and Ensoniq units I owned through the '90s. You'd think that in this day and age the ability to cop that view would at least be a handy toggle button or mini-menu, and that one'd be able to call up the various views with a key combo much as one does in the Finder for the four views.

As far as that vocal is concerned, I wonder if it might be worth, as I suggested, compressing it 'till an even level is maintained throughout sustained portions. Furher to that, DP's pitch editor should be able to eliminate pitch variations too, and you could tailor it to work on only the sections you want to loop. Render it, drag it to MachFive, and Bob just might be your auntie. Beats repeating the session, so it might be worth a try.

Oh, and if the timbre varies too much, you could possibly ameliorate the artey-farts... I mean, facts, by automating EQ as well.

Good luck, Chris.

[crduval]

Thanks monkey man. I'll try your suggestions!



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