Graphic Fade

david-hewitt wrote on 7/29/2018, 11:46 AM

Hi. The old Sound Forge (up to V10) had a graphic fade function which allowed easy tweaking of waveforms with up to 16 individual level points and was superb for removing unexpected peaks etc. The Fade->Graphic in V12 does not do this - just allows you to change the shape of the fade in or out curve. I edit a lot of live recordings where there is no control of levels at the recording stage so this feature was one of the main reasons I use Sound Forge - I can clean up a recording where levels are all over the place in a matter of a few minutes. I have been unable to find this ability anywhere in Version 12 (please say if I'm not looking in the right place), so, despite other improvements elsewhere, this new version is still of no use to me for the majority of my work. For now, the upgrade has been a waste of money and I'm still using Version 10. Are there any plans to bring back this function (with a larger window and even more points perhaps)? I check out each new update to see if this has reappeared but no joy so far.😞

 

Comments

rraud wrote on 7/31/2018, 2:41 PM

I do not currently have Sound Forge Audio Studio 12 installed, but according to the AS-12 user manual, Graphic Fade is in the 'Process' menu. In Sound Forge Pro 12, Graphic Fade is where it's always been, "Process> Fade> Graphic" The toolbar can be customized with a Graphic Fade button if you so desire and/or a keyboard shortcut can be created as well.

Another fade option is using the timeline 'Volume envelope'. That plug-in is in the "Insert" menu (keyboard shortcut "V").

Make sure you have the latest build (currently Pro 12 build 29). I recall some of the 'Process' menu items were missing in some of the beta test builds.

david-hewitt wrote on 8/1/2018, 1:59 AM

I do not currently have Sound Forge Audio Studio 12 installed, but according to the AS-12 user manual, Graphic Fade is in the 'Process' menu. In Sound Forge Pro 12, Graphic Fade is where it's always been, "Process> Fade> Graphic" The toolbar can be customized with a Graphic Fade button if you so desire and/or a keyboard shortcut can be created as well.

Another fade option is using the timeline 'Volume envelope'. That plug-in is in the "Insert" menu (keyboard shortcut "V").

Make sure you have the latest build (currently Pro 12 build 29). I recall some of the 'Process' menu items were missing in some of the beta test builds.

Yes, the Graphic Fade is where I expected to find it but the functionality has been reduced from being able to set up to 16 level points from - infinity to +12dB over the selection to just a start level, end level and curve shape between them. I can just about achieve the same results as in V10 but it takes about 10-15 minutes to do what I can do in V10 in 30 seconds. I've just processed 50 or so 1 hour recordings taken off a PA system in a festival where I had no control of levels at the recording time and re-balancing the voices from (say) two participants in conversation was quick easy in the older version but feels unbelievably tedious in V12. It's a deal-breaker for me and V12 just languishes in the corner of the desktop in the hope that this feature will return in an update (possibly enhanced with a larger window, more points and being able to define inter-point curves). It was this function in particular that led me to Sound Forge in the first place, many years ago.

I've looked for Volume Envelope but can't see it - perhaps this is in the Pro version only?

david-hewitt wrote on 8/1/2018, 5:41 AM

I do not currently have Sound Forge Audio Studio 12 installed, but according to the AS-12 user manual, Graphic Fade is in the 'Process' menu. In Sound Forge Pro 12, Graphic Fade is where it's always been, "Process> Fade> Graphic" The toolbar can be customized with a Graphic Fade button if you so desire and/or a keyboard shortcut can be created as well.

Another fade option is using the timeline 'Volume envelope'. That plug-in is in the "Insert" menu (keyboard shortcut "V").

Make sure you have the latest build (currently Pro 12 build 29). I recall some of the 'Process' menu items were missing in some of the beta test builds.

Yes, the Graphic Fade is where I expected to find it but the functionality has been reduced from being able to set up to 16 level points from - infinity to +12dB over the selection to just a start level, end level and curve shape between them. I can just about achieve the same results as in V10 but it takes about 10-15 minutes to do what I can do in V10 in 30 seconds. I've just processed 50 or so 1 hour recordings taken off a PA system in a festival where I had no control of levels at the recording time and re-balancing the voices from (say) two participants in conversation was quick easy in the older version but feels unbelievably tedious in V12. It's a deal-breaker for me and V12 just languishes in the corner of the desktop in the hope that this feature will return in an update (possibly enhanced with a larger window, more points and being able to define inter-point curves). It was this function in particular that led me to Sound Forge in the first place, many years ago.

I've looked for Volume Envelope but can't see it - perhaps this is in the Pro version only?

Have just downloaded latest version of Audacity (haven't used it in years) and the Envelope tool in that does what I need - perhaps I'll go back to that, despite its overall clunkiness. Can't find a similar feature in AS12.

rraud wrote on 8/1/2018, 10:36 AM

AS-12 probably does not have the timeline volume envelope. I only used AS-12 briefly in beta testing and the UI is quite different from SF Pro, which I'm accustomed to, so I did not continued to use it.. though it has a few nice features SF Pro does not, for instance video re-muxing. OTOH, Audacity is decent and you can't beat the price.