Directions

1. Connect a MIDI keyboard or other MIDI device to your computer.
2. View the OMS Setup help in Project 13B Part I
3. Open the application by double-clicking on the file "Vision DSP 4.1" within the Opcode folder of your hard drive
4. Complete the tasks on the Guidesheet below and use the Project Worksheet for Project 13 to record the results of your work.
5. Complete Project 13B Part I of the Vision tutorial.

Software

Full of Shareware version of Vision DSP 4.1.

Hardware

Your computer will need to have a CD-ROM device or other external audio device (i.e.  tape deck, CD Player, etc...) connected to your sound card.

There are four parts to this project:

1. Setting up Your Recording Defaults
2. Basic Operation
3. Recording your own audio file in Cakewalk
4. Advanced Audio Editing

        It is assumed that you have setup your Mac and Vision to appropriately handle MIDI data.  If you have not done so, please view
        the OMS Setup guide in order to do so.

Setup Options.
 

Go to Audio => Audio System to configure you audio hardware for use with Vision. Set the Default audio hardware you have.  Note:  the DAE and Acadia are special drivers for use with specific hardware devices.  If you don't have these devices you won't need to select them.  For now and on most systems it is probably best to select Sound Manager. Be sure to configure the Sample Rate/Size defaults.  A good setting for CD quality audio is 44.1 kHz and 16 bit stereo.  Configure your Buffer size to either small, medium, or large depending on the amount of system RAM you have. You will also find that in most cases you will have to turn Virtual Memory off from within the Control Panels. Consult your Vision DSP manual for more information about hardware and other default settings.

Go to the DSP menu and select DSP Preferences.  In this window you can set the default folders Vision will place recorded audio files and whether or not to save the audio files as part of a sequence.  Furthermore, you can configure basic aspects of the DSP items.  For more information check the Vision DSP manual supplement that came with your software.

• Further Setup Items of Interest

 
• Hardware Issues.

Recording digital audio is a huge task to ask of any computer.  Here are some suggestions to help speed up the process.
 
• Large Hard Drives.  Digital audio takes up a lot of space at certain settings.  With the falling prices of hard drives in the last year or so, you might consider purchasing a larger drive.  It's not uncommon to see 1 or 2 gigabytes dedicated solely to digital audio on a sound engineer's drive.  If you expect you'll be doing a lot of audio work, it's worth the investment.

 
• RAM   Not only does digital audio eat up space on the hard drive, but it also takes a large amount of memory to perform signal processing.  Again, with the falling prices of computer hardware it may be a worthwhile investment if you plan on doing this with any frequency.

 

On your Project Worksheet for this project, record any problems or concerns you have with the setup procedures described here. If all seems well, continue with the project. Return to this part of your worksheet later, however, and record any changes in the setup that you made as you began to use the program and your hardware.

Return to Project Menu

Step 2: Basic Operation
Now that we have our software ready to go and our hardware in place, let's begin by opening a Vision/MIDI file that has already been entered and learn how to add digital audio to it.

• Opening an audio file in Vision

 
1. Start by opening a MIDI file within or create a new file.

 
2. Select a track by clicking on the button in the far left side of the track window to select the entire track.

 
3. Go to File => Import Audio.  Vision will go through a couple of steps, converting the files if needed and then place the document on the track.

 
4. Vision will automatically place the file into track highlighted and where the scroll bar is currently at.  (The vertical black bar that scrolls through the piece as it plays)  To place the file at let's say measure five, click the measure area in measure five to place the scroll bar and insert the audio file.

 

If the placement is not correct, which often times it will not be, you can click on the audio clip and drag it where you wish.  Note, the cursor quantize works with digital audio as well as MIDI information.  You can use this to your advantage to help place the files on the beat if need be.  Remember you can advance the Now Time bar by clicking in the measure number area of the clip window.

5. Let's experiment with the sound file for a moment.  Double click on the graphical representation of the sound file in the track window.  The piano roll notation window will appear and in the bottom where normally velocity information would be is a clip of the sound file.  You can mute or solo the audio file from here has well.  You can use this window for exacting placement of your audio files to sync up with MIDI data already there.


 

6. That's it!  That's all there is to adding audio clips in Vision.  If you have Peak LE or a comparable digital audio editing software package, create a few of your own samples and add them into a Cakewalk sequence.  You can, if you wish, use Vision as a multitrack digital audio program.  You don't have to use MIDI with your audio clips.

 
Before we begin the next section, a few more additional words need to be said about Vision's audio capabilities.  Looking at the Audio Instruments window under the Windows menu, you are allowed to change the number of available audio instruments at your disposal.  There is no "software" limit to this number, however, the limit is based on your system RAM.  In other words, the amount of audio tracks is determined by the amount of digital audio your system can play at any one given time.  In short, need more instruments?  Add more RAM.

Vision also allows for general editing and signal processing of your imported audio clips provided you have the appropriate plug-ins.  Vision does come packaged with a few basic tools, however, if you wish to really do intensive audio work you must purchase the external plug-ins.   The plug-ins from 3rd party software designers are:  Adobe Premiere Plug-ins, VST from Steinberg, and TDM from Digidesign.  If you wish to experiment with the tools pre-packaged with Vision, click on the wave file you wish and click the effect from the DSP menu.

If you have the full-featured version of Vision, save different versions of this file in a location appropriate for your situation. If you are using the demo supplied with the EMT-CD and have a tape recorder or other kind of recording system connected to your MIDI equipment, record a few versions of this file.

On your Project Worksheet for this project, provide a complete description of the experiments you have conducted while working with the basic operation of this software.
 

Return to Project Menu

Step 3: Recording your own audio file(s) in Vision

For the following example we will be using your CD-ROM as the input device.  You can later hook up a tape player, VCR, or other device to the "Line In" on your sound card.  At this point, it is assumed that you have configured your system to properly playback sound and music CD's.  TIP!  If you don't own a digital audio card, be sure to select Sound Manager (Apple's internal recording device) in the Hardware Setup option from the Audio menu.  Use the CD as the sound device.

If you don't own a program like Peak, Metro, or other digital audio editing/capturing software package you can use Vision to capture your audio files.  One word of caution:  if you make a MIDI sequence and add digital audio to the sequence, it will NOT be portable unless the end user also has Vision.  These files must be played back with Vision and cannot be used unless they are converted to a Quick Time Movie format.  The files you create now are designed to be used on your computer only.

Follow the steps below to record audio from a CD into a blank document.

1. Create a new file in Vision by going to File => New.

 
2. Choose Windows => Record Monitor or press the  button next to the Transport Controls.  Make sure the pop up box is set to Replace!



The record monitor window will appear.
 

3. Decide whether or not you will record a stereo file by clicking the "stereo" box to enable stereo recording.  You can also set the Sample Size between 8 and 16 bit directly to the right of the stereo click box.

 
4. Under the Rec pane in the Monitor window, click one of the two buttons.  It will turn red showing you that Vision is ready to record.  Switch the Wait for Note pop-up box to Countoff and type 0 for the number of measures.

 
5. Press the "R" button next to one of the tracks (the one that will contain the data) in the Tracks Window.

 
6. Put your CD into your CD-Rom drive.  The CD Player should automatically play your CD.

 
7. Check your recording levels using the LED's.

 
8. Press the Record button on the Transport toolbar.  Vision will automatically place the file at measure 1, beat 1, tick 0.

 
9. When finished hit the Stop button or use the Spacebar.

 
10. Use the Punch In button to place the "Now Time" bar at the place where you want to record.  Don't forget to enable the Punch recording!

 
11. You can move your finished recording anywhere in the track window by clicking and dragging the file.  You can even switch them from track to track as well.

Final Notes:

Vision will place the stereo file in one track in the track window.

Double-clicking the audio clip will bring up the piano roll notation window.  At the bottom of the new window you will see the waveform data where you would normally edit velocity or continuous MIDI data.



Select a portion of the wave file as you would normal MIDI data.  To digitally process the file, select the plug-in from the DSP menu.

To record a mono file, follow the steps above.  However, instead of arming two tracks for recording you will only arm one.  Then, record your sound.

Return to Project Menu

Step 4:  Advanced Audio Editing

Vision offers a few digital audio editing and signal processing tools in DSP 4.1.  For the following exercises we will need a digital audio file already imported into Vision (pre-existing file) or one that you created in the step above.  Make sure the audio file is in place before continuing and that it is on one track. (Don't split the file or add other tracks!)   Once the file is in place double-click the sound data in the track window.  We will be doing most of our editing and processing from this window.
 

Applying a Fade In/Out to an Audio File

Click on the I-beam tool next to the pencil icon.  

Select the beginning portion of the wave file.  (Place the I-beam on the line between the left and right channels of the audio signal)  

Go to DSP =>  Fade/Crossfade. 

 

 
 

Set the options exactly as shown above.  We are applying a linear (straight line) fade in and using the selection range.  

Click OK to apply the fade in.  

Select the end portion of the sound clip and apply a fade out by deselecting fade in and selecting fade out in a linear fashion as well.

Normalizing Audio

Vision allows you to normalize your audio clip from the DSP menu.

To Normalize Audio:

Select the audio to be affected.  

Go to DSP =>  Normalize

I'm sure you've noticed by now that so far Vision has asked you to Save your changes.  Vision is making an "Undo" file so that it can recover the original file should you change your mind at a later date.   You can bypass this screen by clicking the "Bypass this screen next time" button.

Using the Equalizer

Vision allows you to add a low pass, high pass, and band pass EQ's to your selected audio file.  Select the portion of the data to apply it to and select EQ from the DSP menu.  Then, select the pass filter.

Other Audio FX in Vision in the DSP Menu
 

Reverse   Use this to reverse all or portions of your audio file.  

Pitch Shift  Use this to raise or lower the pitch of a recorded sound file.  Good for matching recordings that are out of tune with each other.  

Time Scale  Use this to stretch audio clips so that they are "forced" to any tempo you wish.  Audio files can also be "shrunk" to fit smaller timeframes. 

 

That's all you need to get started using Vision to create MIDI sequences with digital audio embedded inside.  Experiment with some of the more advanced features of Vision DSP that are outside the scope of this tutorial.  You'll find that Vision will constantly meet and grow with your needs as your sequencing competence increases.

To end this project, return to either your own sequenced file or one of the files provided on the EMT-CD. Choose three of the advanced editing options described and apply them to the file. If you are using the full-featured version of this software, save the results of each experiment and save the files in a location that is appropriate for your location. On the Project Worksheet, record the tiles of your files and explain in some detail what you did in the experiment. If you are using the demo version of the software, record the experiments on the tape recorder attached to your MIDI system and fill in the Project Worksheet by writing about your experiments.

If you are using the full-featured version of this software, practice saving a few song sets. Regardless of which version of the software you have, provide a description on your Project Worksheet of how you might use the song playlist options of sequencing software in a real-life performance situation.

Project 13B Part II is completed. Congratulations!

Version 1.0
©1996 David B. Williams and Peter R. Webster
Schirmer Books