**************************************************************************** Surf Version 1.0 April 1993 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- WAV audio file toolbox for Windows 3.1 **************************************************************************** ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~ ~ ~ Surf is Shareware. If you use Surf for more than 10 ~ ~ days, you must register. ~ ~ ~ ~ You can register Surf two ways: ~ ~ ~ ~ 1. A License number for this version...........$15.00 ~ ~ ~ ~ 2. To have the latest version shipped to you...$20.00 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Print out and send in the ORDER.FRM file to register. ~ ~ ~ ~ Please include $2.00 for shipping outside the U.S. ~ ~ ~ ~ Please send checks or money orders in U.S. dollars only ~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~ Thanks for trying Surf! ~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Introduction ------------ Surf is designed to be a toolbox for modifying and editing Windows 3.1 WAV files. You'll need Windows 3.1 and a sound device capable of digital output (e.g. SoundBlaster, Pro Audio Spectrum, Adlib Gold, etc). Regular Adlib cards cannot play WAV files. There is a driver for the built-in speaker inside your PC that was released after Windows 3.1. The quality is poor, but it is free from Microsoft. Surf is designed to be fun and useful. I've tried to leave out the tech- nical details wherever possible. I'm planning a much more technical version if Surf is successful. Alot of people won't understand if you say "inverting the sample", but if you say "sounds like playing in a garage", they get the idea. I'm by no means an expert, and this is a good place to thank Jason Bell (my brother) and Na'im Ru for explanations, ideas, and even some source code. This is the first offical release of Surf and while a beta copy was in use for quite awhile, there is still one glaring limitation: Surf is currently limited to 8-bit monophonic sound editing. If DEMAND for stereo or 16-bit work picks up, then I'll have to change things, but so far no one has made such requests. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% % % % If you have an idea for a function for Surf, drop me a line. % % My address is: % % % % James Bell % % PO Box 57336 Phone: (904) 641-0634 % % Jacksonville, FL 32241-7336 Internet: jb1@cis.ufl.edu % % % %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Surf is a file-based toolbox, which means that WAV files are never held in memory (except partially, during playback), so the only limitation on WAV file size is the size of your hard drive. Using Surf ---------- To start up Surf, just copy the SURF.EXE file onto your hard drive and use Program Manager or File Manager to run SURF.EXE. You should see the Surf window appear with a status bar at the bottom. Choose "File...Open" and select a WAV file for editing. The status bar will display information about the WAV file you opened, and will look something like this: +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | File opened 22050 Hz (8-bit mono) 1.1 seconds (24255 bytes) | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ Interpreting the status bar --------------------------- The "22050 Hz" refers to the "Sample Rate" of the WAV file. This is the number of samples that were collected in one second during recording. For 8-bit recordings, a "sample" is one byte. You can verify the numbers for playback time ("1.1 seconds") and number of bytes ("24255 bytes") with a little math: (1.1 seconds) X (22050 samples/second) = 24255 samples You may hear of sample rates in the kilohertz (kHz), so note that "1000 Hz" is the same as "1 kHz". For various (technical) reasons the sample rate determines the highest frequency of sound that can be reproduced. The sample rate must be twice as high as the highest frequency to be recorded or played back. For reference, most people's speaking pitch is below 5000 Hz, and most of us cannot hear tones over 20,000 Hz. Below are some common sample rates: Sample Rate Highest Freq. Comment ----------- ------------- ---------------------------------------- 4000 Hz 2000 Hz The slowest possible sample rate for many common* sound devices. 11025 Hz 5512 Hz A common sample rate (1/4 of CD rate). 12000 Hz 6000 Hz Highest possible (recording) sample rate for many common sound devices. 22050 Hz 11025 Hz A common sample rate (1/2 of CD rate). 23000 Hz 11500 Hz Highest possible (playback) sample rate for many common sound devices. 44100 Hz 22050 Hz Sample rate for CD-quality sound. * "common" = Creative Labs' SoundBlaster card Playing with Surf ----------------- Once you have your sound file open, you're ready to start modifying the sound. There is a "button-bar" for easy access to many of the functions below. Here are some of the things you can do with Surf: Show - You can view the WAV file you're working on in four ways, all four views scale themselves to the current window size: The "Current" choice on the "Show" menu is the quickest way to look at the sound. It will select 1 sample out of several and draw it as one line on the screen. The "Compare" choice shows you the current sound as well as the previous one. This will let you compare, for example, the original samples with the sound after you've added echo. The "Extended" choice is slow, but gives a more accurate picture of the sound samples. It draws ALL the samples (on top of one another if necessary) in the window. The "Peaks only" display is probably the best mix of speed versus accuracy. It shows the highest and lowest samples. You can also get this display by clicking with the right mouse button anywhere on the window. Play - This (of course) plays the current sound. You can restart the playback by selecting Play again before the sample finishes. The playback is in the background, so you can continue editing while it is playing. Undo - This will "undo" the last function. After you undo, you can "redo" if you change your mind again. ReOpen - This will reopen the original file you started working with, effectivly throwing out your changes to the file. Save - Lets you save your all your changes to a WAV file. Cut/Copy - This is where you can cut out or make a copy of some part of your WAV file. You'll see a miniature version of the WAV image and you just click on the image to select the beginning and end of the sound you want. Then you can click on "Cut" or "Copy" depending on which you want to do. There's also a "Test (play)" button that'll play the part of the sample you outlined. Insert/Mix- Once you've cut or copied some audio, you'll want to paste it in somewhere; this is how you do it. You'll see another miniature image of your WAV file, and you just pick the spot where you'd like to put in the piece you cut or copied. Now you have to decide whether you'd like to mix it in or insert it. If you mix, you'll be combining the audio that you cut or copied with what is displayed. If you insert, you'll be adding the audio you cut or copied in front of the point you selected. Copy From - This will let you copy a WAV audio file for use in inserting or mixing. Paste To - This will let you save some audio that you cut or copied as a seperate WAV file. Add Echo - You can add three levels of artifical echo to your samples. The "Short" echo repeats about every 0.15 seconds and sounds like talking in a large room. This kind of echo is usually called "reverb". The "Medium" echo repeats about every 0.25 seconds and it sounds like the echo on a stadium P.A. system. The "Long" echo repeats about every 0.60 seconds and it is like the echo you hear if you shout from a mountaintop. Volume - You can change the volume level of the WAV file. You should take care using this - if you make the sample too loud, something called "clipping" happens and it sounds awful. Use the "Show" feature and make sure that you don't make the sound so loud that any samples shown reach the top of the display window. If you make a sample very loud or soft, don't expect to be able to change the volume back and have the same sound. It is similar to "washing out" the colors in a picture. You should try to keep the volume as high as possible without clipping. Check the display after each function to make sure the volume isn't too loud or soft. Take a WAV file and play around with the volume, it is useful to see what it looks and sounds like at each step. Continuous Play - Plays the current sound over and over. Surf will shrink to an icon during playback. When you double-click on Surf's icon, it stops playing. Smooth - Attempts to "even out" sharp changes in consecutive samples. This sort of "dampens" the sound, making it sound like it was played in the next room or under a blanket. Hiss - (Removing) Sets samples that are nearly "silent" to silence. This has the effect of removing the hiss that can be heard during long peiods of silence. The Heavy, Medium, and Light levels reflect what samples Surf will consider to be "nearly-silent". Note that if many samples are "silenced", it can make the speaker "pop" during playback. What happens is that once the smaller samples are removed, the larger ones that are left tend to "pop" the speaker abruptly. This can sometimes be worse than the hiss you were removing! You'll hear what I mean if you try this on a few sounds. (Adding) This adds random values to the samples of the sound, effectively creating hiss. Chorusing - This is bit like a varying echo. The idea is to add layers of slight echo to give the impression that a "chorus" is present instead of a single sound source. "Medium" effect usually has the best results. Try doing this function 1-3 times, each on top of the last. With a suitable sample, it really can sound like a chorus. Inversion - This produces a sound like speaking in a room with concrete walls. It's quite a bit like playing the sample in a garage. Even more so if you Invert the sound a second or third time. Phazer- Chorus - This is something of a mix between a phaser and the chorus function. Like inversion, it only sonds good with some samples, others sound awful. Sample Rate - This is probably the most fun to play with. You can change the rate at which the samples are played. This will slow down or speed up the pitch and length (timewise) of the sound. As mentioned above, you should keep sample rates between 4000 Hz and 23,000 Hz. Shrink Audio - This can let you save some space with longer samples. What it does is remove every fourth sample and then decrease the sample rate by 25%. With some WAV files there is only a slight loss in quality, even when the file is "shrunk" 2-3 times. You'll have to decide if this quality-for-space tradeoff is useful for your files. Reverse - This simply reverses the order of the samples in the WAV file, so your audio is backwards. Note that this function is SLOW, so don't use it on some huge WAV file unless you're prepared to wait a little while. Registering Surf ---------------- Remember, if you find yourself "just playing around" with Surf for fun, you should register -- that's what it was designed for! You can register and get a license number for Surf in two ways: 1. Send me $15.00 and I'll send you a license number. -OR- 2. Send me $20.00 and I'll mail you a copy of the latest version. Once you enter your license number, you won't have to see that registration reminder every so often, and your license will be valid for all future versions of Surf. Please send your registration as: a) a check in U.S. dollars (drawn on a U.S. bank) b) a money order (e.g. Canadian postal, Bundepost, etc.) Obviously you can send U.S. currency, but I don't want to be responsible if the money gets "lost" on the way (although this has NEVER happened in the past). Print and fill-out the ORDER.FRM file and send to: James Bell PO Box 57336 Jacksonville, FL 32241-7336 Questions? My Internet e-mail address is: jb1@cis.ufl.edu. Prices are subject to change. The Future for Surf ------------------- Functions & features planned for later releases of Surf: * Pitch adjustment WITHOUT changing the length of the playback time. In other words, shifting the frequencies up or down using Fourier transform. This function is already working in many ways, but still needs some time. * Stereo and over 8-bit support. * A specialized function to modify a WAV file so that it will sound better when played through the Windows 3.1 PC-Speaker driver. I'm open to ideas on just how to do this, anyone got any? * Converting mono into "pseudostereo" by putting right channel slightly out of phase with left. * Better noise reduction (also using Fourier transform mentioned above). Ideally, giving you a digital graphic equalizer. * Perhaps some conversions from SND, VOC, AU, etc. formats to WAV. Please don't hesitate if you have other ideas for this list, call me! About Surf ---------- Surf was created with QuickC for Windows and the Windows 3.1 SDK. Surf is roughly 3000 lines of code. Surf is my second "major" Windows program. I also wrote Statline, a handy little status bar for Windows 3.x. Statline can show you the date, time, free memory, free system resources, etc. It can also launch programs, exit Windows quickly, keep a mini notepad, and more. You can register both Statline and Surf together, see the ORDER.FRM file or call me for details. End of plug. New versions of Surf (and all my software) get posted first to: - The Blue Ridge Express BBS: (804)790-9600 (join the "jbell" area) - Internet at: wuarchive.wustl.edu and ftp.cica.indiana.edu By the way, it has been noted that any sound editing/playback tool has the potential to damage either the user's hearing or playback equipment. For example, a sound could have the volume increased to a large amount, then be played back through an amplifier. The amp could conceivably "blow" the speaker or damage the eardrum. I will not be held liable for this sort of mishap, even if the sound was a result of a Surf function. Free registration to the first (and only the first) person who can tell me the origin of the following phonetics: "eh ick nowie ooh snuif maset". About Me -------- I have a BS in Computer Information Science from the University of Florida and am currently working as a Software Consultant. If your company needs an experienced Windows (3 years) or DOS (5 years) programmer, consider hiring me. If you are a programmer yourself, consider contacting me. I'm giving quite a bit of thought to forming a "Shareware alliance" of several programmers under a single roof. If you're spending more time sending out orders than programming, maybe this will interest you. Thanks for using Surf James Bell 04/24/93 P.S. Surf is Copyright 1992,1993 James Bell "Windows" and "QuickC" are TM Microsoft Corp. "SoundBlaster" is TM Creative Labs Inc. Other trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners