mp3DirectCut
User Manual
FAQ
Homepage
Table of contents
Quick reference
What is mp3DirectCut?
Basic settings
Navigation
Audio editing
Prelisten and Output
Recording
Project files
Command line parameters
- Method 1: Left button sets the beginning of the selection (by clicking or dragging), the right button sets the end.
- Method 2: Left button makes a new selection and enlarges it. The right button moves beginning or end (depending on which is nearer).
What is mp3DirectCut?
mp3DirectCut is a frame based editor for MPEG audio.
You can set regions for cutting or changing the volome
like in common audio editors. At all operations the file
will not be re-encoded. This saves time and disk space
and prevents loss of audio quality. You can easily
navigate through even large files and mp3DirectCut
gives you a visualisation of the MP3 audio data.
Basic Settings
The program needs either an installed MP3 ACM Codec
or the 'mpglib.dll' to decode MP3 for playback. The
mpglib.dll with the complete source is available at
mp3DirectCut's
homepage.
It is based on the mpglib which is originally
provided by Michael Hipp (www.mpg123.de).
Since version 0.92 mpglib.dll decodes Layers 2 and 3.
Which decoder fits best depends on your machine. The
mpglib.dll makes the editor independent (if you don't have an
ACM) and supports Layer 2. But it takes more cpu than ACM.
You can adjust the amount of frames decoded to each play
buffer between 'fast' (1) and 'reliable' (8). On slower machines
set a higher value. If you want to have a fast response of
the graphics select a faster value.
Navigation
As mp3DirectCut is designed to handle large files,
there are many ways to reach a position:
Scrollbar
[<<<] [<<] [>>] [>>>]
Mouse
[I...<<] [>>...I]
Edit Menu and [I<] [>I]
Some words about visualisation of MP3: the audio graph
takes volume information directly from the MP3 frames and
differsfrom the real decoded audio amplitude. Even the
height which the frame bars can reach varies by different
MP3 types. The graph is for orientation and searching
positions. For a more reliable audio level use the
VU meter on the right.
Some words about visualisation of MP2: it's of pure
statistical style and contains no audio information.
Audio editing
1. To edit a part of your track you must first make or
change a Selection using one of these ways:
The arrow buttons move a sinlge frameback or forward,
the page up/down areas skip the file by +/- 100 MPEG frames (2-3 seconds).
You can even use Keys to control the Scrollbar (Arrow l/r and Page u/d).
But this is only possible with a focused scrollbar. For quickly focusing it
you can press TAB.
These buttons are user definable.
You can set the amount of frames to skip back/forward
in the configuration window between 10 and 10.000 for
[<<<] and [>>>] and between 1 and 1.000 for [<<] [>>].
You can directly jump to any file position by
left clicking into the map area below the audio graph.
And: holding down the CTRL key and clicking into the
audio graph jumps to the shown audio position. Moving
the mouse slowly with button pressed allows smooth scrolling.
These buttons will set the position
to the selection's beginning or end. If there is no selection
the position will set to the active region (cut, gain, cue).
Let you choose the active region and sets the position to it's beginning.
[Set begin] [Set end]
These buttons will set the beginning or the end of the
selection to the current position.
Mouse
You can choose between two selection method in the Settings:
2. With your selection you can set one of three types of regions:
- Normal cut - contains data to be removed
- Gain area - volume changes or fadings
- Cue - a cut with the length of 0
Cuts and Cues
To make a normal cut mark a
selection and press [Cut]. If the selection has a length
of 0 it will become a cue. Cues do not modify the audio,
they can be used to locate positions and must be used
for creating a cue sheet (see under Project files).
While recording a cue can be set by pressing [Set begin].
Cuts do not disappear like in common audio editors. You will see them with a different background color.
Gain regions
The [ Gain ] button opens a dialog which lets you modify
the volume of the selection. 'from .. dB' sets the initial volume
change, 'to .. dB' the final. So the range can be faded in any
direction orconstantly changed. All volume changes are made in
steps of 1.5 dB and nothing will be re-encoded.
Volume regions are shown with the same background color but different color of audio data. Note: Volume change works only with Layer 3.
A gain region can also be created using the Normalize function in the edit menu. It scans the selection for the loudest amplitude and recommends a value to raise the volume to reach the maximum of 0 dB. This value can be adjusted with the slider. Going over 0 dB may cause distortions.
3. Change or remove existing regions
First set it the "active region" (highlighted). The easist way to do so is by using the "Autoselect" option (enabled by default). Alternatively you can highlight the regions as described in the Navigation section. Second press [Edit]. The region will become the selection and will be deleted (!). So after changing boundaries you must hit [Cut] or [Gain] again. Previous gain settings will be kept.
Limitations
The maximum number of different edit regions is 200.
Cuts and gain regions cannot overlap each others. If you
cut a selection which covers other cuts they will all
be merged (be careful with gains, they will also be
converted!). If you set a new gain which covers other cuts
nothing will be merged but the gain region will be shortened.