The Process Menu

What is the
Process menu?

The Process menu offers many ways to edit your original recorded piece. For example, if you pull down the Process menu and choose Fade, this will alter the sound file so that it fades out at the end. If you choose Reverse, the sound file is completely reversed! If you highlight a section of the sound file you can reverse just the highlighted part of the file. This can also be done with the volume in the process menu.

Screen Shot of Process Menu

How do I
apply a process?

In general, here's how to apply a process:

1) If you want the process to apply to the entire sound file, don't select anything in the data window. If you want the process to apply only to a subset of sound, highlight the area where you want it to occur.

2) Pull down the Process menu and choose the process you want to apply. Most processes will present a dialog box with options for the selected process, although a few do not have any options.

3) If a dialog box with options appears, set the options as desired, then click OK.

4) Play the sound to hear the result.

5) If you don't like what you have changed you could go into Edit and click on undo or you could hold down the control key and press z. This will put back the sound file to the way it was before you applied the process.

Following are descriptions of just a couple of the available processes.

Fade: This process is very important and was mentioned in the beginning of this section. When you add sound or a sound track to a sound file you don't just want to cut off the music without fading out. You also don't want to start music without first fading it in.

PRACTICE:

Pull down the Process menu and select fade. You will get three options: Graphic, In, and Out. It looks like this:
Choose one of the three examples and try it out on a sound file. You should try to fade in a sound file and fade out a sound file. Once you accomplish this try the Graphic fade (this is a little more tricky).
Here is what the graphic fade box looks like:

Fade out box

This may look a little confusing but it is really easy to use. All you do is click and drag the boxes that are located in the graphic fade menu (if you don't see the boxes it is all the way up at the 100% line). Move them around to get the desired results. You can listen to the changes you have made by clicking on the Preview button.

Tip: Make sure you know how to do these fading procedures.

Reverse: This process reverses a sound wave so that it plays backwards. It is really a neat process to add if you are trying to get creative.

PRACTICE:

Pull down the Process menu and select Reverse. No options are necessary.
Click Play and you will hear the sound file played in reverse.
Pull down the Edit menu and select Undo to reverse the change or press Ctrl + z.

Volume: This process changes the volume level of the sound file you are playing. This may not sound like a big deal but if you want to put a narration into a song it works best if you turn down the volume on the music before you add the narration.

Pull down the Process menu and select Volume. You will get a box that looks like this:

Volume Control Box

2. Play around with the volume control and preview what you have done by clicking on Preview.

3. If you want to keep the change click on OK, if you don't want to keep the change then click cancel or try again.

Tell me what you think!

Take take a moment to participate in a poll to let me know what you think about Sound Forge.

When you Submit your answer the results will open in another window. Just "X" out of it to get back to the tutorial.

Free Web poll for your Web site - freepolls.com

Revised, July 2003