Playing a Sound

Basics	Editing	Effects and Tools
Getting Started	Common Operations	The Effects Menu
The Interface	Copying Data	The Process Menu
Playing a Sound	Regions	The Tools Menu
Recording	Markers
Saving a File

How do I
play a file?

You can hear a sound file by clicking on the Play All button on the Transport toolbar:

You can also play the sound by clicking the Play button on the Playbar at the bottom left of the data window:

While the file is playing, a vertical bar moves along the sound wave, showing the currently playing portion of the sound.

How do I
play just part
of a file?

It's easy to play a subset of your entire sound file.

You can begin playing at any point on the waveform by clicking where you would like to begin and then clicking the Play button. The sound will begin to play at the starting point you indicated, and will continue until the end.

If you don't want the sound to play through until the end, you can select a portion to play. Simply drag your mouse across the section of the soundwave that you want to play, then click the Play button.

In either case, you can click Play on either the Transport toolbar or the Playbar. (Don't click Play All, as Sound Forge will ignore the placement of your cursor and play the entire sound.)

Shortcut: Pressing the spacebar is the same as clicking the Play button.

Below is an example of what it looks like when you select part of a sound file. The mouse was dragged over the blackened section of the waveform. When the play button is clicked, the user will hear only "Wow" and nothing else.

How else can
I control play?

In addition to the Play and Play All buttons, both the Transport toolbar and the Playbar have buttons for controlling sound playback. (Some buttons can be found on both bars; others can only be found on one bar or the other.)

Transport Toolbar:

Playbar:

The Go to Start and Go to End buttons allow you to put the cursor at the start or end of the current sound file.

The Stop button stops the currently playing sound and returns the cursor to the beginning.

The Pause button stops the currently playing sound, but leaves the cursor at the stopping point. This way, you can click Play to continue playing from where you stopped.

The Rewind button moves the cursor back a little bit with each click.

The Forward button moves the cursor forward a little bit with each click.

The Loop button plays the selected section over and over in a continuous loop.

Practice

Let's practice!

Open a sound file:

Launch Sound Forge, if it's not already open.
Open the "tutor1.wav" file, located in the Soundforge folder under the Program Files folder on the C: drive.

Play an entire sound file:

On the Transport toolbar, press Play All.

Observe how the cursor bar moves along the data window showing the current position.

You will also hear the words "Wow, sound editing just gets easier and easier."

Start in the middle and play

Move your mouse pointer to the silence section right after the "Wow" portion of the file.

Click (don't drag, we don't want a selection yet) and you will see the flashing cursor bar in the silence area after the word "wow."

Click the Play button, and now you will only hear the "sound editing just gets easier and easier" part. (If you don't hear anything you may have made a small selection by accidentally dragging the mouse. If you would like to start over, just click in the data window again to clear the selection.)

Play a selection

Click and drag starting at the section of silence prior to"wow".

Drag the mouse until you have selected the entire "wow" area. (Notice how the soundwave highlights as you make your selection.

)

Release the mouse button when you have made the selection you want.

Click the Play button, and you should hear just the "wow" portion of the file.

Try the other controls

Experiment with the other controls, both in the Transport toolbar and the Playbar, until you are comfortable with how they work.

Revised, March 2002