Fades
- Once Steve's Wiki page on fading is published I would anticipate that we would link to it from this page.
- Gale: 14Nov12: It's a bit bare bones, and mostly duplication of the Effects page (apart from the images). Is there any more we can say? Something about what fades may be useful for? If/when we get Adjustable Fade shipped, would it go here? I am not sure it would. Perhaps this page should be for "automatic" fades?
- How about an image of Cross Fade after mixing, to show what we mean by equal volume after the mix?
- I can't see the point repeating the tips box both here and on the Effects page. I would suggest only having it here, if we want this page.
- Peter 15Nov12: Yes it is a little bare bones, but I was deeply conscious that this is the Manual and that thus here we need basically state what the commands do rather than how to effectively use them (in line with the documentation of the other effects). Use of the fade commands is complex tutorial material and I was intending to point this page at Steve's nascent tutorial on Steve's use of fades tutorial (which is currently under development in the Wiki but could IMO earn a useful place as a tutorial in the manual).
- Personally I find it useful to see the images of the various fades together on this page for easy visual comparison and I would hope that other readers would find that similarly useful. I was careful to keep the images and fades visually constant to facilitate such comparison.
- I have added an "After Cross Fade" image as you suggested - though I'm not entirely convinced of its utility here (see comments above re tutorial material).
- I agree that it's not worth repeating the note box on Effect Menu and here, so I have commented it out there for now. The note box here has slightly more information than the Effect Menu one - one extra bullet point.
- Bill 05Jan13:
- It seems we've reversed the normal usage of note and intro templates on this page. The page starts with a note at the top, then uses intros after each major heading. Regardless of the colour of the box, surely "tips" should not be at the head of the page? Tips ("semi-tutorial" material) have usually gone at the end of a page or section.
- If we feel this page needs an intro, would it make sense to introduce the fact the Audacity ships with several "types" or "flavours" of fade effects?
- In this case I am minded to agree with Ed, and would prefer the introductory paragraphs to be plain text.
- Peter 6Jan13: Good catch Bill - and sorry that was my fault. There never was an intro note to this page (an ommission I have now corrected) and when I moved the tutorial-type note from the bottom to the top that's wat caused a "note" to be topmost (Connie would not be pleased with me). I also plain-texted the stuff below the headers.
- Gale 11Jan13: I've now read this and tweaked the text (generalising fade direction so it applies to both fade in and out) and moving fade ins above fade outs as they appear in the app.
- I removed the H1's which are incorrect for screen readers (the page title is the only H1 - see Consistency). If you want HR's for each effect (I think they add nothing) please add them.
- I added a P1 for incorrect "after cross fade" image. Clearly when to use equal power and when equal gain fades should be discussed somewhere. I'm OK with a replacement image for "after cross fade" and then an image in the Adjustable Fade section to show an equal gain curve. Otherwise, Adjustable Fade has no corresponding tone image like all the other fades here, which looks a bit odd.
Linear Fades
These basic fades apply a fade to the selected audio such that the amplitude of the selection goes from absolute silence to the original amplitude (Fade In), or from the original amplitude to absolute silence (Fade Out). The shape of the fade is linear, so it appears as a straight line from beginning to end (when viewed in the default linear Waveform View Mode). The speed of the fade in or out is therefore constant throughout its length and depends entirely on the length selected for the fade.
Fade In
- Accessed by:
- Peter 17Nov12: I thought long and hard about this before I constructed the images. I finally decided that the most important thing on this page was to document the effects themselves rather than their usage (that to me is tutorial material as in Steve's emerging Steve's use of fades a referenced above) - accordingly I wanted the users to be able to directly visually compare the fade shapes. Note too that there is actually no timeline/timebase in the images,so the fade length is not specified directly in the image.
- Gale: Not a big deal, but I am not entirely convinced. "Unlike fading out a fade in is normally applied over a very short audio selection (less than a second)" is surely itself "tutorial material" (and is "less than a second" correct?). I agree it's good to let users compare like with like, but if you choose to introduce the comment about what the fade in is used for, it's confusing to then have the selections the same apparent length, timeline or not. Maybe have an additional image to show the difference the length of selection makes?
A fade in is often applied over a very short audio selection (less than a second). You may get a more "musical" result by applying a linear fade in three times to the same audio selection. This approximates an exponentially shaped fade in.
Fade Out
- Accessed by:
A fade out is often applied to a longer selection than a fade in, typically to a selection up to about ten seconds long.
Cross Fades
Despite their names these effects do not perform an automatic "cross-fade" between two tracks or adjoining audio, where the audio coming to an end would fade out at the same time the following audio fades in. Instead Cross Fades apply a curve that is different from the linear Fade in and Fade Out. The curve used is one that will result in equal volume throughout the faded section once the faded in and faded out sections are mixed.
Cross Fade In
- Accessed by:
Cross Fade Out
- Accessed by:
After a Cross Fade
If the two waveforms above (Cross Fade In and Out) were on separate tracks then red so as to mix the waveforms together, an equal volume section of audio would result as below. The example is untypical as we have used a constant frequency and amplitude sine wave to illustrate the fades - normal audio would appear more spiky, though still having the same RMS (average) volume.
- Peter 1Jan13: I added a temporary H1 "Additional Shaped Fades" until we can un-leash "Musical Fades". SFO and AF are not part of "Crossfades" so need their own umbrella header.
Musical Fades
These fades apply a more musical fade to the selected audio, giving a more pleasing sounding result.Additional Shaped Fades
Studio Fade Out
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- Peter 1Jan13: I changed the description to that on the Effect Menu page. Previous text was "Produces a smooth and musical sounding fade out. A mirrored S-curve or 1/2 period cosine is used for the volume and a linear ramp for the low pass filter (from 22050 Hz down to 100 Hz)."
- Gale 02Jan13: It's up to Steve if he wants to explain about the curves, but I think it is un-necessary detail on this page. Removed "professional" in favour of "studio". "Professional" is too contentious, as Vaughan says.
- Peter 4Jan13: I softened the description by moving the techy details into a tech-note rather than having them up-front first in the desciption - this should enable us to demote the P1 to >P2.
- Peter 6Jan13: I moved the technote into an ednote to comment it out - and accordingly removed the P1 from here.
Produces a smooth and "musical" sounding fade out by fading out the higher frequencies a little quicker than the lower frequencies. It gives a "going off into the distance" type of sound rather than sounding like a "mechanical" fade out. This technique has found favor in the recording studio for CD and LP tracks.
- Gale 11Jan13: ToDo Nonetheless there is some confusion invited now as it may appear that retaining the bass is giving this distinctive "S" shape however AFAIK the filter is not shaping the curve that much, the shape comes mainly from the choice of shape. But you should ask Steve.
Studio Fade In
- Accessed by: provided you have installed it.
Adjustable Fade
This has a dialog box where you can choose the shape of the fade in or fade out to be applied. You can also create "partial" fades to and from other than silence and original volume. An example of this might be a fade in from 20% of the original volume to 80% of the original volume. The "Handy Presets" at the bottom offer a choice of six pairs of fade in or fade out shapes, fading between silence and original volume.
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Choosing a preset disables all the other controls irrespective of their setting. Therefore to make a partial fade you must choose the Start and End values then use the other controls above to determine the fade shape and direction. |
- Gale 11Jan13: I'm not sure all of these tips below are in the correct place here. I removed the last tip about longer fade outs which was duplication.
- By repeating a fade in, the audio will remain quiet for longer then rise more rapidly to the original level. Similarly, repeating a fade out will cause the level to initially drop more rapidly then tail off at a lower level. As with other effects, the fade may be repeated as required by pressing CTRL + R.
- For a more customizable exponential fade in or fade out, use the Envelope Tool on Tools Toolbar.
- When cross-fading, fade in the first two-thirds of the overlapping audio that is beginning, and fade out the last two-thirds of the overlapping audio that is coming to an end. Two-thirds is a guideline rather than a rule, but helps to keep the level of audio constant through the fade. Alternatively, cross-fade using the two Cross Fade effects, selecting the entire overlap.
