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: What is it ?
The .wav file synchroniser is a small windows application which automatically ‘syncs’ an newly recorded audio track to an existing audio track provided the 2 tracks start the same, or have 1 channel in common.
: Why is it ?
I generally record all my tracks and V-take with my Zoom MRS 1608, and this automatically means that the tracks are ‘in sync’ (i.e. there are no unexpected delays or offsets between the timing of the different tracks.)
On occasions though, I have given other musicians a CD of a mix of a track I’m working on, and they have imported that into a PC program such as Cubase or a different type of digital multitrack, and have recorded some extra tracks which I then want to import back into my Zoom unit for mixing.
Because they have imported the mix from CD, the file or CD I get back from them will not the same start timing as the files inside my ZOOM. (Basically the file I get back will almost certainly have a different amount of silence at the start of it.)
Rather than manually fiddling about with the new track in a wave editor to try and get it to match, I use the following method to get the file synced up with the Zoom unit.
1. When producing the file to export from the ‘other ‘ multitrack or PC program, either :-
a. Mix in some of the original master track to the start of the new track. (This won’t work if the instrument part recorded on the new track is playing right from the start as the master track would then obliterate our new part.)
or
b. Mix the new recording onto one channel of the stereo file, and put the original mix onto the other.
2. Import the new recording into your PC as a 44.1KHz 16 bit PCM .wav file. (You should also have the original reference mix on your PC in the same format.)
3. Run the .wav sync program on your PC, selecting the new recording as the first input file, and the original (reference) mix as the second.
4. Set ‘scan width’ to 1 second. (You can use other values if you have a very strange file which gives problems)
5. Set ‘scan duration’ to a few times the worst case delay between the start of the music in the new track, and the start in the original mix track.
6. Hit ‘GO’ and sit back. After some serious calculation, the program should find the correct time adjustment to make, and will create a new file with the same name as your first input file .. but with synced’ added to it. This can just be imported back into your Zoom unit (or whatever) and used .. although you may wish to silence the original mix bit first for convenience to avoid having to mute it each time you perform a mix.
If the program has found a good match between the 2 files, the match’ figure shown in the bottom right hand corner will be close to 100% (or over 50% anyway.) If you get a low number, then things have not worked, and the odds are the generated output file will not be correctly aligned. if this is the case, try slightly larger values for ‘width’ and duration.
: I’m a genius .. can you explain it to me quickly?
The program performs a 4-way cross-correlation of length ‘span’ between the 2 channels of each of the 2 input files, for all offsets between -duration/2 and +duration/2 at 1 sample intervals, and records the index which produces the largest magnitude value. (An output file is then produced with the appropriate number of samples added or chopped from the start of the file.)
: I want to try the application. What do I need ?
The application runs on a windows PC, so you need one of them. The application is written as a ‘.net’ application which is Microsoft’s latest and greatest way of writing windows applications.
What this means is that the application should run fine of Windows 98 / ME / 2K/ and XP(home or pro), but you may have to install a lump of extra code from Microsoft’s web-site if you have not run any .net. applications before.
If you are running Windows 95 then you are probably stuffed .. sorry.
: How do I use it ?
Firstly, to install the program, unzip the files in the distribution to a folder somewhere. (Something like ‘C:\program files\wavsync’ would be logical.)
Secondly (if you want to make life easy) set up a shortcut or start menu item to point to the file wavsyn.exe you unzipped in the previous step.
To run the application, double click on the .exe or the shortcut (if you set one up), or select the program from the start menu (if you set one up).
This is a very early version of the software and consequently not as tested as it should be. Let me know if you hit any problems.
F.A.Q.
: Where do I get it ?
Here
: How much is it?
Its free.
: It’s great/ it doesn’t work/ it’s rubbish. What do I do ?
Tell me about it to wavsync@howagent.co.uk
: When I try and run it i just get an error message.
The software program is written to use .Net .. Microsofts latest framework. It does unfortunately throw up a horrible message if you have not installed .Net on you PC.
You might see :-
‘Unable to Locate DLL - The Dynamic Link Library mscoree.dll could not be found in the specified path.’
or
‘Please set registry keyHKLM\Software\Microsoft\.NETFramework\ InstallRoot to point to the .NET Framework install location. ‘
or
‘The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135).‘
I was hoping most machines would have this, as windows update tries to download it automatically given any excuse whatsoever .. but this obviously hasn’t worked for you.:-(
You’ll have to install .net framework I’m afraid. You can get it here .. but its a big download I’m afraid.
Microsoft recommend you download the .NET Framework 1.1 from Microsoft Windows Update,
but for full details see
http://msdn.microsoft.com/netframework/downloads/howtoget.asp
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