V1.1 Pro. User guide

Transcription

1 V1.1 Pro User guide

2 BEFORE WE GET STARTED Thank you for buying or trying AudioSteps. Your support is greatly appreciated and be sure that any means we have goes directly into R&D and product enhancement. If you encounter any problem or simply if you want to give us a feedback, feel free to send us a mail at support@audiogaming.net, we will be happy to read from you and/or help you if needed. Information in this manual is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of AudioGaming. The software described in this manual is furnished under a license agreement. The software may be used only in accordance of the terms of this license agreement. It is against the law to copy this software on any medium except as specifically allowed in the license agreement. No part of this manual may be copied, photocopied, reproduced, translated, distributed or converted to any electronic or machinereadable form in whole or in part without prior written approval of AudioGaming. Copyright 2014 AudioGaming Program Copyright 2014 AudioGaming. All rights reserved. AudioSteps is a trademark of AudioGaming. Windows is either trademark or registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Mac OS X, Audio Units and App Store are registered trademarks of Apple Inc.. VST is trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. RTAS, AAX and Pro Tools are registered trademarks of Avid Technology Inc.. All other product and company names are either trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owner. Unauthorized copying, renting or lending of the software is strictly prohibited. Visit AudioGaming online at

3 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTON 4 Thousands Of Footsteps At Your Fingertips 4 System requirements 4 INSTALLATION 5 Windows 5 Mac OSX 6 Activation 7 QUICK START QUIDE 10 AUDIOSTEPS SYNTHESIZER 12 AudioSteps General Architecture 12 Soundbank Selection 12 Normal Steps Behaviour 13 Advanced Steps Control 13 Virtual Keyboard / Recording Setup 14 Pitch / Master / Preset Manager 15 Option Menu 16 OPEN SOUND CONTROL 17 TouchOSC Setup Guide 17 Lemur Setup Guide 18 How to know my computer s IP address 19 AudioSteps OSC Setup Guide 20 EXAMPLES 21

4 INTRODUCTION AudioSteps is a footstep sound synthesizer based on high quality footstep recordings and intuitive controls. AudioSteps sound banks include 23 combinations of footwear (tennis shoes, high-heels, business shoes, etc.) and ground surfaces (gravel, concrete, water, wood, etc.). Each combination contains a great variety of variations to generate footsteps of different walking/running speeds and styles. AudioSteps provides several sound design controls and MIDI/automation integration, allowing efficient generation and creative sound design of realistic footstep sequences. Thousands of footsteps at your fingertips AudioSteps allows various synthesis controls of thousands of well-recorded/edited footstep sounds. It is designed to save your foley time and facilitate post-production and game sound creation. For a challenging recording source like footsteps, it not only requires techniques to record but also knowledge to edit. It often happens that the sound recorded while shooting a video is not satisfying and one needs to edit the sound scene from another clean recording. For games and video materials like animation, there is no sound at all and one has to create the sound scene from ground up. Our goal is to provide a tool that makes it easy to re-create various footstep sequences. Armed with MIDI control and automation, AudioSteps will become an essential tool, allowing you to save hours of editing. The process of creating new footstep sounds will even be more fun! System requirements AudioSteps is compatible with the following standard

5 INSTALLATION Windows Double-click on audiosteps_pro_full_v1.1.0_setup.exe (or the one for the trial version) to launch installation wizard. Click on Next to go to the next screen. You have to read and agree to the End User License Agreement before proceeding. On the following screen you ll be able to choose the components you want to install: - Common files regroups all documentation related to this product - Databanks embedded banks of sounds, they are provided as examples/demos of what you can do with the plugin. Please do not hesitate to try your own recordings! - VSTi 32-bit will install the 32-bit VST instrument - VSTi 64-bit will install the 64-bit VST instrument - RTAS (32-bit only) will install the plugin for Pro Tools (9 or 10) - AAX 32-bit: the 32-bit version of the AAX plugin for Pro Tools If you own an older version of Pro Tools 10, you can either install the RTAS instead (the plugins are very similar), or update your Pro Tools to the latest version. - AAX 64-bit: the 64-bit version of the AAX plugin for Pro Tools 11 exclusively. This won t work on older versions of Pro Tools. If you previously installed the 32-bit version and switched later to Pro Tools 11, don t forget to uninstall/remove the old 32-bit AAX (you can do the same for all your other 32-bit plugins as only 64-bit AAX plugins will work on Pro Tools 11) The following screens of the installer will allow you to choose custom locations for common files, VSTi 32 / 64-bit, RTAS and AAX. Default installation paths Common files and databanks: C:\Program Files (x86)\audiogaming 32-bit VSTi plug-in: C:\Program Files (x86)\vstplugins 64-bit VSTi plug-in: C:\Program Files\Vstplugins RTAS plug-in: C:\Program Files (x86)\common Files\Digidesign\DAE\Plug-Ins 32 / 64-bit AAX plug-in: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Avid\Audio\Plug-Ins You may have to install Microsoft Visual C++ redistributables. If you don t have them already installed on your computer, select Yes when the installer asks you if you want to install the package. Otherwise, you can click on No. The installation is then complete.

6 Mac OS X Double-click on audiosteps_pro_full_v1.1.0.pkg (or the one for the trial version) to launch installation wizard. Please read and accept the End User License agreement in order to proceed. By default, the installer is set on automatic mode and you won t have anything to do, but you can also choose a custom installation mode and you ll be able to select which component you want to install and where to install it. The different choices are: - Common files regroups all documentation related to this product - Databanks embedded banks of sounds, they are provided as examples/demos of what you can do with the plug-in. Please do not hesitate to try your own recordings! - VSTi 32 / 64-bit will install the VST instrument - AudioUnit 32 / 64-bit will install the Audio Unit instrument (for Logic and other compatible hosts) - RTAS (32-bit only) will install the plugin for Pro Tools (9 or 10) - AAX 32 / 64-bit will install the AAX plugin for Pro Tools 10 (32-bit) and 11 (64-bit). Default installation paths Common files and databanks: /Applications/AudioGaming 32 / 64-bit VSTi plug-in: /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST 32 / 64-bit AUi plug-in: /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components RTAS plug-in: /Library/Application Support/Digidesign/Plug-Ins 32 / 64-bit AAX plug-in: /Library/Application Support/Avid/Audio/Plug-Ins Note: With the exception of RTAS, the VSTi, AUi and AAX plugins are universal binaries. This means your host will automatically load the right version, depending on its architecture. For example, if you launch Pro Tools 10, it will load the 32-bit AAX and if you launch Pro Tools 11, it will see the 64-bit AAX.

7 Activation When launching AudioWind for the first time in your favorite host, you have to enter an activation key. You should have received it via when purchasing the product. The mail containing activation key is a different from the one giving direct download links. The title should be Your AudioGaming product keys. When launching the plugin, a popup wizard will guide you through the activation process. The first step will be for you to read and accept the End-User License, as well as providing your license key. You can postpone the activation at any time but if one of the three steps is not fulfilled correctly, you will need to go back to the Options Menu later, or you may not be able to hear sound at all. The second step asks you for the path where your Databanks are stored. It depends on how the installation of the plugin went: if you decided to do a standard installation, the plugin should be able to find the Databanks itself, but if you chose a custom location, an external drive for instance, you may need to tell the plugin where to look. Once a valid path is found, the wizard will greet you to the final step.

8 The final step will ask you for additional keys for the Databanks that were found in the selected path. A Databank is in fact an additional product that needs to be activated as much as the main plugin. With a full version of a purchased AudioSteps, the base Databanks are included but needs another key, also provided in the you received when buying the product. For the free version, the limited Databanks are already pre-activated and the activation wizard should have succeeded after step two. Each product key has a limited number of activations, 3 by default. That means you will be able to register the product on three different computers. Once you register for the first time on a computer, your associated hardware ID will remain on our servers. That means that if one day you decide to re-install your operating system, you ll still have to enter your activation key for your products but it won t increment the number of activations.

9 If you encounter any problem with the activation process, please don t hesitate to send us an at support@audiogaming.net. Please note that unlike the trial versions of our other products (AudioWind, AudioRain, AudioMotors), there is no time limitation for the free version of AudioSteps. However, the full version contains a huge amount of audio content (databanks) that is not included in the free version! Although there are no apparent feature limitations between the Full and Free versions, they remain two completely different products, so if you make the switch between trial to full version, just download the new package, install the product, enter your new activation key and you ll be ready to go!

10 QUICK STRAT GUIDE A B F I E C D G H Loading a footstep sound bank Click on A to load a sound bank of a surface-footwear combination. The list of combinations will appear right after the first click. Then, you can preview each sound bank by a single click and load the one you want by double clicks. Automatically trigger footstep samples Enable Auto Trigger B to generate the normal footstep sounds automatically. The walking speed can be controlled through the Tempo knob based on the BPM unit. Since natural walking does not maintain at a constant speed, you may randomize the triggering rate by the Randomize control.

11 Individually trigger footstep samples In additional to auto-triggering, AudioSteps allows individual triggering of one footstep sample after another. There are three Walking Speeds to switch: Slow, Med and Fast. In Advanced Step Controls, there are individual triggers C of Normal, Skid, Scuff and On Spot footstep types for either left or right foot. The Skid footstep can be used upon interruption of a walking sequence. The Scuff footstep can be used when the footwear scrapes the ground surface. The On Spot sound is made by slight footstep movements without actually walking. The Clumsiness control allows mixing incomplete footsteps for realistic footstep sequence rendering. The Envelope control G allows shaping the attack and release phase of a footstep through intuitive dragging of control points. Notice that the envelope can be selectively applied to each of the footstep types. Virtual keyboard and MIDI control These individual footstep triggers can be directly controlled by MIDI and the mapping of the MIDI key range is shown in the virtual keyboard D below. You can also switch foot-rolling speed by MIDI E. You can adjust the key range settings in MENU F options. If you enable Note Off H, the attack and release phase of a footstep will be triggered for Note On and Note Off MIDI messages, respectively. Recording setup simulation There are two recording setup simulations: (1) Mic. Perspective simulates close miking and distant miking. (2) Footstep Distance simulates the footstep sound source distance. Pitch and Master sections In the Pitch section, Transpose applies transposition with randomization tweaks. In the Master section, Filter provides low-cut and high-cut frequency controls. There is also master gain control. All these controls apply to the output of the footstep sounds. Presets For the moment, there are no factory presets. You can store and reload your customized presets for later use. Status bar The status bar I displays the sound bank loading status and control tooltips. Automation You can automate almost every parameter of AudioSteps.

12 AUDIOSTEPS SYNTHESIZER AudioSteps General Architecture Footsteps sounds are created by the scratching occurring when applying any footwear on any surface. The scratching, and therefore the sound, may vary considerably depending on the footwear and surface combination, but also depends heavily on the way the pressure is applied by the footwear the gait that make all footsteps sounds different from each other, and yet even more different between people. The models created for AudioSteps allow recreating all the above mentioned aspects. At the heart of it lies high quality footsteps sounds recordings, used as a base for the footwear/surface combination sound. Then numerous high-level sound design parameters give you access to real-time, easy sound editing to help you shape the sound to your needs. AudioSteps workflow is organized as follow: 1. Choose the soundbank of the wanted footstep and surface combination. 2. Choose to control by Auto Triggering or manual triggering of individual footsteps. 3. Adjust sound design parameters like Mic. Perspective, Pitch, etc. 4. Record the sequence using MIDI or automation. Each element of this AudioSteps will be detailed in the following. Soundbank Selection: Footwear and surface combination You can select among 23 combinations of footwear (tennis, ballet shoes, business shoes, hiking boots and stiletto heel) - surface (gravel, concrete, dirt, tiles, water and wood parquet) combinations. For each combination, you can select among three walking speeds: Slow This gets along with creeping gaits. Med This is a casual speed, for most usual situations. Fast This is useful for the running scenario.

13 Normal Steps Behaviour Auto Trigger Activate this option to automatically generate footsteps sequence. The generated footsteps are controlled by the following parameters. Tempo This controls the triggering rate as a unit of BPM. Randomize This adds randomization to Speed. It is useful to generate a more natural footsteps sequence. Clumsiness This control mixes imperfect footsteps into the footsteps sequence. Advanced Steps Control In addition to using Auto Trigger, you can trigger individual footsteps with the following controls:

14 NORMAL This is the basic, usual behaviour. It might be used for any pass-by occurrence including walking, running or creeping. SKID This is the stopping sound ending a footsteps sequence. SCUFF This is the characteristic scrapping sound produced by a sliding foot when landing, stopping or stumbling. ON SPOT This is the walking in place sound, to be used for instance in conversations. ENVELOPE This is used to selectively apply the envelope to each footstep sounds. It allows shaping the envelope of a single footstep sound. You can shape the footstep sound the way you like by dragging the four control points: trim begin/end and fade in/out time. Virtual Keyboard The virtual keyboard displays the key ranges for footstep speed switch and triggering. The left-hand side three white keys are used to switch among Slow/Med/Fast walking speed. The right-hand side seven keys are used to trigger Left Normal, Right Normal, Left Skid, Right Skid, Left Scuff, Right Scuff and On Spot footsteps, respectively. You can enable Note Off to trigger the attack and release separately with Note On and Note Off MIDI messages. Keep in mind that you can edit those areas by going to the Options Menu, in the Audio tab. In the MIDI section, change the root notes and the areas bounds will be updated. Recording Setup Mic. Perspective simulates different miking perspective and directivity - one of them usually being a cardioid, the other an omnidirectional. Whatever gear you choose, all our recordings are made with high-quality professional recording microphones and preamps in order to get the highest possible signal-to-noise ratio. Footstep Distance simulates the footsteps distance from the listening point based on reverberation.

15 Pitch Transpose allows pitch transposition as a general sound design parameter. Random Range allows pitch randomization relative to the target transposition. The Random Up limit and Random Down limit sets the respective randomization limit. Master Filter allows you to filter the low-end and high-end with the desired cut-off frequencies. Gain is the master gain control. Preset Manager You can add/delete and import/export presets. Right click on each preset for more options.

16 Option Menu The Audio tab in Menu provides the setup path of Databanks (soundbank). In case you do not install the soundbank at the default path, you can set up the soundbank here. The MIDI root note settings allow set up of the key ranges of your convenience (for the virtual keyboard). The License tab is where you enter your product keys: one for the plugin, others for the databanks. The About tab gives you more information about this plugin and our company.

17 OPEN SOUND CONTROL AudioSteps is an OSC friendly plugin, meaning that you can use any OSC enabled device or software you want to control it. We also provide fully functional templates for both TouchOSC and Lemur users on ipad. You can find the files here: (TouchOSC) (Lemur) TouchOSC Setup Guide The following guide covers the installation and configuration of TouchOSC on ipad for AudioSteps. TouchOSC is an OSC app available on the App Store. Search it in the App Store or go to hexler.net to download it on your computer. Once the app is installed, please plug your ipad, start itunes and go to your device s Apps tab Scroll to the File Sharing section where you will find a list of Apps. Select TouchOSC from this list and a new list of TouchOSC related document should appear. You can now add the AudioWind template by dropping it into that list or by clicking the Add button. Next you will need to start TouchOSC on your ipad and tap on the OSC row in the Connection section and turn the Enabled switch on. The host should be the IP address of the computer running AudioSteps, please scroll to the next section if you don t know how to find your IP address. AudioSteps is, by default, configured to send on port 8000 and receive on port You can of course customize the ports to be used. Please make sure that those ports are not already occupied by any other process on your computer and to reflect your configuration in the AudioSteps preferences (see below). Once the configuration is done, go back to the main menu in TouchOSC and tap the Layout row. The AudioSteps template should appear in the list, tapping it will make it the current active template.

18 The TouchOSC configuration is now over you can go back to the main menu and tap the Done button in the upper-right corner of the ipad. Lemur Setup Guide The following guide covers the installation and configuration of Lemur on ipad for AudioSteps. Lemur is an OSC app available on the App Store, you can search the App Store or go to liine.net to download it on your computer. Once the app is installed, please plug your ipad, start itunes and go to your device s Apps tab Scroll to the File Sharing section where you will find a list of Apps. Select Lemur from this list and a new list of Lemur related document should appear. You can now add the AudioSteps template by dropping it into that list or by clicking the Add button. Next you will need to start Lemur on your ipad and tap on the gear icon in the upper-right corner of the screen and tap the More settings row In the OSC section, tap the Add Target and fill the Host field with the IP address of the computer running AudioSteps, please scroll to the next section if you don t know how to find your IP address. The incoming port of the Lemur app is set to 8000 and can t be changed, you can only customize the outgoing port which should be set to 9001 if you want to use AudioSteps default port configuration. If you want to use another outgoing port, just make

19 sure that this port isn t already used by any other process on your computer and to reflect your configuration in the AudioSteps preferences. When you re done, your OSC Targets should look like this: Tap the Done button to close the Settings panel and once again tap the gear icon in the upper-right corner of the screen and tap on the Project row. The AudioSteps template should appear in the list and tapping it will make it the current active template. How to know my computer s IP address If you re a Mac user click to the Apple icon on the upper-left corner of the screen and select System Preferences. Go to the Network button which should be on the third row and your IP address should appear. If you re a Windows user, click the Start button, open the Control Panel and go to Network

20 and Internet, then go to Network and Sharing Center. You should see your network under View your active networks. Click the name of your network next to the Connections label on the right and then go to Details. Your computer s IP address should appear in the value column next to IPV4 IP Address. AudioSteps OSC Setup Guide To enable OSC, open AudioSteps preference by clicking the Menu button. Go to the OSC and check the Enabled box, the Remote IP field and Port should now be editable. The Remote IP should be the IP Address of your ipad which can be found in the configuration page of both Lemur and TouchOSC we have seen previously. If you are having trouble finding this IP you can still open the Settings app on your ipad, go to the Wi-Fi tab and tap the blue arrow next to the network you re currently connected. If you configured Lemur or TouchOSC with our default port values, you shouldn t need to go any further. Otherwise, make sure you reflect the exact same port configuration on both the computer and the ipad. Congratulations! Now you should be able to control AudioSteps with your ipad!

21 EXAMPLES Add sound to a video in Nuendo with AudioSteps Open Nuendo s VST instruments panel (F11 shortcut on windows), instantiate the AudioSteps VSTi plugin. Answers Yes when it asks if you want to create a new Midi track associated with this plugin. Use AudioSteps databank selector to choose the databank you want to use.

22 Record a MIDI sequence in sync to the video: you can either use an external MIDI keyboard, the internal keyboard or the pads provided inside the plugin GUI. You can also directly place Midi events on Nuendo s piano roll. You can now easily transform the sound, by moving the Distance slider (1), changing the pitch a little up (2), and cutting off the high frequencies and adding some Clumsiness (3). Don t hesitate to try other controls too! 3 1 2

23 Now, create an additional track In Nuendo, and load another instance of the AudioSteps plugin. Use the databank selector to select a bank on a Water floor. You can now mix the two kinds of footsteps together to get a layered footstep sound.