Spectral view

[scappata]

Any future plans for a spectral view? For editing purposes?

[scappata]

So, Martin, surely you have something to say? Any plans? No plans? Reasoning why not? I've not known a developer not willing to give users some insight into their work. Perhaps this thread just got lost?

BTW. Totally digging the new forums platform.

[Martin Hairer]

Hi, I don't have any plans for a spectral view at the moment, sorry. The reason is just the lack of demand for it, you're actually the first user ever to ask for it... Thanks for the heads-up regarding the forum, it has been in need of a refresh for quite some time now Best wishes,

Martin

[scappata]

Sorry to hear it. Surprised no one else has asked. Of the stuff I do in Audition I do half in spectral view. I suppose I could learn but at present I'm having enough a problem getting away from Adobe.

I very much appreciate your responding.

Best.
Stay safe!

[Martin Hairer]

Just out of curiosity: in what sort of context do you find spectral view useful for editing? Since spectral information is obtained by forming time averages, it necessarily has very poor temporal resolution so I would have thought that it is rather inconvenient for edits... Best,

Martin

[scappata]

Isolating/meditating unwanted sounds otherwise "buried" in a waveform.

[Martin Hairer]

Are you aware that if you command-click somewhere in a sonogram it jumps to that location in the original sound file? Doesn't that already fit your workflow? Best,

Martin

[scappata]

I had not discovered that yet. But, again, I'm talking about a sound that is only part of the waveform at any point in time. I apologize for not using correct terminology. In the photo you can see my selection of a bit of sound (squealing/feedback?) that definitely should not be there. I have no idea how it got there. The sound file is a recording of an LP by an acoustic jazz quartet (turntable>disk). It's almost imperceptible but once heard it's hard to unheard. But I digress. It's a bit of the waveform that I want excised and can only get to through a spectrum view.

[Martin Hairer]

Yes, that's what I mean, the "sonogram" gives you exactly that view and then, when you want to perform an edit, you can just command-click to go to the corresponding location in the original sound. It's not as sleek as having it built into the main sound window I guess, but it should still be a workable solution. Best,

Martin

[scappata]

But once I am back in the waveform I can not get to that little bit. Only to the beginning of the bit plus all the the other info at that point. I can not carve out that bit. I play with live recordings (mostly from Dimeadozen) which often have random sounds I want removed without touching the music around them.

[Martin Hairer]

I see. I guess the closest to that would be the "Suppress Frequency Band" function in Effects -> Denoising. Once you've found the segment with the artefact, you can check what frequencies it spans in the sonogram and then use this function to suppress them.

[scappata]

Thanks for sticking with me. Clever idea, but as I'm a lazy SOB I'm going to pass. There's no way I can be that precise.

Great software you have, better than the rest at this level.

[SSK_Kilo]

Still, thanks for the suggestion, it's what I did and it works just fine!

[Lou Kash]

Count me in for sonogram editor feature request!

Sonogram editing is the "killer feature" of Adobe Audition.
Also, Apple's abandoned Soundtrack Pro has a similar function, albeit rather clunky to use compared to Audition. But it will do the job as well.

Since I don't participate in Adobe's "Creative Cloud" rip-off, and Soundtrack Pro definitely won't run on Catalina and beyond, I, for one, would love to have that feature in Amadeus when I'll eventually have to move to Catalina for the majority of my audio work. Sonogram editor is essential if you need to surgically edit e.g. live recordings, removing feedback, hum, buzz, mic pops and the like. Sure, there are pro plugins to do and even automate that job, but, well, costs. Not affordable if you want to be doing it only every now and then.
A few years ago I had a nice job to restore and remaster historical live recodings of a few Czech underground band, transferred from a 40+ years old 9.5 ips 1/4" stereo reel tapes, with many dropouts all over the place. At first I was using Soundtrack Pro from my Logic Studio bundle, but eventually I asked a buddy with an Audition license to let me use his Mac instead. In Audition, you can literally paint the missing parts of the frequency spectrum to mask a dropout. It takes lots of (unpaid) time, but it was worth it just for historical reasons.

Audacity lets you somewhat edit in sonogram view mode as well, but, well, hm… Audacity.

[Jim Edgar]

In terms of Spectral tools, Izotope RX is much more evolved than any you mentioned.
Yes, it's pricey, but the implementation and restoration tools are significant. If you are doing that type of work, it's likely worth the investment.