The author of the program spent several years continuously improving his brainchild, and managed to reach perfection. The most recent version, Cool Edit Pro 2, is an audio editor that possesses practically all features of software of such class.

The software is being highly praised by many specialists. It also says something that Cool Edit Pro is included in the delivery set of many professional audio digitization cards.

To make the best use of Cool Edit Pro in your creative activity, you should have a basic idea of its distinctive features, which are considered below.

Cool Edit Pro is intended for work with digital audio, i.e., analog sound waves must be preliminarily converted (sampled) into a series of binary digital samples. Such a conversion is done in the analog-to-digital converter. As a result, a digital image of sound is obtained - a waveform.

Waveforms are stored on the hard disk as files in various formats. Most often, these are files with the WAV extension. Thus, when you "compile" a composition (e.g., a song) in Cool Edit Pro, WAV files serve as the standard building blocks, or "bricks".

There are two methods of audio editing: destructive and non-destructive. In the destructive method, all types of editing (cutting, inserting, processing with the effect, etc.) are applied directly to the source WAV file so that the initial audio data are changed. Non-destructive editing implies practically no changes to the source file on the disk. Instead, each editing operation is saved as a command to be applied when the waveform is played. For example, a change in volume would actually change the amplitude of the waveform if you were using destructive editing. In non-destructive editing, however, the change of volume will be caused by a series of commands, which are actually instructions to the software as to how to reconstruct the transfer coefficient of the sound card amplifier.

Both destructive and non-destructive editing methods are employed in Cool Edit Pro. Nevertheless, even destructive editing will not be applied directly to the waveform until the file is saved. The so-called deferred destructive editing method is implemented here. When you open a WAV file in Cool Edit Pro, the software places a copy of your file in a temporary folder, and it is this copy that is edited. The source file remains unchanged until you save the changes to the disk (e.g., by selecting the Save… command from the File menu). Only when you save the changes you made does Cool Edit Pro overwrite the source file with the changes that were made to the copy file.

Since all the material edited in Cool Edit Pro is stored in temp files, you can protect your work from various problems with the computer, the power, the operating system, etc. For example, if the power is cut off during editing, then after the computer is rebooted and Cool Edit Pro is launched, the software will allow you to continue editing from the place at which you were interrupted.

There are two principally different working modes in Cool Edit Pro 2: editing separate waveforms, and multitrack editing of the set of waveforms. Each mode has its own main menu and main window: Edit Waveform View and Multitrack View - two audio editors with different purposes combined into a functional set. It is important to understand that the editing operations performed in Edit Waveform View (like cutting, pasting, processing with an effect, etc.) are basically destructive, and the changes are made in the waveform when you save the file. The editing done in Multitrack View (like moving, joining waveforms, changing the volume, panorama, real-time effect parameters) is non-destructive.

If deferred destructive editing is used, you can use the function for multiple undoing of operations performed (Undo) available in Cool Edit Pro. When destructive editing is applied to the WAV file, Cool Edit Pro saves the copy of the file that existed before the editing. This is done for each editing operation. You can "navigate" through the whole editing history both forward and backward. The multiple Undo function sets you free when working with waveforms, and you will not have to worry that your most interesting result may turn out to be irretrievably lost. But such freedom has a price. In this case, the option of multiple cancellation is worth the disk space.

All automatically created copies, however, will be also automatically deleted from the hard disk when you close the file or exit the software. But for work in Cool Edit Pro you need lots of disk space. You can limit the maximum number of Undo levels, or deactivate this function altogether should there be problems with the disk space.

In many musical editors that boast of means of audio data processing, there are two variants of using effects: applying the effect in real time, and recalculating the audio data. The former option is more convenient, since you hear the results as soon as you regulate the parameters of the effect. This, however, requires a very powerful computer. Recalculation of the effect enables you to process audio data using a relatively weak computer, but the process may take hours, and thus you may end up avoiding making improvements or trying something new.

An optimal strategy for using an effect might be the following. First, by switching on the looped playback mode of the waveform, you specify the effect parameters that coincide best with your idea in real time, and then recalculate your waveform once, after the effect with the specified parameters is applied. In Cool Edit Pro, you can use both integrated effects and those connected via DirectX.

One of the most important novelties of Cool Edit Pro 2 is real-time effect support in Multitrack View.

The main method of using effects in Edit Waveform View is audio data recalculation. No complete real-time mode is provided in Edit Waveform View. There is, however, a substitute for real-time mode. If you have the Preview button (real-time test) in the window of a certain effect, then you can select the parameters of the effect. The results of the parameter changes that you make in the effect window will be heard immediately. However, your computer needs to be extremely powerful for your previews to make sense. Unlike the true real-time mode, you can use only one effect in the preview mode.

We have already mentioned that Cool Edit Pro is a multichannel environment that allows you to place any number of waveforms (blocks) on different tracks for both simultaneous playback and for later joining all the tracks into one.

The mixing process includes joining all the waveforms on the tracks into two (or more) output channels. You can edit, add blocks to the tracks, or delete them, and Cool Edit Pro will constantly trace the changes made in the course of the multichannel session (e.g., moving or deleting blocks, volume changes, etc.). As soon as something is changed, Cool Edit Pro immediately performs these changes, feeding the necessary corrections in the mix to the output of the software (e.g., to the digital-to-analog converter of the sound card). These changes are made in background mode, which means that background mixing is done. If your computer is very powerful, you can edit your composition without interruptions: the background mixing will not impede you.

You simply will not feel it, although there is a special indicator provided that indicates not only the process of background mixing, but also the stage it is in. If your processor and hard disk are not sufficiently powerful, background mixing will impede your work. Remember that the flow of data played back can be directed either to a pair of output devices (of one stereo sound card), or to many output devices (of several stereo sound cards or one multichannel card). Cool Edit Pro generates mixes for each set of output devices used. If you use one stereo sound card, Cool Edit Pro generates only one stereo mix. If a multichannel system is installed in the computer, separate mixes are created for each output device (for each stereo pair). The multichannel output requires much more processing, and therefore the mixing process tends to slow down. Thus, the sound card and the computer need to correspond to each other. There is no sense in installing an expensive multichannel device on a weak computer.

In addition to audio files of various formats, such as WAV files, Cool Edit Pro also enables you to use so-called session files (with the SES extension). We called WAV files the standard building blocks from which any audio composition, such as a song, is compiled. You can treat a session file as the song, although there is not actually any audio data in an SES file. An SES file is very small, and contains only detailed instructions to Cool Edit Pro concerning the following data:

• The names of the WAV files used and the paths to them
• The names of the tracks
• Playback start and end time of certain WAV files
• The volume level and panorama set before each file is played, and the rules for the variation of these parameters during playback
• The connected real-time effects and the rules for the variation of their parameters

An SES file can be compared to a conductor, and WAV files to the musicians.

The conductor informs each musician when his or her part begins and of the nuances with which it should be performed. The conductor, naturally, needs the orchestra. Similarly, the SES file makes sense only when both this file and the WAV files participating in the session are in certain folders. You can not simply copy it to a floppy and transfer it to your friend's computer, or arbitrarily rename or rewrite any of the WAV files used in the session to another folder. If, after any of the above operations is done, you try to open the SES file and play the composition, nothing will happen: the conductor will not find the musicians in their places, and the concert will be cancelled. This, however, does not mean that you cannot move SES files that contain all the integrated WAV files from one folder to another. You can do this, but for this you will need to use the special session-saving operations in Cool Edit Pro.

Note that the possibility of using real-time effects during multitrack editing is important, but is not the only new feature in Cool Edit Pro 2. If you scrupulously compare this software with Cool Edit Pro 1.2, you will see that new options have appeared, some functions are implemented more conveniently, and the algorithms and interface are optimized. Below is a brief description of the main new features of the software.

The sound technician now has an expanded set of automation tools. In particular, the software features means for format conversion and group normalization of the files in the list above.

Now you can extract audio data both from AVI files and from the tracks of audio CDs, and place them into Cool Edit Pro 2.

You can burn a Digital Audio CD without exiting Cool Edit Pro 2.

There are principally new editing technologies using automation envelopes that are implemented in the multitrack mode. You can apply real-time effects not only to separate tracks, but also to groups of tracks combined in the buses. Using the mixer, you can route a signal among separate effects connected to the bus. New operations related to the forming and use of loops and grooves are also implemented in the new software.

The possibility of working with video is especially relevant.

Now the software itself recognizes the DirectX effects integrated in the system and estimates its compatibility with them.

Users are now provided with several new integrated effects and processes:

• Stereo Field Rotate is stereo field control (including its rotation around the listener).
• Dynamic Delay is the dynamic change of the delay and feedback.
• QuickVerb… is reverberation with a simplified set of regulated parameters.
• Dynamic EQ… is a dynamic equalizer with dynamic control of the adjustment frequency, gain, and the filter passband.
• Doppler Shifter… is the Doppler effect imitator (changing the frequency of the oscillation emitted by a moving source) with the possibility of selecting the trajectory and the speed of the apparent movement of the audio source.
• Frequency Band Splitter is a crossover, enabling you to split the signal spectrum into separate bands and direct the resulting signal components into different playback channels (processing is done in the multitrack environment).

To the means of analyzing the processed audio parameters available in the previous versions (such as current and instantaneous spectrum analyzers, a signal level distribution histogram) are added the virtual stereogoniometer, which allows you to estimate the stereo field quality based on Lissajous figures (the mono compatibility of the composition in particular).

The list of the effect presets transferred into Cool Edit Pro 2 from the previous versions has been considerably expanded.

The number of file formats supported by the audio editor has also been expanded.

Cool Edit Pro 2 has its own converter of WAV files into files of the MP3 format integrated into it.

In the multitrack mode, along with audio files, you can use MIDI and AVI files. Files of these types have one track assigned to each.

There is also a principally new Organizer panel, which simplifies work with files, effects, and the most often used editing operations.

Now the main window has floating panels that you can move around the screen, detach from the main window, or attach to it. The displayed panels are selected by the user.

There are so many new features that it is not possible to name all of them here.

We'll now take a look at the structure of book. It consists of 12 chapters, and an introduction.

Chapter 1 deals with an extremely important issue - preparation for work with Cool Edit Pro 2. The convenience of work and quality of the results very much depend on the correctness of the necessary preliminary operations.

This chapter describes the options contained in the windows that you will have to use during preparation for work. The following issues are considered:

• General and system settings
• Color settings of the interface and display parameters
• Selection of audio data processing parameters and those of multitrack editing
• Selection of the options determining the synchronization parameters on the SMPTE interface
• Selection of the external controller, digital audio, and MIDI events' I/O devices
• Editing of the recording and playback device lists

In the course of practical mastering of the methods of working with the compositions, we recommend that you periodically return to the first chapter. This will help you more profoundly understand the purpose of the preliminary operations and their influence on the end result.

Chapter 2 considers working in the main window in the Edit Waveform View mode.

Here, the Transport Controls (recording and playback control) and Zoom Controls (flexible waveform display control) panels are described. Also, the technologies for controlling the signal and recording levels are introduced, as well as those of selecting a waveform fragment using the tools of the Selection/View Сontrols panel. The information on the status bar is explained in detail.

The subsequent chapters (except for Chapter 12) deal with the main menu commands in the Edit Waveform View mode.

There are 10 menus in the main one. Each of these menus contains one of the following homogeneous groups of commands and submenus:

• Working with files
• Editing
• Display control
• Effect control
• Generating sound oscillations with the specified properties
• Audio data property analysis
• Creating a menu configured according to the user's wishes
• Selecting the settings
• Managing windows
• Help

Many commands of the main menu are duplicated by buttons on the main window toolbar.

Chapter 3 considers the commands of the File menu. Along with the large group of commands performing variations on traditional file loading and saving operations, this menu contains such unique commands as:

• Extract Audio from Video… - extraction of the sound track from the video file and loading it into Cool Edit Pro
• Extract Audio from CD… - extraction of the tracks from a Digital Audio CD and loading them into Cool Edit Pro
• CD Burning…
• Batch File Convert… - converting file formats in batch mode

All options and methods of the windows opened by the menu commands will be considered.

Chapter 4 describes the Edit menu, which contains commands and submenus aimed at audio data editing. The features of the commands that perform the standard copying, pasting, and deleting operations are considered. The specific features of the following operations are described in detail:

• Delete Silence - deleting fragments of waveforms containing silence only
• Zero Crossings - moving the start and the end of the selected fragment to the nearest points where the waveform crosses the zero level
• Find Beats - selecting fragments coinciding with drops in the signal level
• Auto-Cue - determining phrase or beat borders
• Snapping - selecting the snapping options of the selected fragment borders to the coordinate grid
• Group Waveform Normalize - joint normalization of several waveforms
• Adjust Sample Rate - changing the sampling frequency
• Convert Sample Type - converting the sampling type

Chapter 5 describes the View menu, including the commands and submenus used to control the display of the interface elements.

Here, information on the variety of signal spectral representations is introduced, as well as methods of work in the instantaneous spectrum display mode - Spectral View.

The following panels are considered:

• Organizer Window - an organizer simplifying work with files and effects
• Cue List/Ranges - the instrument that marks fragments of the waveform
• Show Play List - means of editing the list containing the order for playing back the opened waveforms or their fragments
• Edit Tempo - the window used for calculating and editing the tempo of the composition contained in the file
• Wave Properties - the window used to determine the attributes of the audio file

Besides these, we will look at the purpose of all of the toolbars in the main window.

It is not surprising that Chapter 6 is the bulkiest in the book, since it deals with the Effects menu, where all commands that allow you to use effects (both integrated ones and those connectable via DirectX) are congregated. The list of effects is further expanded in each subsequent version, and in Cool Edit Pro 2 it looks as follows:

• Invert inverts the signal.
• Reverse reverses the signal.
• Silence sets absolute silence in a specified fragment of the waveform.
• DirectX is access to the windows of the audio effects connected via DirectX.

Amplitude is the amplitude conversion. This is a submenu containing the following commands:

• Amplify… - converts the level of the signal
• Channel Mixer…
• Dynamics Processing…
• Envelope… - controls the form of the amplitude envelope
• Hard Limiter…
• Normalize…
• Pan/Expand… - expands the stereo base and converts the stereo image of the signal source
• Stereo Field Rotate…

Delay Effects are effects based on a delay. This is a submenu containing the following commands:

• Chorus…
• Delay…
• Dynamic Delay dynamically changes delay and feedback
• Echo…
• Echo Chamber… - imitates the acoustics of a room
• Flanger…
• Full Reverb… - the universal reverberation processor
• Multitap Delay… - multichannel delay
• QuickVerb… - reverberation with a simplified set of controllable parameters
• Reverb…
• Sweeping Phaser… - a reconfigurable phase shifter (phaser)

Filters - audio signal filtration. This is a submenu containing commands that open the windows of the following effects:

• Dynamic EQ… - an equalizer with dynamic control of the adjustment frequency, gain (amplification), and the band
• FFT Filter… - a filter based on Fast Fourier Transform
• Graphic Equalizer… - a universal graphic equalizer
• Graphic Phase Shifter…
• Notch Filter… - a five-band notch filter
• Parametric Equalizer… - a seven-band parametric equalizer
• Quick Filter… - an eight-band parametric equalizer
• Scientific Filters… - the Bessel, Butterworth, and Chebyshev filters

Noise Reduction. This is a submenu containing the following commands:

• Click/Pop Eliminator… - detects and eliminates clicks and/or sample pops
• Clip Restoration… - eliminates clipping
• Hiss Reduction… - reduces spectral threshold noise
• Noise Reduction… - reduces noise based on the analysis of the properties of noise samples

Special means special effects:

• Brainwave Synchronizer… - synchronizes with the rhythms of the brain
• Convolution…
• Distortion…
• Music

Time/Pitch is the length and pitch conversion of the waveform. This is a submenu containing the following commands:

• Doppler Shifter… - imitates the Doppler effect (the frequency change of the oscillation emitted by a moving source)
• Pitch Bender - shifts the waveform pitch
• Stretch - converts the waveform length

Here, the physical nature of each effect is explained, detailed recommendations on selecting their parameters are given, and methods of their use are described.

Chapter 7 deals with the Generate menu, which contains the following commands:

• Silence… - the generation of silence
• DTMF Signals… - the generation of telephone tonal dialing sounds
• Noise… - noise generation
• Tones… - tone generation

Here the features of generating the above processes are enumerated. The implementation of the additive sound synthesis method by means of the Generate Tones window is considered in detail.

The commands of the Analyze menu are considered in Chapter 8:

Show Frequency Analysis is the frequency (spectral) analysis.

Show Phase Analysis is the phase analysis (stereo signal and mono compatibility quality control).

Statistics is the statistical information on the waveform and the construction of the sample values histogram.

The methods of spectral analysis are described. We also describe the stereogoniometer's working principle, which allows you to estimate the quality and mono compatibility of a stereo signal by the appearance of Lissajous figures. The essence of the statistic information on the file contained in the level distribution histogram is explained, and examples of using it for selecting the dynamic processing parameters are given.

Chapter 9 deals with the Favorites window. Using the options of this window, you can create, delete, edit, and structure the items appearing in the Favorites menu.

Favorites are the operations that you perform most often. They are scattered in the software, and it made sense to provide access to them from one menu, for the sake of convenience.

Chapter 10 completes the description of the Option menu commands begun in Chapter 1. Much space here is allotted to the Scripts and Batch Processing window used for creating, editing, and writing scripts.

The Shortcuts (Keyboard & MIDI Triggers) window is also described in detail. This window allows you to make the controlling keys not only those of the computer keyboard, but also the keys and controllers on the MIDI keyboard.

Chapter 11 is the shortest one. Here the Window and Help menus are considered.

Chapter 12 describes methods of working in the multitrack environment of the editor. Along with the general principles of work in the Multitrack View mode, we describe in detail:

• Methods of recording audio data during a multitrack session and importing a waveform into the session
• The technique of selecting track attributes and that of connecting effects to them
• Work with the buses and mixer, and blocking tracks to free processor resources
• Features of using the parametric equalizer connected to each track

Operations with blocks are described in detail: moving, copying, splitting, deleting, grouping, and selecting fragments and groups of blocks.

We cover work with loops and grooves, as well as all the existing methods of tempo change and key transposition.

Much attention is given to the issue of automation. Examples of creating and editing automation envelopes are given.

We supply a lot of information on the main menu and pop-up menu commands in the Multitrack View mode. The integrated effects available only in the multitrack mode are also described.