user manual

52
GETTING STARTED CHP. 4
Viewing selection statistics
Choosing Statistics from the Tools menu displays a Statistics dialog showing information about the current
selection or, if there is no selection, on the entire file. The following table describes all statistical categories
displayed in the Statistics dialog.
Creating a new data window
1. From the File menu, choose New. The New Window dialog appears.
2. Complete the New Window dialog:
• From the
Sample rate drop-down list, choose a sample rate.
• From the
Bit-depth drop-down list, choose a bit depth.
• Select the desired
Channels radio button.
For more information, see Editing file attributes on page 83.
3. Click OK. A new data window with the specified attributes appears.
Tip: Sound Forge automatically names new windows. You
can customize this automatic naming feature to suit your
needs. For more information, see Customizing automatic
labeling on page 93.
Cursor position The cursor position (in samples) from the start of the audio file.
Sample value at cursor The actual number stored by a single sample. The maximum allowed sample value is
often referred to as 100% or 0 dB.
Maximum/minimum
sample position and
sample value
The maximum and minimum sample values and the locations (in samples) where they
occur.
These values may help determine if clipping will occur in the audio file. These values can
also be used to determine the noise level of a signal for use with Noise Gate (a built-in
XFX plug-in installed with the full version of Sound Forge). For example, to determine
the noise amplitude of a file, run Statistics on a region of noisy silence.
RMS power The Root Mean Square of the sample values relative to the RMS value of a maximum-
amplitude square wave (the loudest possible recording).
On short intervals, this value relates to the volume level of the audio file. If used on a
large selection with large volume variation, this value becomes less meaningful.
Average value (DC Offset) The sum of all sample values in the selected region divided by the number of samples. If
this value is not zero, it usually indicates a DC offset in the recording process.
Zero crossings The number of times per second that the waveform fluctuates from a negative to a
positive value.
This value can be used as a rough estimate of the frequency of the audio data for very
simple waveforms.
New Window dialog