Copyright: ® Creative Technology Ltd


Help Contents
Creative Soundo'LE

Overview

What is Creative Soundo'LE?

Using Creative Soundo'LE

Starting Creative Soundo'LE

The Soundo'LE Menus

Opening a Wave File

Playing a Wave File

Recording a Wave File

Selecting Recording Characteristics

Embedding a Wave File

Linking a Wave File

Quitting Soundo'LE


What is Creative Soundo'LE?

Creative Soundo'LE plays and records wave data.  There are six buttons that allow you to control the wave files. They are Play, Pause, Rewind, Forward, Stop, and Record. When you play a wave file, the LED Display shows the amplitude of the sound.

Soundo'LE supports Object Linking and Embedding (OLE). With this capability, you can insert sound into other applications such as Write by linking or embedding them. For more information about Object Linking and Embedding, refer to the Microsoft Windows manual.


Starting Creative Soundo'LE

To start Creative Soundo'LE:

1.	Double-click the Soundo'LE icon in your audio card's group window.
The Soundo'LE window similar to the following appears.


The Soundo'LE Menus

Creative Soundo'LE has four menus.  They are: the File menu, the Edit menu, the Options menu, and the About menu.

See Also

The File Menu

The Edit Menu

The Options Menu

The About Menu


The File Menu

The commands on the File menu are:

New	Create a new wave file.

Open	Opens an existing wave file.

Save	Saves the wave file.

Save As	Saves the wave file with a new name.

Exit	Quits Soundo'LE.

Soundo'LE keeps a record of the last four wave files you have opened.  They are displayed at the end of the pull-down menu in the File menu.  To open one of these files, click the file with the left mouse button.


The Edit Menu

The command on the Edit menu is:

Copy Sound as an Object	Copies the sound data and OLE information to the clipboard. The sound data can then be pasted onto an OLE client as an embedded or linked object.


The Options Menu

The commands on the Options menu are:

Wave Info	Displays information about the sound data such as the sampling rate and size.

Mixer Settings	Runs the Creative Mixer application.  For more information, refer to the chapter on Creative Mixer.

Recording Settings	Allows the sampling size, frequency, and mono or stereo mode to be selected for recording.

Always on Top	Toggles Soundo'LE as the topmost window.


The About Menu

The command on the About menu is:

About Soundo'LE	Opens a window displaying copyright information.


Opening a Wave File

To open a wave file:

1.	Select Open from the File menu.

The File Open dialog similar to the following appears.

2.	Type or select the wave file you want to open.

You can preview the file before opening it by choosing Play.  You can also refer to information like the wave format, data size and its file date displayed in the dialog.

3.	Choose OK.


Playing a Wave File

To play a wave file

1.	Open the wave file.

2.  	Choose Play.

To stop playing the wave file, choose Stop.

You can use the keyboard to perform operations in Soundo'LE.  For instance, you can use either <Tab> or the left and right arrow keys to move to the various buttons on the Soundo'LE window.  To choose a button, press <Spacebar>.

You can also move around the opened wave file with the aid of the slider.  Simply select the slider thumb and drag with the mouse.  Alternatively, you can use the left and right arrow keys.


Recording a Wave File

To record a wave file:

1.	Select New from the File menu.

2.	Choose Record.

The Recording dialog box similar to the following appears.

To stop the recording, choose Stop.


Selecting Recording Characteristics

To select recording characteristics:

1.	Select Recording Settings from the Options menu.

The Recording Settings dialog box similar to Figure 3-4 appears.

2.	Select the desired settings.

•	Select mono for one sound channel and stereo for two sound channels.

Mono is suitable if you want to perform voice recording, while stereo is more suitable for music recording.

•	If you do not select a compression method, select the 8 bits option for normal recording and 16 bits for high-quality recording.

If you select a compression method from the Compression drop-down list box, the 8 bit and 16 bit options will be grayed out.

•	Select 8 kHz or 11 kHz frequency for voice-quality sampling rate, 22 kHz for tape-quality sampling rate, and 44 kHz for CD-quality sampling rate.

•	Choose OK.


Embedding a Wave File

When you embed a wave file, you load a copy of the wave file in Soundo'LE and transfer it to an application such as Write that supports Object Linking and Embedding (OLE).  If you edit the wave file in Soundo'LE, the wave file in Write will not be affected because you no longer have any connection to the file in Write.

You can embed a wave file by doing one of the following:

•	Using Soundo'LE

•	Using MS Write

•	Using Drag and Drop

See Also

Using Soundo'LE

Using MS Write

Using Drag and Drop


Using Soundo'LE

To embed a wave file by starting from Soundo'LE:

1.	Open Soundo'LE.

2.	Record a new wave file or open an existing wave file you want to embed.

3.	Choose Copy Sound as an Object from the Edit menu.

The wave file is placed onto the Clipboard.

4.	Open the Write document where you want to embed the wave file.

5.	Select Paste Special from the Edit menu in Write.

The icon representing the embedded wave file appears.


Using MS Write

To embed a wave file using Microsoft Write:

1.	Open the Write document where you want to embed a wave file.

2.	Select Insert Object from the Edit menu.

The Insert Object dialog box similar to the following appears.

3.	Select Soundo'LE.

4.	Choose OK.

The Soundo'LE application opens.

5.	Select Open from the File menu to select an existing wave file.  Alternatively, you can do a recording and save it into a new file before you include the file in the document.

6.	Choose OK.

7.	Select Update Write from the File menu.

This embeds the wave file into the Write document and an icon representing the wave file will be placed in Write.

8.	Select Exit & Return to Write from the File menu.

This returns to the Write document.


Using Drag and Drop

To embed a wave file using the Drag and Drop method:

1.	Position the Soundo'LE window and the application window so that both are in view.

2.	In Soundo'LE, open the wave file that you want to drag to the document.  Alternatively, you can do a recording and save as a new file before you include the file in the document.

Soundo'LE will display the icon in its window when a wave file is opened.  No icon is displayed in the Soundo'LE window if no wave file is selected.

3.	Open your application document.

4.	Position your cursor over the icon in the Soundo'LE window and drag the icon to the document.

5.	Release the mouse button.

The icon appears in the document file (see below).


Linking a Wave File

When you link a wave file, you are not making a copy of the wave file.  You are only making a reference to the wave file.  If you edit the wave file in Soundo'LE, the wave file in an application such as Microsoft Write will be updated to reflect the changes.

To link a wave file in Microsoft Write:

1.	Open Soundo'LE.

2.	Create a new wave file or open an existing file that you want to link.

3.	Save the wave file.

The wave file must be saved before you can link it to an OLE client.

4.	Choose Copy Sound as an object from the Edit menu.

The wave file is placed onto the Clipboard.

5.	Open the Write document where you want to link the wave file.

6.	Select Paste Link from the Edit menu in Write.

The icon representing the wave file appears.


Quitting Soundo'LE

To quit Soundo'LE:

1.	Select Exit from the File menu.

The Soundo'LE dialog box similar to the following appears if the latest changes have not been saved.

2.	Choose Yes to save the changes, No if you do not want to save the changes, or Cancel if you want to continue working in Soundo'LE.


Glossary of Terms

Channel

Compression

Embed

Frequency

Icon

Linking

Mono

OLE

Sampling

Sampling Rate

Stereo


Channel

A path through which sound passes between two devices within a system.   A multi-channel system can transfer independent sounds through each channel concurrently.  Mono recording uses one channel.  Stereo recording uses two channels.  See also Balance.


Compression

A technique for compacting data for more efficient transmission or storage.  The sound quality of compressed data is generally reduced.


Embed

To insert an object in a document that supports Object Linking and Embedding (OLE).  An embedded object becomes a part of the document.  Objects can be embedded using methods such as drag and drop or copying it to the Clipboard and pasting it into a document.  See also Linking; Object Linking and Embedding.


Frequency

A measure of how often a vibration or oscillation takes place.  Frequency is  measured in hertz (Hz).


Icon

A graphical representation of an object.


Linking

To insert an object in a document using Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) whereby subsequent changes made to the object will be reflected in the document.  An object is linked using methods such as drag and drop or copy and paste using the clipboard.  The linked object remains a separate file.  Consequently, if you transfer a document that contains a linked object to another computer, you must also transfer the original file to which the object is linked.  Both the object and target document must be created in a Windows-based application that supports OLE.


Mono

Recording sound using one channel.  See also Channel.


OLE

Object Linking and Embedding.  A technology that allows objects to be linked or embedded into host applications supporting OLE.  With OLE, sound and video can be incorporated into documents.


Sampling

The process of converting analog signals into digital data.


Sampling Rate

The frequency at which samples of sound are taken.  A higher sampling rate produces results close to the original but it requires more memory.


Stereo

Sound recorded using two channels.  See also Channel.