Trimming Audio in Hokusai & AudioShare

mocomain

Been playing around with trimming audio loops, comparing the process between 2 apps...Hokusai & AudioShare. Even though the window size in AudioShare is smaller, the process is so much simpler than in Hokusai, which is an absolute nightmare, a completely frustrating experience which I wouldn't wish upon anyone! I've been thinking about upgrading Hokusai for its additional audio processing fx, but I sure wouldn't use it for any serious waveform editing, as it's seemingly impossible to interact with a waveform in any precise and consistent manner! I'm using Beatmaker 2 as my central hub for creating music, so will probably attempt to perform all my audio editing within its lovely AudioBussed confines! Also wondering if anyone has any experience using Remaster by Audioforge Labs? I'll be purchasing Level.24 from elephant candy and just wondered how it compared to Remaster, in regards to ease of use and soundquality? Any feedback is much appreciated!

Will

Hokusai is indeed extremely frustrating.

I find the Nanostudio sample editor the most fluid but it's not exactly quick to get into. Does anything out there snap to measures? I'd like to be able to make the first cut freestyle and then truncate the end at a fixed musical interval.

SpookyZoo

Hokusai always seemed to be so well regarded that I figured it was just me that always got into a fit of swearing abuse at my device.

You know that moment in a restaurant where after having much difficulty choosing between 2 dishes from a menu, your food arrives...you look at your plate and then you look at the plate of your friend who ordered the other dish and your heart drops when you realise you backed the wrong horse...well, that's kinda like Hokusai and Twisted Wave.

I'd be interested in what Syrupcore asked too.

[Deleted User]

Cubasis will split at beats and measures as well as freestyle.

qaratechop

Multitrack DAW also splits at measures, though the snap function is of by default.

[Deleted User]

That would be the cheaper option.

Will

Good idea. A lot of love for MTD here but that's not quite what I'm looking for. Zooming all the way into the wav easily to make that first cut is kind of key (see Nanostudio) and MTD isn't awesome at that. Plus, moving it to the one is a whole separate operation.

Simon

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Context

Hokusai pissed me off to no end too, at first. It takes a little patience to learn but once you get the hang of it it's pretty easy and fluid.

To make a selection, you have to HOLD your finger in the general location of where you want your marker to go, wait for the marker to pop up, KEEP HOLDING your finger on the marker, then swipe in whatever direction you want your selection to cover.

To adjust your selection, you need to hold your finger next to the marker you want to adjust INSIDE the selection, not exactly on the marker or outside of the selection (that part messed me up). You know you did it right when the left/right direction arrows icon pops up on the center of the marker. Give Hokusai another shot, it's easy. Also, the in-app help has a couple of nice pointers as well.

I like Hokusai and MTD not really for straight audio editing, but for drum layering. Being able to hear two or more drum elements side-by-side is a tremendous help. I just wish Hokusai had some sort of ADSR filter, and I wish MTD had a better zoom function.

SpookyZoo

Hokusai is not all bad. I have the full version and there is plenty to like. But why do the loops go all the way to the end of the screen. Trying to operate on any part of the loop end is just so tedious. Couldn't find a setting to adjust a margin or something similar. This is just one pet hate. The app is really unintuitive.

Although I can see how it's features work well with your drum editing.

Will

But why do the loops go all the way to the end of the screen. Trying to operate on any part of the loop end is just so tedious.

that.

SpookyZoo

It occurred to me that I have maybe been a bit unfair. I was highlighting flaws I felt the app had here yet hadn't made my concerns direct to to Wooji juice, the developers of Hokusai.

So I contacted them and Canis, the lead developer replied this morning. He directed me to a couple of settings that would help. These settings are not located within the app but in the settings of the device. Quote below....

"There's a couple of issues here. The first thing to be aware of is that if you go into the system settings, you can enabled "Double tap to select". This allows you to double-tap on a wave and the visible region will be selected. If you've zoomed out all the way, this will quickly select the whole track. If you've zoomed in, just the zoomed region will be selected, so you can use pinch/scroll to zoom to a region and then have that selected, if the usual drag-to-select doesn't suit you. Either way, you shouldn't have to worry about dragging to the edges of the screen. And, of course, you can adjust the selection afterwards. Hopefully you'll find this more convenient!"

This certainly does make editing the loop ends easier.

Here is a good introduction to Hokusai from apps4idevices http://apps4idevices.com/read/hokusai-audio-editor-v1-0-8.html

j_liljedahl

Just wanted to chime in and tell you that I'm planning to add beat-snapping in the trim tool of AudioShare. The user will simply enter the BPM, and then toggle snapping on/off.

SpookyZoo

Part of my email to Wooji Juice...

• The mention about cutting to bars. To my mind if you could enter a tempo, and have the ability to have the time bar display in beats and bars and a snap feature to cut...that would be awesome!

j_liljedahl

@SpookyZoo: great

Will

Awesome. Thanks @spookyZoo.

Awesome. Can't wait @j_liljedahl.

j_liljedahl

@syrupcore: Good news, this feature will be available in the next AudioShare update!

Will

Woooooot!

haunted

Hokusai trims audio just fine, as does AudioShare. Navigating a waveform in Hokusai can be a little laggy though. But with AudioShare you can't zoom in to make precise cuts and have to rely on the trimming buttons instead. In the end, I have no need for a dedicated WAV editing app, so I use AudioShare to trim things.

If I'm working on a track in BeatMaker 2, though, I use its sample editor, which is pretty damn good. Navigating a waveform is fast and smooth, and you can pinch-zoom to make very precise cuts. The chopping function is great, too, even if you don't chop drum beats (I use it to cut up synth sounds to create glitchy effects).

[Deleted User]

Could do with a BM2 expert here.

http://forum.audiob.us/discussion/408/beatmaker2-audiobus#Item_73

Context

For anyone interested, I asked Wooji Juice about an ADSR filter, which I felt Hokusai was lacking and was really my one major complaint. Here's what they said:

Something you might find useful, that might address your ADSR needs, is the "fingerpaint" mode. If you have the Pro Pack, then many of the places in Hokusai that you can set a value using a slider, you can switch it out so that you can paint the values you want — of course, you can use this with the Gain filter to make something much like an ADSR, like this:

...picture not show...

Just tap the "Constant" button just above/to the left of the slider, and set its mode to Fingerpaint. The slider will be replaced by a mini graph, tap that to get the editor.

Good enough and works for me. Thanks Wooji Juice!