This is a short documentation for MultiWave 1.0. Make sure this is the latest version at www.nicolasfournel.com\multiwave.htm Please note that this program has been initially written for my personnal use. Therefore, there is no warranty of any kind. Use it at your own risk ! Nicolas Fournel Contents ======== 1> What is MultiWave ? 2> Main Window 3> Settings Window 4> Known issues 5> Program History 6> What's next ? 1> What is MultiWave ===================== MultiWave creates a multichannel wave file from several mono wave files. It supports the WAVE_FORMAT_EXTENSIBLE format tag, which allows to store the mapping between the channels and the speakers on which they should play. Common usages include the generation of quadriphonic and surround 5.1 files. MultiWave 1.0 is a freeware. 2> Main Window ============== At the top of the main window, you can select the active configuration. A configuration is simply a list of channels (see the Settings window description to learn about adding and removing configurations, after pressing the 'Settings' button). When you select a configuration, buttons are created for each of the channels present in that configuration. Clicking on a channel button, the user can select the corresponding wave file. Once a wave file has been assigned to every channel, pressing the 'Process' button will start the generation of the corresponding multichannel wave file. The progress bar at the bottom of the window lets the user monitor the creation of the new file. MultiWave processes the samples by blocks of 100 Kb, so you can use input files of virtually any size, without going out of memory. Finally, the 'About' button displays the version information about the program. Note: in the current version, MultiWave only works with 16-bit files. Also, the sample rates of the input files must be the same (which obviously should always be the case anyway). 3> Settings Window ================== When MultiWave is started for the first time, the settings.mtw file is created. This file includes a few common configurations (such as stereo, quadriphony, surround 5.1 and 7.1), as well as the default options and suffixes. Every time you leave the program, the settings.mtw file is updated with your latest changes. Here are the options available: ------------------------------- - Automatically pad shortest samples with silence If some of the samples do not have the same length, MultiWave will automatically pad the shortest samples with silence. If this option is not selected, MultiWave gives you the choice between padding or aborting the operation. - Automatically load samples with same base name If this option is selected, when the user select a file, MultiWave will use the suffix table to generate the names of the samples for the other channels. If files with these names exist, they will be automatically selected. Example: if you are still using the default suffixes and you are selecting the "test_FL.wav" file for the 'Front Left' channel, MultiWave will automatically select "test_FR.wav" for the 'Front Right' channel if it is present in your configuration, "test_LF.wav" for the "Low Frequency" channel etc... This will also work if the file you selected has no known suffix (i.e. if you selected a file named "test.wav", MutiWave will still search for "test_FR.wav" for the 'Front Right' channel etc...). Note: To edit a suffix, simply click on it and enter the new name. - Automatically save resulting file using base name MultiWave will detect the base name of the selected wave files or will use the name of the first sample to save the multichannel ouput file without prompting the user. The name of the file will be base name + name of the configuration. In our previous example, it could be "Test_quadriphony.wav". If this option is not selected, a "Save As..." dialog box will appear. - Use old style (do not use WAVE_FORMAT_EXTENSIBLE) For the programs that don't support the WAVE_FORMAT_EXTENSIBLE format, it is possible to save the output file as a regular multichannel wave file by selecting this option. The drawback is that the channel / speaker mapping will not be stored in the file. Here is how to manage the configurations: ----------------------------------------- The 'Add' button lets you add a new configuration. To do so, simply select the wanted channels from the list, enter a name in the edit box located at the top of the configuration list (the name must be unique) and press "Add". The 'Remove' button deletes the selected configuration. It it was the default configuration, the default configuration becomes the first configuration in the list. Trying to remove the active configuration (i.e. the configuration currently selected in the main window) will fail. 4> Known issues =============== MultiWave might have a funny look (in the settings window) with Large Fonts display. There is no plan to change that in the near future. 5> History ========== 12/04/2004 - version 1.0 6> What's next ? ================ This is the version 1.0 of MultiWave. The following features might be added in the next versions: - support for samples other than 16-bit (including floating point samples). - command line operation - import of multichannel files (ex: left and right channels automatically assigned for stereo files)