EFFECTS

IL Wave Candy

Wave Candy is a flexible audio analysis and visualization tool which includes an Oscilloscope, Spectrum Analyser and Peak Meter. The display type, colors, frequency range and dynamic range are all fully customizable. A related plugins are Spectroman, dB Meter & Fruity Dance.

How to use

Load Wave Candy into an effects slot on the mixer. The audio from that mixer track will then drive the plugin visualizations.

Parameters

Input

• Gain - Increases (right) or decreases (left) the display gain. Note: if you change this value any dB values shown by Wave Candy will be relative to the input level.
• Fade out - Sets the delay between input stopping and the display fading from view. This only works if the background is also turned off (see the Appearance controls below).
• HOLD - Freezes the current display. Click a second time to return to normal operation.

Appearance

• Title - Click to change the font used for the display title.
• Visible - Turns the display window on or off.
• Mini view - Selects an alternative small display.
• Background - Shows/hides the display window background.
• Solid - When selected, left-click may be used to move and resize the display (depending where clicked) and right-click will open the display menu. When deselected, Wave Candy will be transparent to mouse clicks and you can work on applications behind it.
• Keep in front - Keeps the display window on top of any open application.
• On desktop - The display window will continue to be visible on the Windows desktop after the host application has been minimized.
• Reflect / bevel - Turn right to change the reflection level, or left to hide the reflection and change the width of the display window bevel (surround).
• Punches - Displays/hides background decorations, known as 'punches'.

Colors

• Color target - Drop-down menu provides targets for the color adjustment controls. Once selected, a color can be changed by clicking on the box to the right of the menu, to open the color chooser.
  • Frame - Displays window frame related colors.
  • Bevel - Bevel (outer frame) related colors.
  • Glass - Glass effect related colors.
  • Text - Text related colors.
  • Helpers - Helper related colors.
  • Oscilloscope - Oscilloscope related colors.
  • Spectrum - Spectrum related colors.
  • Peak meter - Peak meter related colors.
  • Eye candy - Special lighting effect colors.
• OA (Object opacity) - Turn to the right to decrease target variable opacity.
• CA (Color opacity) - Turn to the right to decrease color transparency.
• H (Hue) - Cycles through the color spectrum.
• L (Lightness) - Turn to the right to increase lightness (washes out the color).
• S (Saturation) - Turn to the right to increase color saturation or density.

Hint: Wave Candy has been designed so that tweaking the color targets will create pleasing effects. This may make it a little difficult (if you are new to the plugin), to see exactly which color you are working with. Turn AO (object opacity), CA (color transparency) and S (saturation) all the way to the right, so that changes to H (hue) will be clearly visible. But its gaudy, so put them back when you are done. We shudder to think what visual disasters you will create once you discover these controls. On second thoughts, perhaps we should hide them.

Oscilloscope

Displays the wave form created by the audio signal.

• Pinch - Restricts the movement of the ends of the waveform (as if they are being 'pinched').
• Interpolate - Smooths zoomed waveforms.
• Update - Turn to the right to see a running trace of the waveform. Turn to the left to see the shape of the waveform.
• Window - Turn to the left to zoom in on the waveform. Turn to the right to zoom out.

Spectrum

Displays a moving trace of the audio signal. Color hue represents intensity (level), vertical position represents frequency (20 Hz to 20,000 Hz, bottom to top is represented) and horizontal position represents time.

• Update - Scroll speed, right is slower.
• Max res - Increases the resolution of the analysis at the expense of CPU load.
• Scale - Right increases the low frequency detail, left increases the high frequency detail.
• dB range - Changes the intensity scaling.

Peak Meter

Displays the audio level as a pair of vertical bars (left and right channels) on a dB scale.

• Scale - Zooms the scale range.
• Decay speed - Rate at which the bar falls.
• Hold time - Amount of time the peak indicator remains at its peak.

Output Display Menu

Right click the output display to open this menu. Note that the appearance setting 'solid' must be on for the mouse action to be effective.

• Window
  • Visible - Turns the display window on or off.
  • Mini view - Selects an alternative smaller display.
  • Background - Shows/hides the display window background.
• Mode
  • Auto - Changes the display type based on the size and shape of the window. For example, making the display tall and narrow will select 'Peak meter' mode while making it short and wide will select 'Oscilloscope" mode.
  • Oscilloscope - Displays the wave form created by the audio signal.
  • Spectrum - Displays a moving trace of the audio signal. Color hue represents intensity (level), vertical position represents frequency (20 Hz to 20,000 Hz, bottom to top is represented) and horizontal position represents time.
  • Peak meter - Displays the audio level as a pair of vertical bars (left and right channels) on a dB scale.

Hints

Clicking on the down-arrow to the left of the Hint Bar at the bottom of the plugin opens the plugin menu. Hovering your mouse over the display allows you to inspect the levels under the pointer. Auto mode changes the display type when you resize the plugin. This is on by default, to turn it off right-click on the display window and deselect it. The middle mouse button freezes the display (same as HOLD). CPU load: In general, CPU increases with increasing display size.

Plugin Credits

Code & GUI: Didier Dambrin.