This chapter contains a step-by-step, hands-on introduction to using Audio ToolBox. Since you will be working with the program, be sure that you have:
 | Installed the Audio ToolBox software; Appendix A, Installation and Setup, tells you how to set up Audio ToolBox on your computer. |
If you are planning to use Audio ToolBox Apprentice, be sure that you have:
| Installed the Audio ToolBox Apprentice software; Appendix A, Installation and Setup, tells you how to set up Audio ToolBox Apprentice on your computer. |
| Mastered basic Windows concepts; Chapter 3, Windows (Quick) Review discusses topics important for new Windows user. |
During installation we loaded some sample files onto your hard disk for you to use. We’ll tell you how to read what is on your screen in both the DOS and Windows environments, and how to convert voice files from one format to another. We’ll also familiarize you with the various tools and command options available to you in Audio ToolBox and ToolBox Apprentice.
Some customers prefer to use Audio ToolBox from the DOS environment, some from the Windows environment, and of course, some use both. If you prefer to use only the ToolBox Apprentice and work solely from the Windows environment, simply skip to the section named Audio Toolbox Apprentice.
First, call up a DOS session and move into the Audio ToolBox directory. For example, if you installed Audio ToolBox in the
c:\VTools directory, enter:C: <ENTER>
CD c:\VTools <ENTER>
This will tell DOS to make the
c:\VTools directory your current working directory. Audio ToolBox DOS Screen Description
The Tool Name appears immediately following the DOS command prompt, and is the name of the executable file that performs a particular function.
The File Name appears immediately following the Tool Name, and is the name of the file that you wish to process.
The Command Options control the operation of the program, and are used to tell the particular tool how to perform its job. When run, Audio ToolBox checks the command line for these user-specified options.
As we said earlier, we’re going to offer a few "just out of the box" exercises. With this short initiation you’ll become familiar with Audio ToolBox, and find you’re having fun too!
PCMCvt lets you convert to and from Microsoft Multimedia Wave (8, 16 & MS ADPCM), linear 16 and unsigned 8 bit, Dialogic 4 and 8 bit plus other industry standard formats. PCMCvt lets you convert files recorded at 22 kHz, 11 kHz, 8 kHz and 6 kHz - and provides filters for proper re-sampling. Optionally choose volume adjustments, dynamic compression / expansion and fast or high fidelity filtering and re-sampling algorithms.
Convert the sample 11 kHz 16 bit Multimedia Wave file PCMCvt.Wav into a Dialogic 6 kHz 4 bit ADPCM file by entering:
PCMCvt Sample\PCMCvt.Wav AccTst.v04 <ENTER>
You have now created AccTst.v04, a Dialogic 6 kHz 4 bit ADPCM audio file. You can play the file with a playback utility such as VISI’s Scribe Transcription Playback Utility, or edit with a Dialogic compatible editor such as VISI’s VFEdit® Professional Prompt Editor. Note that since this sample command uses the default conversion settings, you only specified the old and new file names with no additional command line parameters.
Now use the command line switches to convert the sample Dialogic 6 kHz 4 bit ADPCM file PAK001.VOX into an 11 kHz 8 bit Multimedia Wave file by entering:
PCMCvt Sample\pak001.vox AccTst.Wav -diDLG004 -fi6 -doWAV008 -fo11.025 <ENTER>
You have now created AccTst.Wav, an 11 kHz 8 bit Multimedia Wave audio file. You may now play the file with a playback utility such as VISI’s Scribe Transcription Playback Utility, or edit with a multimedia compatible editor such as VISI’s VFEdit® Professional Prompt Editor. Note that since this sample command does not use the default conversion settings, you specified additional command line parameters along with the old and new file names.
Audio ToolBox Apprentice
is a Windows graphical user interface for the Audio ToolBox Digital Audio Processor & Converter. Developed at the suggestion of our customers, ToolBox Apprentice provides a simple way to see and change complex command lines with ease. With ToolBox Apprentice you can: | Point and click to create the appropriate command line. |
| Execute the command immediately. |
| Create batch files to save the commands for later use. |
If you prefer to use Audio ToolBox from the DOS environment and not use ToolBox Apprentice, simply skip this section.
If you are running Audio ToolBox Apprentice under Microsoft Windows 3.x, simply double-click on the ToolBox Apprentice icon in the Audio ToolBox Group.
If you are running Audio ToolBox Apprentice under Microsoft Windows 95, use the Start Programs menu item to select the Audio ToolBox Program entry.
The Title Bar appears across the top of the main window, and displays the Audio ToolBox Apprentice program name.
The Menu Bar appears directly below the title bar, and provides pull-down menus for processing functions. Menu commands may be selected using the keyboard or mouse. These functions are covered in detail in the chapters that follow.
The Tool Tabs appears directly below the Menu Bar, and provides tabs for rapid access to tools. These tabs may only be selected using the mouse.
The Browse Button is active whenever the cursor is placed in a field that requires a file name. This button displays a dialog box that allows you to select a file from the standard Windows list of drives, directories, and files.
The Command Line displays the current command line options so that you can watch the Audio ToolBox Apprentice actually build the request as you work.
The Batch File text box allows you to specify the name of a batch file in which to store the current command for later use.
The Current Directory shows you the name of your current default directory. If you specify a source or destination file with a partial directory specification, Audio ToolBox will look for these files in your current directory.
The Execute Button causes the current command line to be executed.
The Make Batch Button saves the current command line for future use.
As we said earlier, we’re going to offer a few "just out of the box" exercises. With this short initiation you’ll become familiar with Audio ToolBox Apprentice, and find you’re having fun too!
When you installed Audio ToolBox, the installation program asked you to select a default file type. Since we selected a file type of "Dialogic" during our installation, our screen displays may look slightly different (but not very much different) from yours. Use the drop down menus to change the file data type selections if you want your screen displays to exactly match ours.
Audio ToolBox lets you build standard command lines from the Windows environment. Let’s repeat the DOS audio conversion example from above using the ToolBox Apprentice.
Use ToolBox Apprentice to build the command line switches to convert the sample 11 kHz 16 bit Multimedia Wave file PCMCvt.Wav into a Dialogic 6 kHz 4 bit ADPCM file by:
| Selecting the source audio file by positioning your cursor in the "Source Audio File" field and entering "SAMPLE\PCMCVT.WAV". Or use the "Browse" button to select a file from the list of files. |
| Selecting the destination audio file by positioning your cursor in the "Destination Audio File" field and entering "ACCTST.V04". |
You have now created the following command line:
Click on the Execute Button and you will convert PCMCVT.WAV into AccTst.v04, a Dialogic 6 kHz 4 bit ADPCM audio file. You can play the file with a playback utility such as VISI’s Scribe Transcription Playback Utility, or edit with a Dialogic compatible editor such as VISI’s VFEdit® Professional Prompt Editor.
Now use ToolBox Apprentice to build the command line switches to convert the sample Dialogic 6 kHz 4 bit ADPCM file PAK001.Vox into an 11 kHz 8 bit Multimedia Wave file by:
| Selecting the source audio file by positioning your cursor in the "Source Audio File" field and entering "PAK001.VOX". Or use the "Browse" button to select a file from the list of files. |
| Selecting the source "Data Type" by clicking the drop down menu and selecting "Dialogic 4 bit (OKI) (6 kHz) |
| Setting the source frequency to 6 kHz by positioning your cursor in the source "Frequency" field and entering "6". |
| Selecting the destination audio file by positioning your cursor in the "Destination Audio File" field and entering "ACCTST.WAV" |
| Selecting the destination "Data Type" by clicking the drop down menu and selecting "Wave Multimedia Format 8 bit (11.025 kHz). |
| Setting the destination frequency to 11.025 kHz by positioning your cursor into the destination "Frequency" field and entering "11.025". |
You have now created the following command line:
Click on the Execute Button and you will convert PAK001.Vox into AccTst.Wav, an 11 kHz 8 bit Multimedia Wave audio file. You may now play the file with a playback utility such as VISI’s Scribe Transcription Playback Utility, or edit with a multimedia compatible editor such as VISI’s VFEdit® Professional Prompt Editor.
The Browse button is the gateway into and out of Audio ToolBox and your disk storage areas; it retrieves and displays previously saved audio files, using filenames and pathnames which you specify. You can think of filenames and pathnames as mailing addresses pointing to where you saved your recordings, allowing the disk drive to access them for you. The files themselves are the actual recordings of your audio information, in one’s and zeroes on magnetic media.
When you select the Browse command, the file selection dialog box appears. Here you can select the name of the file you wish to convert.
This dialog box looks like the usual Windows File Open dialog. To select a file from the list of files, type the filename in the File Name text box; you can also double-click a file name with the mouse or use <TAB>, position the highlight bar, and press <ENTER>.
If you type in only a file name, Audio ToolBox assumes that the file is located in the directory shown to the right of the file name. To specify a different directory, move the cursor to the File Name text box and enter the new pathname. Press <ENTER> and a new list of files will appear.
Press OK or <ENTER> and Audio ToolBox will display the sound file name in the Source Audio File text box. Press Cancel to return to the main screen.
File names are limited to a total of eight characters and can be any combination of letters and / or numbers. The program does not differentiate between capital and lower case letters. You can have as few as one character, but you must have at least one character.
The following characters can be used in a file name:
a to z, 0 to 9, ! @ # $ % ( ) - ‘ { } ^
A period can only be used to separate the first part of the file name from the file name extension.
The following characters cannot be used to create a file name:
* + = [ ] : ;" ~ < > ? \ / , or a space.
Let’s say that you want to save the current command line so that you can have a friend or an automated program run it at another time. Click the Make Batch Button to save the current command line in a batch file for future use.
You’ve now completed the basic exercises for using ToolBox Apprentice. Use the Exit Button to end the program, or continue with the sample session for using additional tools.
Sound ChopAudio ToolBox
allows you to record a continuous stream of prompts into a single file, and then to automatically break the single file into individual files. SndChp separates the single file into individual files using periods of silence as separators. The resulting individual files can then be converted, volume normalized, and packed or converted using other Audio ToolBox utilities.
Use the DOS command line or ToolBox Apprentice to create and execute the following command:
SndChp PCMCvt.Wav <ENTER>
You have now created 0001.Wav and 0002.Wav (as shown above), which contain the active audio portions of the original file. You may now process the file further using other Audio ToolBox utilities.
Audio ToolBox
supports both pure (raw amplitude data) and indexed format files. Pure files contain only digitized sound; indexed files contain groups of digitized sound, plus format and annotation text. IdxChp allows you to "chop" indexed files into their components: pure audio and text files that can then be batch processed, converted and edited.
Use the DOS command line or ToolBox Apprentice to chop the sample Dialogic 6 kHz 4 bit ADPCM indexed file IdxTst.vap into its component pure audio and text files:
Idxchp IdxTst.vap <ENTER>
You have now created 0001.Vox, 0001.Txt, and 0002.Vox, a set of pure Dialogic 6 kHz 4 bit ADPCM audio files and their associated annotation text files. You can play the audio files with a playback utility such as VISI’s Scribe Transcription Playback Utility, or edit with a Dialogic compatible editor such as VISI’s VFEdit® Professional Prompt Editor. The text files can be viewed and edited with any standard DOS editor.
Indexed audio files have a built-in "Table of Contents" — a great time-saver in finding which audio segment you want. Each audio segment can have an attached annotation. The IdxLst lets you view and list the header and content information of indexed files.
Use the DOS command line or ToolBox Apprentice to list the contents of the sample Dialogic 6 kHz 4 bit ADPCM indexed file IdxTst.vap and route the output to a text file for future reference:
IdxLst IdxTst.vap >list.txt <ENTER>
edit list.txt <ENTER>
You have now created list.txt, a text file containing header, audio extents and annotation text information for IdxTst.vap. You can review and edit the information file with any standard text editor.
After the files have been processed individually, as either audio or text data, you then need to combine the individual files back into a single indexed file. Use IdxPak when you want to "pack" pure audio and text files into an indexed file.
Use the DOS command line or ToolBox Apprentice to pack the sample Dialogic 6 kHz 4 bit ADPCM pure files Pak00?.vox and Pak00?.txt into a composite indexed file:
IdxPak Pak00?.vox IdxTst.vap -t*.txt <ENTER>
You have now created IdxTst.Vap, a composite indexed file containing groups of digitized sound, plus format and annotation text. You can load the file into your indexed file compatible voice response system or edit it with a Dialogic compatible editor such as VISI’s VFEdit® Professional Prompt Editor.
You may find, over time, that the indexed files you are using become fragmented (i.e., data is scattered throughout), or that you need to change the size of the file (either shorter or longer), or need to perform and integrity check after a hard disk failure. The index rebuild tool lets you perform these types of maintenance operations on indexed files. Use this tool when you need to lengthen, shorten, replace entries and "rebuild" indexed files.
Use the DOS command line or ToolBox Apprentice to rebuild the sample Dialogic 6 kHz 4 bit ADPCM indexed file IdxTst.vap and add 98 new empty index entries to the end (indicated by 9999); reset the frequency specified in the header to 6053.
IdxReb IdxTst.vap -i98 -@9999 -f6053 <ENTER>
You have now modified IdxTst.Vap, increasing the total entry count to 100 indexes and changing the frequency specified in the header to 6053 Hz.
Some of the Audio ToolBox tools use parameters specified in decibels. For example, the audio conversion tool lets you perform a volume adjustment as part of the conversion process. To understand how to set these parameters, you need to understand this unit of measurement.
The decibel (dB) is a unit of measure for expressing the ratio between two amounts of electric voltages. The decibel is used because of the wide range in sensitivity of the human ear. In our usage one dB equals 20 times the common logarithm of the ratio of the old signal voltage versus the new signal voltage.
Since the human ear is sensitive to the power of the signal, the intensity of the sound is equal to the square of the voltage level. Thus doubling the intensity of the sound means an increase of a little more than 3 dB.
For example, an audio segment that is to be made four times as loud would increase by:
dB = 20 * log(New Voltage/ Old Voltage)
dB = 10 * log(New Power / Old Power)
dB = 10 * log (4/1)
dB = 10 * +.60
dB = 6.0
Similarly, an audio segment that is to be made one-fourth as loud would decrease by:
dB = 20 * log(New Voltage/ Old Voltage)
dB = 10 * log(New Power / Old Power)
dB = 10 * log (1/4)
dB = 10 * -.60
dB = -6.0
