III. Using GoldWave

The following sections give information about GoldWave's user interface, features, and menu structure. The first few sections provide general overviews, while subsequent sections provide details on menu commands.

Interface Overview

GoldWave is composed of three windows: the Main window, Sound windows, and the Control window.

Main Window

The Main window contains the menu, toolbar, Control window, and Sound windows, as shown below.

Figure: Main Window

1. Main menu button. Displays the main menu when you can access all of the features in GoldWave.
2. Toolbar area. Allows quick access to commonly used commands.
3. Cloud indicator. Shows the number of files currently being saved/uploaded to the cloud.
4. Sound window tab. Each opened file has a tab. Choose the X button to close the file.
5. Sound window area and waveforms. Each channel in the file displays a waveform. A stereo file has the left channel on top and the right on the bottom.
6. Start marker. Sets the start of the selection area. Commands are usually applied to the selection only.
7. Finish marker. Sets the end of the selection area.
8. Playback marker. Shows the current playback location.
9. Playback controls. All the controls for playing, pausing, fast forwarding, rewinding sounds.
10. Level visual. Shows the current audio level for playback or recording. Press and hold to change it.
11. Status visual. Shows the elapsed time and status. Press and hold to change it.
12. Control window sizer. Tap or drag to change the size of the Control window area.
13. Volume button. Tap to set the playback volume level.
14. Recording controls. Start a new recording or record in the selection.
15. Speed button. Tap to set the playback speed.
16. Control window area. The Control window is the lower half of this image, but it's size can be changed using (12).
17. Left visual. Graphs the audio of the left channel.
18. Right visual. Graphs the audio of the right channel.
19. Left visual settings. Sets the settings for the visual, if the visual has settings.
20. Left visual selector. Tap to change the left visual.
21. Right visual selector. Tap to change the right visual.

Toolbar

The toolbar buttons provide quick access to many of the frequently used commands.

Use Toolbar in the Options menu to configure the toolbar.

Sound Windows

Sound windows are created when you open a file. These windows contain a waveform graph of the sound with a time axis near the bottom. For stereo sounds, two separate graphs are shown. The top white graph is the left channel and the bottom red graph is the right channel (see Channels for other colours). The selected part of the sound is highlighted with a blue background between two cyan markers. Initially the entire sound is selected. A vertical line with a left pointing triangle shows the current playback position within the sound. This line is the playback marker.

A cue point slot is located just below the graph. Cue points are shown as inverted yellow and blue triangles. Overlapping cue points are shown in slightly different colours.

The window is divided into three rows. The top third is the selection area. Touching in this area sets the selection. See Editing Overview for details. The middle third is the view and zoom area. Touching or pinching in this area scrolls or zooms the waveform. See the View Menu Commands for details. The bottom third is the playback area. Touching in this area changes the playback position. You can configure some of the features of Sounds windows using the Options | Window on the menu. Use Options | Colours to change the colour scheme.

Control Window

The Control window interacts with your sound hardware. It contains buttons to play and record sounds as well as controls for volume, balance, and playback speed. Real-time visuals display audio data whenever a sound is played or recorded. See Control Overview for more details.