Selections in Time and Frequency

There are several selection tools available in the spectral editing mode. You can switch between these using the corresponding buttons in the main toolbar:

The selection tools available in the spectral editing mode (left to right): Area selection, freehand selection, brush selection, magic wand and the zoom tool.

• Area Selection

The area selection tool allows you to select rectangular shapes in the spectrogram. It can also be limited to time or frequency ranges by clicking the down arrow and choosing the desired mode from the drop-down menu.

• Freehand Selection

You can draw freehand selection shapes with the freehand selection tool. Click and hold down mouse button while you draw the desired shape. Release the mouse button when you are done. You can add additional shapes to the selection by holding down the shift key while repeating the procedure.

• Brush Selection

The brush tool allows you to "paint" a selection like you would use a paint brush. Click and hold down the mouse while you paint over the region you want to select. Release the mouse button when you are done. You can add additional shapes to the selection by holding down the shift key while repeating the procedure. You can change the size of the brush by clicking the down arrow and choosing a brush size from the drop-down menu.

• Magic Wand

The magic wand automatically selects an area with similar intensity when you click somewhere in the spectrogram. You can adjust the tolerance in dB by clicking the down arrow and choosing the desired tolerance from the drop-down menu.

Selecting Harmonics

If you want to process tonal events in the spectrogram, you will frequently need to process harmonic overtones as well.

> You can add harmonics to the selection automatically by holding down the Alt or Option key and moving the mouse wheel.

> Alternatively, you can hold down the Alt or Option key and use the arrow up and down keys on the keyboard to add or remove harmonics.

Sometimes, it will be easier to select the shape of an harmonic component than of the fundamental frequency shape. In those cases, you can select the harmonic shape and shift the selection down one octave using the command Selection | Shift Octave Down from the Edit menu or by pressing Alt/Option+/. You can shift the selection up one octave using the Selection | Shift Octave Up or by pressing Alt/Option+*.

Resizing and Moving Spectral Selections

You can move a spectral selection by moving the mouse cursor over the selected time-frequency geometry so that a hand cursor appears:

The hand cursor indicates that you can move the selection in time and frequency.

When you see the hand shaped cursor, you can click and keep the mouse button down while moving the geometry to a new location in time and frequency.

You can also resize spectral selections by clicking the edge of the bounding box or the corners. Keep the mouse button pressed while moving the cursor to define the new size. The corners allow you to resize along both the time and frequency axes, whereas the edges lock the resizing to one dimension.