Below is the graphical user interface (GUI) for Song Surgeon Version 3.0 for Mac. The GUI is the same for both the Standard and the PRO versions; however the Standard version has a number of functionalities that are disabled.

If you have used an older version of Song Surgeon you will note that the Standard version of 3.0 is essentially a continuation of the earlier versions–of course with a number of improvements and additions. The newly introduced PRO version released in Version 3.0, contains a very significant number of changes, enhancements and features.

The Demo or Trial version of Song Surgeon is completely functional with no limitations except time. The Demo is programmed to give you 4 hours (240 minutes) of run time, after which the Demo will no longer function. The countdown timer for the Demo runs anytime the program is OPEN, regardless of whether you are using it or not. Keeping the program closed except when in use will conserve your 4 hours of run time. The Demo runs in the PRO version. These is no standard version demo.

In addition to basic overview provided below in this Quick Start Guide, we strongly recommend that you go to the Training Videos page (a link can be found at the bottom of this Guide) for a more in depth discussion and illustration of how each of the major functions in Song Surgeon Version 3 work.

1. Open –

   This button is used to open three kinds of files: Song Surgeon Project (SSP) files; any supported audio file formats such as mp3, wav, wma, mp4, etc.; and any supported video formats. Remember SS does not play video but strips the audio from a video and opens this audio in SS. Lastly, if you right click on the Open button you will find a list of Recently Opened Files from which you can select. If you have a touch pad with only a single mouse button on your Mac, you can emulate this right mouse click by holding down the Control key and then clicking.

2. Save –

   This button is used to save changes you may have made to a project. Using this button overwrites the previous version by saving with the same name.

3. Save As –

   This button is used to save a project with a different name. It creates a new project file – and does not overwrite any existing project data.

   Project Concept –

   The first three buttons work on the concept of a project. This concept does not alter the audio data but rather stores meta data in a project file (SSP) that remembers all of your settings for the currently open project. When you open a project it will recall all of your previous settings and open the audio file with all of those settings applied.

4. Export –

   The export button is not part of the project concept. The export buttons saves the underlying raw audio file with whatever changes you have made on the screen. It makes these changes permanent. For example if you slow the audio down, change the pitch and delete several parts of the songs, the EXPORT command saves all of these changes in a newly created file, and when that files is opened those changes are inherent to the file. One other important note. Audio files that are highly compressed (pushed to the limit of the recording envelope, may clip when exported. To eliminate this problem, we suggest that you reduce the volume slider to 95%.
   You will note that the Export button has three options.

   • Export Entire Song
     –
     This selection exports everything on your screen
   • Export Selected Loop
     –
     This selection exports only the data within the selected loop area
   • Export All Loops
     –
     This selection exports ALL loop areas present on your screen, cutting away all other data. The resulting file consists of these loops placed one immediately after the other.

5. Rip –

   This button allows you to rip files from a CD. You can choose to select the entire CD or any combination of files at once.

6. Edit –

   Before you can execute any of the Edit functions you must first select an Edit area. This is done by holding your left mouse button down and dragging your mouse in the Wave Form area. This will begin highlighting that area of the wave form file and continue until you release your mouse button. You can adjust the placement of this highlight area by grabbing the beginning or ending edge of this selected (highlighted) area with your mouse and left-clicking and moving it. To deselect a selected edit area, tap the Escape key on your keyboard.
   Once you have selected an area to edit, click the Edit button and open the Edit menu. The follow selections are available. (There are also key board shortcuts for these).
   The use of the editing commands Paste and Insert Silence are done, not by selecting an area of the wave form file as described above, rather these commands are executed, using the progress indicator as the insertion point from which data is pasted or silence is inserted.
   • Cut
     –
     This deletes the highlighted section but places a copy of it on your clipboard
   • Copy
     –
     This copies the highlighted section to your clipboard
   • Paste
     –
     This copies what is on your clipboard into the wave form window, by inserting it at the current position.
   • Delete
     –
     This deletes the highlighted section
   • Insert Silence
     –
     This inserts a silence, of a length you specify, into the wave form window at various positions
   • Change Volume
     –
     This allows you to increase or decrease the volume of the selected section of the wave form.
   You can cut, paste and copy within the same instance of Song Surgeon, or you can open multiple instances and cut, paste and copy between them.

7. Undo –

   This will undo you last action and will continue undoing as many as 10 previous actions.

8. Redo –

   The opposite of undo, it will reapply previous actions that you have undone.

9. Float/Fixed –

   This button toggles between float and fixed states of the progress indicator. In the fixed state the progress indicator is centered in the wave form area and the wave form data moves while it stays fixed. In the float state the progress indicator moves or floats over the wave form data and the wave form data is fixed.

10. Marker –

    The Marker button when clicked, inserts a marker at the current position, in the marker area above the wave form window. You can also insert a marker by clicking with your mouse in the marker area of the wave form window. Markers can be edited by hovering your mouse over the inverted blue triangle, and right clicking. A menu will appear that will allow you to delete the Marker or change the name.

11. EQ –

    The EQ button opens a separate EQ window that enables you to adjust the

    

    EQ settings for the current file. Click one of the presets listed and the EQ sliders will adjust to that setting. You can also grab individual sliders and move them. EQ settings are recalled as part of a Song Surgeon Project file; they are also applied to the audio file when the EXPORT button is used.
    The top button with the blue arrow will SAVE the existing settings as they appear on the screen, thereby changing or overwriting the current setting.
    The Plus (+) button allows you to create an entirely new EQ Preset.
    The button with the Red X will delete the selected preset.

12. Music Pad –

    This button toggles a separate window open where you can create and store music notation or tablature, as well as notes. This feature will be fully implemented in the near future in version 3.1.0.0. (Mac)
13. 

    Sniffer –

    The sniffer button toggles the sniffer window which contains the capability to detect audio or video playing in your browser. It automatically detects the link and enables you to download these files, whether audio or video. Audio files are downloaded and stored on your computer directly. The sniffer window will NOT save video, rather it extracts the audio from the video and saves this as an audio file. This sniffer technology works on approximately 90% of all websites with A/V files.
    As depicted to the right, the links detected in the sniffer window are color coded. The red color indicates a link has been detected. This red turns to orange as a file is being downloaded. Once a link has been downloaded the orange then turns green.
    Preview allows you to hear a preview of the file (works on most sites) once detected. The remove button removes the link from the sniffer window. Download only saves the file to your computer, but does not open them in Song Surgeon. Download and Play saves to a temporary location and then opens the file in Song Surgeon's main window.

14. Vocal Reduction –

    This button opens a slider that allows you to apply an algorithm to the audio file, which in some cases can be fairly effective in reducing the vocals in an audio track. Its effectiveness is song dependent. Generally speaking it works better on older songs, where fewer tracks were employed and less sophisticated effects and mixing/mastering methods were applied. There is no prescribed best setting. We recommend trying the center section, around 128, as a starting place and then adjust up or down from there to see if better vocal reduction is obtained. VR settings are recalled as part of a Song Surgeon Project file; they are also applied to the audio file when the EXPORT button is used.

15. Options –

    This button contains a number of settings for Song Surgeon. These are primarily default file locations for various functions.

16. Help –

    This button contains a link to the Quick Start Guide, the Help Desk, and the Training Videos.

    NOTE:

    The Wave Form Window shown below consists of a Marker Area, at the top, a Wave Form area in the middle, and a Timeline area at the bottom. Each of these areas is described in more detail below.
    

17. Marker Area –

    The area at the top of the wave form window is called the Marker Area. Two types of Markers appear in this area. Blue, sequentially numbered, triangles are Information Markers. These can be inserted by clicking in the Marker area or by clicking the Marker button from the top menu. These blue Information Markers can be deleted by right clicking over top of one with your mouse, or they can be edited. Editing allows you to enter a limited number of characters to custom label the Markers. These Information Markers are always found at the top of this section.
    The Markers found below the blue Information Markers, will be either green, red, or yellow. These markers are referred to as Loop Points, because they define an area of a song that will loop repeatedly. They are also numbered sequentially. To set a Loop Point you click in the blue wave form (grided area). When you set the first loop point it will be orange to indicate it is not complete and is only one – of a pair. As soon as you set the second Loop Point you will see the first one turn green signifying that it is the beginning Loop Point and the second one turn red, signifying that it is the ending Loop Point. Loop Points are set by clicking in the Wave Form area with your mouse. A left click marks the beginning Loop Point and a Right Click marks the end. Right clicking over top of the Loop Points allows you to either delete or edit the Loop Points. See the Loop Control (section #25) for more details on the Loop Point controls, as well as setting beginning and ending Loop Points from this control area.

18. Wave Form Area –

    The wave form area is where the left and right wave form data is plotted in the GUI. This area of the wave form window is where you can select sections to edit and set loop points by right or left clicking in this area. The wave form data in this area also can be zoomed in to enlarge the details and to make the selection or setting of markers, loops and edit areas easier and more accurate. To the far left of this area are small speaker icons that can be clicked to select the left or right or both channels. When in the Float mode you an grab the wave form display with your middle mouse button (rollerball) by clicking onto it and holding it down and then you can drag the wave form display to the left or right. If you have a notebook that doesn't have a middle mouse button you can accomplish the same thing by holding down the Command + Options key and then clicking and holding down the mouse button and then dragging with your mouse.

19. Timeline –

    The timeline area at the bottom shows the chronology of the wave form data. If you click with your mouse in this area, you will automatically move the current position of the audio to that place on timeline that you selected by clicking.

20. P/T Toggle –

    This button toggles between Performance (P) and Transcribe (T) algorithms. The graphic on the left shows this button from the user interface. Please note that the white color shows the algorithm that has been selected or turned on. Song Surgeon 3.0 uses a completely new sound engine for changing pitch and tempo that virtually eliminates ALL distortion. As part of this change we have implemented two different algorithms. If you are using Song Surgeon to practice something and are making significant changes in Pitch and/or Tempo, you should use the "T" or transcribe setting. This setting gives you the BEST quality sound reproduction for extreme changes, for example, slowing the tempo of a song to 25% of the original.
    If however you are going to use Song Surgeon to make a small adjustment, +/- 15% of the original (say – a 1 or 2 step change in pitch), then you should use the "P" or Performance setting.

21. Playback Controls –

    The bottom area of the GUI is the playback control area. The top portion of this area contains the normal or typical playback controls.
    
    The first three playback controls are pause, play and stop. The fourth, smaller button is a repeat button. When the repeat button is selected, whatever is opened in Song Surgeon will play from start to finish and then jump to the beginning and play the file again repeatedly.
    This slider controls the volume. You may also have additional control over the volume by adjusting your system volume controls in your computer or on your computer speakers
    The blue shaded area to the right of the volume is the numerical time display of the song. The first number shows the current position and the second number shows the total amount of time in the entire song or audio file currently open.

22. Tempo –

    The tempo control section controls the tempo or speed of the playback. The range is 10% to 400%. The plus and minus buttons on the left incrementally change the tempo. The larger (thicker) + and – buttons change tempo by 1% at a time. The smaller + and – change by .01% at a time. The black buttons at the bottom are presets that will move the tempo to the designated speed shown. You can also grab the slider with you mouse and adjust the tempo. The small white button with the circular arrow is a default button the returns the tempo back to 100% or default setting.

23. Zooming –

    The controls for zooming the wave form file are similar to the ones described above for Tempo. You can grab the slider and move it as a means of zooming, or you can use the black pre-set buttons. These presets use seconds as units, NOT percentage. This means that if you select 10, the zoom will adjust to display 10 seconds of data in the wave form area, 2 will show 2 seconds. ALL is the default setting and shows the entire song or file.

24. Pitch –

    Controls for the pitch (or key) are similar to the controls for the tempo. The white buttons on the left side adjust either by 1/100 of a half-step (a cent) or by a ½ step at a time. The black buttons are presets except for the first one marked +/-. This is a toggle for the black preset buttons. In other words, if this button is toggled to +, the presets change the pitch or key by raising it. If this button is toggled to "-" the preset lower the key or pitch. The presets are expressed as musical intervals and are as follows:
    

    2nd	=	Major 2nd	=	2	-	half steps
    3rd	=	Major 3rd	=	4	-	half steps
    4th	=	Perfect 4th	=	5	-	half steps
    5th	=	Perfect 5th	=	7	-	half steps
    OCT	=	Octave	=	12	-	half steps

    The white text that indicates the current pitch setting is expressed in – Steps and Cents. For example a reading of 2.25 would mean 2 half steps and 25 cents.

25. Looping Controls –

    The loop controls found in Song Surgeon are as follows: Start and End when clicked set the starting and ending loop points. If you prefer to set loop points based upon listening to the audio playing, these two buttons allow you to do that. You can also set loop points by left clicking in the wave form area (starting loop) and right clicking (ending loop) (emulate the right mouse button if you don't have one by holding down the Control key and then clicking with your mouse.) Once a loop point is set in the wave form area in can be physically adjusted or moved by approaching it with your mouse and grabbing it and dragging it. Loop points are entered in pairs and numbered sequentially beginning with L1, L2, etc. A green lines designates a beginning loop point, red lines are the ending loop points and an orange line means that only 1 of 2 loop points that comprise a pair has been set.
    The Delete button deletes a pair of loop points. This deletion only occurs if the progress indicator is placed BETWEEN a pair of loop points (start and end ). When the progress indicator is not located between a pair of loop points, clicking the Delete button will do nothing. A second way to delete is to hover your mouse over the triangle that designates a loop point in the marker area, right click, and then select delete.
    The Edit button opens a separate menu window for a pair of loop points. To view the settings for a loop, that loop must be selected by placing the progress indicator line BETWEEN two loop points. This Selects that loop area. When so positioned the Edit button opens another window as shown to the right.
    The Label section at the top is created chronological as mentioned earlier, but if you want to edit this designation you are free to do so.
    The start and end points are the current precise locations of the beginning and ending points of the selected loop. If you would like to edit these to adjust the location you may do so here.
    The Pitch and Tempo settings are the presently designated pitch and tempo for this loop. Again, these can be changed by editing these values.
    The loop count refers to the number of loops on playback. The default value is negative -1 which means infinite. You can change this to any number you like. Song Surgeon will loop the designated number of times and then move beyond the ending loop point and continue playing the remainder of the file.
    The delay refers to the number of seconds of delay at the end of each loop. A "0" means a continuously looping play back with no delay. A 5 would insert a 5 second delay at the end of the loop, before it jumps back to the beginning and plays the loop again.
    The white arrow buttons are "jump to" buttons. If you click the arrows at the top while in a loop area, you will advance to the end of the loop, or rewind to the beginning of the same loop. The arrow buttons at the bottom, with a line after them, will cause the progress indicator to jump to the next beginning loop point, in either a forward or backward direction.

26. Global Settings –

    If you set NO loop points, but change tempo or pitch, you apply the changes to the entire song. These are referred to as global settings. If you apply such a global change to a file, and then create a set of loop points, you will see that the area defined by these newly created loop points will have the same global setting. Once you change the settings of this specific loop area, it will retain those settings, over-riding the global settings. However, once a loop area is designated, you can no longer apply global settings, so if you’d like to make Global changes, you must make these first before creating smaller loop areas within the audio file.

27. Keyboard Shortcuts –

    The following keyboard shortcuts can be used with Song Surgeon Version 3.0.

    Open	Cmd-O	Add Start Loop at Position Needle	B
    Save	Cmd-S	Add End Loop At Position Needle	N
    Save As	Cmd-Shift-S	Add Marker At Position Needle	M
    Cut	Cmd-X	Jump To Start of Loop	, (comma)
    Copy	Cmd-C	Jump To End of Loop	. (period)
    Paste	Cmd-V	Jump To Previous Loop	L
    Undo	Cmd-Z	Jump To Next Loop	; (semi-colon)
    Redo	Cmd-Y	Zoom in 2X	Arrow Up
    Delete	Del	Zoom Out 2X	Arrow Down
    Insert Silence	Shift-S	Scrub Back 0.1 secs	Arrow Left
    Change Volume	Shift-V	Scrub Forward 0.1 secs	Arrow Right
    Silence Highlighted Section	Shift-L	Nudge Marker or Loop Left 0.1 Secs	C
    Play/Pause	Space Bar	Nudge Marker or Loop Right 0.1 Secs	V
    Move Position Needle to Start	H	Scroll Left or Right	Ctrl-Left Arrow Ctrl-Left Arrow

Go To Help Desk – Our Help Desk contains a series of FAQ’s, a knowledgebase, downloads for all version of Song Surgeon, and a ticket system for tracking and responding to individual user issues.

Go To Training Videos – Our training videos cover all of the major functions found in Song Surgeon.  These video are STRONGLY recommend for all users as they will quickly get you up-to-speed. They enable you to see all of the Song Surgeon functions demonstrated on a computer screen in the same way you would use the program.