The Properties Dialog
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The Properties Dialog allow you to fine tune all aspects of a wave file's sound. This allows you to modify what you hear without needing to edit the wave file on disk. The dialog is normally started from the FS Sound Studio Editor by selecting the More... button.

When the Properties Dialog starts, it determines and displays the appropriate valid Parameters based on the Sound Type.


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The first example shows the Parameters available for WIND_SOUND.

·Raw File  

The full path to the sound file is shown in the Raw File box. You can click on the Browse button to replace the file shown with a different one. If the wave file you select is not in the Aircraft or System Sound folder, FS Sound Studio will copy it to the proper location.

·Play, Loop and Stop buttons  

The PLAY button allows you to play the raw sound file unmodified. You can also LOOP the sound, playing it endlessly in a loop, or Stop it. Note that the file is played unmodified. In order to hear the sound as you would in FS, you need to Preview it.

·Edit  

Clicking on the Edit button allows you to edit the raw audio wave file. FS Sound Studio doesn't have the ability to do this directly, instead it starts whatever program is registered in Windows as the editor for the file extension .wav.

·File Properties  

The file properties are shown for, in this example, the wind3.wav file. Note from the displayed path that this file is found in the System's Sound folder (as opposed to the Aircraft's local Sound folder). The file is Mono, standard Windows Pulse Code Modulation, 22.5KHz sample rate at 8 bits per sample, and lasts for 5.73 seconds.

·Parameters  

When the file is played in FS, the file is modified by six parameters - Minimum Speed, Maximum Speed, Minimum Rate, Maximum Rate, Minimum Volume and Maximum Volume. You can use the sliders to change these values, or type in new values in the text boxes. For a description of what these parameters represent, and how they effect the sound, see the Background section.


The second example is the Parameters of the GROUND_ROLL sound of the C172. Of interest in this example is the Surfaces... button.


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Clicking on the Surfaces... button brings up the following dialog:

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FS allows you to specify different GROUND_ROLL sounds for different surfaces. For example, you probably wouldn't want the C172 making the same sound rolling on Concrete as it would on Short Grass. FS allows you to specify a different sound for each surface type, or multiple surfaces per sound. In the above example, the selected sound will be played when the aircraft is rolling on Concrete, but not on Snow. The hexadecimal equivalent of the Surface Type flags is shown on the dialog next to the Surfaces button.

NOTE: If you don't specify any surfaces for a particular Sound, then that sound will be used for all surfaces.



Our third example is more complex. Here we're displaying a Engine Sound List entry, COMBUSTION1.00. This sound has a Volume and Pitch envelope. It also can be assigned somewhere between the right or left channel of the audio output with the Panning control. For more information on Sound Types and Sound Lists, see the Background section.

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The Raw File, Play buttons and Properties for this sound are as explained above.

·Panning  

FS allows you to send a sound to the right or left channel of a two channel stereo sound field, or anywhere in between. The sound.cfg file panning value ranges from 0 (full left) to 10000 (full right).

·Volume Envelope  
·Pitch Envelope  

Multiple mixed sounds are normally needed to create a realistic engine sound. The Volume and Pitch envelopes for each sound allow you to mix sounds by creating an envelope or function which is used to determine the Pitch and Volume of a sound at any given engine RPM value. In the example above, the COMBUSTION.1.00 sound list entry, which plays the wave file c172_rpm1.wav, is only heard at lower RPM values. At higher RPMs, other files take over. This allows the sound designer to play different sound files for different ranges of RPM. The pitch of the sound can also be varied based on RPM. A raw wave file plays at a fixed pitch, but FS allows the sound designer to increase the pitch of the sound as the engine RPM increases for more realism.

The Envelope can be edited by moving the mouse over one of the segment end points, left clicking and then dragging to a new location.

·More  

Clicking on the More button starts the Envelope Editor, which allows you to perform additional editing.