Project Media

A session is built from media files: the file you opened or recorded, a second audio track you added, video clips, and the temporary files that recording and editing create. These are its project media. The Project Media dialog lists them with where each one is stored, its format and size, and where it starts on the timeline. Look here before you move or share a session, or when a file cannot be found.

To open it, choose File Project Media or press Ctrl+Shift+I (Command+Shift+I on macOS, changeable under Keyboard Shortcuts). It is available while a file or recording is open, in VoceVista Basic, VoceVista Video and VoceVista Pro. The dialog only shows information. Projects and self-contained projects are explained in Saving a Project.

Session

The Session box describes the session as a whole.

Name: The name of the file or project.
Location: The folder that contains it, or not saved yet.
Storage: project bundle or media file, and modified or unmodified. will be saved as a project means that saving creates a project, for example because the session contains video.
Format: Sampling rate, bit depth and channels. track reads … Hz is added when the first audio track has a different rate.
Length: The length as time and as a number of frames.

Media Files

The list shows every file the session currently uses. Files kept only so that Undo can bring back something you deleted are not listed. The file the session was opened from stays listed even when no track reads it any more, as after File Add Second Audio Track.

The files are grouped by where they are stored, and within each group into Audio and Video. Hover over a group heading for an explanation.

External files: Used where they are, such as the file you opened. Moving or deleting one breaks the session.
Files in the project: Stored inside the project and copied with it.
Temporary session files: Created by this session, for example by recording. They are removed when the session is closed, but saving as a project keeps their content.
Working copies: Converted audio the analyzer reads, kept in the cache folder.
Missing files: No longer at their path (see Missing Media).

The columns:

Name: The file name. Hover over it for the full path, and for a note when the analyzer reads the file through a decoded copy, as for an MP3.
Format: For audio, sampling rate, bit depth and channels. A lossy file such as an MP3 shows no bit depth. For video, picture size, frame rate and duration.
Size: The size of the file on disk.
Starts at: Where the file’s audio track or video starts on the timeline, in seconds, for example +0.370 s. A negative value means that its beginning is cut off. Filled only when the session has more than one stream: two audio tracks, or audio and video.

Below the list is the path of the selected file. The Media Information box shows details read from the file itself, such as container, duration, bitrate and codecs.

Buttons

Show in Folder: Opens the folder that contains the selected file, with the file selected: in File Explorer on Windows, in the Finder on macOS.
Copy Path: Copies the full path of the selected file to the clipboard.
Adjust Track Offsets…: Closes Project Media and opens Adjust Track Offsets, with the selected file’s track or video checked. Available when the session has more than one stream.
Close: Closes the dialog.

Missing Media

A file is listed under Missing files when the session still uses it but it was moved, renamed or deleted, or its drive is not connected. Show in Folder is then unavailable and Media Information stays empty, but Copy Path still copies the path where the session expects the file. Put the file back there, and the session finds it the next time it is opened.

A project looks for each file it refers to at the same place relative to the project first, and at the original location second. So a project moved or copied together with its media finds the copies, provided both were on the same drive when the project was saved.

When a project is opened and one of its video clips cannot be found, that clip shows no picture. When the original file of an added second audio track cannot be found, the project opens with the other audio track only. Such files are not listed in Project Media, because the session no longer uses them. To keep the video clips inside the project, save it as a self-contained project (see Saving a Project).

Adjust Track Offsets

Each audio track of a session, and its video, is a stream on one shared timeline, and a stream’s offset is where it starts on that timeline. When you add a second recording of the same performance with File Add Second Audio Track, VoceVista aligns the two and sets the offsets. The Adjust Track Offsets dialog lets you check and correct them, by hand or automatically, and move the sound against the picture. It is available in VoceVista Video and VoceVista Pro.

To open it:

Right-click the Waveform or the Timeline and choose Adjust Track Offsets. The entry is there when the session has two audio tracks or a video. The track you right-clicked starts out checked.
When the Waveform or Timeline has more than one lane, click the More options button at the right end of its top lane and choose Adjust Track Offsets.
Click Adjust Track Offsets… in Project Media.

The dialog can stay open while you play, stop and loop, so you can judge the alignment by ear. It shows the file that is currently active.

Streams

The list shows the audio tracks under Audio and the video under Video, by file name. Hidden tracks are listed too.

Check box: Earlier, Later and Move Earlier by This Delay move the checked streams. The others stay where they are.
Starts at: Where the stream starts, in the unit chosen under Move By. A negative value cuts off its beginning. Click a value to type where this stream should start. It moves there when you close the editor.

These two buttons ignore the check boxes:

Start Every Stream at Zero: Puts every stream at 0, which removes all alignment, including the one made when the second audio track was added.
Auto-Align Audio Tracks: Aligns the first audio track to the second by comparing the two recordings, as File Add Second Audio Track does. Only the first track moves. Use it when that alignment was canceled, or after moving the tracks by hand. Playback stops, and you can cancel the scan. The result appears at the bottom of the dialog, for example The audio tracks are already aligned.

Markers belong to the first audio track and keep their place in it.

Move By

Amount: How far to move the checked streams.
Unit: ms, samples, or video frames (only with video). Changing it converts the amount, and the Starts at column follows.
Earlier: Moves the checked streams earlier on the timeline.
Later: Moves the checked streams later on the timeline.

These buttons are unavailable when no stream is checked, or when every stream is, since moving everything changes nothing. The bottom line of the dialog says which.

Microphone Distance

Sound travels at about 343 m/s, so it reaches a microphone about 2.9 ms later per metre of distance.

Distance from the Sound Source: How far the microphone stood from what it recorded, in metres, with the resulting delay beside it, for example = 5.8 ms for 2 m.
Move Earlier by This Delay: Moves the checked streams earlier by that delay.

A typical case: a camera two metres from the singer records the picture, and a microphone close to the singer the sound. Add Second Audio Track aligns that recording to the camera’s sound, so both audio tracks are late against the picture by the camera microphone’s delay. Check both audio tracks, enter 2, and click Move Earlier by This Delay.

Undoing a Change

Every move made in this dialog, with a button or by editing a Starts at value, is one step that Edit Undo in the main window takes back. The dialog can stay open meanwhile, and its values follow.