Sound Keys 1.

1 Manual
Sound Keys is a keyframe generator for Adobe After Effects 5.0 and higher. It uses the audio spectrum of a layer to create a keyframe stream in it's own output parameters. The parameters then can be linked to any keyframable parameter using expressions. To the left is a picture of the Sound Keys effect controls as they appear when the plug-in is initially applied. Below that is a picture of the audio spectrum where ranges

are selected.

Sound Keys is distributed as an unlockable demo. The demo is fully-functional, but can only generate 300 keyframes. After the 300 keyframes AE needs to be restarted to get 300 new. The demo also displays a dialog informing that it is running in demo mode for EVALUATION ONLY. To purchase an unlocking key, and get tutorials and support, go to: www.trapcode.com

Sections: Quickstart Overview Main controls Spectrum Adjustment Ranges The spectrum interface

Quickstart
Place an audio file in the timeline. Create a 640*480 solid and apply Effect>Trapcode>Sound Keys. In the Audio Layer pop-up, select the audio layer. Set the work area duration to something like 5 seconds. Press RAM Preview ('0' on numeric keypad) to see the spectrum move with the audio. Now use the green square to select an area of the spectrum that should be captured. Then press Apply in Sound Keys. Press the 'u' key to see the keyframes generated.

Overview
Sound Keys is a somewhat unusual keyframe generator. The keyframe generators that comes with After Effects (Wiggler, Motion Sketch) appear in their own palettes. Sound Keys is instead applied as a regular effect. It uses the comp window to display the spectrum and for defining what range of the spectrum should be used to create the keyframes. The keyframes are then generated to the Output parameters of the plug-in itself. To use the generated stream either an expression is used or the keyframes are copied to desired parameter. One advantage with this approach to keyframe generators is that you can save the settings for the generator with the project (naturally, since it is a regular effect!). This means you can at any time go in and tweak the settings and then press Apply again and your keyframes will be re-generated with the new settings. Just remember to delete the old ones first if you have changed the Keyframes per Second parameter.

Sound Keys renders the audio spectrum exactly like an effect renders its output. However, the spectrum itself is not intended to be used for anything more than to visualize the audio and to make it easy to set up the keyframe generation. When the keyframes are done the layer visibility should be switched off. The Apply and Delete buttons still work when visibilty is off. Sound Keys provides three ranges that are used to set up the keyframe generation. A range defines an area in the spectrum. The intended workflow is to first use RAM Preview to spot the area in the spectrum that corresponds to the sounds that you want to capture. Then the range selectors are used to define that area. After that RAM Preview is used again to inspect the output (green bars on the right). When the output seems fine the Apply button is pressed to generate keyframes for the work area duration.

Main controls
Audio Layer selects which layer to get the audio from. Channel selects Left or Right audio channel. Mix will use both. Use Comp fps - when this box is checked one keyframes per frame will be generated. Keyframes per Second - when the box above is not checked, this parameter sets how many keyframes per second should be generated. Apply - when pressed, keyframes for the work area duration are generated for the active range(s). Delete - when pressed, all keyframes in the work area duration are deleted for the active range(s). Cancel can be used to cancel an Apply command. Delete commands cannot be cancelled (they are normally fast). All commands can be undone using Cmd-Z on Mac and Ctrl-Z on Windows.

Spectrum Adjustment
Scale will scale all the bars in the spectrum uniformly. Q (smoothness) defines the wideness of the frequency response of the bars. A high setting will make the spectrum curve smooth and a low setting will make it more "jagged". Sub Base provides scaling for the very low frequency bars (red). Base provides scaling for the low frequency bars (red-orange).

Mid provides scaling for the mid frequency bars (green). Treble provides scaling for the high frequency bars (blue).

low Q

default Q

hi Q

Ranges

Active turns the range on and off. Type - there are three types to select from; Average of Range will set the output to the average value of the bars in the range. Peak of Range will find the highest value in the range. On/Off Trigger will set output to max if one bar crosses the range and min at other times. Corner 1 defines one corner of the range. Corner 2 defines the other corner of the range. Falloff provides a control for how the output value should fall off. Instant means no special consideration is payed to the fall off. Linear makes the value fall in a linear manner. Exponential makes the value fall with exponential decay. None (integrate) creates an ever increasing output by not letting the signal fall off at all. This is the same as integrating the output over time. Falloff Time sets the time for the value to fall from max to min. This is only active if Falloff is set to Linear or Exponential. Output Min/Max contains some predefined commonly used output value ranges. There is also the Custom alternative that activates the Min and Max parameters below. Min sets the minimum output value.

Instant Falloff

Linear Falloff

Exponential Falloff

Max sets the maximum output value. Output this is the paramameter that receives the keyframes when Apply is pressed. None (integrate)

The spectrum interface

Sound Keys renders the audio spectrum. Therefore Sound Keys should be applied to a solid during the set-up phase. The interface was optimized for a 640*480 solid viewed at half or quarter resolution. The spectrum is however only intended for assisting when setting up the generation parameters; once the keyframes have been generated the layer visibility should be switched off. The spectrum consists of 32 bars that are sensitive to certain frequencies in the audio. The leftmost bars have red color and are sensitive to the base (low frequencies). The rightmost bars are blue and sensitive to treble (high frequencies). When an audio file has been selected in the Audio Layer pop-up the audio spectrum for that layer is rendered. Use RAM Preview to see it animate. The ranges are represented by green squares: see the green square marked "1" above. The area for each range is selected by setting two corner points in the spectrum. When this has been done the green output bar on the right indicates the output. In the image above a few bars have entered the area of range 1, and the output of range 1 reflects this. The other two ranges are not displayed because they are not active. 2001-2002 Trapcode