IQS SAW Plus 3.3

Rather than trying to be a jack of all trades, SAW Plus has made itself a master of one — providing a dedicated multitrack recording and editing environment for digital audio on the PC. Janet Harniman‑Cook came, saw, and wrote this review...

The PC is fast becoming a viable alternative for studio‑quality MIDI and hard disk audio recording. Today's powerful PCs provide a dazzling range of music recording tools for songwriting and album production, as well as soundtrack, multimedia, remix and radio program creation. The last year has seen the launch of many top‑quality Wave editors and MIDI + Audio sequencers, and though MIDI + Audio software represents a wonderful achievement, in my experience the multitrack editing and recording environment found in many of these applications can be disappointing. Enter SAW Plus 3.3. This dedicated digital audio multitracker from Innovative Quality Software uses extremely clever 32‑bit assembly language programming to emulate hardware DSP functions. SAW Plus is a seriously powerful application, and to fully exploit its potential, you need a well‑equipped, big Pentium. But don't despair — the reference PC used for this review is a modest Pentium 100, and this produces very impressive results.

Overview

SAW Plus 3.3 comes with comprehensive Windows on‑line help and a spiral‑bound printed manual. Although both are very useful, neither has a comprehensive index. The program's keyboard commands, although well‑considered, do not follow Windows standard conventions, though in practice this does not prove much of a problem, as SAW Plus is highly intuitive throughout, and easy to learn and use.

SAW Plus can simultaneously play back an awesome 32 tracks of digital audio, if your computer is fast enough. The program supports up to four stereo 16‑bit Windows soundcards, to potentially give eight channels in and out. Unfortunately, PC system resources are finite; they will almost certainly not provide the individual Interrupt (IRQ), memory area and address port settings required by four cards, and soundcards providing two discrete stereo channels on a single set of PC system resources are not expected before autumn 1997. With patience, however, three cards may be persuaded to operate in tandem. SAW Plus will run on a single 16‑bit soundcard, but you will be limited to stereo in/out.

The Reverberator is fine sounding and stylishly presented. Top marks to IQS on this one!

For this review, two cards (Turtle Beach's Multisound Classic and Multisound Pinnacle with digital daughter board) were used, to give four analogue channels in and out (2 x stereo) and one stereo digital I/O. Fortunately, even with one soundcard, you can run as many internal tracks as your PC can handle. SAW Plus will perform real‑time, on‑the‑fly wavefile format conversion, and play back a sequence of wavefile data regardless of format. One region could be mono 8‑bit at 32khz, the next 16‑bit stereo at 44.1khz, and so on. Each track has solo, mute, level, pan, effects patching, and soundcard input/output routing. Tracks contain sequences of audio defined as Regions; a Region can be of any duration, from the whole sound file to a fraction of a second, and is simply a set of play start and end times that refers to a particular wavefile. Editing the Region simply changes play times and is not destructive of the audio.

Installation

Installation is straightforward. SAW Plus is one of those rare applications that do not scatter system files all over your hard drive, and this makes de‑installing it painless. Configure your soundcards in the Options Menu/Audio Hardware Setup, assigning Interrupt Hooks (IRQ) to 'None' — the Windows 95 default setting. Finally, install plug‑ins (such as the AVI viewer module and the Reverb — more on this later). Like Emagic's Logic, SAW Plus can save up to 12 different workspaces, or screensets, which are stored and recalled from the keyboard function keys. Whenever you want to see your workspace from a different perspective, you recall the appropriate screenset. You can also customise the colours of screen objects used by SAW Plus, and define your own default colour scheme in Options/Colours.

Multitrack View

Most activity in SAW Plus takes place in the Multitrack view. To the left are the Track Controls, with the Tracks themselves stretching horizontally across the screen. Regions (which can be named) are depicted as rectangular blocks in the Track, and can display the waveform, if you like. The ability to view the waveform in the Multitrack view is significant, as it makes lining up audio events on different tracks a doddle.

One of the reasons I find SAW Plus so good to work with is its superb graphics handling. Screen redraws are near instantaneous, magnification functions are assigned keyboard shortcuts, and tracks may be repositioned in the list by simply clicking on the track number and dragging it to a new position. To solo or mute a track, click on the track control button; the speed with which the solo or mute is implemented depends on the Preload buffer queue setting found in the Options/Audio Hardware Setup. Fewer buffers gives a faster response, but may cause slower systems to hiccup when starting playback.

Used in conjunction with SAW's Snap to Cursor function, Markers provide a simple and powerful means of navigation and Region positioning.

Between the lowest visible track and the scrollbar is the Time Line, where time information is displayed in clock time or as samples. The Time Line is used for navigation — clicking on it locates the cursor. The current position is defined by the location of the cursor, which is the vertical line that scrolls horizontally across the track area during playback and record. Its position is displayed numerically as the current time in the Remote Transport window, where we also find play, stop and locator buttons.

The lowest four tracks in the multitrack view are numbered 1‑4 and have pink buttons. These are the output tracks, used as global controllers for solo, volume, pan and effects patching for each soundcard.

Recording

Recording in the SAW Plus Multitrack view is simple once you get the hang of it.

• Click to select the track to which you want to record.
• Select the desired soundcard by clicking on the appropriate square blue number button in the Track Controls. Whenever possible, use digital transfer if you have a digital source, such as a DAT machine, and a digital audio card in the PC.
• Click the red track Record button. The record dialogue box appears.
• Select the record mode: stereo, mono (L/R), or split stereo (L+R).
• Choose sample and bit rates.
• Click 'File Name' to label the new file and define its location on your hard drive.
• Next, test input levels by clicking 'Rec Ready' in the Record Transport box. The bargraph meters should dance responsively in the presence of incoming audio. If necessary, adjust the record input level using the red sliders.
• Position the cursor to define the record start point by dragging on the Time Line.
• Go to the Record Transport box, and click on 'Rec' to start recording. If you want to record and play back with other tracks, you need to click Shift + SRP (Synchronized Record & Playback). The Record Panel and the Record Transport bar displays indicate time remaining on disk, peak level and elapsed record time.
• When the recording is complete, click on 'Stop'. SAW Plus automatically creates a new region and adds it to the Regions list. The new region is placed in the track at the record start cursor position and appears as an entry in the Sequence window. You can also record directly to the Soundfile view, should you prefer to.

Clicking on 'Auto' on the Transport bar before recording relocates the cursor to the record start position when recording is stopped — extremely useful when recording multiple takes. You can quickly go from one take to the next by muting the previous take and clicking on the record button to open the record dialogue for the next track. Even if your PC cannot play all the recorded tracks at once, you can still have audio on muted tracks, auditioning multiple takes on different tracks by using the track mute buttons.

If you want to record along with your take, set playback level and pan values by clicking on the track fader icons and adjusting the slider that appears. If you hold down the Control key when clicking a track fader icon, all 16 track faders are opened. The faders are stacked on top of each other, and selecting a track makes the corresponding fader rise to the top. Overall level and pan offset values may be set by clicking on the fader offset button and adjusting the offset sliders.

Wave Editing

The Soundfile view is where you'll find wavefile editing. You can zoom in closer to a waveform (zooming is fast and works for both time and amplitude), mark start and end points of an edit area, select the whole file for editing, update existing regions and create new ones, and move regions into tracks. Regions may be split, cleared or pasted to new or existing sound files. Pasting regions will allow you to remove unused audio from the start and end of the soundfile (top and tail), and you can then copy the usable audio to a new, shorter soundfile, to help help free disk space.

DC Offset (DCO) functions are found in the Edit menu. DCO is a type of electrical disturbance, caused by mismatches between digital audio recording devices, and commonly encountered in soundcards and DAT recorders. When viewed at high magnification, audio files affected by DCO exhibit a wave image that is off‑centre of the zero‑level axis. DCO may also cause audible clicks and pops at splice points. To correct DCO problems in SAW Plus, zoom in and mark a quiet part of the soundfile. If DCO is present, go to Edit/Calibrate DC Offset, which produces a DCO correction template. Mark the whole soundfile and select Edit/Apply DC Offset to remove.

Multitrack Assembly

As well as being a great multitrack recorder, SAW Plus excels as an assembler. The assembler is where you add the finishing touches to your recordings and build your project — anything from constructing a single musical piece, such as a song or backing track, to compiling a collection of recordings for your album or soundtrack.

In addition to recording audio directly into SAW Plus, you can load wavefiles from your hard drive. To grab files from CD, you must first copy them to your hard drive, as direct CD file transfer is too slow. Session information, including region definitions, sequence lists and mix changes, is saved as an Edit Decision List file (EDL), and it's advisable to save your EDL after every major edit move.

Positioning & Markers

The Regions view list is arranged alphabetically, and you can audition a region by clicking on its name and then right‑clicking to toggle playback. Placing a Region onto the Track is done by shift‑clicking on its entry in the list and dragging, and multiple entries may be selected and moved or edited as a group. Region start and end points can be edited directly in the Multitrack view.

Used in conjunction with SAW's Snap to Cursor function (backspace key), Markers provide a simple and powerful means of navigation and Region positioning. Markers may be placed in the Multitrack or Soundfile views and are displayed as a list in the Markers view. When you click on a Marker, the cursor snaps to its position. You can add Markers during playback and recording, and they can be moved to the current cursor position by clicking on 'Update' in the Markers view. They can also be renamed. Unfortunately, there is no option to make Markers visible — I would prefer to see them as vertical flags, especially as SAW Plus has no provision for creating song section labels. (I got around this by recording a minute‑long mono section of audio, called 'labels.wav', From this, I created Regions with a different name and length for each song section. These were arranged in sequence on a muted Track.)

Mixing & Mixdown

SAW Plus has impressive mix functions. You can switch mutes and solos during playback and preview SAW Plus effects (see box). Real‑time volume and pan changes are automatically recorded, which makes SAW Plus great for level and stereo image (pan) rebalancing during mastering. Pan and level can be viewed graphically: click on the track's slider in the Track Control panel, and the Region display in the Multitrack view changes colour and sports two extra horizontal lines. The top line represents Pan and the lower Volume. Level changes are reflected in the height of the lines.

Installation is straightforward. SAW Plus is one of those rare applications that do not scatter system files all over your hard drive.

Real‑time mix edits do not alter the original soundfile data. However, multiple tracks running pan and volume changes with real‑time effects processing place a heavy burden on the CPU. Playback may stop and the dreaded warning message, 'This Machine Is Not Fast Enough to Keep Up With This Much MultiTrk Processing In Real Time' may be displayed. To avoid this, when satisfied with levels, go to 'Build Mix To New Soundfile' in the Process/Mixdown menu. The original audio data modified by volume, pan and effects settings, is recorded into a new Soundfile. Add this to a new Track.

Effects & Plug‑Ins

When you click on the yellow 'FX' icon in the Track Control panel, the Effects Patch Builder is displayed. The window to the left contains Effects Choices, which are effect patches and plug‑ins. The Patch Builder follows the current track selection, and patches may be placed pre‑ or post‑fader. Patches can be chained and assigned either to individual tracks or output tracks; when they're assigned to an output track, the entire output to that soundcard is effected.

Effects/processes that ship as standard with SAW Plus include:

• Reverse audio
• Vari‑pitch/speed (but not timestretch)
• Reverse phase
• Centre channel eliminator
• 7‑band parametric equaliser (featuring 18db/octave high‑ and low‑cut filters with definable cutoff frequencies)
• Stereo echo/delay
• Compressor/limiter/gate/normaliser

These are of a uniformly high quality, and with a fast PC you can audition the effects in real time; user settings can be saved.

IQS also manufacture three optional plug‑ins:

• The AVI Viewer enables you to run AVI animation files. These use the SAW Plus internal SMPTE generator to deliver subframe‑accurate lock‑up between multitrack audio and picture. It is thrilling to see music and picture running together so effortlessly, and with the right video capture card you can also display and scrub full‑screen video to a an external monitor.
• The Meter Bridge module displays output levels via switchable LED bargraph or emulated moving‑coil VU meters. Both feature peak hold and percentage readout.
• The Reverberator is fine sounding and stylishly presented. Top marks to IQS on this one! In addition to 30 factory presets, you can edit and save your own settings. There's plenty of scope for experimentation, with a massive 20 comb filters, and 20 full‑band filters with HF diffusion control for each comb filter feedback path. Additionally the wet output has a steep cut‑off filter.

To edit or run in real time, the Reverberator needs a Pentium 133. On my Pentium 100, playing back at 44.1khz with a Multitrack Preload Buffer set to 20, I was able to get a 13‑second preview on my Pentium 100 before the warning that my machine was too slow appeared. This was, fortunately, sufficient time to assess the effect. After processing a 100% wet version of my audio to a new track, I adjusted the levels of the wet and dry tracks, and the result sounded great. The reverb textures were uniformly natural sounding and presented a quality at least on a par with budget rack units.

Timecode

SAW Plus generates SMPTE timecode internally. Using an Opcode MQX32m MIDI/SMPTE card in the PC, SAW Plus can generate MTC and SMPTE code and may be used for controlling VTRs and ADAT digital multitracks. The program will also chase timecode arriving at the MQX32 input. If you are using the MQX32 for SMPTE, the Windows drivers should not be installed. This is because SAW Plus manages the card at board level. You can hook up SAW Plus to synchronise MIDI sequencers, but if you have a MIDI + Audio sequencer, you may find that using SAW Plus for specialist audio tasks is a better option. As all your audio is WAV, it can be more productive to pass work between applications. I have found that trying to run, for example, 12 tracks of audio and 20 of MIDI on MIDI + Audio packages invariably causes PC overload!

Conclusion

SAW Plus 3.3 is a remarkable product. I've been using it, under Windows 95, for nine months, and I've found it superior in the studio to both ADAT or stand‑alone HD systems. In fact, SAW Plus 3.3 is the most user‑friendly multitrack recorder I've ever used. In track‑laying sessions it is a delight to run, and when mastering it's great for on‑the‑fly level and stereo image rebalancing. It's also amongst the most stable and reliable pieces of software I've encountered.

In my opinion, SAW Plus is the value for money PC software solution for multitrack assembly work, and should prove invaluable in a wide range of studio environments. Using the program in conjunction with a dedicated wave editor such as Steinberg's WaveLab and/or Sonic Foundry's Sound Forge 4 provides the kind of comprehensive, top‑quality digital audio editing power that was the stuff of dreams only a few years back. Complement this with your favorite MIDI + Audio sequencer — Cubase, Logic or Cakewalk — add a CDR and a CD mastering package like Hohner Midia's Red Roaster, and you have a professional‑quality virtual studio on your PC, capable of undertaking each stage of the production chain, from recording the first notes of the first track through to mastering the finished CD. Magic!

Many thanks to Mark Ballogh and Colin Budgeon at Et Cetera Distribution.