The Object Properties panel or property inspector, provides a set of behavior tools for the sound Objects.
Click any sound Object on the canvas or Object list to view the inspector panel.
In This Article:
Volume
Volume
Adjusts the overall volume of an Object in decibels. Changing a parent Object’s volume affects all of its children equally, which is reflected by the Scene Output indicator. Use the slider to adjust the volume or enter a numerical value in the text field “dB”.
Silenced
When selected there will be no audio from the Object, though it will continue to render in the background.
Fade Up & Fade Down
This feature, introduced in 2.1, allows the user to create a volume fade for its beginning and end. Click the checkbox next to either fade up or down to expand the fade properties:
- Total Duration: The length of the fade (defaulted to 0.1 seconds).
- Start: During the Fade Up, choose to set the beginning of the fade to a number of milliseconds or seconds after the Object begins playing
- End: During the Fade Down, choose to set the beginning of the fade to a number of milliseconds or seconds before the Object stops playing.
- Note: The playback length of an Object is determined by its Soundset. It is not recommended to use the Fade Up or Fade Down feature on an Object containing a Soundset with multiple audio files.
- Linear/Exponential: Choose the curve type of the fade.
TIP: Looping can be tricky when accounting for the Fade Up and/or Fade Down feature. If you have an Object with a Soundset that is set to loop, the Fade Down will not occur until after the sound finishes its final loop iteration. Therefore an audio file is subject to clip upon loop if the Fade Up or Fade Down was meant to prevent this. Also, an Object or Soundset set to loop indefinitely will never utilize its Fade Down property.
To properly introduce fading for an Object that will loop, use the hierarchy. Make sure your Soundset and Object are both not looping, then place the Object nested under a Parent Object which will act as your loop control. This way, the sound will loop as designated by its fade properties.
Timing
Start Delay
Pushes the start of an Object forward to the desired time in seconds, relative to its parent start time. It can be used to play sounds at a specific time, or you can input a differing minimum and maximum start delay to introduce random timing. When a parent Object has a specified start delay, it will compound to its children. In this case, the child Object’s compounded (global) start delay amount will be shown by a globe next to its minimum value.
Loop
Checking this box will cause the Object to play in a loop. If that is the Scene Object, the entire Scene will be looped.
Iterations
The number of times the Object will loop. Select infinite to have the Object loop indefinitely.
Loop Delay
This will cause the Object to wait the entered value of seconds before looping again. A value of zero means it will loop without any time in between iterations.
Min
The minimum amount of time in between loops.
Max
Differing minimum and maximum values will introduce randomization in the loop timing within that range.
Loop Duration
A calculated display of the length of each loop (in this case the length of the entire Scene) with an indicator of how many times it will be looped. This would be shown as “36.00 x 5” if the Scene is 36 seconds long and there are 5 loop iterations.
Total Duration
Displays the total length of time the Object will take to complete. If there are infinite loop iterations (or the value of the Iterations box is 0) the total duration will be ∞ as there is no effective end.
General
Active
The Object is active when this box is checked.
Deactivate on complete
This action applies to triggered or input events. When this box is checked, the Object will switch off its active state once it finishes rendering all of its audio and will remain deactivated until triggered again.
Tags - Tags play a role in filtering the Object properties. Tags let you categorize and group Objects outside of the hierarchy. Tags are searchable words and Object behaviors that are saved with the Objects.
Preset Tags exist for the following Object properties and are searchable at the bottom of the Scene Overview.
| Muted | Search for all Objects that have “mute” enable. |
| Unmuted |
Search for all Objects that have "mute" disabled. |
| Active | Search for all active Objects. |
| Inactive | Search for all inactive Objects. In this case, inactive Objects are those which do not have the “active” box checked, and therefore are not active. |
| Motion Path |
Any Object with a defined motion path or path. If you have not explicitly added a motion point, there is no motion path. |
| Volume > 100% |
Search for any Object with volume set to 100% or greater or above 0 (zero) dB. |
| Sized |
Search for any Object that has been assigned size in the property inspector. |
Acoustic Size & Shape
Object’s can be scaled to expand their aural reach in different ways. The length, width and height of an Object can be increased discreetly to cover the desired area of a Space. An Object’s sizing begins at 0, and cannot be decreased. The units of scale are always displayed in meters. When building a Scene, you may choose to have your Object scale automatically from Space to Space. This property is chosen individually for length, width or height.
Scaling Objects in Spatial Studio
Click the icon to enable or disable Scale with Space. This feature is designed to flexibly choose how Scenes will adapt when played in different Spaces. The individual properties of length, width and height can be set to Scale with Space. When this is enabled, it means that the chosen dimensions will automatically adapt to a new Space of a presumptively different size. When disabled, the Object’s size will remain the same no matter what. In practice, if the composer of a Scene would like a river to span from the front of a Space to the back, but retain the set width, they’d enable Scale with Space on the length of the river Object, but set an absolute size using meters for the width and height.
The size property can also be inherited by its parent or ultimately the Scene root. This does not mean the values are inherited; it simply determines whether or not the selected property of length, width or height will be set to Scale with Space or not based on the property set by its parent.
Show acoustic size
Check this box to show a visual representation of the acoustic volume of an Object. When selected, the acoustic size of an Object will be displayed on the canvas in the form of an opaque cube. If the Object has not been resized, then no size representation is visible. The size of the Object does not equate to exactly where the sound emits to, that is called acoustic spread.
Show acoustic spread
The acoustic spread is a visual surrounding an Object that displays the audio reach. Surrounding speakers emit a piece of that sound to create the illusion that part of it exists in that area, this visualization gives the user an idea of how far the Object’s sound output will reach. The default spread for new Scenes is 3.
Spread
This is the amount of sharpness, or tightness, in an Object’s aural radius. If an Object is placed between two speakers, the volume it plays from each is based on the ratio of distance to the speakers. The spread parameter determines how far an Object's sound is played beyond the acoustic size and it will affect how gradually an Object pans between speakers.
If inherited is selected, the value is hierarchically inherited rather than explicitly set and will update its values automatically.
For example, a gentler spread value of 10 would gradually pan the sound across two speakers when moving an Object. A sharper spread of 1 would essentially snap the sound from one speaker to another, or use an immediate pan.
Position
Position
Adjusts the X, Y and Z coordinates of the center of an Object.
Scaling the Position of an Object
As with size, the Position of an Object can be set to Scale with Space. This is designed to allow the composer to further determine how a Scene will adapt when played in different sized Spaces. Each individual coordinate can be set to scale or not, and uses the same inheritance functionality as Scale with Space for Object sizing. For example, if a Scene composer wanted a bird to fly in the general front region of Space, but needed to ensure it was always 2 meters in the air, they could enable Scale with Space for the bird Object’s X and Y coordinates, but not for its Z.
Click the blue arrows to enable or disable Scale with Space. This means that your Object’s position will adapt to occupy the same relative position of any Space it is played in, using only the selected direction(s).
Motion Path
Movement patterns are defined by motion points, which are placed around the canvas to indicate the order of the motion path. Any Object—or the entire Scene—can be automated to move in a Space. Motion is also hierarchical for parent Objects and their children.
Motion Type - Defines how the Object follows its motion points.
- Linear - An Object will move in a straight line.
- Curve - The path of the Object rounds itself to flow through the motion points with a smooth curvature, averaging its movement.
Note: Motion paths can also be scripted meaning the motions follows a Lua Script.
Impulse Type - Defines at what rate and time the Object follows the motion points.
- Duration - Length of time from one motion point coordinate to the next.
- Velocity - Speed between one motion point coordinate to the next.
Loop Type
Defines how a motion path will loop.
- Loop
The motion path will continually repeat its course until a certain condition is reached. - Ping Pong
Completes one course of the motion path, then reverses course and continues looping infinitely. - One Shot
Completes one course of the motion path.
Randomness
Motion points have the ability to deviate from their exact coordinates within a boundary at random. The values entered are relative to the units of the Object they’re affecting. For example, when an Object is working in meters, and you change Randomness from '0, 0, 0' to '1, 1, 1' - when the Object reaches that motion point it will differ up to one cubic meter in any direction. The functionality is using a random number generator within the platform.
Motion Path List
This displays the different motion points, start times, durations and coordinates. You can add “+” or remove “-” a motion point by clicking the gradient button.
Point “1” will always be the Object’s set location. There is no path without adding a second point. From there, a path can have multiple points.
Distance Effects
Distance effects can manipulate the sound Object audible output based on rolloff and reverb effects due to positioning in a Space. Distance effects impact the frequency response of an Object.
Distance effects are automatically applied to Objects in a Scene unless otherwise specified.
You can specify distance effects:
- Basic
- Indoor
- Outdoor
- Inherited
Distance Effects can be Enable or disabled by selecting the toggle switch.
Custom Settings are revealed by expanding the Advanced section of Distance Effects:
Amplitude Falloff
Similar to Frequency rolloff in application, but changes the overall amplitude of the sound.
High Frequency Falloff
This effect causes the high frequency of an Object to be filtered out dynamically as the Object gets farther and farther away from the functioning Space.
Distance Reverb
Spatial’s reverb system functions with the general conventions of reverb effects, however it is also governed by Object placement.
Distance Reverb settings can be expanded by clicking Advanced:
Size
Changes the size of the virtual room used to calculate and create the sound used for the Reverb effect.
Time
The amount of decay for the reflections.
Early Reflection
Affects the amount of Flutter, or quick echoes, audible in the effect.
Late Reflection
Affects the amount of diffused reverberations, or drawn out noise, audible in the effect.
Damping
Applies a hi-cut filter to the Reverb. A value of 0 applies no filter. A value of 1 would essentially mean the Reverb’s low frequencies are all that are audible.
Effects
The following effects can be applied to each Object and are not inherently governed by the Object’s position.
You can add “+” or remove “-” an Effect by clicking the gradient button. The table displays the type of effect, name, property and value. Select the type of effect by clicking the pop-up button, click the text box to change the name or enter a new value.
Effects can also be turned on and off using the checkbox.
Doppler
A doppler effect is applied to a moving Object. The doppler effect can be summarized as a change in perceived pitch of an Object as it moves quickly towards and/or away from the listener in the real world.
Pitch
Spatial Studio uses a smart encoder to transpose a sound file to a desired pitch change.
In some scenarios, a Scene will be solely one sound file. The Scene Object will have a soundset directly under it as its child. All effects can be applied to that soundset using the Scene properties.
LFO Effect - An LFO effect can be applied to the amplitude of any Object. This will create a pulsing effect. Depth ranges from 0 - 1.0, with 1.0 being 100% of the effect applied. The frequency of the LFO is displayed in cycles per second, so a value of 2.0 would mean 120 cycles per minute. Choose to have the LFO applied as a sine wave, sawtooth or square pattern.
Transform
Transform is mainly used to manipulate a group of child Objects by transforming their inherited properties from the parent Object that is selected. For instance, if a group of child Objects need to be positioned equally farther away from each other, therefore occupying a larger Space, using the scaling up function of Transform will do the trick. Transform has the ability to change position and rotation. You can manually adjust the coordinates by inputting numerical values and can adjust the scale by using the slider to increase and decrease the physical size of the Object.
Transform allows the object to be rotated, translated, and scaled hierarchically. Transform will affect all children of an object.
Scale
Adjusts the size of the area in which a parent Object’s children exist. Changes to scale do not affect Object size, rather the relative coordinates of its child Objects. Scaling up moves child Objects farther away in their respective directions, causing the parent Object to be scaled in its effective Space. It is viewable on the canvas.
This scaling feature follows the coordinate system that belongs to the parent Object and is always relative to the parent Object’s position.
Use the X, Y, and Z fields to set a specified Scale, or use the slider to scale up and down proportionately.
Rotation
Rotating an Object will only affect the sound field if the Object has been resized to a non-cubical shape as an Object’s sound emanates equally in all directions by default. Rotation of an Object is irrelevant unless it is a parent Object. Rotating a parent Object rotates all of its children around it.
Rotation is based on the Euler angle convention using Pitch, Roll and Yaw. Use the wheels or enter a specific number in the value field.
Note: The Reset functionality in the transform section only applies to rotation. To reset Scale, enter the values 1,1,1 in the X,Y,Z fields.
As with most text fields in Spatial Studio’s inspector panel, you can click and drag the number up or down to change its value.
Map Entries
Map Entries allow for certain features to be automated. This is also how events from sensors are stored and mapped within Objects. Input Event map entries are automatic and not explicitly visible in Spatial Studio. More information about Scripting.
Path
Shows the Path of a Map Entry.
Value
A dynamic text field for giving Entries a value.
Script
The following determine when a Script becomes active.