Sound Byte FAQ

Sound Byte

Installing sound files for Sound Byte

With iOS 6 and later, Sound Byte can play sound files from your music library. Tap "Music Library" in the Cart Options to select the file.

For iOS 5, Sound Byte plays sound files that you have installed in the Documents folder (not the usual music library).

Note that there is a two step process: First you copy the sound files you want to use to Sound Byte via iTunes file sharing. Then you assign a sound file to each cart button.

To access this folder and transfer sound files to Sound Byte, follow these steps:

Go to iTunes, and select your iPad from the DEVICES list at the left
Click the Apps tab
Under File Sharing, select Sound Byte from the list of Apps
All of the existing sound files will be under Sound Byte Documents. You can add additional sound files, or delete existing sound files.

Configuring carts

Sound Byte has 75 carts, arranged on a 5 by 15 rack. To define the sound file for a cart, or set Cart Options, touch the cart and hold your finger down for about one second, then release.

To select the sound file, touch on Sound File. You will be presented with a list of all of the sound files installed for Sound Byte, touch on the desired file.

Tap on Color Color to set the background color for the cart.

The cut in time, in seconds, specifies where the sound file starts to play. Setting it to 5, for example, will start playback 5 seconds into the file.

The fade time, in seconds, can be specified, this will be used when a cart is faded in or out.

You can also edit the cart title (it defaults to the name of the sound file), as well as the Looping Count (number of times sound playback will loop, the default, zero means just play once, setting it to 2 for example would cause it to play a total of three times).

Five switches are also used to control the cart operation:

Touch aborts other carts - touching this cart will stop playback of all other carts
Touch fades other carts - touching this cart fade out all other carts
Touch restarts playback - touching this cart will start playback at the beginning
Fade in playback - the cart will be faded in when it starts
Fade out playback - the cart will be faded out when it stops

The cart volume can be changed with the slider.

Tapping on clear cart will clear out the cart information. This can be used to �erase� a cart and not have it display in the rack.

Playing carts

Tap on a cart to start playback. Tap on it again to stop. Tap on the Stop button to stop all playing carts.

When a cart is playing, the title will be faded slightly, and the elapsed and remaining times will be displayed.

You can fade out a playing cart by swiping to the left. Or you can tap the Fade button, which will fade out all playing carts.

Swiping to the right on a cart will pause playback of that cart. Tapping on the Pause button will pause playback of all playing carts.

Moving carts

To swap two carts, touch with two fingers on one of the carts for a second or so and then release. The title of that cart will change, telling you to tap on the other cart. The two carts will be swapped. To cancel a swap, tap on the cart with the message, the first cart you tapped.

General Controls

The left and right arrows can be used to cycle through the five racks of carts, each rack has 75 carts.

Tapping Setup allows the title of the rack to be set.

The Pause, Fade, and Stop buttons allow a playing cart to be paused, faded out, or stopped, respectively.

Setup

Tapping Setup allows the title of the rack to be set, as well as enabling several features:

Rack name - sets the title of the rack

Mark played carts - when a cart is played, the text PLAYED will be displayed over the cart, to let you know that you have already played it.

Disable played carts - carts that have been played will be disabled, so they cannot be played again.

Clear marked carts - carts that have been marked or disabled will be unmarked, and allowed to be played again.

Frame playing carts - a white border is drawn around the cart, to make it more obvious.

Show playback progress - a green progress indicator is drawn visually showing how much playback has elapsed and how much is remaining.

Log played carts - a text file called play_log.txt showing which carts have been played is written to the documents folder, which you access via iTunes, in the same way to add sound files. This text file has one entry per line, with the date and time of playback, the button title, and the sound file name.

Number of carts - You can select how many carts are displayed in the X/Y rack grid. Displaying fewer carts makes the size of each cart larger, which may be useful in some applications, as they are easier to see.

Solutions to Problems

Some users have reported no sound on the built in speaker. One solution they have used is:
Go to Settings, select General,
At the top, there is Ringer and Alerts. In that section, set Volume all the way up.

Email your comments and questions to support@blackcatsystems.com

Last modified April 8, 2013