Shows, settings and your license
Shows and episodes
A show holds what its episodes start with: its name, who makes it, the album, the genre and its cover art. It also remembers the settings its last master used.
An episode takes a copy of the show’s tags when you make it, and keeps them. Change the album to “Season 2” and your Season 1 episodes still say Season 1. Changes you make while mastering an episode belong to that episode and never change the show.
| Where | What it does |
|---|---|
| The cog beside the show’s name | Show settings: its name, tags and cover art, and how long its episodes and scenes should be. Renaming moves its folder too. Delete show… is here, and only removes the show’s settings and cover art; its episodes stay in your working folder. |
| File > Add show… | Starts another show. |
| File > Open show… | Switches to another show. |
| File > Favorite clips… | The intros, outros and ads you insert again, for every show or the ones you pick. See inserting a clip. |
On the show page, the episode list has a search box, columns you can sort by, and a ✕ on each row that moves an episode’s folder to the Recycle Bin after asking.
Moving to another computer
Copy your working folder across, then point Settings > Working folder at it. Every show and episode comes with it. Your recordings stay where they are, so copy those too if they aren’t on a drive you can plug into the new computer. If a recording isn’t where an episode expects, the editor says so. Connect the drive, or point to where the recording is now, and the rest in that folder are found with it.
Settings
Edit > Settings, or Ctrl+,.
- Favorite clips: Manage favorite clips… opens the same page as File > Favorite clips….
- Working folder: where everything Soundmancer makes goes. Change it and it offers to move what’s already there. Nothing is ever deleted either way.
- Polish every track after preparing: once an episode is transcribed, each track’s polished copy is made in the background, so switching Polish on in the Mix is instant. Nothing changes what you hear until you switch Polish on for a track. This setting is on to start on a computer with a graphics card that has at least 6 GB of memory of its own; off on built-in laptop graphics or a smaller card, where you can still Polish any track yourself. A polished track takes about half a GB of disk for each hour of audio (a full GB if the track is stereo), so turn this off if you never use Polish.
- Theme: Follow the system, Light, Dark, Tokyo Night, Noctis, Synthwave ’84, Gruvbox, Gruvbox Light, or High contrast (white on black, for low vision or a bright room).
- Text size: how big everything is. Ctrl+= and Ctrl+- change it anywhere, and Ctrl+0 puts it back.
- Quick markers (under Editing): the one-click buttons in the marker box. Add, remove and reorder them.
- Check for updates automatically: on to start.
Your license
Activating
Your key starts SM-. In the app, open Help > License…, paste it in and click Activate.
That needs an internet connection once; after that it works offline.
Two computers
A license covers one person on up to two computers. To move it to a new one, open Help > License… on the old computer and click Move license off this computer. If the old one is gone or won’t start, write to support@soundmancer.com and we’ll release it for you.
Updates
Soundmancer checks for new versions now and then and downloads them in the background. When one is ready you’ll see Version … is ready. It installs the next time you close the app, or click Restart now to get it straight away. Help > Check for updates checks right then.
Fixes come in new versions. When we fix a bug, the fix is in the newest release. An older version keeps working just as it did, and support will still help with it, but the way to get a fix is to update.
What the app sends
Your audio, transcripts and episodes never leave your computer. The app checks for updates, and a licensed copy checks in with its license from time to time. That’s all it does on its own. More on the privacy page.