Recording - August 2013 - 46

Audiofile Engineering Triumph

think of the Master Layer as the virtual
manifestation of the output of the software
to the audio hardware. Everything below
has to flow up through the Master layer.
Each “track” you add (they’re not tracks
in the DAW sense) is a new layer. Layers
don’t need to have the same sample rates
and bit depths. They don’t even need to
be the same format. Triumph sorts all of
that out in the background. In fact—and
space doesn’t allow me to go into this in
detail here—layers can actually modulate
each other in very interesting ways.
Layers and effects
Each layer can have processors, effects,
meters, and/or fades. To add an effect or
meter to a layer you drag it up from the list
that appears under the Effects icon in the
Sources window. To access the effects dialog you need to hover over its name, which
appears under the audio file’s name
you’ve dragged it to, to discover its
popover icon. Click on that to open.
Yes, it’s just as involved as what this
sounded like. Phew! It would be
much more intuitive and efficient if
one could just double-click. Still, you
get used to the paradigm quickly.
If you add multiple effects to a
layer you can re-order by clicking
and dragging to the desired position. For example, try the eq before
the compressor, and then after the
compressor, and see what the difference is.
You can save a chain of effects for
use on other tracks or in other projects. Pre-built effects chains are great
for lots of repetitive audio tasks, like
mastering for example. Each effect can be
toggled on or off for quick comparison
between dry and effected, or they can be
left off individually if not required for a particular layer/section of audio.
Triumph allows you to craft very intricate automation for effects parameters. To
do this you drag one of the dozens of
Shapes (envelope curves) available from
the Sources list to the desired effect.
Hover to uncover the Envelopes popover
to open the dialog. Here you can choose
what parameter to automate, and precisely dial in the location on the file
where you’d like to apply the envelope.
For a reverb you may want to juice the
output for a chorus of the song. For a
compressor maybe you want to clamp
down a little harder on the bridge, etc.
This kind of precise automation can be
very useful for mastering, especially with
46

RECORDING August 2013

eqs and compressors. The envelope
you’ve created shows up in the
Waveform pane. Here you can fine-tune
the time and location of the change the
envelope will effect.
Effects added to the Master layer effect
all other layers. If you think of a multitrack
audio paradigm, this would be akin to
putting an effect on the master bus. End of
chain limiting or dithering are obvious
examples.
The Waveform window
The Waveform window is your primary
editing window. Triumph functions well in
this department. The waveform view is quite
customizable... again using a popover window you discover when you hover over the
Waveform title bar. The program recognizes touchpads, multi-touch gestures, and is
hip to the Mac Magic Mouse as well. You
can fly around the workspace.

By default, the program treats each section of audio as a “SmartEdit”.
Optionally you can lock the channels. A
SmartEdit is akin to what other programs
would call a region or a clip. A SmartEdit
contains the clip or region’s start and end
time, the display colour, fade in and out
time and shape.
When you do a cut edit, Triumph creates additional SmartEdits. You can drag
the beginning and end of a waveform—
applying a fade-in or a fade-out is simple,
just grab and drag the appropriate handles on the waveform. If it’s appropriate
for the project you can drag a SmartEdit
to the Sources pane to create a new
layer. Smart Edits are also displayed in
list form. You can edit the beginnings and
ends, change the fade envelopes etc. in
the list dialog. I didn’t find that to be very
useful, but it’s there for those who would.

You can add various appropriate
labels to the Waveform view; most useful
for me were the track markers for CD creation. There is a sizable list of markers
that can be applied, some of them by
selecting an Action. There is, for example, an Action that will apply a marker to
peaks. I think this would be useful for
sound restoration work.
Once you’re finished working on a particular layer, when all of your editing is
done and you’re satisfied with the processing, you can then “flatten” it.
Essentially you’re freezing the track. You
can flatten an entire Workspace or project.
The latter renders a single asset or audio
file from all of the layers and edits etc.
Smart workflow and more
Workspaces make for easy organization and allow you to easily create and
save multiple versions of your project. The
example in the user guide suggests that
you may have several saved track orders
for a CD project waiting for final
approval by your client. You may have
several “flattened” versions of the files of
a project again saved separately for evaluation. All in all the workflow is quite
smart and efficient.
To complete a project you render
to the format of your choice...
there’s a good selection available,
but with the curious omission of
MP3!
[Audiofile
Engineering
reports that the latest version of
Triumph now offers MP3 output,
using iTunes for encoding.—MM]
You can also burn a CD directly
from Triumph. Metadata support is
very thorough.

In my testing I created and worked on
several projects. I found the layering paradigm quite well suited to final mastering
of files. I did create and save a mastering
bundle of effects that I like to use. I also
created several other effects groupings
for common tasks like sound restoration
and loop creation. I like that you can easily swap the order even in a saved bundle, and I like the ease with which you
can toggle effects on and off.

Recording - August 2013

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