waveform differences

[Kent F]

Oh boy, am I embarrassed. This will likely show ignorance on my part, but here goes...

While messing around with levels for radio broadcast, I just noticed that when I open a wav file in Audacity, Audition, or Studio One that has been mixed down in SAW, the waveform displayed in those programs is not centered vertically on zero in their respective channels. But it shows up fine in SAW.

Can anyone help me understand what I'm seeing? Why the discrepancy?

Thanks

[Dave Labrecque]

Oh boy, am I embarrassed. This will likely show ignorance on my part, but here goes...

While messing around with levels for radio broadcast, I just noticed that when I open a wav file in Audacity, Audition, or Studio One that has been mixed down in SAW, the waveform displayed in those programs is not centered vertically on zero in their respective channels. But it shows up fine in SAW.

Can anyone help me understand what I'm seeing? Why the discrepancy?

Thanks

It's not that it's not centered in the other programs, it's that those programs are showing the true + and - polarities of the waveform. SAW does that, too; but only below a certain zoom threshold. Above that threshold, for reasons of performance, I think, Bob has it draw a symmetrical waveform, which therefore looks more centered vertically.