Matt, here's a run-down on the Span I did in another thread: Here's a step by step, which I hope will clarify how to use Span:
DISPLAY In Console View, insert the Span VST into the FX bin of whichever strip you wish to analyze - this can be in any track, bus or in your Master strip.
I'm not sure what the Span default settings are, but when you start playing your track, you should see a real-time waveform in the main window of the GUI. What you choose to display here is dependent on the various controls in Span.
First off, the most important thing to set is
what you want Span to display - the five choices are:
*
Avg - Average [of the left and right channel summed]
*
Max Maximum [of the left and right channel summed]
*
L - Left Channel only displayed
*
R - Right Channel only displayed
*
L+R - Both channels displayed [left channel is blue, right channel is red]
The graph represents two values of any point on the curve/s displayed - the horixontal x-axis represents the frequency of the sound, the vertical y-axis represents the relative level [gain, volume?] of the sound.
The range of frequencies displayed can be altered using the buttons arrowed below so you can view a broad spectrum or effectively zoom in to a narrower range:
For those that prefer the 'step' view, Span allows you to display the curve in eight different column 'widths':
ANALYZING Once you're happy with the display, Control Click anywhere inside the graph window. Where you place the pointer determines what you hear. The frequency band heard corresponds to where you place it on the x axis and the volume you hear that frequency at is determined by how 'high' up the y axis the pointer is.
The green 'envelope' [probably not the best description of it] that appears causes the frequencies it encompasses to be be heard in isolation as the level of the frequencies outside it are lowered by the program - this shows a full volume audition of the sounds at around 100Hz:
Shifting the pointer around changes the values of the sound you can audition - this is at 5kHz:
If you do download Span, there is a bit more detail about the settings and what the other controls do in the readme text file found in the unzipped folder.