Parametric Plate (1.064) ----------------------- by Grekim Jennings Introduction: ------------- Parametric Plate is a graphical front end to the audio mixing program called Mixer4. Mixer4 was originally designed and continues to work independently of a graphical environment by using text files to set all parameters. Parametric Plate's main function is to create text files in the Mixer4 format. Therefore, all mix data generated by Parametric Plate is accessible in plain text should you need to further edit or recall it without the graphical interface. Besides appealing to engineers who would prefer a graphical interface, Parametric Plate offers a slight workflow advantage. When working with Mixer4 using only the text files, the user needs to save whatever text file(s) they are editing before Mixer4 runs. When using Parametric Plate, by pressing a "mix" button (or CTRL-m) all settings are automatically saved and Mixer4 is automatically launched. The workflow of Parametric Plate or Mixer4 by itself is an adjust, render, and then listen type of procedure. By activating preview mode processing time can be cut to a few seconds or less by focusing on one section of a song at a time. Overview: --------- Parametric Plate does not do any mixing or processing. All number crunching is done by Mixer4. In order for Mixer4 to run, three controlling text files need to be present: faders.txt, prefs.txt and tracks.txt. Parametric Plate saves data to these files (and will automatically create new ones if they are not present). To recall all the details of a mix, Parametric Plate needs to read each of these files with the "recall all" function. To save all data you can use the "store all" function. You are also free to read data from just one of the control files. This allows you to load just the preferences or a track list from a previous project without loading all the project's effect data. Or similarly, load in all the effect data from a previous project, but not the source file names. There are 7 windows in Parametric Plate: 1. Preferences 2. Effect settings 3. Track file names and volume automation 4. Submix assignments 5. VCA fader assignmments 6. Reverb global parameters 7. A control window which hides or shows the other windows and has the recall/store file data commands. Note: It is recommended that you make a backup copy of any existing Mixer4 project files since Parametric Plate may reorganize the data and any comments or notes you have in those files! Setup: ------ When you press the "mix" button, the program will look for "mixer4" in whatever directory you are in. If the executable is currenty named "mixer4_32bit", for example, you need to change the name to just "mixer4", or "mixer4.exe" with Windows. If "mixer4" is in anything other than a file path that your system recognizes, then you need to type the path to mixer4 in the Parametric Plate preferences window. The simplest setup is to copy Mixer4 and Parametric Plate to the project folder containing your .wav files. In Windows, for example, you just need to click on the Parameteric Plate application to start it up. You can also use the command terminal to navigate to the project folder and launch the program. After Parametric Plate is successfully running: Open the faders window and type the name of wave files (16 or 24 bit) you would like to mix. You can use the "*" to browse for a file. Include the .wav extension. Pressing enter automatically moves you to the next input box. To avoid typing in a long file path each time, enter the path in the wavefile directory text box in the preferences window. Please note, Mixer4 will stop if it cannot find a wave file (unless it is muted). Also, you cannot leave a blank track name between two tracks if using Parametric Plate before version 1.064. To actually mix something open the faders window and activate the first time index by turning on the "active" button next to the time index. Additionally, activate each track using the "A" button to the left of the volume entry scroll. Volume Automation: ------------------ If you wish to automate the volume, the program is designed such that you enter the times for key parts of a song such as intro, verse1, chorus1, verse2, chorus2, etc. You can enter text as a cue. These locations become your time entries which you can click through with the time index scroll button. You can have up 512 time entries. At each time index you can activate a new volume change by clicking on the "A" button next to a track's volume. If you do not press the "A" button, the previous volume will be used automatically. Important! Even if you are not changing the volume throughout the song, you need to at least set one volume at time zero, which is of course your first time index. Make sure the "A" button (next to the volume entry) is active for each track at time zero. You also need to make sure the "Active" button is lit up next to the first time index and any other indices you want to use! In summary, to set a track's volume at a particular instant in time, you need to have both the time index active and the track automation itself active using the "A" button. This probably sounds slightly complicated until you actually do it. In reality, it is extremely simple and it allows you to map out your song, and choose what track volumes are changing at these key times. If using an up-to-date version of Mixer4, you can even offset individual track automation times from the main time index. Note that time indexes that are out of order will not work properly. So, if time index 2 is set at 40 seconds and time index 3 is set at 30 seconds, Mixer4 will ignore time index 3. Manipulating Time Indexes: -------------------------- Beginning in version beta 1.032 you can do several time index edits. These functions are accessed by buttons in the faders window just below the cue name. Parameters that are affected are the index active button, channel active button, index time, channel volume, channel ramp, and channel offset. Solo, mute, and pan are not affected because they are not time dependent. "Insert index" will splice in an empty index and push all following indexes further downstream. "Remove index" will remove the current index and pull all following indexes backward to fill its place. "Propagate" will copy the current index to the next index position and overwrite any index that is there. (If you want to save the following index you should use the insert function first.) The propagate function is extremely useful for when one index is similar to the next, which is usually the case. So, you can propagate your settings and make a few clicks to set your new volume. Effects: -------- All the effects in the effects window are well documented in the Mixer4 manual. Note that only effects that are active (buttons lit up) are saved! Therefore, any settings made to effects that are bypased will be lost after you quit parametric plate. If you need to, you can activate any effects that have potentially valuable settings, use the store effects function, and copy those settings (as text) or the file itself to another text file. Similarly, you can copy settings out of a file where you keep your presets, and paste them into the faders.txt file where they can be loaded into Parametric Plate. Additional Features: -------------------- There are additional features and commands available by manually entering text into the controlling text files. These are all documented in the Mixer4 manual. A powerful feature about Parametric Plate is that before it writes to the faders file or preferences files, it will keep any data for functions it does not itself write. It other words, it will preserve any text it does not recognize such as additional commands for Mixer4. All unrecognized data will be placed at the beginning of any new text files created with Parametric Plate. However, if you read a Mixer4 faders.txt file from an older project and it contains your notes at certain key places, the placement cannot be preserved in a Parametric Plate parsed and re-saved file. If in doubt, use a copy. Keyboard Shortcuts: ------------------- CTRL-m starts a mix and is available in most windows. With the small control window active: CTRL-p opens the preference window CTRL-f opens the faders window CTRL-e opens the effects window CTRL-r opens the global reverb window CTRL-g opens the submix groups window CTRL-v opens the VCA window CTRL-SHIFT-p, f, r, v, g, or e hides a window. CTRL-s saves all data to the appropriate files without mixing CTRL-q quits the program