Please send comments or questions regarding this Linux version of Professor Øyvind Hammer's Mix to Günter Geiger or Dave Phillips. Dr. Hammer has granted us the freedom to prepare this version, but he no longer directly supports Mix and can not assist users running Linux.

Introduction

Mix specifications

Mix file: The file format used by the Mix program. A mix file does not contain sound data, only references to soundfiles on your disk.

FTP

The latest version of Mix is available on anonymous FTP from the MusTec server and from Guenter Geiger's Mix page.

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Using Mix

This section gives you a quick introduction to working with Mix. For reference on menus and mix files, see the relevant sections (after this section).

Preparing for a Mix session

First, you must have one or more soundfiles to work with. You can record a new file directly with Mix, or you can use available soundfiles. The soundfiles must be in WAV, AIFF, or AIFC format. If you have soundfiles in other formats, use the soundfiler program to convert them. It will also make things easier if the files have the same sample rate.

Starting Mix

Start Mix. On the screen you will see 9 tracks, each with control buttons to the left. The ruler above the tracks shows time in minutes. Use the scrollbar and the magnifying glasses at the bottom of the screen to change the view.

Now choose Add Soundfile from the File menu. When you have selected a soundfile, use the OK button to load the file into Mix. The sound will appear in red at the top left corner of the tracks area. You can then select another file, and again, use the OK button to load it. Click the Cancel button to close the dialog box. Now use the right mouse button to move the sounds around. You may move the sounds from one track to another.

Changing volume and pan

Use the volume fader to left left of each track to change the master volume of each track. To mute a track, click the MUT button, which then appears in red. To "de-mute", click it again.

Volume graphs

Mix offers flexible control of a track's volume with the volume graphs. Do as follows: Click the VOL button. You will now see a green graph in the track area. The shape of this graph is an "envelope curve" which controls the volume of the track. "Click actions" on the graph is done with the middle mouse key only. Things you may do on the graph:

To make a new node, click anywhere on the graph.
Click on a node (a small box) to select it. Be careful not to click outside the little box, otherwise you'll get a new node.
Click and drag a node to move it in any direction.
To delete a node, select it and press the Delete key on your keyboard.

Note that there is an end node which follows the position of the last node but one.

The pan graphs work very much the same way as the volume graphs. Panning is to the left when the graph is at the bottom.

Adding effects

Note: As of September 1999 this section is rather out of date. Guenter Geiger has revised the effects system, creating a plug-in API which is still in development. However, the application instructions are still valid, and realtime processing is now possible by opening the effects panel before starting playback. Also note that the Octave effect still sucks.

The effects system in Mix is still at an experimental stage. The architecture is somewhat unorthodox in that the aux send is pre-fade. This means that you can adjust the track volume fader to suppress the original sound while still hearing the effect. To add effects to a track:

Click the AUX button
"Pull" the graph up by clicking and dragging the node at the beginning of the graph.
Click the AUX button on the master track and pull its aux graph up too.
Select the Effects Panel from the Effects menu
Use the dialog box

At the moment, Mix offers these effects:

Echo: You always get the original signal through this effect, mixed with echoes at a fixed level. You can set the delay time and feedback. Very small delay times and high feedback gives a comb filter or "robot" effect.
Chorus: Actually a vibrato. Controls for speed and depth. The pitch is shifted up and down using a sine wave as modulator. The peaks are at pitch*(1ąpi*speed*depth). Very small depth values may give a flanger effect.
Harmonizer: Shifts the pitch up or down at a fixed rate. The parameter gives the number of semitones to shift.
Ring modulator: Multiplies the sound with a sine wave, producing upper and lower sidebands. If you have a DC offset in your sound, you will get an annoying sine tone as well.
Filter (low pass, high pass, band pass or band stop): High Q settings may cause internal overflow and distorsion. Reduce aux or master track levels if this happens. The center frequency can be controlled from the "Par" parameter graph on the master track.
Reverb: A simple hall reverberator.
Compressor: Experimental, doesn't work well.
Octave: Experimental. Produces a terrible fuzz.

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Buttons

Track Buttons

The Mut button mutes the track. The Vol and Aux buttons are used to show the appropriate value graph on the track. Pressing the track number button will solo that track, and it will fill the screen (a rather useless feature).

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The Menus

The File Menu

Add soundfile:: Add one or more soundfiles (i.e. soundfile references) to the current mix. Mix displays a dialogue box, where you can select a soundfile to be included. When you press the OK button, the selected soundfile is placed in the top left corner of the current mix. Quite often you may end up with several soundfiles that are placed on top of another, looking like only one soundfile. To avoid this, you should move a sound file to another position (using the right mouse button). Also, you may use the radio buttons to place the new sound on a track other than the first. To add more soundfiles, simply press the OK button more times after you have selected a soundfile. The dialogue box stays open until you press the Cancel button.

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The Edit Menu

Undo: This will load an entire backup file from scratch, and is therefore time-consuming. Also, this function has been known to crash the program!
Cut: Cut out the selected portion. The data will be stored to a buffer.
Copy: Copy data from the buffer to the cursor point, mixing it with whatever is already there.
Paste: This will paste data from the buffer and will overwrite whatever is already there.
Insert: Insert will "push aside" data on either side of the cursor's insert point, placing buffered data in between.

The Settings Menu

Display: Set various display parameters:

Grid
Draw a grid

Linear graph
Display a black volume graph that shows the linear equvalent of a volume or aux graph. This is possible only when an aux or volume button is on, and the Linear volume button in the Audio settings dialogue box is off.

Sound numbers
Show sound numbers on top of sounds and variables. There are different numberings for sounds and variables.

Autoscroll
Scroll the screen while playing. Turn this off to improve performance.

Fast draw
Shows the sounds as simple rectangles.

All graphs
Show all graphs of all tracks.

White/blue background
Select the background colour.
Audio: Set various audio parameters:

Sampling rate
Set the sampling rate. All soundfiles with different rates must be converted.

Audio FIFO
Set the lenght of the output buffer is seconds. This is also the response time when adjusting parameters such as volume and pan. If the buffer is too short, you may get errors in the sound output (if the buffer gets empty and your computer is busy doing other things). The default value is 0.50.

Linear volume
Use this to make the aux and volume graphs control amplitude linearly. Turn this on when you want to do cross-fades. The normal logarithmic setting (decibels) will give a "hole" in the middle of the crossfade.

Output channels
Select configuration for the output channels. Stereo is the default. Mono sends a mono signal to both speakers. In the quad mode, each track will be assigned to the front (L1/R1) or back (L2/R2) stereo bus. This is done by pressing the loudspeaker button that will appear in the control panel of each track.
Time: Set various time parameters:: The time scale on the main grid can be toggled between beats and seconds. A tempo can be set and the beats per measure can be indicated.
Record: Set various recording parameters:: You must name a new soundfile before you can record it. You can also select stereo recording and whether the audio input will be monitored.
Internet slaves: Set network connections:

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The Effects Menu

Effects Panel:

Effect selection: Turn effect on or off. For filter, you may select the filter type.

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The Variables Menu

Variables are a primitive way of changing parameters at given instants in time.

echo chorus harmonizer ring filter filtertype reverb

Any one of these will produce a Variable object which you can place anywhere in your mix. By clicking on the object with the left button, you can turn the corresponding effect on and off by writing a 1 or 0 in the Value field.

echo_time echo_feedback chorus_speed chorus_depth harmonizer_interval ring_frequency filter_freq filter_Q reverb_time

Make a Variable object containing the value for the selected effect parameter.

quadpos:

Creates a Variable object for setting sound position in quadraphonic space.

sync:

Variable object for MIDI syncronization.

csound:

Triggers a Csound session with realtime audio output. The compilation is in this form:

csound -o devaudio your.orc your.sco

where the orc and sco files are named in the Value field of the Variable object. They must share the same name !

Variables overview:

Display a list of all variables in the current mix. You may edit the Start, Value and Track parameters.

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The Graph Menu

Delete node:: Deletes a selected node
Current Graph list:: Display a list of values describing the current graph. Each line represent a node, where the first value is the time in seconds, and the second is the level or pan value.

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The Group Menu

The group function enables you to work on several sounds at the same time. Hold the Shift key while selecting sounds with the left mouse button (Shift-Left Click). The selected sounds will appear in a red-brown color. The group can be moved by right-clicking on any member of the group and dragging it. The group will follow. You can also choose any of the following actions:

Group all:: Select all sounds in the current mix.
Ungroup all:: Unselect all sounds.
Mute toggle:: Toggle the muted state of each selected sound, i.e., those of the selected sounds that are muted, will be un-muted, and vice versa.
Delete :: Delete the selected sounds.
Duplicate:: Duplicate the selected sounds.