Compose, mix and record your own tracks on the fly. "Realtime" 16 channel mixing desk with loads of features and effects ! Mixmaster turns your computer keyboard into a musical instrument and it always sounds right as the program automatically puts everything on the beat ! Start playing in 30 seconds with a standard sampleset and discover the unlimited possibilities with the various features and your own samples as you progress.
FEATURES :
- realtime composing & mixing to create hi-quality custom music
PC, Pentium Processor, 8 MB Ram (16MB rec.), double speed CD-Rom drive, 16 bit soundblaster compatible soundcard, SVGA card 800x600, 256 colors, Windows 95, MS Direct-X 3.a or higher drivers (supplied on CD-Rom).
MIXMASTER DOES NOT WORK ON SYSTEMS WITHOUT DIRECTX (VERSION 3 OR HIGHER). IF YOUR SYSTEM DOES NOT HAVE DIRECTX, PLEASE DOWNLOAD THESE DRIVERS BEFORE STARTING THE PROGRAM. FOR DOWNLOADING THE LATEST VERSION OF THE DIRECTX DRIVERS, PLEASE REFER TO www.microsoft.com.
(THE FULL COMMERCIAL VERSION OF MIXMASTER PRO COMES WITH DIRECTX ON THE CD.)
MIXMASTER MANUAL
ONLY SELECTED FEATURES ARE EXPLAINED HERE.
THE FULL COMMERCIAL VERSION CONTAINS COMPLETE 100-PAGE MANUAL
IN ENGLISH-DEUTSCH-FRAN╟AIS-NEDERLANDS-ESPANOL-ITALIANO
1. Loading a mix
Choose "LOAD MIX" in the pull-down menu that appears when you press the little arrow button on the left hand side of the big green display at the bottom of the screen. Choose one of the demo mixes and wait until you hear a sound which indicates that the loading of the mix is complete.
In the demo, the demo-mix is already loaded when you start.
2. Playing and mixing
Each of the 16 channels now contains a Sample (MMC-file) which are the separate elements of a complete song. You can start to play right away now. Each channel can be activated by pressing the keyboard key that is displayed in the channel box on the screen (we will refer to this key as the CHANNEL-KEY), just like you would play the piano. When you press one or more Channel-Keys, you will hear the respective samples playing and the led in the channel box will turn to green. When you simultaneously press a Channel Key and the spacebar, the channel will become LOCKED, which means that the channel will keep on playing, even when you've released the Channel Key. The led will turn to red to show you that the channel is locked. You can unlock the channel by simultaneously pressing the Channel Key and Spacebar once more. This way, you can make a simple mix by toggling individual channels on and off. You can further enhance your mix with following features :
BREAK : If you want to put a break into your mix, press and hold the CONTROL key on your keyboard. All the "LOCKED" channels will stop playing immediately and you can press (while you are still pressing the Control key) one or more channel keys to play a "break". In the big green display at the bottom of the screen, the break-indicator shows that you are in break-mode. When you release the Control key , all channels that were locked before the break will resume playback to continue your song.
EFFECT : When you press the TAB-key simultaneously with one or more Channel Keys, an effect will be added for those channels. The SFX-indication on the big green display at the bottom will highlight to show that you are switching to effects and the led in the channels for which the effect becomes active will turn to blue. When you lock a channel's effect (with the spacebar as described above) the led will turn to yellow. Not all channels will have an effect. In such case, pressing the TAB(effect)-key will not be effective. An effect can be anything from a little echo or distortion to a complete different sound.
The DEMO mix does not contain effects.
With the above features and some practice, you should be able to make a cool mix already. More enhanced features like volume changes, panning, pitching and quantizing changes are explained in the manual that comes with the commercial version.
3. Recording and Playback of mixes
In the master section (bottom part of the screen) you will find a switch to toggle between RECORD MODE and PLAYBACK-MODE.
3.1 RECORD Mode
This is the default mode when you start up Mixmaster. You will see a "REC" and "STOP" button. When you click the "REC" button, Mixmaster starts recording your mix until you click the STOP button. All channels that are still active when you click the Stop button will be stopped immediately, so make sure that none of the channels are active when you stop recording. During recording sessions the TIME en TOTAL TIME section in the big green display will show you how long your mix is already going on. During recording sessions all functions (activating and locking channels, effects, breaks, volume, panning,...) will be recorded. During recording you cannot load new Samples or sounds, change quantizing settings of a Sample or pitch individual channels as these actions will not be recorded in your mix. So, make sure these settings are correct (and saved!) before you start recording a mix. If you want to save your mix for future playback, select the "SAVE MIX" option in the pull-down menu that appears when you press the button on the left hand side of the big green display. Instead of using the REC and STOP buttons you can use the ENTER key on your keyboard to start and stop recording.
! ATTENTION ! Previous recorded mixes are cleared from memory each time you press REC. Save your mix first if you want to keep it !
3.2 PLAYBACK Mode
To listen to your recorded mix, go to playback mode with the switch just above the REC and STOP buttons. The Channel-Section will be blocked and a new set of buttons appears. Click the PLAY button to start playback of your mix. On the big green display you can see the total time of your mix and the current position in playback. During playback you will still be able to adjust the Master-Volume and/or Tempo. Instead of using the PLAY and STOP button you can use the ENTER key on your keyboard to start and stop playback.
4. Onscreen help
Please do also check the onscreen HELP-button for a summary of the main key-functions of Mixmaster Pro.
