Panasonic Mixing Automation Expansion Software Users Guide

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Chapter  8
SURROUNDPANNER
MAX can automate the Panasonic DA7 Digital Mixers surround panning. You
can automate surround panning either in real time or off line.
SURROUNDPANNING INREALTIME
To use the mixer’s built-in panning patterns, write the moves in real time
from the mixer by rotating the encoder wheel. 
If you want to write the moves “free hand”, in any direction, use the mouse to
position the sound in MAX’s Panning window.
First, become familiar with the DA7s instructions regarding the use and
applications of the surround panning feature. These instructions are located
in the DA7 manual.
Prior to writing Surround Panning “moves”, you must first setup 3 things
within MAX:
First, click on the Overwrite... button to open the Overwrite dialogue box. 
Enable Surround.
Next, set the Edit Mode to Write. (type w or use the menu.)
Finally, select the desired audio channel for editing, using the SEL buttons on
the mixer, or clicking on the mode buttons with the mouse. 
						

							At the start of this chapter we said that there were two ways to enter the
panning moves, either from the mixer or from the MAX software.
To enter the moves from the mixer, follow the instructions from the DA7
manual. Position the cursor over the desired pattern in the mixer display, and
rotate the encoder.
To enter moves from the software, go to the Windows menu, and open a
Panning Module. Use the mouse to position the audio within the Panning
Module.
The Panning window features a Channel selection pop up menu. Select the
desired channel. You can open multiple Panning modules.
To write the moves, simply start the program material and write the moves by
dragging the mouse or rotating the encoder.
STEREOLINK
If you are using DA7’s Stereo Link feature, MAX will recognize the link, and
automatically pan the adjacent channel to the channel you are currently
mixing. 
Only odd number channels are operable on MAX. 
If you are writing Surround moves to an odd number channel while Stereo
Linked, MAX will automatically also write moves to the channel to the
right(even) of the one you are currently writing.
MAX will also recognize your selection of a complimentary panning pattern
for the two channels that comprise the Stereo Link. 
In the Cue List window, only odd number channels will be displayed for
events of the Stereo channels.
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Surround Panner 
						

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Surround Panner
PANNING ANDSOFTGROUPS
MAX’s Surround Panning automation respects any SoftGroup assignments
you have made. Surround Panning moves made to the SoftGroup master will
automatically be applied to the member channels.
For example, say that you have turned channel 12 into a SoftGroup Master for
channels 1 through 11. To do this, double click on the audio fader in channel
12 in the Custom View. 
Then single click on the faders 1 through 11. Press Enter.
From the Windows menu, open the Panning Window. 
Select Channel 12.
On the Panasonic DA7 Digital Mixer, observe the Panning Display. 
Select channel 12 and the display will automatically show the first 16
channels.
Use the mouse to move the panner. Look at the mixer and notice that
channels 1 through 12 are all responding with the same panning moves.
See the previous chapter for more information about SoftGroups.
Notes: 
• If you desire to use the DA7 to create surround sound panning moves, do it
on the DA7 mixer first, before writing or changing the moves on MAXs
window.
• If you desire to use MAX to create surround panning moves, first locate the
yellow outline that identifies which channel will be selected for panning. It
is useful to do this, especially in Tandem operation where it is easier for you
not to notice which channel is selected. 
• Using MMC buttons in the Custom View or the Graphic View will have the
Panning module disappear.  If you desire to keep on displaying the Panning
module, open the MMC Devices dialogue from the Real Time menu (see
page 204) to operate MIDI machines.  
						

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Chapter  9
DISK ANDFILEOPERATIONS
Mixes may be saved on your hard disk either manually or automatically using
Auto-Backup. 
To manually save the mix, select Save from the file menu to save the currently
active mix to disk. 
Select Save as... to save the mix in a different folder, or on a different drive, or
with a new name,.
AUTO-BACKUP
MAX’s Auto-Backup feature automatically saves your mix to disk every time
MAX stops detecting incoming time code. 
Backup may be turned on and off from the Backupbutton in the Control
Bar. You may also turn it on or off in the Preferences dialogue box.
Select the number of “passes to keep” by opening Preferences... from the Edit
menu. Select Backup.  
Click on either Unlimited Backups, or a number from 1 to 99. 
						

							Choosing Unlimited vs a Fixed Number of Passes
The number of passes to keep should be selected keeping in mind the
amount of available hard disk free space.
Though mix files may vary in size, suppose a small mix file is 100 K. If Auto-
Backup is on, and you have chosen to keep “Unlimited”, then every time you
make any fader move and stop the program material, a 100 K file be saved to
hard disk. Do 10 passes and you’ve consumed 1 meg of hard disk space. 
This might not be a concern if you have a 1 Gig free on your drive. But if you
only have a 40 Megs free, the disk may become full rather quickly.
Setting a High Number of Backups
Setting Unlimited, or a high number such as 99, will give you the advantage of
having more versions of your mix available. 
Having older versions available from various earlier stages of constructing the
mix may be very useful, especially if you like to experiment and try different
things. 
You may decide to go back and retrace your steps, doing a significant amount
of re-mixing. However, if you set Unlimited or a high number, keep in mind
the rate at which the hard disk space is being consumed.
Setting a Lower Number of Backups
Setting a lower number, such as 8, will assure that a given mix will never
occupy too much disk space. Select a low number if disk space is at a
premium. 
Keep in mind that if a low number is set, you will have less opportunity to
retreat to an earlier version of the mix. (You’ll have fewer opportunities to
say, “Let’s re-open the mix as it stood around 2 AM yesterday, I liked the
direction we were heading”.)
If your disk becomes full, a warning dialogue box will appear informing you
that “the mix cannot be saved because the disk is full”. The mix, including the
last pass, is still in the Macintosh RAM. You may manually save the mix by
inserting a floppy and selecting Save As. Saving to floppies takes longer, but at
least you can finish the mix.
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Disk and File Operations 
						

							AUTO-BACKUP
Auto Backup Numbering
Backups are numbered sequentially, that is
[name of mix].1 
[name of mix].2 
[name of mix].3 
[name of mix].4
and so on.
The Auto Backup feature appends an incrementing number to the end of the
name of the mix. 
MAX will never change the name of any mix. 
If you have included a number in the mix name, 
MAX will ignore it.
That is, if you named a mix “my song.1”, and then turned on Auto Backup,
MAX will save the next pass naming the mix “my song.1.1”.
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Disk and File Operations 
						

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Disk and File Operations
Auto Backup Example
Say you set MAX’s Preferences to keep the last 3 passes. Suppose the mix is
currently Untitled.
At the end of the first pass, a Save As dialogue box will automatically appear,
allowing you to name the mix.
Type a name and press Enter.
MAX saves the mix automatically appending “.1”, as observable in the
window’s title. 
On the next pass, make some fader or channel on/off moves, stop the
program material. The mix is renamed with “.2” and saved.
Select Open... from the File Menu, and observe the names of the mixes that
have been saved. 
						

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Disk and File Operations
Cancel to exit the Open Dialogue box for now.
Likewise, on the third pass, again observe the names of the mixes that you can
Open.
But notice what happens on the fourth pass. 
Again the mix is automatically re-numbered and saved.
Select Open and observe the names of the mixes.
You had set the Preferences to keep the last 3 passes.
The mixes have not been re-numbered. 
“my song.1” was simply deleted. 
Likewise on the fifth pass, the mix is automatically saved as my song. 5. “my
song.2” will be deleted.
Setting the Preferences to keep a certain number of passes causes MAX to
automatically delete older mixes. 
						

							MIXBACKUPTREES
As stated earlier, MAX’s Auto Backup feature automatically performs a Save As
at the end of each pass, each time renaming the mix with an incrementing
number. 
MAX’s Auto Backup feature starts its numbering over again from .1 after you
Open a previously saved mix, or manually select Save As.
Simply put, suppose you Open a mix already called “Mix.1”. Auto Backup is
turned on. 
The first pass will be saved as Mix.1.1, not Mix.2. 
That way, if a mix called Mix.2 already exists, it will not be deleted. The
following pass will be saved as Mix.1.2.
In a similar manner, suppose you have a mix named Mix.2. Perform a Save
As. If you do not change the name of the mix, the standard Macintosh
dialogue box will appear and ask, Replace Existing “Mix.2”?
The next pass will be saved as Mix.2.1, not Mix.3.
That way, if a mix called Mix.3 already exists, it will not be deleted. Then the
following pass will be saved as Mix.2.2.
So, performing either a manual “Save As”, or Opening a previously saved mix,
re-starts the automatic backup numbering over again.
This feature allows you to create mix “Backup Trees”.
Starting with a known good mix, you can “branch off” and make as many
changes as you want. You can always return to the good version of the mix,
without good mixes being deleted. An example follows.
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Disk and File Operations 
						

							Mix Backup Tree Example
Suppose Auto Backup is turned on, and set to keep the last 5 passes. Say
you’ve reached a point where you have a good mix of channel on/offs only.
Let’s call it “mix.7”. 
Now you make a few more passes, writing fader moves.
Currently on the hard disk are the last 5 passes, say mix.5 through mix.9. 
If you continue mixing, in a few more passes mix.7 will be deleted. You want
the option of being able to preserve mix.7, that is, the last known good mix of
channel on/offs only.
Open mix.7. Do a “Save as” mix.7. You will be prompted, “Replace Existing
Mix.7?” Click Replace.
The next backup operation will produce a mix called mix.7.1, then mix.7.2,
then mix.7.3, etc. 
By performing a manual “Save As” at critical times while you are building a
mix, you are free to experiment with different approaches to the mix. You can
always retreat to a known, good version of the mix, and start building on it
again. 
The different versions of the mix can be though of as a “Tree”, with branches
consisting of related versions of the mix.
mix.7
mix.8
mix.9mix.8.1mix.7.2
mix.7.1
mix.10mix.8.2
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Disk and File Operations