Panasonic Mixing Automation Expansion Software Users Guide

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Trimming Fader Moves in Trim Mode
Trim Mode is used for relatively “offsetting” fader moves without actually
replacing them. Any moves made in Trim Mode will be “added to” or
“subtracted from” previously written moves. Thus the subtle nuances of the
original fader move are preserved, only the overall level of the track is raised
or lowered.
(Trim Mode is also used for editing Channel Ons and other switch
events, this is discussed in the following chapter.)
You can Trim the entire mix without playing the program material all the way.
When doing a Trim, if you do not return the Phantom fader to the reference
point, and stop the program material, you have the option of Trimming the
track for the entire mix.
To Trim a channel, once again cue the program material to some place in the
song before the intended edit. 
Determine what the nature of the Trim will be, whether you intend to scale
the level up or down in level. 
If you plan on boosting the level, you may want to start with the fader(s)
below center position. This assures that you have enough “throw” to move
the fader upward. 
Likewise, if you plan on scaling the track down, you may want to move the
fader(s) above center position. 
If you are not sure, then just move the faders to approximately center
position. 
						

							Set the Edit Mode menu to Trim, by typing t on the
Macintosh keyboard.
Press the SEL Buttons to set individual channels into Trim
mode.
Start the program material. 
The Level Fader will play back any previously written moves.
The Phantom Fader will not go away as it did in Write Mode,
rather it will still indicate the position of the physical fader. 
A Trim Reference point will appear for each Selected channel
in Trim Mode. This will help you keep track of the starting
position of the physical fader. 
When the Phantom Fader is above the Trim Reference point,
you are increasing the level of previously written moves. 
When the Phantom Fader is below the Trim Reference
point, you are decreasing the level of the previously
written moves.
When the Trim has been completed, move the fader to
align the Phantom with the Trim Reference point. 
To stop Trimming, selecting Read Mode from the Edit Mode
menu. Then, on the individual selected channels, press the
SEL Buttons. Or you may simply stop the program material.
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							Trim Until End 
Suppose that while you are Trimming a track, you moved the fader up above
the reference point, to add gain to the track. Then suppose you stopped the
program material, without returning the fader to the reference point.
You may choose whether the Trim will affect that track for the rest of the
song, or whether the track will “snap back” to its previous level.
A dialogue box will automatically appear whenever you stop the program
material without having returned the fader to the reference point. The
dialogue box gives you the option of either Trim Until End or Don’t Trim.
Select Trim Until Endto Trim the track all the way to the end of the song.
Select Don’t Trimand the levels of the tracks will snap back to their previous
levels at the end of the Trim.
Whatever is chosen, if No More Warningsis checked, then the current Trim
to End setting will be saved in the Preferences and the dialogue box will not
appear again.
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							Trim Until End Preferences
In the Preferences Dialogue box in the Edit Menu, under “Trim Until End”,
check either Always, Never, or Ask First. 
When Always is selected, the Trim Until End dialogue box will not appear at
the end of the pass. The software Trims the track for the entire mix. 
When Never is selected, the Trim Until End dialogue box will not appear at
the end of the pass. For every pass where a Trim is performed, the Trimmed
tracks snap back to their original levels after the Trim. 
(You always have the option of course of turning the Trim dialogue box back
on again by clicking Ask First in the Preferences dialogue box .)
When Ask First is selected, the Trim Until End dialogue box will appear at the
end of the pass as just described, giving you the option with each pass to
either Trim Until End or Don’t Trim.
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							Auto Disable
When Auto Disable is checked, Selected faders automatically switch to Read
when the program material is stopped.
This prevents accidental writing of fader moves on the playback of the next
pass.
Auto Disable defaults to On (checked). 
There are some circumstances where it might be desirable to turn Auto
Disable off. 
For example, say that you have chosen to select the faders using the SEL
Buttons. Suppose also that you are looping the program material and
continually re-writing the mix. 
With Auto Disable On, every time the program material stops, the faders
revert to Read. If you are looping, this would require that you to re-select
each fader with each pass.
Under these circumstances, it would be more convenient to leave Auto
Disable Off. That way, Selected faders remain Selected with every pass.
Keep in mind, however, that if a fader stays Selected, you have no opportunity
to null the fader.
When Auto Disable is off, under some circumstances you can “get away with”
editing in Write mode. If the tracks you are editing are silent at the start of the
loop, any jumps in fader level would not be heard.
Generally speaking, editing in Trim would be a better practice than editing in
Write mode, should you choose to turn Auto Disable off.
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							CHANNELON/OFFS ANDSWITCHEDITING
In addition to the Channel On buttons, other mixer switches can be
automated. These include:
• Aux Send 1 through 8 Pre/Post 
• Aux Send 1 through 8 On/Off
• Bus Assign 1 through 8 
• Master Assign 1 through 8
• Direct Out 1 through 8 
• Gang Select On/Off
• Phase
• Delay On/Off
• EQ On/Off
• Dynamics On/Off
Like faders, channel on/offs and other switches may be edited in either Write
or Trim mode.
Write
Replaces previously written channel on/offs or other switches.
Trim
Adds additional Channel On/Offs or other Switch Events.
Examples
Suppose channel 1 is turned on and off every other second, for a whole song.
Save this mix as “Channel On/Off demo 1”. Rewind song to beginning.
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							Writing Channel On/Offs
Open “Channel On/Off demo 1”
In Write Mode, start time code.
Press channel 1 on button at 00:00:05:15. 
Stop time code at 10 seconds.
The resultant mix will have channel 1 turn on and off every second up to five
seconds.
At 00:00:05:15, the channel will turn on and stay on. 
It will turn off again at 11 seconds.
After 11 seconds, the on and off every second will resume.
Trimming Channel On/Offs
Open “Channel On/Off demo 1”
In Trim Mode, start time code.
Press channel 1 on button at 00:00:05:15. 
Stop time code at 10 seconds.
The resultant mix will be nearly identical to the original mix “Channel On/Off
demo 1”.
The only difference is that channel 1 will turn on a half second earlier than
00:00:06:00.
(That is, the channel will stay on a half second longer.)
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							PAN, AUXSENDS, EQ, GAIN ANDDELAYEDITING
Pan, Aux Sends, EQ, Gain and Delay are generally controlled by the mixer’s
“rotary encoders”. 
(Though the aux send levels can also be controlled by the faders, there is no
special benefit to doing this as far as the automation is concerned. Aux send
levels are only written on channel at a time.)
Parameters controlled by rotary encoders are very easy to edit, because the
rotary encoders are designed to be “self-nulling”. When you edit a level with a
rotary encoder, rotating the encoder always causes the level change to start
from the current level. This means that the mixer prevents unwanted jumps
in level when the knob is turned.
Pan position, Aux Send levels, EQ settings, Gains and Delay times are edited
in Write mode only, not in Trim like faders and switches.
The procedure for editing (that is, re-writing) these parameters is the same as
the procedure for writing them.
First open the Overwrite dialogue to select the desired parameter or
parameters.
Then, select  Write mode from the Edit Mode menu.
Cue up the program material to the place just prior to the edit. Start the
program material.
Then, select the one channel that you wish to edit. Only one channel may be
selected at a time. 
Use either the mixer’s Select buttons, or click on the mode indicator with the
mouse.
Rotate the appropriate encoder on the mixer to make the edit.
Stop the program material at any time. Rewind and listen to determine if
further editing is necessary.
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UNDO APASS ANDABORTING APASS
Undo (Command Z)
As you build a mix, each successive pass becomes part of the mix that is held
in the computer’s RAM and may also be saved to disk.
If you do not wish to keep the last pass, you may Undo the pass by typing
Command Z, or selecting Undo from the Edit Menu. 
The Edit Menu will indicate Undo Write at the end of a pass in Write Mode.
The Edit Menu will indicate Undo Trim at the end of a pass in Trim mode.
If you decide that you want to keep the pass after performing Undo, type
Command Z to Redo the pass.
If Auto Backup was turned on, then the last pass was automatically saved to
disk. Selecting Undo does not affect any files saved to disk. To Undo the pass
and prevent the pass from being saved to disk, use the Abort feature,
described next.
Abort
Abort throws away all moves made during the last pass. 
Normally, if you have turned on Auto Backup, MAX automatically saves each
pass onto the disk. Aborting a pass also prevents the pass from being
automatically saved to disk.
To Abort, press the escape key on the Macintosh keyboard a little before
stopping the program material.
The Abort dialogue gives you the option to either Abort or Keep the last pass. 
Press Return or Enter to abort the pass. 
Click Keep Mix to keep the pass. 
						

							SNAPBACK
Snapback automatically inserts a fader move event at the end of the pass. 
To turn Snapback on or off, open the Preferences dialogue (Edit menu) and
select Real Time.
To understand why this might be useful, let’s first look at an example of what
normally happens, without Snap Back. Suppose that you wrote a fader move
and then stopped the tape after, say, 5 seconds. Refer to the figure.
Notice the level at the end of the pass, which is around +5. 
Now suppose that on the next pass, you write a different fader move on the
same channel. This time the fader is moved down. The tape is again stopped
at 5 seconds. Refer to the figure.
Notice the level at 5 seconds, which is around -8. This level would remain
constant for the remainder of the song, until a new fader move is written. But
we might have wanted the level to return to +5, after all, we are only
trimming the first few seconds of the mix. Why should this fader move have
any impact whatsoever on the mix after the first 5 seconds?
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