Acoustica Mixcraft 10 User guide

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GETTING STARTED

Welcome to Mixcraft 10, a powerful recording DAW software oﬀering the tools and performance power to create professional music and video projects... easily!

ABOUT THE MANUAL

This manual was written to provide a full walkthrough of the steps that an artist may encounter when using Mixcraft. It manual provides a range of step-by-step instructions and explanations of all of Mixcraft’s features. We’ll also throw in some helpful tips “outside-the-box” tips along the way.

Blue underlined text indicates links to other sections of this manual. Italicized text usually means we’re referring to an onscreen control or dialog text or a key on your computer’s QWERTY keyboard.

CHECKING FOR UPDATES

Acoustica periodically provides updates to software. You can easily obtain these updates through Acoustica’s website. To check for updates, go to the

Help

menu at the top of the

screen and choose

Check For Update...

Mixcraft 10 User Guide

Last updated 2023.06.22

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ADDITIONAL HELP

We’ve made a heck of an eﬀort to include as much Mixcraft 10 information as possible in this manual, but if you get stumped, we encourage you to check out the Mixcraft

Knowledge Base or contact Acoustica Tech Support.

Additionally, the Mixcraft User Forums contain tons of useful archived information and support not only from the Acoustica tech support staﬀ, but seasoned Mixcraft users.

Welcome to the Acoustica family... we hope you’ll enjoy Mixcraft 10 and make some great music (and video) along the way!

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AUDIO HARDWARE SETUP

In order to record audio, your computer will need to be set up for audio input with appropriate recording hardware.

CHOOSING COMPUTER AUDIO HARDWARE

Dedicated audio interfaces for music production are designed to handle high-quality recording and playback of multiple audio channels. Many audio interfaces include highquality onboard mic preamps and instrument inputs as well as MIDI input and output. Generally speaking, these are the best choice for a small- or medium-sized music studio as they include everything you’ll need for recording with a computer.

AUDIO INTERFACE TYPES

We recommend an interface that uses a USB connection; as of this writing, Firewire and PCIe audio hardware have largely been phased out (anyone wanna buy my FireStudio Project for cheap?!?). Thunderbolt is a high-speed connection used in some high-end audio hardware, but at the time of writing, it’s mainly a Mac thing and hasn’t gained a foothold in the Windows world.

CHOOSING AN AUDIO DRIVER

The audio driver is the “go-between” software that allows audio hardware to communicate with Mixcraft. Mixcraft supports three types of audio drivers:

• ASIO

• WaveRT

• Wave

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If you are playing virtual instruments or want to monitor recordings as they’re made, you’ll need to use a low latency setting along with audio hardware and a computer that are up to the task. ASIO drivers oﬀer the best performance, followed by WaveRT. If no other drivers are supported, choose Wave.

SETTING AUDIO DRIVER TYPE AND LATENCY

When Mixcraft is ﬁrst launched, it’s important to ensure that the audio latency is optimally set. Ideally, using a very low latency setting is best, as it results in little or no audible delay when playing virtual instruments or recording using software monitoring.

Your computer’s processor speed and amount of RAM, as well as your audio system or sound card all aﬀect audio playback and recording performance. Optimally adjusting your sound device will be a balancing act between latency versus gapping or breaks in continuous sound. If you are recording audio using Mixcraft’s built-in monitoring or playing virtual instruments, you’ll need to adjust your latency response properly. Audio driver and latency settings as set as follows:

1. Click

File > Preferences...

or the gear icon in the top menu strip.

2. Click on the

Sound Device

tab.

3. Wave RT is the default audio driver. If you have a slower computer, you may need to increase the latency setting.

4. If you’re using Windows 7 or 8, you may be able to click

WaveRT Exclusive Mode

. Depending on your computer’s speed and power, this mode will allow down to three milliseconds of latency. In this mode, other programs will lose audio capability when

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Mixcraft is running. You may need to restart other programs to get their audio back. WaveRT exclusive mode is the best way to use every last ounce of computing power.

5. If you don’t have WaveRT, the next best option is ASIO. If it’s grayed out, go to your sound device or sound card manufacturer’s website and install the latest drivers. Click on the ASIO Device ﬂip menu and choose the sound device or sound card you wish to use. You can adjust the settings of the ASIO device by clicking “Open Mixer.” Each ASIO driver is implemented diﬀerently; consult the manual or help for your sound device in order to optimize the latency setting. Ensure that

Default Output (Playback)

is set to the correct

device so you’ll hear audio properly.

6. If you don’t have Vista or an ASIO option enabled, select

Wave

. To reduce latency,

decrease the

Number Of Buﬀers

and reduce the

Buﬀer Size

. The

Latency

ﬁeld will update

- this will entail a bit of trial and error as adjustments are made. Click OK, then check the quality of audio playback. A setting of 100 milliseconds or less is tolerable; lower settings of 20 milliseconds or less are preferred.

WINDOWS AUDIO DEVICE FORMATS

Type Notes

WaveRT The default option. Latency down to 20 milliseconds.

WaveRT Exclusive

Takes over the computer’s audio, but will work down to three milliseconds of latency. This option is available when WaveRT is selected. Audio from other programs and Windows will not work at the same time that you are in this mode.

ASIO Best for playback and recording synchronization. Must have a supported ASIO driver for

your sound device.

Wave Only use if absolutely necessary.

COMPUTER SPEED CONSIDERATION

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If you have a slower computer and experience audible breaks in audio recording or playback, you may need to increase the latency setting. Alternatively, you may need to purchase a higher-performance sound card or audio system designed with music recording and playback in mind. Changing the latency will depend on what type of audio driver is used. See the

Choosing An Audio Driver Type

section on the previous page for more information. Another eﬀective speed enhancement is to defragment your hard drive or purchase a new hard drive. (Old hard drives can get slow with age.)

Notice the CPU meter on the lower right corner of Mixcraft. This indicates the amount of CPU resources used by Mixcraft compared to the entire computer’s CPU usage.

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QUICK START

“I don’t wanna read this big ol’ manual now, I wanna rock!” (or thereabouts). Don’t worry, we’ve got ya covered. In the sections that follow, we’ll show how to play audio clips from Mixcraft’s huge included library, record audio and MIDI tracks, and add eﬀects.

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LOAD AND PLAY AN AUDIO CLIP

To launch Mixcraft, double-click the Mixcraft 10 icon on the desktop. We’ll begin by dragging an audio clip of a bass line into the Main Window - that’s the big gray grid where clips of audio, MIDI, and video playback are.

Click the

Library

tab at the bottom of the arrange window, then click the

Library

pop-

menu and select

Loops

. Now click the

Sort By

pop-up menu and select

Song Kit

. You’ll

see a list of song styles below; select

12-8 Blues

. In the list of loops on the right, you’ll

see

Bass 12 Bars

. Click and drag this to bar 1 of

Audio Track

in the empty gray grid

(beneath the word

Start)

. While hovering a loop over the grid in the Track View window,

you’ll notice two tiny yellow triangles; this is called the Caret.

The Caret indicates where clips will land when the mouse button is released. It also indicates where playback or recording begins. Once you’ve dropped the audio into place, a dialog box will open and ask:

“Use Best Sounding Project Tempo, Key & Time

Signature?”

We’ll explain exactly what this means later on, but for now, click

Yes

Once you’ve dropped a loop into the main grid, it creates a “Clip.” Clips are the rectangular audio, MIDI, or video “building blocks” in the main grid. The Main Grid window should look something like this:

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Click the green play arrow button in the transport section to hear the bass clip play; click a second time to stop playback, or press the space bar to start or stop playback.

If the clip begins playing somewhere in the middle, click the mouse near the number 1 in the timeline (the numbered line at the top of the Main Grid window). This will relocate the Caret, thereby changing the playback start.

Try dragging diﬀerent types of loops into the Main Grid on separate audio tracks. Mixcraft will automatically match the tempo and key signature of the audio, making it super easy to create music! If you run out of audio tracks, create more by clicking

+Track>Insert

Audio track

at the top of the Track List.

If you’d like a section to loop during playback, drag the mouse in the timeline at the top to create a purple highlight area, then click the Loop button in the transport area. The button will turn blue, indicating that loop mode is active. Click it again to disable looping. (Pressing the L button also toggles looping.)

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Right On Track

You may notice that Mixcraft won’t allow you to drop the loop on a track with a little keyboard icon; that’s because these are MIDI tracks. Make sure to drag audio loops to audio tracks, i.e. tracks with a little speaker icon. Mixcraft actually has a number of diﬀerent track types optimized for diﬀerent purposes, but while we’re in “quick startville,” we’ll just concern ourselves with audio tracks, that play digitized audio, and MIDI tracks, that play note on/oﬀ messages.

Jargon Alert: The “>” Sign

Throughout this manual, when you see something like +Track>Insert Audio, the “>” sign usually refers to a sequence of actions. Think of it as a shorthand for, “click this>then this> then this.”

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RECORDING AN AUDIO TRACK

Select a blank audio track in the Track List at the left side of the screen. Existing blank audio tracks will already be named

Audio Track

and have a loudspeaker icon beneath the name. If there aren’t any blank audio tracks in the Track List, create new ones by clicking the

+Track

button at the top of the Track List and selecting

Insert Audio Track

Click on the audio track you’d like to record on; the track will highlight. Now choose the recording input source by clicking the down arrow to the right of the

Arm

button. Depending on your audio hardware, this list may appear diﬀerently, but the idea is to select the hardware input you’ll be plugging a mic or instrument into. In the example below, we’ve chosen the left channel (i.e. input 1) of a two-channel audio device.

If you’re recording a mono signal, click the sound device followed by

Left

Right

depending on where you’ve plugged into the audio device. If you’re recording in stereo with simultaneous left and right inputs, select

Stereo

. Pay close attention to this setting, because it’s easy to accidentally record mono input sources (e.g., lead vocals, bass guitar, etc.) as a stereo ﬁle if you’ve set this incorrectly. It won’t hurt anything, but you’ll unnecessarily waste hard drive space.

After selecting the input, click the track’s

Arm

button. The

Arm

button will turn red, letting you know Mixcraft is ready to record. Now send some audio through the input to verify that the correct input was chosen. You should see the meters moving on- screen on the recording track.

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When a track is armed, the volume slider turns into a red recording input level adjuster. Move the slider to adjust the recording input level. If peaks send the meter into the red, back oﬀ the level. Ideally, the input signal should nominally sit in the green-to-yellow area.

Important Note: If you’re using an audio device with an ASIO driver (you can check in

File>Preferences>Sound Device

), the volume slider disappears when the track is armed for recording. This is because ASIO recording drivers do not support input level adjustment in software. To set the proper recording input level, you’ll need to use either the input level on your audio hardware, or if it doesn’t have one, you should be able to set the recording level using the output level control on an external preamp or channel strip.

In order to record in time with a project’s tempo, you’ll most likely want to record with a metronome. To turn on the metronome, click the metronome button in the middle of the transport. It looks like, well, a metronome.

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Check the

Recording

box. This means the metronome will click during recording.

Checking the

Playback

box makes it click during playback, but we can leave this oﬀ for

now. If it’s not already checked, check the

Recording Count-In Measures

box. Upon pressing the Record button, this gives a “countdown” before recording begins. The number selector lets you choose the length of the countdown - 1 bar usually provides enough time. Hit

when you’re done. Once you’ve conﬁgured the metronome, you can

quickly toggle it on and oﬀ by pressing the M key on the computer keyboard.

Almost there! Let Mixcraft know where to begin recording by positioning the Caret in the grid. This can be done by either clicking on the timeline at the top of the main window or by clicking anywhere in the Main Grid. We recommend positioning the Caret on an exact number in the timeline (e.g., 1, 2, 3). Setting the

Snap

setting at the top of the screen to

Snap To Grid

will simplify positioning the Caret.

Now it’s time to grab that microphone or guitar and let it rip. If you want to monitor the recording source during recording, click the little speaker icon (directly to the left of the Mute button).

Here we go. Click the red

Record

button in the transport (the one with the red dot), wait four clicks for the recording to begin, and record something! When you’re done, click the Record button again to stop (you’ll notice the red circle turns into a square while recording), or just press the space bar. It should look something like this:

Congratulations, you’ve made your ﬁrst Mixcraft audio recording!

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RECORDING A MIDI TRACK

Unlike an Audio Clip, which contains digitized sound data, a MIDI Clip contains no actual audio data. Think of a MIDI Clip as a sort of computerized player piano ... a MIDI Clip primarily contains on/oﬀ messages saying, “hey computer instrument, please play these notes at this time!”

There are a number of ways to create MIDI clips, but the most common way is to plug in a USB MIDI controller keyboard, press the Record button, and tickle the ivories (plastics?). If you have a USB MIDI controller, plug it into an available USB port on your computer. If you don’t have a USB keyboard controller, you can input notes direct from the computer’s keyboard using

Musical Typing

. This can be toggled on and oﬀ by going

to the

View

menu at the top and selecting

Musical Typing

, or by using the key shortcut [CTRL]+[ALT]+K. Musical typing uses the computer’s QWERTY keyboard to play musical notes. When activated, the layout shows the mini music keyboard below including octave, transpose, velocity, and other relevant parameters. For more information, check out the “Musical Typing Keyboard (MTK)” section.

Now that we’re playing some kind of keyboard, we’ll select one of Mixcraft’s built-in Virtual Instruments. A Virtual Instrument is like having a keyboard instrument that lives inside the computer. Nifty, right?

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First, create a new virtual instrument track. Click the

+Track

button at the top left, and

select

Insert Virtual Instrument Track

. Now click the track’s piano keyboard icon. This

opens a dialog box where instruments can be selected:

We’ll go with our old friend

Acoustic Piano

, but feel free to scroll through the list and

choose something saucy, like

Space Walk

. Once you’ve made your selection, click on the

red X in the upper right corner.

There’s Already A Piano, Man

New MIDI Tracks default to an acoustic piano sound, so you really don’t need to select an instrument to play MIDI notes, but we thought you might want to know so you wouldn’t be stuck with all piano, all the time!

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Before we record a MIDI performance, let’s turn on Mixcraft’s metronome. This lets you play in time with the project’s tempo. To turn on the metronome, click the metronome button in the middle of the transport:

Check the

Recording

box to make the metronome click during recording. Checking the

Playback

box makes it click during playback, but we can leave this oﬀ for now. If it’s not

already checked, check the

Recording Count-In Measures

box.

Upon pressing the

Record

button, this gives a “countdown” before recording begins. The number selector lets you choose the length of the countdown. Unless your computer and MIDI keyboard are really far away from each other, choosing 1 bar should provide enough time to get those ﬁngers poised. Hit

when you’re done. Once you’ve conﬁgured when the metronome plays, you can quickly toggle it on and oﬀ by pressing the M key on the computer keyboard.

We’re almost there! Let Mixcraft know where to begin recording by positioning the Caret in the grid. This can be done by either clicking on the timeline at the top of the main window or by clicking anywhere in the Main Grid. We recommend positioning the Caret exactly on a number (e.g., 1, 2, 3).

To simplify positioning the Caret, make sure

Snap To Grid

is selected in the

Snap

menu at

the top of the screen.

Make sure the track is armed for recording - if it’s not red, click on it. Now click the red

Record

button in the transport (that’s the one with the red dot), wait four clicks for the

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recording to begin, and lay down the rock. When you’re done, click the

Record

button again to stop (you’ll notice the red circle turns into a square while recording), or just hit the space bar. You should see something like this:

To create more MIDI tracks, select empty tracks in the Track List on the left of the screen and add more instruments as described above.

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ADDING AN EFFECT TO AN AUDIO CLIP OR VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT TRACK

Mixcraft 10 includes a large suite of real-time audio eﬀects that can be applied to audio clips or virtual instruments. These are usually referred to as “plug-ins.”

To add a plug-in eﬀect, click on an Audio Track or Virtual Instrument track (if it’s an audio track, make sure it has associated audio clips in the grid). Now click the track’s

button.

The

button will turn blue to indicate that you’re in eﬀects select mode and the dialog

window opens:

Click

. A drop-down menu will display a whole gaggle of eﬀects;

choose one that sounds fun. For this example, we’ll choose

TB Reverb

. Once an eﬀect is

selected, the

button turns purple.

At this point, you could just click the X at the right of the menu bar and be oﬀ on your reverbin’ way, but most likely you’ll want to change the default settings. Mixcraft plug-

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ins include factory preset settings - to try out the factory preset settings, click on the downward arrow in the

Preset

list.

To edit the plug-in settings, click the

Show

button to view a plug-in’s user interface.

This opens up the TB Reverb user interface where you can set its parameters to your liking. Pressing the Play button in the transport lets you hear parameter changes in realtime. (We recommend using

Loop

Mode for more convenient previewing.)

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REGISTRATION

When Mixcraft is purchased, you'll automatically be registered. Once installed and launched for the ﬁrst time, you'll see the Mixcraft login window where you'll need to enter your email address and Acoustica account password.

Your computer only needs to be online the ﬁrst time you launch - after that you

can unplug the internet, smash your modem with a ball peen hammer, discontinue service with your ISP provider, etc... Mixcraft will keep on tickin', we promise!

With that said, from time to time, Mixcraft will perform automatic updates, occasionally we might throw free sound and loop material your way, AND you'll have access to the awesome built-in Mixcraft store where you can easily make in-app purchases of virtual instruments, loop collections, and more, so we recommend keeping your computer online - we predict this internet thing is gonna be pretty popular! (See the Store Tab section for more information.)

MIXCRAFT RECORDING STUDIO DEMO

If you've downloaded and installed the

Mixcraft Recording Studio

demo, it will run in trial

mode for 14 days, so you’ll want to register as soon as possible for full functionality.

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Following the 14-day trial period, you'll see the window above where you can click

Buy

purchase full versions of Mi

xcraft 10 Recording Studio or Mixcraft 10 Pro Studio

You can also click the

Buy Now

button at any time during the trial period to display the

online purchase window and immediately upgrade Mixcraft to full functionality.

THANK YOU FOR CHOOSING MIXCRAFT 10!

Your support and patronage help us to continually improve Mixcraft. Enjoy! - The Acoustica Team

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MIXCRAFT MAIN WINDOW REFERENCE

Think of this section as

what

you’ll come across when using Mixcraft. Later chapters will

explain

how

to accomplish tasks in Mixcraft in detail. Blue italicized text indicates

clickable links that jump to sections with further information.

MAIN WINDOW

This is where you’ll spend most of your time in Mixcraft. We’ll explain each of its sections below.

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MENUS

Basic menus for accessing many Mixcraft functions.

TRACK HEADER

Button shortcuts atop the Track List allow the creation of new tracks, enabling the Master Track, and viewing and hiding the Performance Panel.

MAIN WINDOW TOOLBAR

The Main Window Toolbar contains button shortcuts for many frequently used functions and parameters. Here, we’ll go over its functions, buttons, and tools.

NEW PROJECT

Opens a new project.

LOAD PROJECT

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Loads an existing project.

ADD SOUND

Adds audio or MIDI ﬁles to a project on the currently selected track at the current Caret position.

SAVE PROJECT

Saves the current project.

MIX DOWN TO AUDIO FILE

Mixes the current project to a WAV or MP3 ﬁle.

UNDO

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Cancels the last operation. The same as pressing [CTRL]+Z.

REDO

Restores the last operation. The same as pressing [CTRL]+Y.

ZOOM IN

Widens the horizontal view of the Main Clip Grid (i.e. clips become larger).

ZOOM OUT

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Shrinks the horizontal view of the Main Clip Grid (i.e. clips appear smaller).

MIDI LEARN

Toggles MIDI Learn mode for hardware controller assignment (See Using Generic MIDI

Controllers and Control Surfaces).

PREFERENCES

Opens Mixcraft’s

Preferences

window.

CLIP AUTOMATION VIEW

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This pop-up shows the type of clip automation currently displayed. For more information about clip automation, see the “Clip Automation” section in Automation and

Controller Mapping.

SNAP SETTING

The Snap setting acts as a quantize control for the placement of all elements in the Main Clip Grid including the playhead, markers, and clips, as well as moving, cutting, pasting, etc. Snap simpliﬁes the process of keeping clips and markers exactly on bar and beat lines. To set the Snap resolution, click on the Snap setting drop-down and select a time division setting.

The characters on the right side are shortcut keys for quickly changing the Snap setting. These work only from the numbers directly above your computer’s QWERTY keyboard; they won’t work from the 10-key numeric keypad. The tilde (

Oﬀ

shortcut) is located next to the number 1 key at the top of your keyboard. Tilda Swinton, on the other hand, is currently at the hairdresser in Beverly Hills getting her hair bleached.

Note:

Holding down the [SHIFT]key temporarily bypasses the

Snap

setting, allowing clips

to be position freely.

How the Snap Setting Aﬀects the Clip Grid

You may have noticed that Mixcraft’s horizontal view size is zoomed, and the Main Clip Grid increment lines become ﬁner (closer zoom) or coarser (farther zoom). The

Snap To

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Grid

setting conforms Snap to the light gray “sub” grid lines in the Main Clip Grid. You

may ﬁnd

Snap To Grid

works best in most situations. Use the

Snap To Grid (Triplets)

option if you’re working on music with a “three” feel.

TIME/BEATS

The

Time

and

Beats

buttons determine if the timeline at the top of the main window counts and displays in minutes and seconds, or in measures and beats. This can also be switched using the

View>Timeline Mode

menu.

TIMELINE

The Timeline indicates the song position, represented either in minutes and seconds (

Time

mode), or in bars numbers, and divisions (

Beats

mode). The area above the ruler is

where in/out points, tempo, time signature, key, and song markers are displayed.

TRACKS

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The Tracks area displays important info and parameters for individual audio, MIDI, and video tracks. In addition to standard audio and virtual tracks, Mixcraft includes a number of other specialized tracks types for various tasks. For a full description of all track types and how to use them, see the Tracks and Types section.

TRACK LIST

Refers to the entire list of all audio, MIDI, and video tracks comprising a Mixcraft project.

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MAIN CLIP GRID

The playback and recording area where audio, MIDI, and video clips can be created and moved. This is where (most) of the action happens, baby.

Tip:

The Main Clip Grid view can be zoomed in and out by spinning the mouse wheel.

(The mouse wheel’s behavior can be deﬁned in

File>Preferences>Mouse Wheel

AUDIO/MIDI/VIDEO CLIPS

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Clips are the “building blocks” of projects. Depending on the clip type, they may contain audio, MIDI, video, or text. Following are operations that are common to all clip types. Learn more in the Clips and the Main Clip Grid section.

PLAYHEAD

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The playhead is a vertical line with a yellow “ﬂag” at the top indicating the current playback time, or where playback will occur when play or record is initiated. Clicking anywhere in the Timeline moves the playhead to the clicked position.

CARET

The Caret refers to the two small yellow triangles indicating the precise point on a track in the Main Clip Grid where edits happen, and where playback or recording begins. The Caret location is set by clicking in the Main Clip Grid. The Caret will obey the current Snap Setting.

New sounds and recordings are added at the Caret position. After adding a new sound, the Caret moves to the end of the sound. The Caret is also the point at which selected

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sounds will be split. The Caret can be moved by clicking the mouse or by using the keyboard direction arrows. The Caret is not susceptible to being eaten by wascally wabbits.

TRANSPORT BAR

Standard tape deck-style controls for playback, recording, loop mode, and punch-in/ punch-out. The large middle display shows the song tempo, time signature, song key, and the current position of the playhead. To the right are the master level meter, volume slider, and master eﬀects (FX) bypass button.

MOVING AND UNDOCKING THE TRANSPORT BAR

The Transport Bar appears at the bottom of the Mixcraft Main Window by default, but it can be relocated to the top or bottom of the screen, or undocked and freely moved around.

• To move the Transport Bar, click and drag the small horizontal handles on either side. To move it to the top of the Main Window, slide it up near the top of the window; when you see a yellow outline around the top menus, release the mouse, and Transport Bar will snap into place. The Transport Bar can be moved back to its bottom location in the same way.

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• To undock the Transport Bar and place it anywhere, click and drag the small horizontal handles on either side and release the mouse anywhere on the screen. The undocked Transport Bar can be moved at any time by clicking and dragging its blue top bar.

The Transport Bar can be returned to its most recent top or bottom “docked” position, either by clicking the X in its right corner, or moving it near the top or bottom of the screen (you’ll see a yellow outline when it’s ready to pop into place).

The

Lock

button prevents the Transport Bar from popping into place when enabled in order to prevent accidental docking. (BTW, "Unlokken With Dokken" is a three-CD greatest hits collection spanning all three years and two smash hit singles of legendary metal band, Dokken.)

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ALIGNING THE TRANSPORT

By default, the Transport Bar is centered in the middle of the Main Window when docked. To reposition it, right-click anywhere in the Transport Bar and select

Left, Center

, or

Right

. This menu will have no eﬀect on that two-inch 24-track tape machine languishing in the corner of your studio.

TABS

These show additional project information and parameters. Tabs pop up and occupy the bottom half of the screen when clicked.

If the Sound Tab is selected, the following editors are available:

Audio Clips

Loop Editor

Virtual Instruments Clips (MIDI)

Piano Roll

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Step Edit

Score Edit

BOTTOM STATUS BAR

The ﬁrst section at the bottom displays the current audio settings. MIDI IN and MIDI OUT display red dots when external MIDI data is being received or sent. The CPU section shows how much computer CPU Mixcraft is currently using and if saving, loading, or freezing is occurring. Finally, the little diagonal bars in the corner are handles for resizing the Mixcraft window.

GUITAR TUNER

Each audio track features a built-in tuner. Though we refer to it as a “guitar tuner,” it will work with any monophonic instrument signal (i.e., one-note-at-a-time). Those of you using drifty, old analog synthesizers should ﬁnd it quite handy.

To toggle the tuner on or oﬀ, simply click the tuning fork icon. The tuning fork icon turns blue, and the track’s volume slider/level meter turns into a display for the tuner. When the tuner detects an audio signal, it displays the closest note. When the signal is in tune, the “tuning cursor” appears in the middle and highlight in white.

The tuner can also be turned on or oﬀ by right-clicking on the track and selecting

Guitar

Tuner

or clicking the main window menu

Track>Guitar Tuner

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TRANSPORT

• Record

Click the recording button to start recording. Hotkey is [R]

• Automation Recording Options

Opens a menu where automation recording can be enabled, and Overwrite or Touch options can be speciﬁed. Please see the Automation and Controller Mapping section for full information.

• Rewind to Start

Resets the playhead to the start of the project. Hotkey is [HOME].

• Rewind

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Rewinds the playhead by a measure or so. Hotkey is [CTRL] + , (comma).

• Play/Stop

Starts playback at the current playhead position. Visible when playback is stopped.

Stops playback at the current playhead position. Visible during playback. Hotkey for play and stop is [SPACE BAR].

• Fast Forward

Fast forward the playhead by a measure or so. Hotkey is [CTRL] + . (period)

• Fast Forward to End

Moves the playhead to the end of the project. Hotkey is [END] key

• Loop Mode

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Toggles loop mode for recording or playback. Hotkey is [L]

• Metronome

Mixcraft’s metronome clicks at the project tempo. It can be set to click during playback, recording, or both. Click the metronome button to open the

Metronome Settings

dialogue:

The metronome hotkey is [M].

•Punch In/Out

Punch In/Out lets you record at a speciﬁc time section. These modes can work together or separately. To loop a region, click the

Loop

mode button in the Transport, then drag

the

Loop Start

and

Loop End

markers in the Timeline to set a loop area.

Punch In/Out

recording lets you place markers that deﬁne where the recording starts and

ends. See “Punch In/Out” in the Recording Audio chapter for more information.

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RECORDING TIMER

Mixcraft includes a

Recording Timer

. This allows recording for a speciﬁed duration. To use

the Recording Timer, select M

ix>Recording Timer Settings

from the Main Window menus

and enter the number of minutes to record. (If you only want to record 30 seconds, enter

0.5)

To disable the recording timer, select

Mix>Recording Timer Settings

again and uncheck it

in the menu.

PLAYBACK TIME READOUT/DISPLAY

Displays the current playback indicator time or measure and beat position. It also shows the current tempo, time signature, and key signature.

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PROJECT TIME SIGNATURE, TAP, TEMPO, AND KEY

PROJECT TIME SIGNATURE

The time signature aﬀects

Snap

behavior if

Snap

is set to

Snap To...

a number of bars. For example, if the time signature is 3/4 and the software is snapping to the measure, it would mean that the software is snapping every three beats, instead of four beats for 4/4 time. The metronome will play based on the current time signature.

The numerator of the time signature indicates the number of beats per measure and the denominator indicates what type of note receives a beat.

PROJECT TEMPO AND TAP BUTTON

All sounds that have a tempo and are set to

Adjust To Project Tempo

mode will conform to the project tempo. For example, if a sound has a tempo of 200 bpm and the project has a tempo of 100 bpm, the sound will play back two times as fast and be 1/2 the normal duration. In addition to aﬀecting any tempo-adjusted sounds, the project tempo also determines the metronome rate.

Project tempo can be set by clicking the mouse on the

Tap

button next to the tempo

display.

PROJECT KEY AND SCALE

All sounds that have a key and are set to

Adjust To Project Key

mode will conform to the set project key and scale. For example, if a sound has a key of A and the project’s key is B, the sound will play back two semitones or half steps higher than normal in order to be in tune with the key of B.

One of the following scales can also be chosen:

Chromatic

Major

Minor

Pentatonic Major

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Pentatonic Minor

Dorian

Mixolydian

Harmonic Minor

Blues

MASTER VOLUME AND OUTPUT METER

The master volume adjusts the level of the entire mix. Move the slider left or right to set the desired volume. Master Volume also has an integrated master-level VU meter.

Alternatively, you can right-click on the Transport and select

Master Volume>Set Master

Volume

followed by choosing a level % or specifying an exact value. This menu can also

be accessed by selecting

Mix>Set Master Volume

in the Main Windows menus.

PLAYBACK

Checking this box makes the metronome click during playback. Pressing the M key on your computer’s keyboard toggles it on and oﬀ.

RECORDING

Checking this box makes the metronome click during recording. Pressing [SHIFT]+M key will toggle it on and oﬀ.

RECORDING COUNT-IN MEASURES

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Upon pressing the Record button, this gives a countdown prior to recording. The number selector lets you choose the length of the countdown length in measures.

METRONOME PREFERENCES

Metronome sounds and volume can be customized by selecting

Preference>Metronome

in the Main Window menus.

PLAY EVERY X BEATS

The metronome can be conﬁgured to play on speciﬁc beats by creating a Marker and specifying this in the

Edit Marker

window. See the Markers chapter for more information

on this.

MUSICAL TYPING KEYBOARD

The

Musical Typing Keyboard

allows virtual instruments to be played using your

computer’s QWERTY keyboard. Enable it by clicking

View>Musical Typing

in the main

screen drop-down menus, or with the keyboard shortcut [CTRL]+[ALT]+K.

When activated, the

Musical Typing Keyboard

displays on onscreen a music keyboard corresponding to the computer keyboard, as well as octave, transpose, velocity, and other relevant parameters. Learn more about the

Musical Typing Keyboard

in the

Musical Typing Keyboard (MTK) chapter.

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EFFECTS

Eﬀects can be added to any track type (excluding video and text tracks). To add eﬀects to a track, click the

button in a track header. Mixcraft features a large array of eﬀects including echo, delay, chorus, EQ, distortion, and more. Learn more in the Using Eﬀects section.

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LOADING AND SAVING PROJECTS

NEW PROJECT WINDOW

The

New Project

window is Mixcraft's "launch control" area. It combines a number of

handy functions used when starting a new song project. The

New Project Settings

window is displayed when Mixcraft is launched. It lets you specify preset settings for new projects, or open a default project ﬁle.

By default, the

New Project

Window opens when Mixcraft is launched, or when

File>New

Project

is selected. It can be disabled by unclicking the

Show This Window For New

Projects

checkbox, or in preferences at

File>Preferences>Project>Show Start Project

Dialog On New Projects.

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• Document Icons

New

Creates a new project with properties deﬁned by

New Projects Defaults

settings.

Open

Opens a File Explorer window where an existing project can be opened.

Defaults

Opens the

New Projects Defaults

dialog (see below).

• Video Tutorials

Automatically launches your default web browser and directs to

acoustica/mixcraft/videos. Here you can view helpful Mixcraft-related tutorial and tips

videos.

• Recent Projects Search

The

Recent Projects

dialog allows easy searching for projects - just type the name (or

part of it) and projects will appear below.

• Recent Projects List

Displays most recent projects. To open a project, simply click on it.

Project list display order can be sorted by name, date last opened, or length by clicking on the column headers.

• News

The right side of the

New Project

window contains Acoustica- and Mixcraft-related news, including sales and new videos. These launch in the default internet browser when clicked.

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PROJECT DEFAULT SETTINGS

Closely related to the

New Project

window, the

Project Default Settings

window is where all initial project settings, such as tempo, key, number of speciﬁc track types and more can be deﬁned. This "personalized project template" makes song creation even easier.

All parameters in the

Project Default Settings

window remember their current setting, even when new projects are initiated. If you make a change to one of the settings, Mixcraft remembers it the next time the

Project Default Settings

window is opened.

TEMPLATE

If the

Template

radio button is selected, an existing Mixcraft template ﬁle is used to

specify initial project settings.

The template ﬁle can be selected using the popup menu to the right. Either click in the ﬁeld and select a template or click

Browse…

andnavigate Windows Explorer to the

location of a Mixcraft template ﬁle, then double-click the template ﬁle to open it.

SPECIFY SETTINGS

When the

Specify Settings

radio button is selected, you’re able to quickly and easily set

parameters when beginning a new project.

• Tempo

Speciﬁes the tempo of the new project. Either click the tempo number and enter a

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number on the keyboard, or use the up/down arrows to specify the tempo.

• Time Signature

Click on the numerator or denominator and enter the desired numbers to specify the time signature.

• Key

Click the letter C to change the key signature or use the up/down arrows to specify the project key.

• Scale

Allows selection of a predetermined scale for MIDI clips to conform to.

• Snap Setting

This sets the

Snap

setting in the new project.

• Mode

Selects between

Time

and

Beats

mode in the timeline ruler and position displays.

• Auto Detect Tempo In Sounds

Tempo of clips containing audio content will be tempo-locked to the project.

Auto Warp Sounds

Checking this box will automatically autowarp imported audio content over 30 seconds in length. (

Auto Detect Tempo In Sounds

must be enabled.)

• Master Track

Checking this box enables the master track at the top of the track list.

• Video Track

With this box checked, the ﬁrst track in a project will be a video track (a project can only have one video track).

• Instrument Tracks

Deﬁnes the number of virtual instrument tracks automatically created by Mixcraft. Either click the number and enter a number on the keyboard, or use the up/down arrows to specify a number.

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• Audio Tracks

Deﬁnes the number of audio tracks automatically created. Either click and enter a number on the keyboard, or specify a number with the up/down arrows.

• Vocoder Tracks

Deﬁnes the number of vocoder tracks automatically created by Mixcraft. Either click the number and enter a number on the keyboard, or use the up/ down arrows to specify a number. Note that a vocoder track is actually a submix track containing an audio track (for vocoder control input) and an instrument track (containing a string synth instrument and an Acoustica Vocoder plug-in).

• Submix Tracks

Deﬁnes the number of submix tracks automatically created. Either click and enter a number on the keyboard, or specify a number with the up/down arrows.

• Send Tracks

Deﬁnes the number of send tracks automatically created. Either click and enter a number on the keyboard, or specify a number with the up/down arrows.

• Output Tracks

Deﬁnes the number of output tracks automatically created. Either click and enter a number on the keyboard, or specify a number with the up/down arrows.

• Performance Panel

Checking this box opens the Performance Panel in the new project. Use the

Sets

box to

deﬁne the number of empty Performance Panel sets.

• Continue

The Continue button opens a new project with the currently deﬁned

Project Default

Settings.

SAVING A PROJECT

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Select

Save or Save As…

from the

File

menu, navigate to the folder where you’d like the

current project’s folder to reside, type in a name, and click the

Save

button. Mixcraft automatically creates a folder with the name you typed. The Mixcraft project ﬁle and all associated audio ﬁles will save to the project folder.

If the project has already been saved in an earlier version, the

Save

command will simply overwrite the existing project ﬁle with the same ﬁle name. If you’d like to save diﬀerent iterations of a project, we recommend adding numbers or dates at the end of the project ﬁle name.

Projects can also be saved by clicking the

Save

button on the top toolbar - it’s the icon that looks like a ﬂoppy disk. (If you still have a box of ﬂoppy discs in the closet, stop what you’re doing and throw them away right now - whatever gadget you still have that took them doesn't work any more anyway.)

Save your work often. You never know when the power might shut oﬀ!

MIXING DOWN A PROJECT INTO AN AUDIO FILE

MIX DOWN TO STEMS

To save the project as an MP3, WAV, OGG or WMA ﬁle, use the

File>Mix Down To

ommand in the Main Window menus. Tracks can also be saved en masse as individual

audio ﬁles using the

File>Mix Down To Stems

function. For more information, see Mixing

Down To Audio And Video Files.

SAVING AS A MIDI FILE

If you want to export a project’s MIDI content to a Standard MIDI ﬁle, select

File> Save As

MIDI File…

from the Main Window menus. Alternatively, you can choose

File>Save As….

click the

Type

ﬁeld and select

MIDI File Type 1

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Audio tracks will be skipped, as they do not contain MIDI data.

BACKING UP PROJECTS

A backup of the project is made each time it is saved. Backup ﬁles are automatically saved in the backup sub-folder located in the project folder.

Saving Projects With Templates

If a new project is started by loading a template and you hit the Save button (or the File menu equivalent), Mixcraft will save the ﬁle as a new project - it won’t overwrite the template ﬁle

PROJECT TEMPLATES

A template is a special project that stores track names, track images, volume settings, armed states, and other track settings. Project templates can be a big time saver because they let you set initial project parameters to your liking.

To save a project template, select

File>Save As…

in the Main Window menus, then select

Mixcraft Template

from the

Save as type:

drop-down menu. Type in a ﬁle name, select a

destination folder and click

Save

. Mixcraft project templates are stored as .mx10template

ﬁles.

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COPY PROJECT FILES TO

A project and all sounds, videos and/or recordings used within it can be easily saved to a single folder or zip ﬁle. This is handy for organizing projects and backups as well as sharing with other Mixcraft users.

To copy the project and its sounds, save the project, then click

File>Copy Project Files To

in the Main Window menus, followed by clicking

Folder

Zip File

COPY TO A FOLDER

Pick a folder to copy the project and ﬁles to and click OK. You can optionally create a new folder by clicking the (you guessed it)

New Folder

button.

COPY TO A ZIP FILE

Enter a name for the zip ﬁle and click

Save

. All project ﬁles will be automatically added to the compressed zip ﬁle. Audio and video ﬁles do not necessarily compress well (i.e. they won’t be corrupted, but their ﬁle size won’t shrink much), but this is still a great way to quickly create a single ﬁle archive for sharing/emailing/uploading.

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TRACKS AND TYPES

The Track List is found at the left side of Mixcraft’s main interface window. Each track contains controls for volume, panning, muting, soloing, and more. There are a number of track types, each with its own purpose and variations in its controls. You can play or record as many tracks as you like (until your computer starts billowing smoke). The exception is that a project can only have one Video and one Master track. First, we’ll go over some common controls for most track types, then get into speciﬁcs for each track type.

The table below shows Mixcraft’s various track types and their basic functionality, followed by an in-depth explanation of each.

Track Type Details

Audio Record audio or remix loops.

Instrument Edit or record MIDI data.

Video Add and edit video ﬁles or still images.

Video Text Track

Add and edit video static and scrolling text to videos.

Master Shape the master volume and eﬀects - this is where eﬀects are inserted into the main

output bus.

Submix Nests and combines audio and instrument tracks.

Send Share eﬀects between multiple tracks.

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Output Additional output busses in addition to the Master Track. These are used to route audio

to physical outputs with multiple-out audio hardware.

Rewire Controls a third-party Rewire application.

Vocoder Creates a Submix track with control and instrument tracks preconﬁgured for Acoustica

Vocoder.

Instrument Mix

Mix additional audio channels from virtual instruments with multiple output busses; this is automatically created when a virtual instrument with multiple output channel is added.

ADDING/MOVING/SIZING/DELETING TRACKS

Drag, right-click, or use key shortcuts to add, delete, move, and duplicate tracks.

MOVING TRACKS

Tracks can be moved by clicking and dragging them vertically within the Track List.

RESIZING VERTICAL TRACK HEIGHT

To resize a single track vertically, move the mouse to the bottom of a track and drag it up or down. When the mouse is in the correct location for resizing, the cursor will become an up/down cursor.

Height can be adjust for all tracks simultaneously either by selecting

Track>Properties>Track Height

and choosing a size, or by clicking in the track area and

using[CTRL]+Alt+Mouse wheel.

DELETING TRACKS

Click on a track to select it. Then click

Track>Delete Track

, or right-click on the track and

choose

Delete Track

. All sounds on the track will also be deleted.

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CUSTOMIZING TRACK APPEARANCE

Change the color, icon, name, or size of tracks.

NAME

The default name for newly created tracks will be “Audio Track,” for audio tracks, or “Instrument Track,” for MIDI tracks. Tracks can be renamed by clicking the current name and typing. Hit the

Enter

key or click in another area of the window to ﬁnish.

IMAGE

Each track can have its own icon beneath the track name for personalization as well as organization. Choose from Mixcraft’s included images or import your own.

To change the track image, double-click an existing track image or hover over the track image and click the pop-up button. You can also select

Track>Properties>Choose

Image

… in the main window drop-down menus, or right-click on a track and select

Properties>Choose

Image...

The

Choose A Track Image

window opens:

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To use an existing image, select one and click OK. To use a custom image, click

Add My

Own Image File...,

navigate to the image to be added, select the desired image, and click

Open

. The image replaces the existing track image and is added to the list of thumbnail

images.

JPG, BMP, PNG, and GIF formats are supported, and custom images are permanently added to the track image library for use in future projects.

TRACK COLOR

Track colors can be individually set by selecting

Track>Properties>Track Color

in the

main window drop-down menus or (more easily) by right-clicking a track and choosing

Color

. This aﬀects the track’s highlight color and all clips on the track.

ADDITIONAL RIGHT-CLICK FUNCTIONS

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We apologize for sticking these all the way at the end, but here are some convenient things you can do by right-clicking the track header.

MIX TO NEW AUDIO TRACK

Mixes all Virtual Instrument or audio clips on the selected track to a single, continuous audio clip and places it on a newly created track beneath the current track. This has a couple of practical uses:

• Convert MIDI Virtual Instrument To An Audio Wave

This is useful if you’re handing oﬀ ﬁles to some chump another user who doesn’t have virtual instruments you’ve used in a project.

• Permanently Embed Insert Eﬀects Or Instruments In An Audio File Again

This is useful if you’re handing oﬀ a project to another user who doesn’t have eﬀects plug-ins you’ve used.

• Long-Term Archiving

Instrument or eﬀects plug-ins can become obsolete or incompatible with current operating systems/format changes, etc. Converting to “pure” audio ﬁles can act as insurance to guarantee projects remain playable for years to come.

DUPLICATE

Creates a copy of the track and all of its clips. This is a time-saver if you want to add a second part using the same instrument, add a vocal double with the same plug-

in setup, etc. Also useful if you’d like to try some wild edits and want to retain an unadulterated version.

FREEZE

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Freeze is similar to

Mix To New Audio Track

; it creates a new audio ﬁle with instruments

or eﬀects “burned in” to the ﬁle. Unlike

Mix To New Audio Track

, it does not make a new track; the audio is created in the background and plays back on the existing track. Because instruments and eﬀects are part of the newly created audio ﬁle, Mixcraft disables instrument and eﬀects plugs upon playback, thus freeing up computer processor resources. If you’re using an older or underpowered computer,

Freeze

can be tremendously helpful (check out the CPU percentage meter while playing back projects for reference). Conversely, if you’re using a fast, modern computer, you probably won’t need

Freeze

As shown above, frozen tracks turn blue with diagonal lines; this makes it easy to keep track of which tracks are frozen.

Frozen tracks can be unfrozen, that is, converted back to standard tracks with instrument and plug-ins active, by reselecting the

Freeze

command (which will say

Unfreeze

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COMMON TRACK CONTROLS AND COMMANDS

Most of the following controls and commands are shared by all track types.

VOLUME + INPUT/OUTPUT METER

Track volume is adjusted by the horizontal slider with a built-in level meter. Click down on the slider and move it left or right to decrease or increase volume. Volume can be set from 0% to 200% (-Inf dB to +6 dB).

To set an exact track volume, choose

Track>Properties>Set Volume>Set Exact Value

… from the Main Window drop-down menu and enter the desired volume. This can also be accessed by right-clicking on the track.

Tip:

Hold down [ALT], [SHIFT], or [CTRL] and click-drag the slider for ﬁner and more

accurate adjustment.

The horizontal volume fader contains an integrated level meter. In standard playback mode, this displays the output level as the track plays. If the track is in record arm mode (

The arm

button will be red), the meter functions as an input level meter.

PAN

The track’s pan control is the small horizontal slider to the left of the track volume control. Adjust the pan control by clicking and dragging it to the left or right. Pan is adjustable from 100% left to 100% right. The pan controls default to the center position this means that the sound is equally balanced between the left and right channels. Track panning can also be set in the main window drop-down menu

Track>Properties>Set

Pan>Set Exact Value

… This menu is also accessible by right-clicking a track.

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Tip:

For ﬁner and more accurate pan adjustment, hold down [ALT], [SHIFT], or [CTRL]

while dragging the pan slider.

MUTE

Tracks can be temporarily silenced by clicking the track

Mute

button. Once muted, the solo button turns blue, and all clips on the track turn gray with diagonal lines. Tracks may also be muted using the shortcut [CTRL]+M, or by right-clicking the track and selecting

Properties>Mute

. If multiple tracks are selected, all selected tracks are muted

simultaneously.

If multiple tracks are muted, [CTRL]-clicking an unmuted track unmutes all others and mutes the clicked track (sort of a mute “solo” function). If multiple tracks are muted and one of them is [CTRL]-clicked, all are unmuted.

Mute and Solo Button [CTRL] + Click Shortcuts

If multiple tracks are soloed or muted, you can unsolo or unmute all tracks in project by [CTRL] + clicking on a solo or mute button. Multiple tracks cannot be Han Soloed.

SOLO

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To hear a single track’s audio, click the

Solo

button. Multiple tracks may be soloed. For example, to hear how the bass and guitar sound together without drums, solo the bass and guitar tracks. Once soloed, the track’s solo button turns blue and all other tracks turn gray with diagonal lines. If multiple tracks are selected, all selected tracks are soloed simultaneously.

The currently selected track can also be soloed using the shortcut [CTRL]+L, or by rightclicking the track and selecting

Properties>Solo

If multiple tracks are soloed, [CTRL]-clicking a non-soloed track disables solo on all other tracks and soloes the clicked track. If multiple tracks are soloed and one of them is [CTRL]-clicked, solo is disabled for all tracks.

ARM BUTTON AND MENU (DOWNWARD ARROW)

Clicking the

Arm

button readies an audio or MIDI track for recording. (the button turns bright red). If nothing else is armed, the currently selected track is automatically be armed for the duration of the recording. More than one track can be armed for simultaneously recording to multiple audio or MIDI tracks.

Clicking the downward arrow to the right of the

Arm

button opens a menu where recording parameters are speciﬁed. This menu will look a little diﬀerent for audio tracks or MIDI tracks - check out the Audio Track or Virtual Instrument/MIDI Track sections for detailed information.

SELECTING A TRACK

Clicking on a track header will select it. The tracker header outline changes to the currently selected track color; the default color varies depending on the track type, but its color can be changed (see “Track Color” section below).

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MULTIPLE TRACK SELECTION

[CTRL]+click will select multiple tracks simultaneously, [SHIFT]+click selects all tracks between any two selected tracks. Selecting multiple tracks is handy for moving or deleting multiple tracks. Additionally,

Volume, Pan, Mute, Solo, Arm,

and other operations

apply to all selected tracks.

Note:

When multiple tracks are selected,

Volume

and

Pan

changes are relative. As an example, changing a volume level on one track won’t cause all selected tracks to jump to the same volume; instead, selected tracks maintain their volume settings r

elative to

each other

but move up and down as a group. The same applies to

Pan

settings.

LINKING TRACKS

Multiple tracks can also be linked together; this gangs up the volume, pan, mute, solo, and send controls. It’s particularly useful if you have a group of similar tracks (like drums, or multiple backing vocals). You may have as many separate groups of tracks linked as you like. Linked tracks will display “chain” icons next to the track name, and each Link group will have uniquely colored color bars at the far left of the track.

To link two or more tracks, select tracks as detailed in the previous section then choose from the following Link options:

• Link Selected Tracks

Choose

Track> Link>Link Selected Tracks

from the main menus, or right-click one of the

selected tracks and and choose

Link>Link Selected Tracks

to link currently selected

tracks.

• Unlink All

This disables linking for all tracks in the current Link group (one track within the group must currently be seleted before unlinking).

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• Unlink

This disables linking for only the selected track in the current Link group. Use this to remove a single track from the Link group.

Note:

Track linking is overridden for volume, pan, or send if automation locks are

enabled for these parameters.

ADDING/MOVING/SIZING/DELETING TRACKS

Drag, right-click, or use key shortcuts to add, delete, move, and duplicate tracks.

MOVING TRACKS

Tracks can be moved by clicking and dragging them vertically within the Track List.

RESIZING TRACKS

Tracks can be resized vertically. Track height can be increased for easier editing, or decreased to ﬁt more tracks on the screen simultaneously. To resize a track vertically, move the mouse to the bottom of a track and drag it up or down. When the mouse is

in the correct location for resizing, the cursor will become an up/down cursor. Alternatively, you can click

Track>Properties>Track Height

and choose a size of small, normal, large, or Super Big Gulp X-Treme™. [CONTROL]+ ~ (that’s a tilde, the squiggle at the top left of your keyboard) is a handy keyboard shortcut for cycling through track heights.

RESIZE ALL TRACKS

You can resize all tracks at once by clicking on

View>All Tracks Height

and choosing a new size. To resize all tracks to a speciﬁc size, hold down the [SHIFT] key, click on the bottom of a track, and drag it up or down. All tracks will resize upon mouse release.

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DELETING TRACKS

Click on a track to select it. Then click

Track>Delete Track

, or right-click on the track and

choose

Delete Track

. All sounds on the track will also be deleted.

CUSTOMIZING TRACK APPEARANCE

Change the color, icon, name, or size of tracks.

NAME

Enter

key or click in another area of the window to ﬁnish.

IMAGE

Each track can have its own icon beneath the track name for personalization as well as organization. Choose from Mixcraft’s included images or import your own.

To change the track image, double-click an existing track image or hover over the track image and click the pop-up button. You can also select

Track>Properties>Choose

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Image

… in the main window drop-down menus, or right-click on a track and select

Properties>Choose

Image...

The

Choose A Track Image

window opens:

To use an existing image, select one and click OK. To use a custom image, click

Add My

Own Image File...,

navigate to the image to be added, select the desired image, and click

Open

. The image replaces the existing track image and is added to the list of thumbnail

images.

JPG, BMP, PNG, and GIF formats are supported, and custom images are permanently added to the track image library for use in future projects.

TRACK COLOR

Track colors can be individually set by selecting

Track>Properties>Track Color

in the

main window drop-down menus, by right-clicking a track and choosing

Color

, or by clicking directly on the vertical color bar at the far left of the track. This aﬀects the track’s highlight color and all clips on the track.

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ADDING A NEW TRACK

There are several ways to add tracks:

Click the

+Track

button at the top of the track list or click in an empty area of the track

list (below existing tracks) to open the following menu:

Menu Persist Switch

The blue horizontal slider at the top-right of the menu enables persistent menus. When enabled, the right-click menu stays open while multiple functions and options are selected; to close the right-click window, simply click anywhere outside of it. If the

Menu Persist

slider is disabled, the right-click window automatically closes

when a single action or option is selected.

Add Track

Creates a new

Audio, Instrument, Video, Send, SubMix, Output

, or

Vocoder

track

beneath the bottom-most track.

Show Eﬀects On Tracks

Displays current track insert eﬀects to the right of the track controls. Eﬀects can

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easily be added by clicking the + sign.

Right-clicking the purple eﬀect button opens the following submenu:

Purple Eﬀect Button Submenu

Active-Click to enable or disable the eﬀect Remove-Click to delete the eﬀect. Eﬀect List Is Active- Click to enable or disable all insert eﬀects for the track. Edit Eﬀects List...- Opens the Eﬀects List window, allowing for more extensive

eﬀects-related editing. For more info, please the Adding Eﬀects sub-section in

Using Eﬀects.

Close All Eﬀect Windows- Hides the UI's of all currently open eﬀects windows. Remove All Eﬀects- Deletes all current eﬀects for the track.

Performance Panel

Hides or displays the clip Performance Panel to the right of the track list. For more information, check out the Perfomance Panel section.

Show Master Track

Hides or displays the Master Track. For more information, please see the Master

Track section below.

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Tracks can also be added to the bottom of the track list by clicking

Track>Add Track

the Main Window top menu, or inserted

above

the currently selected track by clicking

Track>Insert Track

in the Main Window top menu.

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AUDIO TRACK

Audio tracks are used to record and play back audio. Audio clips can be recorded by the user or loaded from pre-existing libraries (such as Mixcraft’s super-duper library of samples, loops, and sound eﬀects). Head on over to the Audio Clips section for more information.

AUDIO TRACK HEADER

TRACK NUMBER

All tracks in a Mixcraft project are numbered, starting at 1 at the top track, and increasing up as tracks are added below. Note that track numbering always stays constant - that is, track numbers increment from 1 upward no matter how tracks are arranged or moved. (Track numbers aren't "attached" to speciﬁc tracks.)

TRACK NAME

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Every track has a name. Default names are generally the type of track (

Audio, Video

, etc.), or in the case of Virtual Instrument tracks, the name of the virtual instrument. Tracks can be renamed at any time by double-clicking and typing a new name, and either clicking outside the naming ﬁeld, or thwacking the [RETURN] or [ENTER] key.

PAN

Track>Properties>Set

Pan>Set Exact Value

… This menu is also accessible by right-clicking a track.

Tip:

For ﬁner and more accurate pan adjustment, hold down [ALT], [SHIFT], or [CTRL]

while dragging the pan slider.

LEVEL CONTROL & METER

To set an exact track volume, choose

Track>Properties>Set Volume>Set Exact Value

… from the Main Window drop-down menu and enter the desired volume. This can also be accessed by right-clicking on the track.

Tip:

Hold down [ALT], [SHIFT], or [CTRL] and click-drag the slider for ﬁner and more

accurate adjustment.

The horizontal volume fader contains an integrated level meter. In standard playback mode, this displays the output level as the track plays. If the track is in record arm mode (

The arm

button will be red), the meter functions as an input level meter.

INSERT EFFECTS - ADD/ENABLE/DISABLE

The track eﬀects slots make it easy to load and access insert eﬀects without opening the Eﬀects List window - eﬀects can be added by simple clicking the + sign and choosing an

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eﬀect. Eﬀects can also be enabled and disabled by clicking the "power" switch on the left side of the button.

If you don't see the track eﬀects slots, their visibility can be toggled by clicking

Track>Show Eﬀects On Tracks

, right-clicking on the track header and choosing

Show

Eﬀects On Tracks

, or by hovering over the right edge of a track header - the mouse

pointer will turn into double-horizontal arrows that can be dragged to the right.

For more information about using eﬀects, check out the cleverly named Using Eﬀects section.

ARM BUTTON AND AUDIO INPUTS MENU (DOWNWARD ARROW)

Clicking the

Arm

button readies a track for recording. (the button turns bright red). If nothing else is armed, the currently selected track is automatically be armed for the duration of the recording. More than one track can be armed for simultaneously recording to multiple audio tracks.

Clicking the downward arrow to the right of the

Arm

button opens the Audio Inputs menu

where record input parameters are speciﬁed:

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Menu Persist Switch

Menu Persist

slider is disabled, the right-click window automatically closes

when a single action or option is selected.

Audio Device Selection Popup Menu

Click in the top box in the Audio Inputs Menu to select the hardware audio device input for recording. You’ll see a list of all available inputs from the connected audio device(s).

• Inputs Select

If you’re recording a mono signal, click the sound device followed by

Left

Right

depending on where you’ve plugged into your device. If you’re recording in stereo with left and right inputs, select

Stereo

. Pay close attention to this setting, because it’s easy to unnecessarily record mono input sources (e.g., lead vocals, bass guitar, etc.) as a stereo ﬁle if you’ve set this incorrectly. It won’t hurt anything, but you’ll unnecessarily use twice as much hard drive space. After selecting the input, feed some audio to the input to verify that the correct input was chosen. You should see the meters moving onscreen in the recording track.

Recording Mode

The

Takes, Overdub

, and

Replace

buttons deﬁne how Mixcraft handles recorded audio, speciﬁcally, when audio clips already exist in the location you're recording to. Please see Recording Mode in the Recording Audio Tracks section for full information on how these work.

Monitor Track

Enables software monitoring. Software monitoring allows performers to hear incoming audio, mixed with existing project audio during recording. For full information, please see Software Monitoring in the Recording Audio Tracks section.

Guitar Tuner

Enables or disables the tracks's guitar tuner function (see Guitar Tuner section below).

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Arm For Performance Panel

This readies Performance Panel slots for direct recording (instead of the main clip grid). For full information, please see the Performance Panel section.

Arm Track For Recording

Enables track arming (see

Arm Button

section above).

FX LIST

Click the fx button to open the Eﬀect List window. Here eﬀects can and presets can be selected.

OPEN AUTOMATION LANE (SQUIGGLY LINE ICON)

Opens a track automation lane for the track directly beneath the main track. This defaults to

Track Volume

. For full information on using track automation, see the

Automation and Controller Mapping section.

SOLO

To hear a single track’s audio, click the

Solo

The currently selected track can also be soloed using the shortcut [CTRL]+L, or by rightclicking the track and selecting

Properties>Solo

MUTE

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Tracks can be temporarily silenced by clicking the track

Mute

button. The button turns blue, and all clips on the track turn gray with diagonal lines. Tracks may also be muted using the shortcut [CTRL]+M, or by right-clicking the track and selecting

Properties>Mute

. If multiple tracks are selected, all selected tracks are muted

simultaneously.

Mute and Solo Button [CTRL] + Click Shortcuts

If multiple tracks are soloed or muted, you can unsolo or unmute all tracks in project by [CTRL] + clicking on a solo or mute button. Multiple tracks cannot be Han Soloed.

SOFTWARE MONITORING (SPEAKER ICON)

Enables software monitoring. Software monitoring allows performers to hear incoming audio, mixed with existing project audio during recording. For full information, please see

Software Monitoring in the Recording Audio Tracks section.

GUITAR TUNER (TUNING FORK ICON)

To toggle the tuner on or oﬀ, simply click the tuning fork icon. The tuning fork icon turns blue, and the track’s volume slider/level meter turns into a display for the tuner. When

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the tuner detects an audio signal, it displays the closest note. When the signal is in tune, the “tuning cursor” appears in the middle and highlight in white.

The tuner can also be turned on or oﬀ by right-clicking on the track and selecting

Guitar

Tuner

or clicking the main window menu

Track>Guitar Tuner

TRACK IMAGE

Each track can have its own image beneath the track name for personalization as well as organization. Choose from Mixcraft’s included images or import your own.

To change the track image, double-click an existing track image or hover over the track image and click the pop-up button. You can also select

Track>Properties>Choose

Image

… in the main window drop-down menus, or right-click on a track and select

Properties>Choose

Image...

The

Choose A Track Image

window opens:

To use an existing image, select one and click OK. To use a custom image, click

Add My

Own Image File...,

navigate to the image to be added, select the desired image, and click

Open

. The image replaces the existing track image and is added to the list of thumbnail

images.

JPG, BMP, PNG, and GIF formats are supported, and custom images are permanently added to the track image library for use in future projects.

TRACK COLOR

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Track colors can be individually set by selecting

Track>Properties>Track Color

in the main window drop-down menus, by right-clicking a track and choosing from the color palette, or by clicking directly on the vertical color bar at the far left of the track. This aﬀects the track’s highlight color and all clips on the track.

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RECORDING AUDIO TRACKS

RECORD ARMING

Arming a track simply means you’re preparing it for recording. You’ll want to make sure the correct audio hardware input is selected and the recording level is optimally set, however Mixcraft will display the input level regardless of track arming status.

To arm a track, click its

Arm

button; the button will turn red letting you know that the magic is about to happen. You can also arm the current track with the key shortcut [CTRL]+B.

Note:

If you’re using Core Audio/Wave RT or Wave audio drivers, the track volume fader turns red as shown in the picture on the previous page. If you’re using the ASIO audio driver, the track volume fader disappears. This is normal, and we’ll explain why a little later.

CHOOSING RECORDING INPUT

Mixcraft allows recording from multiple sound cards and diﬀerent inputs simultaneously. Many audio interfaces allow the recording of multiple inputs simultaneously.

To select the hardware audio device input for recording, click the selector arrow on the right side of the

Arm

button. You’ll see a list of all available inputs from your audio

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device(s).

Select the device, followed by the input that you’d like to arm for recording.

If you’re recording a mono signal, click the sound device followed by

Left

Right

depending on where you’ve plugged into your device. If you’re recording in stereo with left and right inputs, select

Stereo

After selecting the input, feed some audio to the input to verify that the correct input was chosen. You should see the meters moving onscreen in the recording track.

SETTING THE RECORD INPUT LEVEL

When using Core Audio/Wave RT or Wave audio drivers the volume slider turns into a red recording level adjuster when the track is armed. Move the slider to adjust the recording

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input level. If peaks send the meter into the red, back oﬀ the level. Ideally, the input signal should nominally sit in the yellow area.

As mentioned above, unlike previous versions of Mixcraft, the meters will always display signal input level, regardless of whether the track is armed or not.

Important Note:

If you’re using an audio device with an ASIO driver (you can check in

File>Preferences>Sound Device

), the volume slider disappears when the track is armed for recording. This is because ASIO recording drivers do not support input level adjustment in software. To set the proper recording input level, you’ll need to use either the input level on your audio hardware or if it doesn’t have one, the output level control on an external preamp or channel strip. If you don’t have any of these, stand further away from the microphone. (Kidding!)

RECORDING MULTIPLE TRACKS SIMULTANEOUSLY

Multiple tracks can be armed simultaneously if your sound device supports it. In this way, you can record an entire band in real-time, with each input recording to a separate track, allowing far greater ﬂexibility at mix time. Remember that you’ll need to set the record inputs individually for each track.

In this example, we’re using an audio interface and would like to record one mono track through the left channel input. To choose an input, click the

Arm

arrow for track 1 and

choose

Left(1).

Next, select the input you would like to record from. In this case,

ADAT1/ADAT2 is our input and because we selected

Left(1) ADAT1

is the mono input that

will be recorded. If you wanted to record a stereo input, you would select Stereo(1+2).

On the second track, we’ll record a second mono input. We click the

Arm

arrow on track

2, select

Right(4),

and

ADAT3/ADAT4.

The signal coming in on

ADAT4

of our interface will

be recorded. If we wanted to record a stereo audio track, we could have selected

Stereo(3+4).

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Both tracks are now armed for recording.

SETTING UP THE METRONOME

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The metronome lets you play in time with the project’s tempo during recording. To turn on the metronome, click the metronome button in the middle of the transport.

This opens the

Metronome Settings

dialog:

Check the

Recording box

. This makes the metronome clicks during recording. Checking

the

Playback

box makes it click during playback, but we can leave this oﬀ for now. If it’s

not already checked, check the

Recording Count-In Measures

box.

SETTING TEMPO

The tempo is displayed in beats-per-minute in the transport bar. To adjust the tempo, hover the mouse and use the arrows either on the left to adjust in 1 BPM increments, or use the arrows on the right to adjust in 1/10th of BPM increments. To enter an exact tempo, click on the numbers and enter the desired tempo.

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RECORD AN AUDIO CLIP

Once a track (or multiple tracks) is armed, you’re ready to record clips.

1. Position the Caret for recording by clicking on the track.

2. Click the

Record

button on the transport control to start recording.

3. To stop recording, click the

Record

button again, or press the [Space Bar].

SOFTWARE MONITORING

“I need more me!,” said every musician who ever lived, to every sound engineer who ever lived.

Some sound devices let you listen to the input recording in real-time, or very close to it, during recording. This is known as software monitoring. To enable software monitoring for a track, click the speaker icon. The speaker icon turns blue to indicate that software monitoring is enabled for the track.

We recommend using headphones in order to avoid feedback when recording with a microphone. Closed-ear headphones also help to prevent the click track from bleeding into mics during recording - there’s nothing worse than the sound of “bleep-bleep-bleep” as the ﬁnal chord of a diﬃcult acoustic guitar performance fades.

One caveat when using software monitoring is that audio hardware must be set to a

low latency, otherwise, the monitored audio will have an audible delay. For the

lowest latency and best audio performance, use the ASIO audio driver, if available.

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Check in

File>Preferences>Sound Device

to see if ASIO is available; you may need to download and install drivers from the manufacturer of your audio hardware. The downside to reducing buﬀer size is, depending on your sound card and computer speed, you may hear gaps or clicks in the audio. Learn more about setting up sound devices in “Important Sound Setup Information.”

HEARING EFFECTS DURING RECORDING

If eﬀects are added, they’ll be audible when software monitoring is on. This is often desirable, e.g., adding reverb when tracking a vocalist, or when tracking electric guitar with Mixcraft’s

Voxengo Boogex Amp Simulator

. Though you’ll hear the eﬀects

during recording, they will not be recorded into the track. In other words, Mixcraft

will record audio dry, with no eﬀects. The exception to this is if you're using the Record Eﬀect function in Mixcraft Pro Studio (more on this in the Using Eﬀects section).

Saving Time With a Multi-Input Recording Template

A project with the correct inputs and armed tracks for multiple-input recording can be set up and saved as a project template. This is handy if you’re recording an entire band - the next time you record the band, simply load the template and all inputs will be ready to go!

(Provided all instruments and inputs are plugged into the same input - keep notes!)

LANES

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Lanes allow multiple tracks of audio (or MIDI) to occur on the same channel and are created automatically when looping is enabled in

Takes

Overdub

recording mode.

ADDING LANES

Empty lanes can be manually added by right-clicking in the Main Clip Grid and selecting

Lanes>Add

(or with the shortcut [ALT]+L). If multiple tracks are selected, extra lanes will

be added to all selected tracks.

DELETING LANES

A track’s bottom-most lane can be deleted by right-clicking and selecting

Lanes>Delete

To delete unused lanes, right-click and select

Lanes>Delete Empty Lanes

(or with the

shortcut [ALT]+K).

MUTING LANES

All clips on any lane can be muted or unmuted by right-clicking on an empty part of a lane and clicking

Lanes>Mute All

Lanes>Unmute All

DENNY LAINE

Not only was Denny Laine the unsung rhythm guitarist and bassist in Wings in the 70s, he was also a member of The Moody Blues in the 60s, and sang their hit "Go Now," before they got all cosmic and groovy. It's funny that a guy named Denny Laine was in a band with the guy who sang "Penny Lane." Very strange...

RECORDING MODE

There are three recording modes:

• Takes

• Overdub

• Replace

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To choose a recording mode, click the down arrow next to the track

Arm

button and

select the appropriate

Recording Mode

can also be selected by right-clicking in the track header or by clicking

Track>Recording Mode

in the Main Window menus.

Recording Mode

can be set

independently for each track in a project.

The default

Recording Mode

for audio and MIDI can be independently set in

Preferences

> Recording

in the Main Window menus.

• Takes

Takes mode is very useful for laying down multiple performances without starting and stopping each time. It’s generally used in conjunction with Loop Mode wherein a section is looped and each cycle records a new “take” (see

Loop Recording

below). Mixcraft

automatically creates recording Lanes to accommodate each pass.

As new takes are recorded, the clips of previous recording passes are automatically muted. Audio tracks default to Takes mode. The resulting Clips on Lanes can be freely moved to their own audio tracks.

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When Takes mode is used in conjunction with a punch in/out, it creates a clip on a new lane in the punch area but only mutes the portion of the audio clips in the punch area.

• Overdub

In this mode, all previous clips are heard during recording. This works well for quickly stacking parts. Each new recording is placed on a new lane.

• Replace

In this mode, existing audio is replaced by new recordings. New lanes are not created.

• Loop Recording

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Loop recording allows the recording of multiple takes or overdubs without stopping the transport.

To create a loop, click the

Loop

mode button in the Transport, then drag the

Loop Start

and

Loop End

markers in the Timeline to set a loop area. Loop regions can also be set by drawing a purple region in the Timeline or an empty area of the clip grid, then doubleclicking the Loop button. Be aware of the

Snap

setting when setting Loop points- it’s

usually a good idea to set it to

Snap to the Grid

• Punch In/Out

Punch In/Out recording lets you place markers that deﬁne where to start and end recording. To mark a region for punch in/out recording, click the

Punch In/Out

button. The

punch region can be set by grabbing the

Punch In

and

Punch Out

handles in the Timeline and moving them. A faster way to set the punch area is by dragging a purple highlight region in the Timeline or an empty area of the Clip Grid and double-clicking the

Punch

In/Out

button.

After setting up a punch area, press record, and the new recording will be created within the punch start and end region.

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TRACK RIGHT-CLICK COMMANDS AUDIO TRACK

• Insert Track

These commands add a new

Audio, Instrument, Video, Send, SubMix, Output

, or

Vocoder

track directly above the current track.

• Delete Track

Removes the current track.

• Color

Changes the color of the track.

• Link

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Multiple tracks can also be linked together; this gangs up the volume, pan, mute, solo and send controls. It’s particularly useful if you have a group of similar tracks (like drums, or multiple backing vocals). You may have as many separate groups of tracks linked as you like. Linked tracks will display uniquely colored “chain” icons beneath the track name.

To link two or more tracks, select tracks as detailed in the previous section then choose from the following Link options:

Link Selected Tracks- Select two more tracks, then right-click

Link>Link Selected

Tracks

Unlink All- Unlike Fleetwood Mac, you can always break the chain (always break the

chain...).

Unlink All

disables linking for alltracks in the current Link group (one track

within the group must currently be selected before unlinking).

Unlink- This disables linking for only the selected track in the current Link group.

Use this to remove a single track from the Link group.

Note

: Track linking is overridden for volume, pan, or send if automation locks are

enabled for these parameters.

• Lanes

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Lanes allow multiple tracks of audio (or MIDI) to occur on the same channel. The

Lanes

right-click commands enable various track lane operations including

Add, Delete, Delete

Empty Lanes, Mute All,Unmute All

, and

Select

. For more information on how to use lanes,

check out the Lanes section in Recording MIDI Tracks.

• FX... Opens the Eﬀects List window for the track where eﬀects can be added and edited. This is the same as clicking the track fx button (next to the

Arm

button).

• Show Eﬀects On Tracks Globally shows or hides insert eﬀects next to the track list. Unless you're short on screen real estate (i.e., laptop), we recommend leaving this on.

• Show Automation Lane Shows or hides track automation.

• Properties

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Mute

Tracks can be temporarily silenced by selecting

Mute

. The

Mute

button turns blue,

and all clips on the track turn gray with diagonal lines.

Solo

Disables audio for all other tracks. The track

Solo

button will turn blue. Multiple

tracks may be soloed simultaneously.

Set Exact Volume...

Opens a window where the track volume slider can be set precisely, either by slider control or by entering a numeric value.

Set Exact Pan...

Opens a window where the panning can be set precisely, either by slider control or by entering a numeric value.

Height

Allows individual track heights to be adjusted to

Small, Normal, Large

, or

Extra Large

size.

Cycle Track Size

Moves through

Small, Normal, Large

, or

Extra Large

track heights. (This one makes more sense when track height is selected via the [CTRL] + ' and [CTRL] + [SHIFT] + ' key shortcuts).

Choose Image...

Each track can have its own image beneath the track name for personalization as well as organization. Choose from Mixcraft’s included images or import your own.

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To change the track image, double-click an existing track image or hover over the track image and click the pop-up button. You can also select

Track>Properties>Choose Image

… in the main window drop-down menus, or right-

click on a track and select

Properties>Choose

Image...

The

Choose A Track Image

window opens:

To use an existing image, select one and click OK. To use a custom image, click

Add

My Own Image File...,

navigate to the image to be added, select the desired image,

and click

Open

. The image replaces the existing track image and is added to the list of thumbnail images. JPG, BMP, PNG, and GIF formats are supported, and custom images are permanently added to the track image library for use in future projects.

• Mix To New Audio Track Mixes virtual instrument or audio clips on the selected track to a single, continuous audio clip and places it on a newly created track beneath the current track. This has a couple of practical uses:

Permanently Embed Insert Eﬀects Or Instruments In An Audio File Again-

This is useful if you’re handing oﬀ a project to another user who doesn’t have eﬀects plug-ins you’ve used.

Long-Term Archiving - Instrument or eﬀects plug-ins can become obsolete or

incompatible with current operating systems/format changes, etc. Converting to “pure” audio ﬁles can act as insurance to guarantee projects remain playable for years to come.

• Duplicate- Creates a copy of the track and all of its clips. This is a time-saver if you

want to add a second part using the same instrument, add a vocal double with the same plug-in setup, etc. Also useful if you’d like to try some wild edits and want to retain an unadulterated version.

• Freeze- Freeze is similar to

Mix To New Audio Track

; it creates a new audio ﬁle with

instruments or eﬀects “burned in” to the ﬁle. Unlike

Mix To New Audio Track

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processor resources. If you’re using an older or underpowered computer,

Freeze

can be tremendously helpful (check out the CPU percentage meter while playing back projects for reference). Conversely, if you’re using a fast, modern computer, you probably won’t need

Freeze

Frozen tracks turn blue with diagonal lines; this makes it easy to keep track of which tracks are frozen. Frozen tracks can be unfrozen, that is, converted back to standard tracks with instrument and plug-ins active, by reselecting the

Freeze

command (which

will say

Unfreeze

• Select All Clips- This selects all clips on the track, with one minor detail you should know about if you're using the Performance Panel:

Select All Clips

selects all of a track's clips in either the main clip grid or in the Performance Panel, depending on which was clicked most recently.

• Select All Linked Tracks- If

Link

to other tracks is currently enabled for the track, this

selects the current track and all other tracks currently linked.

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VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT/MIDI TRACK

Virtual instruments are used to play VSTi virtual instruments. These are like having a keyboard instrument within Mixcraft. They can be played and recorded using a USB or MIDI keyboard controller (or your computer’s QWERTY keyboard; see Musical Typing

Keyboard (MTK)). Mixcraft includes numerous virtual instruments, or you can expand

your palette by installing third-party VSTi instruments. Virtual Instrument tracks are easily distinguished from other types of tracks by the keyboard icon next to the Mute button.

Virtual Instrument Tracks are also used to play external MIDI instruments (even though they’re

not

technically virtual instruments, because they exist in three-dimensional

reality... deep).

To load and play virtual instruments, check out the Using Virtual Instruments section, or for the quick ‘n’ dirty lowdown, Recording a MIDI Track in the Quick Start section.

VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT HEADER

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TRACK NUMBER

TRACK NAME

Every track has a name. The default name will be the name of the virtual instrument. Tracks can be renamed at any time by double-clicking and typing a new name, and either clicking outside the naming ﬁeld, or thwacking the [RETURN] or [ENTER] key.

PAN

Track>Properties>Set

Pan>Set Exact Value

… This menu is also accessible by right-clicking a track.

Tip:

For ﬁner and more accurate pan adjustment, hold down [ALT], [SHIFT], or [CTRL]

while dragging the pan slider.

LEVEL CONTROL & METER

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To set an exact track volume, choose

Track>Properties>Set Volume>Set Exact Value

… from the Main Window drop-down menu and enter the desired volume. This can also be accessed by right-clicking on the track.

Tip:

Hold down [ALT], [SHIFT], or [CTRL] and click-drag the slider for ﬁner and more

accurate adjustment.

The horizontal volume fader contains an integrated level meter. In standard playback mode, this displays the output level as the track plays. If the track is in record arm mode (

The arm

button will be red), the meter functions as an input level meter.

INSERT EFFECTS - ADD/ENABLE/DISABLE

The track eﬀects slots make it easy to load and access insert eﬀects without opening the Eﬀects List window - eﬀects can be added by simple clicking the + sign and choosing an eﬀect. Eﬀects can also be enabled and disabled by clicking the "power" switch on the left side of the button.

If you don't see the track eﬀects slots, their visibility can be toggled by clicking

Track>Show Eﬀects On Tracks

, right-clicking on the track header and choosing

Show

Eﬀects On Tracks

, or by hovering over the right edge of a track header - the mouse

pointer will turn into double-horizontal arrows that can be dragged to the right.

For more information about using eﬀects, check out the cleverly named Using Eﬀects section.

ARM BUTTON AND AUDIO INPUTS MENU (DOWNWARD ARROW)

Clicking the

Arm

button readies the MIDI track for recording. (the button turns bright

red). If nothing else is armed, the currently selected track is automatically be armed for

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the duration of the recording. More than one track can be armed for simultaneously recording to multiple MIDI tracks.

Clicking the downward arrow to the right of the

Arm

button opens the virtual instrument

input menu where recording parameters are speciﬁed:

Menu Persist Switch

Menu Persist

slider is disabled, the right-click window automatically closes

when a single action or option is selected.

MIDI Input Device Selection Popup Menu

Click in the top box select the input device input for recording. "Input device" is generally a MIDI/USB keyboard, but could also be a drum pad controller, MIDI guitar, or maybe one those "EWI" MIDI wind controller doodads that were all the rage in the 80s.

MIDI Channel

These buttons select which MIDI channel Mixcraft will record from. In most situations, leaving this set to

All

is the best choice, because you won't need be concerned about what MIDI channel your controller device is sending. Setting to speciﬁc MIDI channels is typically used if you're recording from a multi-keyboard instrument (think

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Hammond B-3 type controller with two manuals and a pedalboard), or if you're simultaneously recording multiple instrumentalists.

Recording Mode

The

Takes, Overdub

, and

Replace

buttons deﬁne how Mixcraft handles recorded audio, speciﬁcally, when audio clips already exist in the location you're recording to. Please see Recording Mode in the Recording MIDI Tracks section for full information on how these work.

Arm For Performance Panel

This readies Performance Panel slots for direct recording (instead of the main clip grid). For full information, please see the Performance Panel section.

Automatic Quantization

Selecting a note value in this popup menu automatically quantizes notes "on the way in."

Snap Notes To Scale

Similar to

Automatic Quantization

above, enabling this snaps incoming notes to the

key signature and scale set in the transport area at the bottom center of the screen.

Arm Track For Recording

Enables track arming (see

Arm Button

section above).

FX LIST

Click the fx button to open the Eﬀect List window. Here eﬀects can and presets can be selected.

OPEN AUTOMATION LANE (SQUIGGLY LINE ICON)

Opens a track automation lane for the track directly beneath the main track. This defaults to

Track Volume

. For full information on using track automation, see the

Automation and Controller Mapping section.

SOLO

To hear a single track’s audio, click the

Solo

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The currently selected track can also be soloed using the shortcut [CTRL]+L, or by rightclicking the track and selecting

Properties>Solo

MUTE

Tracks can be temporarily silenced by clicking the track

Mute

Properties>Mute

. If multiple tracks are selected, all selected tracks are muted

simultaneously.

Mute and Solo Button [CTRL] + Click Shortcuts

If multiple tracks are soloed or muted, you can unsolo or unmute all tracks in project by [CTRL] + clicking on a solo or mute button. Multiple tracks cannot be Han Soloed.

TRACK IMAGE

Each track can have its own image beneath the track name for personalization as well as organization. Choose from Mixcraft’s included images or import your own.

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