Atomix Productions MP3, ATOMIXMP3 User Manual

Atomix Mp3 Manual

AtomixMP3 Visual Mix Display

I. AtomixMP3 Main User Interface

1. Active Waveform Display

- May the rhythm be with you... -

The Active Waveform Display - also famous as "the curves window" - is the core of all
information’s displayed by AtomixMP3. It represents the rhythms of the two songs.

Each peak of a curve represents a beat of one of the two songs.

Songs are not mixed : blue : current song, red : selected song, next song

The highlighted curved is the "selected curve" and corresponds to the songs whose deck is
selected. It corresponds also to the headphone output. This is the song that has to be
played after the current song: the "next song".

The aim of "classic" DJ mixing is to match the rhythm of two songs, to make a smooth
transition from the current song to the next song.. With the Active Waveform display,
AtomixMP3 introduces a brand new way of mixing: the Active Waveform. You don't need to
try to mix the song in your left ear with the one in your right ear anymore. Just superpose
the two curves and the songs are mixed.

Songs are mixed

In order to perform this "beat matching", you can use two techniques:

"Classic"

DJ Mix technique

Use the song controls to alter the selected song until it matches the current song.
Use the "Magic Button" to perform all those operations in a single click.

- No Magic, only hard work -

To perform the beat matching without using the Magic Button, here is the way you may
want to follow:

1. Change the pitch to match the two rhythms. When the distance between two consecutive
peaks in the current song is equal to the distance between two consecutive peaks in the
second song, the two songs have the same rhythm, the same BPM. You can also use the
build-in instant BPM counter to know the exact BPM of each song and match song even
more rapidly.

pitch shift

2. Pause and Play the selected song until its peaks match the one of the current song. Now
the beats are equal: the phase of the two songs are equal. You can also drag and drop the
selected curve over the current curve to perform the phase shift in a click. To be even more
accurate, you can use the two shortcuts (left and right arrow) to nudge the selected curve
forward (left arrow) or backward (right arrow).

phase shift

3. Then, just modify the gain of the selected song to match both songs output volume. For

Scratch

AtomixMP3 Basic Song Controls

this operation, you will need headphones, or to cross fade smoothly from the current song
to the next and adjust the gain step by step.

volume shift

This picture is only a representation: on AtomixMP3, for maximal ease of use, the height of
the curve is relative to the overall song volume and not to the other song volume, so, by
changing the gain, the height of the peak will not change.

Once the two songs are mixed, you can use the cross fader to make a smooth transition to
the next song.

To mix the two songs in one click, use the "automix now!" button to make all the process
even easier.

The Active Waveform Display can also be used to scratch your song like if it was a regular
vinyl.

In order to scratch, you need to have the scratch mode set to hold in the options.
Then, just click on the Active Waveform Display and the song will stop as if you were
holding the disc.
Now, move your mouse to the left and to the right to move the disc.
Release the mouse button to let the disc play again.

Tip: You can also achieve the same effect in regular scratch mode if your song is paused.

2. Song Controls

- All descriptions and pictures are for desk A, and are the same for desk B -

AtomixMP3 Buttons controls

Magic:

the Magic button is the main feature of

AtomixMP3:

it synchronizes the

The song controls of AtomixMP3 are the same as on a standard DJ CD Player, plus some
more functionality.

There are two desks, corresponding to two independent players. One on the left and one on
the right. The left one is desk A and the right one is desk B.

To load a song on one of the available desks, drag the song from the music browser and
drop it on one of the desks.

Each desk has several controls:

song controls for the left desk, desk A

Buttons:

 Magic
 Play
 Pause
 Stop
 Cue
 Loop

Song position
Song information window
Pitch slider
Gain and Equalizer

- Magic, Play/Pause, Stop, Cue -

two songs providing a one click beat-matching. You can check if songs are
always synchronized by using the Active Waveform display. If they happen to
get desynchronized, just click again on the magic button.
If the song has just been loaded, is stopped or is on pause, just click on the
magic button to start playing the song in the right tempo.

The Magic button performs all steps of the FAME (Fast Automated Mix Engine)

Play/Pause :

the two functionalities are on the same button, nevertheless, on

Loop:

These four buttons make the song enter a seamless loop of 1, 2, 4 or 8 beats length.

algorithm :

BPM Synchronization

sets the BPM of the song to the BPM of the other song, changing its pitch

Phase Shift

shifts the song so that its next beat matches the next beat of the other
song

Level Adjustment

sets the song gain to the same gain as the other song

Every step of FAME is customizable in the options panel.

some skins, they might be different. Press on this button to play the loaded song
press it again to pause it. To play from the same point, press this button again.

Stop: this button stops the song. On the first click, the song is stopped, then, three
actions are available:

1. If a cue point has already been set for this song, click on the stop button to set

the song position to the cue point.

2. Click a second time on the stop button to set the song position is brought back to

its absolute start. This is the default functionality of the stop button.

3. If the song has already been played, AtomixMP3 has detected the first beat of

the song. Click a third time on the stop button to bring the song position to the
exact location if the first beat

Cue: cueing functionality. Sets a marker on the song, a cue point, so be able to get
back to this point in a second. It can be :

the beginning of the lyrics of the song
a special break point
...

To return to this cue point, click on the stop button.

Each time a song on switch a cue point is set is loaded to one of the desks, AtomixMP3
sets the song position to the cue point.

To set more than one cue point, use the corresponding shortcuts.

The duration of the loop can be changed during the loop without breaking it by clicking on
another button.

Click again on the active loop button to exit the loop and continue the song.

Song

information’s

Song information

window:

this window on the center of each

- Position, Extended, Condensed -

Song position: the position of each player in the song is represented in a disc for a higher

precision. Click at any point on the disc to start playing at this point.

song position : start

song information window :
extended

song position : playing

song position : end of the song, stopped

desk displays, for the song it is attached to, several useful
information’s in order to perform an accurate mix. It displays :

the author name
the song title
those information’s are retrieved from the file name, that

can be of either format :

 author_name-song_title.mp3
 (author_name)song_title.mp3
 ...

Click on the information window to switch between the two
available display modes :

1. extended information window (default mode):

Spent : time spent since the beginning of the song

minutes : seconds . milliseconds)

Left : time left to the end of the song

milliseconds)

(in minutes : seconds .

(in

> Cue : (from cue) time spent since the first cue point of

the song

> End : (to end) time left to the last beat of the song (this

feature is only available once the song has been played by
AtomixMP3 once)

BPM : average BPM of the song, the BPM is the number of

Beats Per Minute of the song

(in BPM)

song information window :

2.

condensed information window

(click once on the window):

Pitch control and Master tempo

condensed

3. Pitch

- -33% +33%, speed control -

local : local value of the BPM
Level : volume level of the song
Pitch: the exact value of the pitch

(in BPM)

(in dB)

(in %)

Displays only the time spent and the average BPM, but

with a more readable font

minimum, -33% slower, slider up reset to 0%

faster, slider down maximum, +33%

Pitch Control: changes the speed of the song, and its BPM. Use the pitch control to mix the
two songs manually. Move the slider up to make the song play slower, move it down to play
the song faster.
Right click anywhere on the pitch circle to move the pitch to this position, as soon as you
release the mouse button, the pith returns to its former value.

The default pitch range on AtomixMP3 is from -33% to +33%, it allows to:

Mix two songs that a very different BPM (like hard jungle and easy listening)
Mix a song with itself, by playing one song on the two desks, one with the Pitch at -

33%, the other at +33% so hat one beat of the slower version happens once every
two beats of the faster version of the song. This can make amazing effects.

Nevertheless, if the distortion from -33% to +33% is too strong, you can set it to -8%, +8
%, as on regular turntables, in the options panel.

Reset button: resets the pitch to 0%. This button as two functionalities:

click once, the pitch moves slowly from its current position to 0%

AtomixMP3 Advanced Song Controls : Gain and Equalizer

Click a second time, or double click on it, the pitch is instantly reset.

In automix mode, the pitch is slowly reset after each mix. You can disable this option in the
options panel.

Time Stretch: changes the speed of the song without changing its pitch. This is the default
setting of the pitch slider. If you wish to switch to the regular pitch control, you can disable
the time stretch in the options panel.

4. Gain and Equalizer

- Bass, Medium, High, Gain -

Equalizers for desk A: Gain, High, Medium, Bass

The advanced songs controls of AtomixMP3 are:

Gain
Tri-band equalizer

 High
 Medium
 Bass

Gain: main output level of the song. If the song is already normalized, and that the song
level is max, increasing the gain can cause saturation. Prefer using the gain by lowering it,
or to enhance parts of the song where the volume is low.

The 'Magic' button also sets the gain so that the next song has the same overall output level
as the playing song. You can disable this option in the options panel.

Equalizers:

The tri-band equalizer allows a smooth control on the output frequencies of the song, either

AtomixMP3 Mix Controls

to correct a badly recorded song or to mix more precisely. You can "turn" one of those
buttons by clicking on them and, before releasing the mouse button, drag the mouse up or
down.

Like the other sliders and knobs of AtomixMP3:

double click on the equalizer button resets it
right click on any point of the slider performs an immediate cut

High: the highest frequencies of the song.

Medium: the medium frequencies of the song. The vocal parts of songs often happened to

be in medium frequencies, you can then use the medium equalizer slider to cut the vocals of
a song.

Bass: the lowest frequencies of the song, mainly the "boom-boom" giving the tempo. To do
a real smooth mix, use the cross fader and the bass

5. Mixer

- The real DJ power -

The Mixing controls of AtomixMP3 are, along with the equalizers, similar to regular DJ
mixers.

The center panel of AtomixMP3 default user interface presents the main mixing controls:
with them you can perform a fully automated mix, with the "automix now!" button or use
advanced DJ techniques with either the cross fader or the level controls. To go even further
through mixing techniques, try to use the build-in equalizers.

Mixer: cross fader, level, select, automix

Sliders :