Mackie TRACKTION 2 User Manual

TRACKTION 2

MUSIC PRODUCTION SOFTWARE

U S E R ’ S G U I D E A D D E N D U M

V E R S I O N 2 . 1

Table of Contents

Tracktion 2.1 New Features -------------------------------------3

1. Custom Control Surface Creation -------------------------------------------------3

2. MP3 Import and MP3/Ogg Export ------------------------------------------------5

3. MIDI Loop Recording ----------------------------------------------------------------7

4. Support for Frontier Design Group Tranzport ---------------------------------7

5. Filter Icon “Quick Control Parameter” -------------------------------------------8

6. File Import Improvements ---------------------------------------------------------9

7. MIDI Bank Select Messages --------------------------------------------------------10

8. Advanced Program and Bank Naming -------------------------------------------12

9. Filter Selection Menu Behaviours -----------------------------------------------16

10. Solo Isolate --------------------------------------------------------------------------17

11. Level Control on the Aux Send Filter Icon -------------------------------------18

12. Global Setting for Soloing Behaviour ------------------------------------------19

13. Improved Organization of Settings Tab ---------------------------------------19

14. Hide Control Section at Bottom Area of Edit Tab -------------------------- 20

15. Filter GUI Locked Default ---------------------------------------------------------21

16. MIDI Channel and MIDI Volume Changed for Multiple Clips ------------- 21

17. Added Support for FLAC, CAF, AU, VOC to export/import ----------------21

Don’t forget to visit our website at www.mackie.com for more information about this and other Mackie products.

Tracktion 2.1

Tracktion 2.1 New Features

This addendum to the Tracktion 2 User’s Guide highlights the new features included

with the version 2.1 software upgrade.

1. Custom Control Surface Creation

Tracktion now supports the creation of Custom Control Surfaces for control of the transport, navigation, options, and channels. You can now control many aspects of Tracktion’s operation with your favorite low-cost hardware controller, or even the sliders, buttons, and keys on your MIDI controller keyboard. These custom controllers support 1, 4, and 8 channel bank changes so a controller can easily be set to control track parameters for all tracks.

To create a Custom Control Surface, click the “add custom control surface...” button from the control surface settings tab, type a name, and click “ok”.

Then, with the new Custom Control Surface selected, set the midi input port in the properties panel and click the “edit control mapping” button to create the custom mapping. You can click the “hide midi input device” button to hide the associated midi input icon on the edit screen. Finally, these Custom Control Surfaces can be exported and shared with others using of the same controller.

User’s Guide Addendum

The MIDI control mappings edit panel allows you to choose parameters to map to MIDI controllers and MIDI notes. Select a parameter to map by clicking on the right column and choosing an item from the popup menu. Global commands such as the transport and the master options can be mapped to MIDI Notes.

You can also create a custom control surface to control channel parameters. To do this, choose a parameter in the “track” parameter menu for up to 8 tracks. Then from the “switch fader banks” parameter menu, map the “left” and “right” parameters.

For example, you can control four tracks at a time by mapping volume for tracks 1-4 and the “left 4” and “right 4” parameters to allow selection of any 4 tracks, shifting 4 at a time. This setup is illustrated below:

See Appendix B for a list of all Master Controllers that can be mapped.

Tracktion 2.1

2. MP3 Import and MP3/Ogg Export

MP3 ﬁ les can now be imported using drag and drop or the import audio ﬁ le dialog using the LAME codec. This codec handles the MP3 conversions. The ﬁ rst time you try to import or export an MP3, you will be prompted to ﬁ nd the LAME codec on your computer.

Click the “Download the Lame codec” link to open a web browser and download the LAME codec for the computer. Tracktion can use the Lame ﬁ le from anywhere on your computer although other applications may require it to be in a certain location.

Once the ﬁ le is on your computer, click the “ﬁ nd” button to open a ﬁ le dialog and navigate to the location of the codec. Alternately, you can set the location of the Lame codec from the “LAME location” ﬁ le chooser found in the ﬁ le settings settings tab.

Similarly, both MP3 and Ogg ﬁ les can be exported by using the new Export>Create an MP3/OGG ﬁ le... menu item.

User’s Guide Addendum

This resulting dialog allows the user to choose a ﬁle format (OGG or MP3), select a mode (variable, average, or constant bitrate), and choose a bitrate value as described in the table below.

Format Mode Bitrate

ogg average bitrate bitrate: 32, 40, 48, 56, 64,

80, 96, 112, 128, 160, 192, 224, 256, 320

variable bitrate quality: 1-10

mp3 average bitrate bitrate: 32, 40, 48, 56, 64,

80, 96, 112, 128, 160, 192, 224, 256, 320

constant bitrate bitrate: 32, 40, 48, 56, 64,

80, 96, 112, 128, 160, 192, 224, 256, 320

variable bitrate quality: 1-10

It also allows the creation of ID3 tabs for the exported ﬁles so when you add your newly created mp3s to a program like iTunes or Windows Media Player, they will appear with all the relevant information, just like your commercial audio ﬁles.

Tracktion 2.1

3. MIDI Loop Recording

You can now create MIDI loop clips during loop record that function the same as audio loop clips by choosing “overlay new clips containing newly recorded MIDI” as the midi input action setting.

The “merge newly recorded midi into any existing clips” action will still merge looped midi into one take, while the “replace existing clips with newly recorded midi clips” action will only keep the last take during loop record.

MIDI loop clip takes can be selected from the takes pop-up list accessed by clicking the plus sign on the clip.

Choosing “delete unused takes” from the takes pop-up list will remove all unused takes leaving only the active take. This effectively converts the MIDI loop clip into a standard loop clip for the selected take.

4. Support for Frontier Design Group Tranzport

Tracktion 2.1 can be controlled with the Frontier Design Group Tranzport wireless controller.

Enable the MIDI input and output pair connected to the Tranzport Hardware in the MIDI Settings Tab.

User’s Guide Addendum

Select “Frontier Design Group Tranzport” in the External Controllers Settings Tab.

With the Tranzport control surface selected, set the corresponding MIDI Input and Output ports in the Properties panel.

See Appendix A for a list of Tranzport controls and their associated Functions.

5. Filter Icon “Quick Control Parameter”

All ﬁlter icons can display any automatable parameter as a small horizontal slider on the ﬁlter icon for quick adjustments. This is called the Quick Control Parameter. This can be used, for example, to quickly adjust the decay time on a reverb plug-in, without having to open the plug-in GUI.

Tracktion 2.1

To set the Quick Control Parameter for a ﬁ lter icon, simply right click the ﬁ lter and choose “select quick control parameter” from the context menu. A pop up menu will appear allowing selection of any Automatable parameter. This parameter can then be adjusted from the ﬁ lter icon directly.

6. File Import Improvements

Importing multiple ﬁ les into an edit from the import ﬁ les dialog or via drag and drop has been greatly improved.

You can now select multiple ﬁ les from the edit import ﬁ le dialog. When importing via this dialog, drag and drop, or from a CD on the PC, you are presented with a dialog allowing you to choose how the ﬁ les will be placed into the edit.

For a single ﬁ le containing a BWAV timestamp (ﬁ le header information indicating at what time the ﬁ le was originally recorded), you are prompted whether to place the ﬁ le at the BWAV timestamp position or at the cursor position.

User’s Guide Addendum

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