Stereosonic Labs

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Become a power user

The keyboard shortcuts and mouse moves that make MIX faster to use.

The three modifiers

  • : the selection, the document, and the view. On a control it means the strips you picked, not just this one.
  • : ‘the other thing this does’. Exclusive solo, removing a marker, the Q on a node, a tenth of the song.
  • : wider, or finer. It widens a click in a list and reaches the whole desk from the keyboard. On a control it slows the drag down.

The strip

A page key puts the strips up from wherever you are standing, and never changes the mix.

MINThe whole strip, cut to the control you reach for.
ALLEvery section, with every control on it.
INTape, trim and polarity.
EQThe cut filters and the four bands.
DYNCompressor and gates.
FXThe sends to the effect channels.

The desk

The rack, and back
The buses and the effect channels on their own, and back
The track list, and back
Show one group of strips on its own
The whole desk again
Hold the lane on what you hearInstead of on the strips you picked.
Let goThe panel that is up, or failing that the strips you picked.

Mute and solo

Whatever is picked: one strip, twelve strips, a whole group.

Mute the strips you picked
Solo the strips you picked
Mute the whole desk, or clear every muteOver the whole desk, anything lit is cleared instead.
Solo the whole desk, or clear every soloThe press you make when you cannot see what is soloed.

Transport

Play, and stop
Back to the start
Five seconds back or forward
One second
Open the seconds boxType a number of seconds to jump back or forward.
A tenth of the song in⌥5 is halfway.
Switch the loop you drew off and on
Drop a marker where you are
Go to that marker
To the marker before, or the one after

In the seconds box, digits write the number and nothing moves yet. makes the jump, makes the jump and starts playing, and leaves without jumping. opens it forwards too.

Files and the program

New project
Open a project
The welcome page
Import audio
Export the mix
Export tracksThe strips you picked, one file each, or the whole desk with nothing picked.
Save nowNever necessary. The mix is written on every change.

In the file picker, takes every file in the folder. pastes in any field you are typing in.

Picking strips

  • Click a name plate: this strip, and let go of the rest.
  • ⌘-click: add one, or take one out.
  • ⇧-click: everything from the strip you last touched to this one.
  • Click and sweep across the plates: everything the pointer crosses, on top of what you had. The quick way to take a drum kit.
  • Hold a plate still and the strips lift. Now you are sorting, and they shuffle under the pointer. A picked set travels together.
  • Double-click a plate to rename. opens the next name down the desk, the one before.
  • ⌥-click a strip's S for exclusive solo: that strip alone, and press again to put the desk back.

Working a control

  • Drag up and down to set it, sideways for pan.
  • ⇧ while dragging for a five times finer throw.
  • Double-click to put it home.
  • Hover to read it. The label turns into the value and back again. Levels are always up. Settings are shown on demand.

One gesture on several strips

Pick the strips, hold ⌘, and the gesture you make on one is made on all of them. A drag moves them all by the same amount, keeping their spacing. Everything that is not a drag follows the control you pressed. is the same thing, finely.

The gesture has to start on a strip you picked, so a ⌘ held out of habit can never cross the desk. There is nothing to gang on the master, the rack or an effect channel.

The precision EQ's graph

  • Drag a node to move frequency and gain together.
  • ⌥-drag a node for its Q.
  • Double-click the field to add a band where you clicked, at 0 dB, so nothing jumps.
  • Double-click a node to take its gain back to zero.

Two doors that do not look like buttons

  • The little EQ curve on the strip opens the big graph. Under the pointer it says GRAPH.
  • IN ST in a strip's head opens the channels panel. Under the pointer it says CHANNELS.

The timeline

  • Click anywhere to go there, and keep the button down to scrub.
  • Drag across the top band to make the loop, either way around. A plain press there takes it away.
  • Click a marker's flag to land exactly on it, double-click to name it, ⌥-click to remove it.
  • Click a peak in the lane to go to it.

Scrolling

  • The wheel over a strip scrolls every strip's sections together, so the bands stay in one row across the desk.
  • ⇧ and the wheel, or a sideways trackpad gesture, slides the desk. The pages and the master never move.

Speed tips

  • Sweep, then hit one key. Drag across the name plates and or works on all of it. Select wide, act once.
  • Start clean. clears every solo. Make it the first thing you press when the desk stops making sense.
  • Mark before you dive in. Drop on the chorus while you are still listening wide. An hour later, puts you back there.
  • Keep your groups on the number row. Drums on , vocals on , the same on every song.
  • Rename in the list. , double-click, then down fourteen names without touching the mouse.
  • AUTO TRIM a session that has just arrived. One press in the list and every strip is staged sensibly before you touch a fader.
  • Stop saving. There is no save button and nothing to lose. The habit is the only thing left to unlearn.

Back to the desk

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