Mix Editor

The Mix Editor displays the waveforms of several consecutive items in a row, the way they will actually be played. You can use it to listen to the transitions between the items and adjust them with the mouse – for example, to move a song’s Start Next marker so that the next song starts exactly at the right moment, or to lower the volume of a song while a jingle is talking over it.

Unlike the Cue Editor, which works on a single item, the Mix Editor always shows the items in context, so you can see and hear the effect of each change immediately.

Opening the Mix Editor

Right-click an item in the playlist and open the Mix Editor submenu. It offers the following choices for which items to load:

• Selection: All items currently selected in the playlist.
• Previous and this item: The item you clicked and the one before it.
• This and next item: The item you clicked and the one after it.
• Previous and this and next item: The item you clicked, plus the items before and after it.

When one of the last three choices is used, the Mix Editor automatically zooms in on the first transition.

Alternatively, click the Mix Editor button in the main toolbar. It opens the Mix Editor for the focused playlist, using the default mode. To change the default mode, right-click the button and select the desired mode from the menu.

Items that cannot be played (e.g. comments or commands) are not loaded into the Mix Editor.

The Mix Editor can also be embedded into the playout window as a screen object. It then follows the selection in the playlist automatically.

Playback and Navigation

The toolbar at the top of the Mix Editor contains the following buttons, from left to right:

• Pause and Play: Start and pause playback. The Mix Editor plays through its own PFL output, which can be set up under PFL / Mix Editor in the audio routing. You can also press the space bar to toggle between playback and pause.
• Elapsed and Total: The current playback position and the total duration of the loaded items.
• Jump to previous mixpoint and Jump to next mixpoint: Move the playback position to three seconds before the previous or next transition between two items, and start playback. This is the quickest way to listen to each transition in turn.
• Zoom in, Zoom out and Zoom out full: Change the zoom level. Zoom out full displays all items at once.
• Undo and Redo: Undo or redo the most recent changes.
• OK and Cancel: Close the Mix Editor and keep, or discard, all changes.

To start playback at a particular position, double-click the waveform or click into the timeline above it. Double-clicking a cue marker starts playback at that marker.

The mouse wheel can also be used for navigation:

• Mouse wheel: Zoom in and out horizontally, centered on the mouse position.
• Ctrl + mouse wheel: Zoom the waveforms vertically, e.g. to see quiet passages better.
• Shift + mouse wheel: Scroll vertically when the waveforms do not fit into the window.

To scroll horizontally, drag an empty area of the editor with the mouse, or use the scrollbar.

Editing Transitions

Click a waveform to select the item. The selected item is highlighted.

Moving Items

Drag the waveform of an item to the left or right to change when it starts. This changes the Start Next marker of the previous item. The items following the dragged one move along with it.

Hold down the Shift key while dragging to change the previous item’s Fade Out marker instead, so that the previous item fades out at the new position.

If you drag an item beyond the end of the previous item, a gap of silence (padding) is inserted between the two items. You can also hold down the Ctrl key when you start dragging to adjust the padding directly. Inserting padding requires the corresponding user permission.

Cue Markers

The cue markers of each item are displayed as vertical lines on its waveform. Drag a line to move the marker. The mouse cursor changes to a double arrow when it is positioned over a marker. You can also drag the Cue In marker from the left edge of a waveform, and the Fade Out and Cue Out markers from its right edge, even when they are not set yet.

Below the waveforms, a row of buttons shows all cue marker types for the selected item:

• If a marker is set, the button shows its position. Click the button to start playback at the marker.
• If a marker is not set, drag the button onto the waveform to set the marker at that position.

See the Cue Editor section for a description of the individual marker types.

Volume Envelope

The volume envelope of each item is displayed as a line around the waveform. Use it to lower the volume of a part of an item, e.g. the end of a song while the next jingle starts.

• Drag the envelope line up or down to add a new point at that position.
• Drag an existing point to move it.
• Drag a point out of the waveform area to remove it.

To remove all envelope points of an item, right-click its waveform and select Reset Volume Envelope.

Context Menu

Right-click a waveform for the following commands:

• Snap to Ramp 1/2/3: Moves the Start Next marker of the item so that the Ramp marker of the next item is reached exactly when this item ends. This lets the next item’s intro run under the end of this item, with the vocals starting right after it.
• Ramp 1/2/3 overlay: The opposite approach: the item is started early enough that its Ramp marker is reached exactly when the previous item ends. Additionally, a volume envelope is created that lowers the item by 6 dB until the ramp, so that the intro plays softly under the end of the previous item.
• Reset Volume Envelope: Removes all envelope points of the item.
• Effects: Applies an audio effect (e.g. a filter or compressor) to the item. This is only available for items whose audio is held in memory, such as newly recorded voice tracks.

Saving Changes

Changes made in the Mix Editor are applied directly to the items in the playlist, so you can hear them right away when the items are played.

Click OK to close the Mix Editor and keep all changes. If any changes were made, the loaded items are marked as customized. When a playlist containing customized items is saved to the database, a full copy of each customized item is stored, rather than just a link to the library item. This way, your changes are preserved without modifying the item in the library. In database playlists, customized items are indicated by a special icon, and can be restored to their original library state with the Reset command.

Click Cancel (and confirm the prompt) to discard all changes made since the Mix Editor was opened, and restore the original state of the items.

Remote Control

The Mix Editor can be controlled through the following remote control commands: