Tracktion Software - Tracktion's Mixer Video Lecture | Tracktion Tutorial: Master Music Editing - Video & Sound Editing

tractions mixer newcomers detraction
often wonder why it doesn't have a mixer
of course traction does have a mixer
otherwise we would only be able to play
back one track at a time the key
difference between traction and most of
its rivals is the tractions mixer is
completely integrated into the arranged
page and makes no attempt to look like a
traditional Hardware mixer so instead of
a fixed architecture with identical
channels for every track traction lets
you customize each channel the level
meter filter can be dragged pre fader
for example or extra volume and pan
filters can be added for precise control
of the gain structure through a chain of
plugs or you can choose to delete the
volume and level meters on a MIDI track
that feeds a hardware MIDI output
likewise rather than provide identical
dynamics and EQ controls for each
channel traction provides a selection of
suitable native filters
and a collection of Mackey plugs which
can be added as and when they are needed
alternatively you could use the
RVT st plugs if you prefer
the volume and pan filters are probably
the most important tools were mixing the
volume can be adjusted directly from the
arrange page by clicking and dragging
vertically in the main area of the
filter while hovering over the level bar
allows you to pan by dragging
horizontally traction implements an
unusual pan law which passes centrally
pan signals at unity gain but boosts
signals panned hard left or right by 6
dB
this means that you can add as many
volume and pan filters to a track as you
need with no overall loss of gain when
they are all set to unity and pan
centrally but if you wish to simply
route a mono signal to the left or right
channel without changing its gain you
will need to drop the volume by 6 DB to
compensate or alternatively use a patch
bay filter instead if the signal is
stereo the pan control will become a
balanced control
when dealing with large numbers of
trucks you might find that pressing f8
to squeeze all trucks onto the screen
results in very narrow track lanes and
the volume filters may be too small to
adjust properly one way around this is
to select the filter you wish to adjust
and make the changes in the properties
panel instead this method also allows
you to type in exact values which can be
a good way to make very small changes
alternatively hold control and use the
mouse wheel to zoom vertically until the
volume filters are a convenient size
then release control and use the mouse
wheel to scroll the filters area
vertically
each track also has mute and solo
buttons at the far right which can't be
deleted
soloing will mute all tracks except the
solo track and is cumulative by default
so you can solo multiple tracks together
and unsolo them individually if you hold
ctrl before soloing another track all
previously solos tracks will be muted
again
this behavior can be reversed in the
user interface tab of the settings page
changing the solo behavior option to
exclusive solo will mean you need to
hold control to solo two or more tracks
together muting a track will disable all
filters on that track so they will
consume no CPU until you unmute them
again
it is also possible to disable
individual filters by selecting them and
pressing F a useful trick for comparing
two different plugs is to disable one of
them then hold ctrl to select them both
together now pressing the F key will
allow you to make an a/b comparison of
the two different effects by toggling
bypass for both alternately the routing
for each track is set in the properties
panel when the track is selected the
default audio output will route the
track to whichever pair of outputs you
chose in the settings page choosing
these outputs directly will have exactly
the same result except they will not
change automatically should you change
your default outputs in future any other
outputs you have enabled will also show
in this list so you can split all your
tracks to separate outputs to be mixed
outside of traction if required the
destination list also includes all other
tracks in the edit however which allows
a track or several tracks to be routed
to another to create a subgroup this
allows you to for example route all your
drum tracks to a single group so that
you can easily control the level of the
kit as a whole or process the whole sub
mix with compression or EQ subgroups can
also be routed to further subgroup for
example I may decide to group the top
and bottom snare mics together before
routing them on to the main drum group
routing to other tracks like this does
not route the audio to the input of the
track itself in other words pressing
record will not record the mixed audio
onto the group track as this would
normally be done with the render
function instead you should think of it
as just routing the signal through that
track's filter section
the track lane of the group track would
normally not be used at all although it
can be useful to display automation data
if required if the group track uses a
plug that takes MIDI data as well as
audio however then the MIDI clips can be
placed on the group track folder tracks
are a useful new feature in version 3
and can be helpful when mixing as well
as allowing you to organize your tracks
better select a group of tracks and
press the create folder containing
button the resulting folder has a track
Lane with the folder name and the
overview clips and this track also has a
VC a filter in its filter section VCA
stands for voltage controlled amplifier
which is a term inherited from analog
mixers which allow the channel faders to
be assigned to VC a groups in such a
mixer each VC a group would have a
master fader which could be used to
scale the volume levels of all channels
assigned to it so if you assigned all
your drum channels to VC a group 1 you
could use the relevant VC a fader to
adjust the level of the whole drum kit
together and unlike a subgroup channels
assigned to a VC a group can all be
routed differently tractions approach is
slightly different and obviously being
digital it doesn't really use voltage
control
however the VC a filter on the folder
track will affect all volume and pan
filters contained within the folder
exactly as if they were assigned to a VC
a group on a traditional mixer
lowering the VCA level by three DB will
drop the levels in all that folders
volume and pan filters by the same
amount this allows you to adjust the
level of a folder as a whole without
needing to expand it and edit all the
individual tract
unlike volume and pan filters VCA
filters cannot be deleted or copied and
pasted but selecting one will provide
the same reset to unity and mute options
as a normal volume filter traction will
not allow you to add further filters to
a folder track because the tracks within
can all have different routing to
process all the tracks in a folder
through a single effect you would need
to first mix those signals together via
a subgroup this can be easily achieved
however simply select the folder track
and use the routing options in the
properties panel to set the routing for
all its trucks the resulting subgroup
can then be dragged into the folder if
needed though if you do this you should
be aware that the VCA filter will now
affect the group track level as well as
the source track level so dropping the
VCA level by 3 DB will now result in an
overall gain change of 6 DB for the
whole folder
you can fix this by selecting the volume
filter on the group track and pressing
the ignore VCA button in the properties
panel
traditional auxiliary send can also be
set up using the org send and orgs
return filters in the traction filters
list to set up a post fade send to feed
an effect such as reverb start by
dragging an orator and filter onto an
empty track and name the track reverb
return if you select the return filter
its properties panel contains options to
select one of eight possible busses with
options to name them underneath if this
is the first org send you are adding to
the Edit then bus one will do fine and
we can name it reverb the return filter
icon displays the bus name you assign
along with an AR prefix to indicate it
is a return filter now drag a suitable
reverb plug onto the return truck making
sure you drop it after the return filter
the reverb must be set up to produce wet
signal only with none of the original
dry signals sent to its output at all in
this case that means setting the dry mix
knob to naught percent but other plugs
will have a wet mix knob which you will
need to set to 100% while others may
have separate gain controls for dry and
wet levels now you need to drag an org
send filter onto the first track you
wish to send to the reverb for a post
fade send you need to make sure you drop
it after the main volume filter for that
track so that adjustments to the main
level of that track will also change the
effect level choose the same bus as the
return filter the filter icon should now
display the bus name along with an S
prefix to indicate it is ascend this can
now be copied to all other trucks you
need to send to the reverb
and the individual send level finished
truck can then be adjusted using the
horizontal faders on the filters
while the global effect levels can be
adjusted using the volume filter on the
return from the return track can also be
routed to a subgroup if needed for
example if you set up a reverb for just
the drum kit you can route the reverb
return to the drum group along with all
the dry signal so that adjusting the
overall level of the kit will also
adjust its reverb level if you put the
reverb return track inside the same
folder as its send the truck you should
switch the volume filter on that track
to ignore VCA so that adjusting the drum
levels with the VCA filter does not
change the volume of the reverb return
one small problem we have now is that
soloing any of the trucks will mute the
reverb return track along with all the
others so our solo track will lose the
effect we can cure this by selecting the
return track and pressing its solo
isolate button now we have a true solo
in place function which retains all the
panning and effects of soloed trucks
org stems are also traditionally used to
create alternative fold back mixes to
feed musicians monitors or headphones
this is set up the same way but instead
of adding an effect after the return
filter you should select the return
track and route it to the required
output
the send filters should then be placed
before the main volume filters on the
send tracks so that the main mix balance
can be adjusted without affecting the
monitor mix this is called a pre fade
sin
most other filters can also be set up so
that the most important parameter can be
adjusted directly from the edit page
right-click the filter and choose the
parameter from the select quick control
parameter menu this parameter will now
be displayed on the filter and can be
edited in the same way as the send level
on the org send filters
some plugs will introduce extra latency
on top of your system latency this is
because certain processes are impossible
to achieve in real time as a general
rule of thumb compresses or limiters
that use a look-ahead algorithm and
linear phase equalizers will all
introduce a small delay on the signal
they process as will most reverbs
that use a convolution engine this delay
usually makes such plugs unsuitable for
use on live audio inputs as in the
absence of any form of time travel there
is no way for traction to predict the
input signal in advance
however when processing pre-recorded
clips traction is able to automatically
compensate for this delay according to
the plug in delay compensation
information supplied by the plug this
automatic delay compensation is enabled
by default select a track and check the
advanced field in the properties panel
as long as the auto advance button above
it is enabled traction will
automatically adjust the timing of that
track to compensate for the combined
latency of all the plugs on that track
delay compensation will also work in
combination with subgroups adding a non
real-time plug to a group truck will
automatically advance all the tracks
that are routed to it although the
advance value will be displayed on the
group truck unfortunately this will not
work with the standard org send filters
using a non real-time reverb plug-in a
standard org send setup will result in
an extra pre delay on the reverb signal
equivalent to that plugs latency it is
possible to set up an auxilary send that
does compensate for latency but you need
to use a rack this will be explained in
the rack filters chapter the master sex
can be selected by clicking anywhere on
the fader or the filter area and this
brings up various options in the
properties panel if you type a value
into the fade in box traction will
automatically apply a fade in at the
start of the edit which is represented
by a curve superimposed on the timeline
at the top of the edit you can also
specify a fade out and traction will set
the end of the fade to the end of the
last clip in the Edit the type of curves
can be changed using the buttons
underneath you can normalize and edit or
part of an edit using the find
normalized level button choosing max
level will set the master fader so that
the loudest peak hits exactly 0 DB full
scale and so is totally non-destructive
if you want to know
to a slightly lower level simply lower
the master fader a little bit afterwards
the RMS normalize is similar but it uses
a special type of averaging to calculate
signal levels rather than using the peak
level this means it will do a much
better job of matching the volume levels
of different audio files but unless you
set a suitably low target value you will
risk clipping the peaks again this
function analyzes the edit and then just
sets the master volume fader accordingly
so it's totally non-destructive and the
results can be adjusted if needed before
rendering filters can be dragged to the
area just above the master fader in
which case they will affect the entire
mix and these filters come before the
master fader in the signal chain this
means that if you use a limiter or a
third-party metering plug-in the master
section you will probably need to keep
the master fader at unity if necessary
you can add an extra volume filter to
the master section before the limiter or
meter plugs and use that as the master
fader instead an interesting feature of
traction is that if you have several
pairs of audio outputs in use the
filters in the master section will
affect them all independently in other
words if you drag a native traction
filter into the master section you are
actually creating several filters one
for each pair of outputs and these all
share the same settings in the
properties panel this is a useful
feature if you want to filter out some
low-end rubbish from all your outputs at
once but if you try it with a complex
plug such as final mix you may find your
processor starts to struggle if you want
to be able to use individual inserts for
specific outputs you can set this up
using tractions sub grouping features
create a new track for each pair of
outputs you want to use then select each
track in turn route it to a specific
output pair and name the track after
that pair
you
now go through the other tracks in the
Edit and route them to the appropriate
group tracks
instead of directly to the output
you
each output can now be processed or
meted independently using the group
trucks which can be hidden away in a
folder when not needed
you