Mixes for beginners – part two

Tim Sketchley

In 'Mixes for beginners - part 1' (AMPLINEX 009) I described how you could set up the Mixing Desk by putting the voices on to it and making the mix. I am assuming, in what follows, that the reader understands section 3 of the Music 5000 User Guide, explaining how to use the controls on the Mixing Desk.

In this article I will discuss:

 - adding an extra part to the tune developed in part 1

 - having more than one section and using sub-mixes to change the mix in between.

Continuing example from part 1

I hope you understood how to create a mix using the methods described in part 1. Those of you who tried my example should have recognised it as 'Auld Lang Syne'. We can add another part to it which can be (for sake of argument) a drum and cymbal part.

"part4" [ SCORE
48, 4BAR 52=L
4FOR(
'X(X)XXX | 'X(X) 24,XX 48,XX |
)FOR
]

Now enter the Mixing Desk, get the current mix into the Desk with

"mix" GET

and put the appropriate parts on it by typing

4 SHARE 2 VOICES
1 VOICE Drum
2 VOICE Cymbal

Then (as in part 1) press TAB twice and MAKE the mix. Of course RUN needs to be modified to

"RUN" [ "1234"PLAY ]

The main thing is to understand how to get voices on to the Mixing Desk then, assuming you can operate its controls (see section 3 in the Music 5000 User Guide), you can easily change the instruments and their settings.

Pieces with more than one section

A musical piece may have an introduction, verse, chorus, another verse, a repeat of the chorus and an ending. Each of these is a section.

As we are working from basics and using 'Auld Lang Syne' as our example, we need no introduction and no ending. There is a chorus, but as it's similar to the verse we need only repeat the verse a few times.

Up until now we've called the parts part1, part2, part3 and part4. We need to call them part1a, part2a, part3a, part4a so that we can refer to the verse as section a. Let's change the names of the parts using the RENAME command:

"part1" "part1a" RENAME
"part2" "part2a" RENAME
"part3" "part3a" RENAME
"part4" "part4a" RENAME

Now, to play two verses, use

"RUN" [ "1234-aa" PLAY ]

Creating sub-mixes

Our piece uses the mix as set up by the word 'mix'. We will create a sub-mix called 'mix2'. My method is to create a blank mix

"mix2" [M5MIX]

then adjust the PLAY instruction

"RUN" [ "1234-a2a" PLAY ]

and then play the piece by typing RUN.

With the Mixing Desk installed, press TAB to see the controls. You will hear section 'a' play through and see the heading

editing "mix"

appear at the top of the Desk. When it has finished the first verse the heading will change to

editing "mix2"

and the verse will start playing for the second time.

You will notice that when the mix changes a pair of brackets appears around each of the numbers in the row across the middle of the Desk.

While the music is still playing, change some of the controls on the Desk to create a second mix. When a control is adjusted, the brackets around the respective number disappear. If you go back to the % prompt, you can MAKE the new mix which will contain only the settings you have altered. This is the idea of a sub-mix; it is still a mix, but only adjusts the settings which need to be adjusted.

A slightly different method of creating a sub-mix is given at the top of page 83 of the Music 5000 User Guide.

I've said most of what I need to say for this very simple example of setting up a mix followed by a sub-mix. I think there are two important steps to creating mixes. Firstly, the setting up (which we've gone through) and secondly, the listening step.

The listening step

This is the step where you finalise the settings of the controls on the Desk, and also listen to the piece as carefully as possible to make any corrections or improvements to the actual score.

To do this it is a good plan to have words to play each section of the music. In our example we could have

"pa" [ "1234-aaaaaaaaaa" PLAY ]

"pb" [ "1234- 2aaaaaaaaaa" PLAY ]

'pa' will play the first section ten times through with the initial mix; 'pb' will play it with the second mix. These words will enable you to play the respective section over and over again until you have finished mixing it, at which time you will press TAB or ESCAPE and MAKE the mix.

I hope that these two articles have shone some light on this slightly tricky but important subject.

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Published in AMPLINEX 010, March 1989