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TM

User Manual

Page

 15

and File Pages

The Device Page

This page shows information about the stor-
age devices attached to the currently selected
node (machine). The page is automatically
displayed whenever you open or close a
project, or begin a file copy or backup proce-
dure. You can also force its display at any time
by typing <Blue>D.

The File Page

This page is split into sections showing the
network structure in which machines are placed,
and information about one of the storage de-
vices, including the files it contains. One file
is highlighted, making it ready for opening,
copying, or whatever function you have in
mind. You may scroll the highlighted bar up
and down the screen, choosing a file to be acted
on by the next command.
This display is shown whenever you are open-
ing a file, deleting etc. You can force its display
at any time by typing <Blue>F.

Sample rate of audio
in current project (see
Arm Menu)

Shows the last date
on which the file
was altered.

Shows the sam-
pling rate of the
audio in the file.

Size of files (given in hours,
minutes and seconds for
MFX's Project files - those
with  suffix .MT)

Complete loca-
tion or "path list"
of currently se-
lected file.

Indicates if
the disk is
r e m o v a b l e
(e.g. Mag-
n e t o - O p t i -
cal drive)

Indicates if
the device is
write pro-
tected.

Indicates the device disk
file system. This could be
RBF (the OS-9 file sys-
tem), FLFS or MDR-DOS
(proprietary Fairlight file
systems) or NTFS (Win-
dows NT file system, only
on servers or other PCs)

Summary of Contents for Prodigy

Page 1: ...Edit User Manual Software Version 15 6 Part Number DPR1100 B Document Number 171 Copyright August 2000 Ref Prodigy Rev Manual 15 6 ...

Page 2: ...th respect to the system s performance or fitness for a particular purpose In no event will Fairlight ESP Pty Ltd be liable for direct or indirect damages arising from any defect in the product or its documentation Further Fairlight ESP Pty Ltd will not accept any liability for any programs sounds audio recording or sequences stored in or used with Fairlight products including the cost of recovery...

Page 3: ... EQ 38 Name 38 Project Layer 38 Summary of Editing Commands 38 Selecting Clips for Editing 38 12 Timecode Ranges 39 Setting up a Range 39 Simple Method 39 Using Range Menus 39 Range Persistence 40 Optional Ranges 40 Automatic and Manual Ranges 40 13 The Edit Menu Cut Paste 40 Selecting Audio 40 Cutting or Copying to the Clipboard 40 Selecting Destination Tracks 40 Other Paste Commands 40 Pasting F...

Page 4: ... File 89 Clips 89 Commands Using Text Files 90 Publish a Text File 90 Export 90 Import 90 Strategies for Using Text Files 90 Example 1 90 Example 2 91 Editing the Form 91 Guide to AudioBase 2 92 Found X of Y 92 Alphabetic Sort 92 No Export 92 The Line Field 92 26 Undoing Edits 95 UndoTogggling 95 The Undo Menu 95 27 Managing Disk Space 96 Throwing Out Rubbish 96 Range 96 The Space Menu 96 28 Recov...

Page 5: ... GPI Menu 132 GPI Type 132 Choosing a GPI 132 The GPI Menu 132 Electrical Properties 132 46 Macros 134 Recording and Naming Macros 134 47 Disk Information 136 Operations in the Space Menu 137 48 Preparing Drives for Disk Recording 138 Formatting Optical Disks 138 Backup Verify 138 Making a System Disk 138 49 Configuration Files 140 Before Changing a Configuration File 140 Editing a Configuration F...

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Page 7: ...press Track Key 1 to arm that track make it ready to record 9 The video screen now displays input meters at the top with track 1 shown armed Play some of your source material into the Prodigy Editor If necessary go back to the Input submenu and change the input type to Analog 10 or adjust the gain using the gain Soft Key 10 Cue the source material and begin recording by pressing Play and Record to...

Page 8: ... parameter on a Soft Menu When used with the Blue Key selects track displays as follows 1T 1 track display Blue 7 2T 2 track display Blue 8 4T 4 track display Blue 4 8T 8 track display Blue 5 12T 12 track display Blue 1 16T 16 track display Blue 2 24T 24 track display Blue 0 and Keys Used to increment and decre ment the Numeric Register the Zoom range or any se lected parameter in a Soft Menu Alph...

Page 9: ...shows a menu of special record commands Holding down the Jog key shows a menu of setup parameters for jogging DiskButton Takes disk recorder on and off line While offline it will not respond to trans port commands M1Button Takes first external machine usually a video deck on and off line Press with the Blue key to set this ma chine s parameters M2Button Takes second machine on and off line Press w...

Page 10: ...aster Recording When we edit the audio we do it by changing which part of the Master Recording we are pointing at We call these pointers the Head and Tail of the clip Here we have split the original clip so that the first part is on a differ ent track In fact we now have two clips which point at different parts of the Master Recording On the first one we have also removed part of the Tail which ha...

Page 11: ...croll down to lower layers and lift any clip to the top layer File Lower Blue F Project open and extend Backup Import open Displays a list of files on the current storage device and information about that device Device Upper Blue D Same as file Displays a box for each storage device on line and configured in the mdr_devices file A fuel guage shows the available storage on the device in blue the si...

Page 12: ...transport to a new place the audio for that timecode location is loaded and the waveforms quickly appear Fade These lines indicate a fade If the fade occurs where clips are over lapping then a crossfade between the two clips results DiskLight The Fairlight logo flashes red when a disk is writing and blue when it is reading A green colour appears for a network transaction RangeSize In modes that us...

Page 13: ...uresofthisscreenareidenticalto those of the 24 16 12 8 2 and 1 track displays They are selected by typing Blue 0 Blue 2 Blue 1 Blue 5 Blue 8 and Blue 7 respectively UnselectedClip Clips must be touching the cursor in order to be selected unless a range is used by the editing mode In either case unselected clips are shown in blue and are not affected by editing commands ClipNames Each clip is named...

Page 14: ... Seagate SCSI address 0 Name of the current open project if any see Starting a Project The timecode frame rate for the project see MFX Menu Name of domain or working group of systems Name of network node which may be an Fairlight system a server or another compu ter Unit or hard disk disk drive attached to system Projects are named on the Project Menu or renamed on the Name Menu The MT at the end ...

Page 15: ...y scroll the highlighted bar up anddownthescreen choosingafiletobeacted on by the next command This display is shown whenever you are open ingafile deletingetc Youcanforceitsdisplay at any time by typing Blue F Sample rate of audio in current project see Arm Menu Showsthelastdate on which the file was altered Shows the sam pling rate of the audio in the file Size of files given in hours minutes an...

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Page 17: ...Henceforth the term Folders will be used to indicate any of these levels in the hierarchy A Folder containing other Folders is shown with a sign From and To Keys Move focus between Folder View and File View File view On the right side of the screen one level in the hierarchy is shown in a vertical list This level may contain Folders and Files which are contained in one highlighted Folder on the le...

Page 18: ...computer systems Press this Soft Key to de lete a File or Folder You will be prompted for con firmation and in the case of a Folder you will be prompted again if the Folder contains Files Notes 1 The operation of keys in this interface is very similar to that of Windows 95 2 There is no way to open a File other than by pressing the Enter key 3 Locked files have an L indication This usually means t...

Page 19: ...and takes onlyafewseconds re gardless of File size AllowsanyFileorFolderto be renamed Edit the cur rentnameintheupperLCD and press Enter Domains Nodes and Units cannot be renamedhere Thecurrently open Project can only be renamedintheNameMenu Pressthiskeytoaccessother functions See next page Project Menu 2nd Level To return to the first level of the Project Menu press the Project button again File ...

Page 20: ...e and change any part of it A password is not requested upon opening the file Play Only any user can open the file and play the audio but cannot change anything A password is requested when first opening the file and if none is supplied read only permission is granted Extending the file will then create a new unpassworded file extension which can be edited as required without changing the original...

Page 21: ... Edit Takes Nudge Track Block Name Grab B Up Fade Space Level Import Proj Disab Mute Subv Solo Shows the file version of the currently open project It is possible to save a Version 15 5 project to a Version 15 1 project using this Soft Key The only difference between Version 15 5 and Version 15 1 is the presence of Prodigy mixer information which can only be inserted into a project by a Prodigy sy...

Page 22: ...ed Modify Write Only a few operations have the ability to change existing audio data or audio header information These include Overwrite recording Commit Dispose and Pack Project Status is raised to Modify Write only during these operations If another user has the Project open permission for Modify Write is not granted and the operation cannot proceed Multi UserFileAccess In a network many users m...

Page 23: ...ou recorded or copied to any piece of track during crossfades the top layer and the next one down are both played It is useful to think of the clips as being stacked on top of each other as they are recorded with only the topmost one being visible to the tape head This is illustrated below Clips are recorded or pasted on top of earlier clips We hear only the top layer white portions The same group...

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Page 26: ...sselect which tracks are in Input mode This means that the track playback is disabled and the audio at the input is heard A track cannot be in Thru and Ready at the same time It takes which ever mode was selected last Notes Arm Many Tracks Any number of tracks can be armed at the same time as long as your system contains enough channels to play them You may patch one input to as many tracks as you...

Page 27: ...rding is commenced inside this gap recording is held off until the head of the next clip Auto Extend It is possible while recording to reach the limit of project size which is 4 Gigabytes approxi mately 12 hours of 16 bit audio If this happens while the transport is actually in record Prodigy Editor will try to automatically create a new project and continue recording This can only happen if there...

Page 28: ...re more tracks than inputs the inputs wrap around to the beginning again allow ing multiple sets of the same inputs to be patched to multi ple tracks Press to change the gain on the inputs to the se lected tracks This can be done with the Jogger Wheel the and keys ortheNumericKeypad If you want to type a negativevalue pressthe Clear key then mi nus and then the number Press to select the type of i...

Page 29: ... top of the screen These are seen on the Video Display Unit as soon as you enter the Arm Menu For tracks that are not armed for record meters show the playback levels The behaviour of the meters can be changed so that the background colour changes to warn you when a certain input level has been reached This is done by setting the METER RED LEVEL field on the System Page type Blue S then use the mo...

Page 30: ...are placed over any other clips that they encounter on the same tracks The monitoring switches from recorded material to live as you enter Record exactly as though you were erasing the existing audio But in fact you are preserving all that has been recorded and you may bring any of it back later on AutomaticDrop in Pre determined Drop in and Drop out points may be activated using the Machine Contr...

Page 31: ...any and selects it as House Sync This means that sync may change if different tracks are armed Chooses the sample rate of the project Cannot be changed afterthefirstaudiohas been put into the project by recording or importing from an other project OUTPUT Format Protect Stereo Pad HOUSE AES EBU ON ON OFF 0 dB Chooses whether digital outputs are AES EBU or SP DIF Press the button to toggle between t...

Page 32: ...nge has been created all clips that are wholly inside it can be named with one command Keyboard Use As soon as you press one of the naming Soft Keys the current name of the thing you have selected will be shown in the upper LCD This allows you to use it again or copy it to another item You can use the Backspace key to erase the last character Having pressed the clip Soft Key it stays armed so as s...

Page 33: ...rs which tracks were selected before Note Selecting a track for Muting or Soloing does not make it the current track ON FOLLOW OFF ON Soloing Track 21 TogglesSoloorMuteon or off preserving the se lection of tracks Disabling Tracks Disk Recorder tracks can be disabled from playback This differs from muting them in that the audio data from disabled tracks is not fetched from the disk It is though th...

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Page 36: ...t part of the Master Recording that the clip plays Master Recording Clip Possible Sync Point Not Heard Heard Not Heard Start End Head Tail Fade In Point Fade Out Point Sync Point The Sync Point of the clip is a point that you can place anywhere in the clip It is usually chosen as the clearest moment of the audio that you can use to check whether it is in sync For example it might be a particularly...

Page 37: ...long its length and the left and right waveforms shown on either side All editing commands apply equally to both sides of the stereo clip StereoSwap To swap the side of the stereo clip touching the cursor or a range of stereo clips type the following LRSWAP RETURN It does not matter if upper or lower case is used The command applies to all selected tracks ...

Page 38: ...duce the size of the clip places the removed piece on the clipboard Copy As in cut but pointers to original clip are unchanged Enter key Places a copy of the edit clipboard at the current timecode position on the top project layer Grab Slip Change timecode reference Trim Move head or tail pointer Fade Fade Head or Tail Moves fade in or fade out point Level Level Set or Trim Change clip audio level...

Page 39: ...rom key causes a menu to appear described below At the same time the graphics show the existence of a range with its end at the cursor Pressing the Soft Keys affects the range end position as follows prev project time mark last gap head Pressing this Soft key latches the Menu you can let go of the FromKey andadoptsthetime in the Numeric Register as the range start You can now type in or edit a tim...

Page 40: ...d Manual Ranges below Optional Ranges Some menus may work with or without a range These include the Edit Menu which is the most commonly used menu in the system When an optional menu has a range it can be turned off by pressing the menu key again and vice versa For example pressing the Edit key once will make it the current menu with a range active if the previous menu had one Pressing Edit again ...

Page 41: ...Use the Edit Menu Soft Keys to cut or copy audio to the clipboard The CUT RANGE command is issued The ghost clips show the contents of the clipboard Selecting Destination Tracks After cutting or copying audio to the clipboard pressing any track key will cancel the previous selection and select a destination pattern based on what was cut or copied You may change that selection before pasting The sc...

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Page 43: ... oranothertrack selected then the audio may be Pasted there by pressing the EN TER key The part of the audio that was under the cursor when you Copied will be placed under the cursor at its new location The audio from the Head of the clip to the cursor is Cop ied It can be Pasted as de scribed above The audio from the cur sor to the Tail of the clip is Copied Otherwise as forHead The clip is repla...

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Page 45: ...r and over similar to looping Fill now works on multiple tracks at the same time 2 The fill command uses the same sync point that is normally placed in the clipboard at the point where you cut or copied to it and places it at the position of the cursor when you press the fill Soft Key This helps to avoid having the same sound at the beginning of every filled section Simply pressing the fill key at...

Page 46: ...the cursor will follow to its new location The clips are offset by the amount the transport has moved Grabs the Head of the clip s under the cursor Move to another location and press ENTER and the head of the clip s will be placed at the cursor posi tion whiletheTailremains fixed Grab the Tail of the clip Other wise the same as forHead Grabs the Sync Point Whenyoumovethetrans port and press ENTER ...

Page 47: ...All the audio in the Master Recording is thereby exposed During this Super Trim session the whole head of the clip is shown above the other clips ahead of it on the track regardless of which clip actually covers the other From here you can do the following 1 Jog with audio scrubbing to any position and press ENTER This will trim the clip to that position or as far as possible in that direction dep...

Page 48: ... removed by editing SLIP TRIM Toggle A new feature for this menu allows you to choose whether you want SLIP or TRIM to be the default choice when you enter the menu To change from one to the other hold down the SHIFT key and press the SLIP TRIM toggle Soft Key The menu will change and this will be remembered by the console next time it powers up ...

Page 49: ...ail remain fixed Head moves to Cursor position but audio sync is fixed Clip may be shortened or lengthened Head and Tail move with Cursor but the audio sync remains fixed Cursor Cursor Cursor Cursor Cursor Cursor Cursor Cursor Cursor Cursor Cursor Grab Menu Illustrated In each illustration the first diagram shows the situation at the moment a Soft Key is pressed and the second diagram shows the re...

Page 50: ...r var 1 fr 1 fr Sets the amount of the variable nudge which is operated by the following two Soft Keys Can be a number of subframes from 1 to 99 Use the Jogger Wheel and the and keys to set the amount then press ENTER Nudges the selected clips backwards in time by the amountshownunderVari able Nudges the selected clips forwards in time by the amount shown under Variable Nudges the selected clips b...

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Page 53: ...the Block menu always cuts or copies through all the layers in a track while the Edit menu only cuts or copies layers that appear on the top i e audio that you can hear TheDubberSubMenu RAZOR DUBBER erase move copy This will remove all of the audio in the Range leaving a block of si lence The audio in the Range is copied to the cursor posi tion covering the audio that is already there Theaudiointh...

Page 54: ...AAAA AAAA BBBBB BBBBB DDDDD DDDDD AAAAA BBBBB DDDDD DDDDD CCCCC CCCCC BBBBB AAAA DDDDD DDDDD The Dubber Menu Illustrated Original Track Layout Erase Audio is removed within the range Move The audio in the range is removed and relocated to the cursor position Copy The audio in the range is copied over the audio at the cursort position ...

Page 55: ...fterarecut of pictures A copy of the audio in the Range and the time it occu pies are inserted at the cursor This is equivalent to making a tape dub of the audio in the range and inserting the copy at the cursor position The audio in the range and the time it occupies are moved to the cursor position This is equiva lent to cutting a piece of tape and re inserting it at the cursor position A period...

Page 56: ...CCCC BBBBB DDDDD DDDDD DDDDD DD CCCCC BBBBB AAA DDDDD BBBBB DDDDD DD CCCCC AAAA BBBBB The Razor Submenu Illustrated Original Track Layout Delete The Range is completely removed and the audio on either side butts up together Splice The Range and the audio in it are relocated to the Cursor position Duplicate The Range and the audio in it are copied to the Cursor position ...

Page 57: ...ion is not subject to the UNDO key The audio in the Range on the Source Track is moved to the Target Track Press the Move key and the Track keys will begin to flash prompting you to select the Target Track Making that selection com pletes the operation The audio in the Range on the Source Track is copied to the Target Track Press the Copy key and the Track keys will begin to flash prompting you to...

Page 58: ...u Illustrated Original Track Layout The track in the foreground is selected Swap Within the Range the audio from the source track is swapped with the target track Copy Within the Range the audio from the source track is copied on top of the target track Numbers The source and target tracks change places on the screen this is not really an edit Shadow Within the Range wherever there is audio on the...

Page 59: ...o 99 to be the Auto fade in time then hit ENTER to ex ecute the fade in Select a number of frames up to 99 to betheAutofadeout time then hit EN TER to execute the fade out Sets the level at the mid point of new fades wherebothclipshavethesameloudness In theory this should be set to 6 for perfectly in phase audio and to 3 for completely randomly phased audio You can also set the value outside these...

Page 60: ...ENTER to execute the fade inforallclipsthatarewholly contained in the range Selectanumberofframesupto99 to be the Auto fade out time then hit ENTER to execute the fade in for all clips that are wholly con tained in the range CreatesanewMasterRecordingover the range and sets a fade from its beginning to its end Also splits the clips underneath so that no unex pected crossfades occur Creates a new M...

Page 61: ...le there is overlap between the two clips so it is not a good idea to extend the underlapping clip past the end of the overlapping fade 2 Trimming the end of a clip where a fade occurs will result in a fade with the same Timecode point inside the clip but starting or ending at the new Head or Tail 3 When a clip Level other than 0 dB is applied the Fade will reach the applied level see the Level Me...

Page 62: ...blewhenStereoMixisON It affects the pan position of the selected audio in the stereo mix If MODE is set to TRACK the pan value affects the whole track If MODE is set to CLIP only the currently selected clips are affected By default clips have Pan set to OFF and are controlled by the Pan value for their Track If a clip has a value for Pan this overrides the Track setting Pan values are positive if ...

Page 63: ...hose splits to be executed right down to the bed of each track ie any underlying clips are also split at these points This beinfits the use of MFXes layering facility as a Takes Management tool A series of long takes stacked on top of each other on a single track can be instantly divided up into sections through all layers as required and the POP facility then employed section by section to swiftl...

Page 64: ...is number is the amount of time that the levelmuststaybelowthe threshold before gating takes place This pre vents gating from cut ting the audio into too many pieces Thisnumberisalength added to the head and tail of all gated clips which you can use to retain the slow attack or decay of the audio below the threshold level If Commit is toggled on when the Gate command is issued you will be of fered...

Page 65: ...TM User Manual Page 65 Hold Threshold Hold Threshold Handles Example 1 Example 2 Original Audio Handles Gate Menu Illlustrated ...

Page 66: ...at that frequency and Q factor sharpness of the band or whether it is a high or low shelf The Numeric Keypad is used to select EQ parameters as shown below High High Mid Low Mid Low Freq Gain Q Blue turns a band into a low shelf when its Q is selected Blue turns a band into a high shelf when its Q is selected Parameter Display Current EQ parameters are shown at the top of the screen when the EQ me...

Page 67: ...thisis saved with the clip Notes 1 While you are changing parameter values with the Jogger Wheel the actual sound is updated every 25 sec Turning the Wheel faster increases the steps between values 3 There is no limit to the frequency range for each band so you can have your low frequency higher than your high frequency if you want 4 Use Blue or Blue while the Q for a band is selected to make that...

Page 68: ...es you wish to use The other Soft Keys change according to this choice The Stretch Submenu Move the transport so the clip to be stretched is under the cursor In the stretched clip the exact audio that was under the cursor before stretching will end up in the same place providing mid syncing Mode Scale Algorithm STRETCH percent target 50 VOICE 1 Allowsyoutochoose between the three Wave Menu func ti...

Page 69: ... width of the frequency window used for analysisoftheaudio Thebest policyistosetthisvalueat50 halfway through the range thenadjustupwardstoreduce frequency wobble or down wards to reduce phasiness or reverbiness Allows you to choose aprocessingalgorithm which suits the audio content The choices are described below Algorithms An algorithm is a method used in software to achieve a desired result Bec...

Page 70: ...ecrementbywholesemi tones use Blue plus or Blue minus Press EN TERtostartthepitchchange process Determinesthewidthofthefre quency window used for analy sis of the audio The best policy istosetthisvalueat50 halfway through the range then adjust upwards to reduce frequency wobble ordownwardstoreduce phasiness or reverbiness Allowsyoutochoosea processing algorithm which suits the audio content The ch...

Page 71: ...this Soft Key then enter the percentage which the varispeeded clip will be of the original clip This can be done using the Numeric Keypad or the Jogger Wheel and and keys The allowable range is 25 to400 PressENTERto begin processing the audio Press this Soft Key to enter the duration you would like the clip to be The initial value shown in the upper LCD is the currentdurationoftheclip soyoucanuse ...

Page 72: ...eeWave Menu functions Stretch Pitch or Varispeed When you press this Soft Key the clip under the cursor is varispeeded to fit the range Note that this clip maynotbecolouredred asitmaybe outsidetherange Theprocessmay also result in the clip being slipped since the start of the range may not beatthestartoftheoriginalclip Set up the range then move the trans port so the cursor is touching the origina...

Page 73: ...h change for the clip This is expressed as semitonesandcents onehundredthsof a semitone You may use the Numeric Keypad or the Jogger Wheel and or keys To increment or decrement by whole semitones use Blue plus or Blue minus Press ENTER to start the pitch change process PresstotogglebetweenTIME or PITCH as the measure of varispeed ratio Using a Range If you have a range set up with the varispeed su...

Page 74: ...r popping a clip to the top of the stack the Takes Menu disappears returning you to the mode that was previ ously selected pop Press to bring the currently selected clip to the top layer Notes on Layering of Clips 1 Layering in an Prodigy Editor Project is done from the very first clip that is created in the project Each clip is given a new layer number when it is created with the most recent clip...

Page 75: ...a fresh copy of the audio in the current project Press the Import key If you have already imported audio from another Prodigy Editor project during this session The Prodigy Editor immediately opens that project If not the following menu is displayed WAV browse borrow keep files This soft key comes on by de fault allowing you to access Prodigy Editor Projects or sin gle WAVE files Press ENTER to op...

Page 76: ... every time the system tries to play that clip Inactive Waveform The clip itself will be shown with a dotted line instead of audio wave form and you will be able to see which file it came from originally by looking in the upper part of the screen For a list of all missing Library Projects type Blue L When restoring the missing project to your system you may put it back on any disk drive and the so...

Page 77: ...ate buttons turns them all off meaning there is no limitation and files of all sample rates will be found Allows you to limit the search to only mono or only stereo files Use the left and right arrows to change the settings Moving past the left of all buttons turns them all off meaning that both mono and stereo files will be found You may narrow the search by specifying a match string that finds a...

Page 78: ...een When importing multiple WAVE files a clip is created for each file These clips are arrayed down the selected tracks and if there are more clips after that they are placed at the tails of the already placed clips Broadcast WAVE Broadcast WAVE files are very similar to standard WAVE files but have extra data packets in the header known as CHUNKS One of these is a timecode reference which can be ...

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Page 81: ...ord An item in the database containing the information needed to play its originating clip exactly as it was when published It also contains descriptive information Originating Clip The clip which produced a particular Clip Record when its containing Project was published Field An item of data in a Clip Record Examples are Name Category Sample Rate A summary appears below Editable Fields Fields th...

Page 82: ...he screen It shows a number of fields from the current AudioBase Record You can change the selection of fields shown on the form see Editing the Form below This form is used for three purposes Entering Search criteria Displaying data in Found Clip Records Editing data in Clip Records The Record List This is the list of Found Clip Records displayed at the right side of the Track Display It can be s...

Page 83: ...ject This is the same as keeping in the Import menu If the Clip Record you are auditioning has a different sample rate from that of your current Project it will play at the same rate as this Project This means its pitch and duration are different from the original A warning to this effect appears on the screen Use the Wave Menu Varispeed Submenu to correct the sample rate MoreAboutAudition While A...

Page 84: ...lethe Options Submenu is open Pressing it exits Search mode without executing any search Press to choose whether searching will find Clip Records that match ANY of thefieldsinthesearchcriteria or whether they must match ALL fields If match is set to ANY thesearchwillfindClip Recordsthatmatchoneormore of the fields but if set to ALL only Clip Records matching all of the fields will be found Control...

Page 85: ...witched off To move the cursor to the next field press M9 To move the cursor to the previous field press M8 To empty a field completely use the CLEAR key on newer consoles this is part of the Numeric Keypad while on older consoles it is part of the alphanumeric keyboard To clear all fields in the search form type SHIFT CLEAR To remove the word to the left of the cursor type SHIFT DEL or SHIFT BACK...

Page 86: ...r at the end of an expression makes it operate on BLANK that is to say on the emptiness of the field For example placing OR at the end means OR EMPTY so in addition to the Clip Records found by the terms before the OR operator Clip Records for which this field is empty will match Placing NOT at the end means AND NOT EMPTY so blank is specifically excluded Placing OR NOT at the end includes all rec...

Page 87: ...nter data into them as are used in the Search Menu These are described in section 24 5 3 above Writing into Multiple Records Sometimes you want to write the same value into a field in many records at the same time To do this write the value into this field in one record then type Blue ENTER or Blue RETURN This will write the same value into the corresponding field of every Found Record For example...

Page 88: ...e in a project they will appear separately in AudioBase when it is published You will be able to give them different descriptions and categories if you wish 3 If you perform any Space Menu operations on a project dispose commit or pack it must be republished as some Clip Records may no longer point at the right audio data 4 If the cursor is placed on a Folder on the left side of the File Page it i...

Page 89: ...ioBase Number is written with a tilde at the beginning to distinguish it from other text It is used to identify a clip in the Project see below How AudioBase Recognises Text When you make your own Text Files you can omit the first line or just the Project identification number and still publish using this file The AudioBase number at the begining of each line and the tab separating it from the nex...

Page 90: ...ine Modem port The computer must be running a terminal program and be ready to receive data You will be asked to confirm that this is the case before the command starts Import Importing is similar to publishing a Text File except that first the file is brought in from another computer After issuing the command you will asked to identify which project will be published with this Text File You may c...

Page 91: ...xt File Format in the same order 9 Repeat step 6 from Example 1 This time AudioBase will not ask you to find the Project file because the ID and Name are written into the first line of the Text File Editing the Form The AudioBase Form can be changed from its default setup by editing a file which defines its layout To begin type RETURN This brings up an OS9 shell or text interface chd dd usr mfx RE...

Page 92: ...use this option if you know that the files containing the clips returned by the search are on line as a search may take tens of seconds just to check the file On Line status NOTE This option is also available in AudioBase 1 Found X of Y AudioBase 2 is designed to service a whole network of MFX workstations and is therefore capable of handling very large sound libraries When a search yields a large...

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Page 95: ...levels The number above shows how many levels of redo are possible at the mo ment Toggles Freeze On and Off When it is On editing does notadvancetheUNDOcoun ter This means if you press the UNDO key it will take you back to the place in your editing where you turned Freeze On Pressing UNDO repeatedly will toggle be tween the last point you reached and the frozen point TogglesFollowOnandOff Whenitis...

Page 96: ...he range if you have created one Firstly it removes all the clips and parts of clips that cannot be heard usually because they are covered by other clips Secondly it frees the disk space that has been left unreferenced because of the editing of the af fected clips but if the Handles field is set to a non zero value commit leaves at least that much extra audio at the extremeties of the Master Recor...

Page 97: ...oject that references the same Master Recording even partially the Master Recording will not be touched allowing the uncommitted clips to be trimmed out to their fullest possible extent Notes 1 Disposing and Committing create blocks of free space that can be used by the project They cannot how ever be used by any other project or file because the blocks are inaccessible little islands in the middl...

Page 98: ...at the left end of the line The RW stands for Recover Waveform This command will place a clip using the full length of the master recording on your current track with its head at the cursor position Then you can play the clip to find out whether it was the one you wanted If the master recording is a stereo recording it will have two waveforms and you will often see them on consecutive lines They w...

Page 99: ...es They can be sent back to their original location or to anywhere else on the system The Backup Menu can work with files anywhere in your system copying and moving them between hard disks and on and off Exabyte tapes All operations operate in the background and are suspended whenever MFX needs to access its hard disks for play or record When backing up or restoring from tapes files cannot be appe...

Page 100: ...eJoggerWheelor and keys to set the tapemode followed by ENTER Having selected a destination for the backup you will be asked to supply a name for the BU file that will be created A name is suggested by the software based on the date and time when the file was created To change this edit it using the arrow keys backspace and alphanumeric keys Press ENTER when you have the right name new tapemode ba...

Page 101: ... to include attached files A indicates marked by attachment to another Project file Marking Attached Files If a Project file you mark has borrowed audio from other files the Prodigy Editor will display a list of the files from which they are borrowed allowing you to mark them as well A indicates marked Current highlighted choice ...

Page 102: ... can be stopped at any time by pressing the STOP Soft Key You will be asked to confirm this wish before it is carried out Backup Verification Each time a backup is started a dialog box asks if verification is required If the answer is Yes the Backup will proceed to its conclusion and immediately afterwards the contents of the backup medium are compared with those of the original file Like the back...

Page 103: ...destination for the files Note that the same directory structure in which the original files were housed will be created on the destina tion device Restore occurs in the background allowing other work to continue normally Any requirement for the system to play or record however will cause the restore to be stalled and to continue after playback has been stopp The Copy Submenu In this menu files ar...

Page 104: ...el j start copy mark unmark Press to unmark a File or Folder If a Folder is un marked everything inside it is unmarked whether it is currently marked or not AFile sattachmentsareun markedatthesametimeas it is but if they have also been explicitly marked in their own right they re main marked The Move Submenu The operation of this submenu is exactly the same as for the Copy Submenu The only differe...

Page 105: ... next page Opens the CD Submenu used for outputting an Prodigy track to Redbook CD overSCSI The CD Submenu The CD submenu allows one track of stereo or mono audio to be written directly to a Yamaha CRW4416S Com pact Disc writer note this model changes from time to time please consult your Fairlight distributor if model unavailable A range is set up to indicate the start and end of the Compact Disc...

Page 106: ... another field appears allowing you to enter a new file name of up to 8 characters Press the ENTER key to start the WAVE export process Note If there are multiple clips with the same name in the range being exported the system will complain when Clipname is chosen as the source of the file name Each one will successively cause a request to overwrite the previous one or choose a new name If Other i...

Page 107: ...his Page 3 of 13 This involves an extra scan of the edit list and so it takeslongerforprintingtostart Selects the baud rate for the printer port This must be matched to your printer Stops printing Notes 1 Dubbing chart printing always takes a range 2 Dubbing charts print only the selected tracks The durations of clips on the non selected tracks are however taken into account so you can print 12 tr...

Page 108: ...AYS it treats clips that are butted together or overlapping as just one clip The name of the earliest clip is used SAME NAME joins butted clips together only if they have the same name ClipAttraction in Frames The Join Clips software will treat clips as though they are butted together as long as they are closer than this minimum gap It also has the effect of quantising the print output so that eve...

Page 109: ...19200 8 bits 1 stop bit no parity DTR handshake PinConnections SwitchSettings interfacecards Fairlight 9 pin Printer 25 pin C 82305 C82307 Pin 2 Pin 2 SW 1 1 on SW 1 1 on Pin 3 Pin 3 SW 1 2 on SW 1 2 on Pin 4 Pin 5 SW 1 3 off SW 1 3 off Pin 5 Pin 7 SW 1 4 off SW 1 4 off Pin 8 Pin 20 SW 1 5 off SW 1 5 off All other pins unused SW 1 6 off SW 1 6 off SW 2 1 on SW 2 1 on SW 2 2 on SW 2 2 on SW 2 3 off...

Page 110: ...TM Page 110 User Manual NOTES ...

Page 111: ...M1Button Takes first external machine on and off line When used with the Blue key it opens a menu for setting parameters for Machine 1 M2Button Takes second external machine on and off line When used with the Blue key it opens a menu for setting parameters for Machine 2 DiskButton Takes the disk recorder on and off line When it is off line it does not locate nor is any sound heard from it GenButto...

Page 112: ...me rate will be 29 97 NTSC colour television or 30 4a Control a Sony Machine M1 or M2 Setup menu If you wish to control a Sony video machine set up the M1 or M2 button to represent this machine This is done in the Setup menu for that button hold down the Blue key and press the Button See the M1 and M2 Setup Menu for details Once it is set up use the button to put the Sony machine online and offlin...

Page 113: ... or 30 frames per second This field determines at which frame rate your selected sample rate will be accurately repro duced Forexample ifyouchoose a sample rate of 44100 Hz and yousetthisfieldto30 thesystem will run at precisely 44100 Hz when 30 frame timecode is used for synchronisation But if you use standard NTSC video at 29 97 fps as a sync source the systemwill rundown to44056 Hz This may be ...

Page 114: ...ster Clock Reference as the Prodigy Editor or an overflow too many samples or underflow too few samples may occur at the input This causes a characteristic periodic form of digital distortion called a whisper A whisper sounds like a brief glassy or metallic buzz and occurs about once every few seconds depending how fast the samples are overflowing or underflowing One way to guarantee digital synch...

Page 115: ...ording and editing process Control of Sony Machines Sony machines are those conforming to the Sony 9 pin transport protocol The Prodigy Editor can either control one of these machines which should be connected to 9 pin Port A or B It is best if that machine is being referenced by the same house sync signal as the Prodigy Editor normally video If this is not possible the Prodigy Editor and the Sony...

Page 116: ...eed This keeps the picture on the headsduringrewindorfastforwardfor some machines which would other wise unlace e g Sony 9800 When Lace is OFF the machine is given a REWorFFcommand whichwillcause thetapetounlaceinsomemachines In other machines however e g BetaCam SP these commands do not unlace the tape but give a very fast shuttle in the desired direction WhenissuingaGoTocommandtothe machine if t...

Page 117: ...tomatically TrimmingNumbers After a number has been copied to or from the Numeric Display the first number you type on the Numeric Keypad will clear the Numeric Display and successive numbers will roll on to the Display from the right If you press the or key the number you have typed will be added or subtracted from the number that was cleared just before Pressing or before typing any numbers incr...

Page 118: ...aying and changing machine offsets or positions Mode restore capture OFFSET Restores the machine s offset to the value it had before it was selected for changing effectively UNDOing an offset change Makes the offset equal to the current position relative to the Prodigy Editors Master time display The device being offset must be OFFLINE during this process or it would always locate to its existing ...

Page 119: ...ode and MIDI Timecode generators Hold down the Blue key while pressing the Gen key3 LTC MIDI A MIDI B MIDI C MIDI D ON OFF OFF OFF OFF The Generator Menu does not work in this software LTC is generated in sync with the Disk Recorder playback whenever the Gen button is lit The MIDI timecode generators do not function ...

Page 120: ...ine machines This means that you can set the system to slow down to the performance of the slowest starting machine that is currently connected M1 M2 Disk Gen Postroll 4 sec 5 sec 2 sec 1 sec Preroll Sets the preroll for M1 Sets the preroll for M2 Sets the preroll for the Disk Recorder Not active in this revision ofsoftware Allows you to choose whether you are setting the Preroll or the Postroll w...

Page 121: ...ey underneath the command you want Special Record Commands If you hold the RECORD key down a menu appears temporarily on the LCD which enables special record options non latching Supermode To use them keep holding the key down then press the Soft key underneath the command you want If you release the Record key without pressing any Soft key no action results there is no one touch record in the the...

Page 122: ... Head except the transportprerollsthestart of the Fadeout Plays exactly the same piece as last time Special Feature If you press the Play Menu key and then the Play button the transport will preroll the current position then Play TheRecordMenu Hold down the Record Key and a menu appears for special record commands If you release the Record Key before making a selection the menu disappears head cli...

Page 123: ...Blue key with the Jog button The speed of movement through time is proportional to the angle you have turned the wheel as if it was the speed knob on an electric train set Audio playback occurs during Shuttling with the same restrictions as for Jogging Shuttle may be entered directly from Play In this case the shuttle speed will be identical to play speed when first entered and can be trimmed from...

Page 124: ...e key while Jumping will locate the transport to the start or end of the Range if one exists Holding the ctrl key while Jumping will locate to the next or previous mark despite the selection in the menu Holding the SHIFT key while Jumping will locate to the next or previous point despite the menu selection Selecting Names To change the given name first hold down the Jump Key and strike the clip na...

Page 125: ...ati cally so you can press ENTERorPLAYimmedi ately or edit the number first Locate a clip by its name See below for details Special Feature You can locate to any of the first 24 marks in a shorthand way Simply press GOTO then the Track Key corre sponding to the Mark you want to locate Locating by Name Selecting the clip name Soft Key brings up a list of names in the lower section of the video disp...

Page 126: ...u to copy the time in the Numeric Dis playtotheselectedmark YoucanedittheNumeric Display as much as you like before pressing EN TER to copy the time Press this key then you can name or rename the selected mark by typing a name of up to 20 charac ters and pressing the EN TER key Removes the selected markfromtheproject Renumbers the marks to con form with their chronological order in the project Not...

Page 127: ...ow the From and To keys can be used to set new loop points if you only set one end of the Loop the previous time for the other end will be retained In and Out Points The From and To keys and their menus are used to set up the In and Out points for automatic recordings The use of these keys is described in the section Editing with a Range To start looping press the Loop key To stop Looping press an...

Page 128: ...TM Page 128 User Manual NOTES ...

Page 129: ...TM User Manual Page 129 NOTES ...

Page 130: ...ed while in Re hearseMode putsADR intoRecordMode Oth erwisetogglesbetween Record and Playback modes Causes the transport to move with behavour depending on mode If Rehearse is selected the tranport loops continuously between Preroll and Postroll with the armed tracks switching to input between the In and Out points If Record is selected the transport does one pass from Preroll to Postroll dropping...

Page 131: ...g af ter the recording has finished until manually interrupted Applies only to the current cycle after which things go back to normal Returns to the previous level of the menu The Old AutoRecord Menu MFX has had an AutoRec Menu for many years and many people and external programs use it on a regular basis So it has been kept in the MFX Console and can be accessed at any time To access the Old Auto...

Page 132: ... labelled Type The other Soft Keys depend on what has been selected as the Type This information is presented in tabular form on the facing page Electrical Properties GPI outputs 1 to 8 are pins 2 to 9 of the 9 pin connector labelled GPO at the rear of the machine Pin 1 is a common ground When ON each GPI output is shorted to ground When OFF it is open and can be connected via a resistor to the de...

Page 133: ...r artists COMMAND TIMECODE Similar to above Pulse As above Fire As above POSTROLL Remains on while the tranport is postrolling Indicator lights for artists COMMAND TIMECODE Similar to above Pulse As above Fire As above ADRREH Remains on while the ADR menu is in Rehearse mode ON Indicator lights for artists Fire As above ADRREC Remains on while the ADR menu is in Record mode Indicator lights for ar...

Page 134: ... not named If you wish to change the selected Function key combinaton type a different one learn name erase run file Press this key to record the selected macro Con firmbypressingENTER andthesystemtakesyou backtotheexactstateyouwereinbefore Youmay now type any series of keystrokes including al phanumerickeysandanymacrocombinations no Jogger Wheel turns While you are recording all ofthefunctionsyou...

Page 135: ...aithful but dumb playing back the keystrokes exactly as you recorded them with no knowledge of the consequences For example toggles such as ON OFF on the Auto Record menu will be switched to their opposite state regardless of what it currently is 2 Several macros can be queued up in a row by pressing keys before the others have finished 3 A macro can be recorded into another macro When this happen...

Page 136: ...tation that can occur with hard disks generally Clips maintain pointers head and tail that tell the computer where to start and end playing Master Recordings Editing is all achieved by moving the pointers A copy of aclipissimplyanothersetofpointerstothe same Master Recording Two different clips are referencing Master Recording 4 while one is referencing Master Recording 2 When all copies of a clip...

Page 137: ... 3 because there are no pointers to them Commit removes all the parts of re cordingsthat havebeeneditedout i e arenotwithinthepointers Thespace thus freed becomes available for fur ther recording in this file but not for other projects The Commit command has removed sections of Master Record ing 4 that were not being referenced by any clips Pack squeezes all the remaining au dio data into contiguo...

Page 138: ...iskinit scX0 w RETURN Formatting Optical Disks Formatting optical platters is exactly the same as formatting hard disks BackupVerify Allows optional automatic background verification of backups This feature allows verification of the integrity of a backup tape or other backup media before changing or disposing of the original After a backup has been initiated a window now pops up to ask Do you wis...

Page 139: ...oices and you should first choose the software version you want out of the listed choices The system will then start the Media Daemon which checks for available devices on the SCSI bus You should then choose the SCSI address of the disk you want to upgrade After the software has run its routine it should restart the system but if not you should do it by typing RESTART RETURN Y ...

Page 140: ...t type esc ZY This will close the file and save your changes If you want to abandon editing without saving changes type esc QY To return to the Disk Recorder program type MFX3 RETURN The MDR Configuration File This file contains many settings that are used by the Multitrack Disk Recorder program MDR To open it when MFX is running type CFG RETURN Editing is described in the section above omit the l...

Page 141: ... want BeepsVolume Sets the audio level of the beeps Set it to 99 if you do not want any beeps BeepsFrequency Sets the frequency of the beeps in Hertz MinSegmentDuration0 Sometimes a large amount of editing can result in lots of tiny clips sandwiched between larger ones These clips are played but not really heard and can absorb a lot of disk bandwidth by requiring a single disk seek to fetch only a...

Page 142: ...e explanations in the file tell you what can be changed Most of it is only relevant to the system programmers but there are some Environment Variables which are like Preferences towards the end of the file Each of the lines setting the Environment Variables has an asterisk at the beginning This means the line is not actually being used but a hard coded value for the variable is active The value sh...

Page 143: ...S that is type the esc key then an S or Blue S Your mouse is used to make changes on this page then save them to disk if necessary Whenever you wish to save the current configuration click on the SAVE icon To get out of the System Page select any mode or one of the other esc key or Blue key options see pages 2 4 and 6 ...

Page 144: ...ping law number RETURN where number is the meter calibration law you wish to use Meter Red Level allows you to set the level at which the meter elements are coloured red You can also change this at any time the meters are displayed by typing red number RETURN where number is the audio level where the meters are to turn red You may include the minus sign or not just as you prefer Crossfade from Zer...

Page 145: ...wing 76 Browsing through files 18 BU file 100 Bulk File Handling 100 Bump sync of clips 50 C CAN T ATTACH 77 Capturing offsets 119 CD Red Book export 106 Change input settings 16 Clear error messages 8 Clip level 63 Clip names 34 Clip selection 38 Clip selection for editing 38 Clips 24 Commit 97 138 COMMIT gating 65 Compatibility with MFX2 and MFX3 116 Configuration Files 141 Cookies 20 Copy clip ...

Page 146: ...Global clip naming 34 GOTO Command 126 GPI Types 134 Grab Menu 47 H Hard drive preparation 139 Head 38 Head of Clip 10 Hold gating 65 I ID number 77 Import Menu 76 Inactive Waveform 77 Info level and bit depth 63 Initialising drives 139 Input Control 30 Input display 11 Input monitoring 28 Input Submenu illustrated 16 Insert silence 56 J Jog 122 Jog Menu 124 JoggerWheel 124 Jump 122 Jump Keys 125 ...

Page 147: ... Text File 90 Pull up Pull down 115 Punch in Punch out 32 Put back trimmed audio 49 R Range 40 Range automatic and manual 41 Range setting 40 Range Size on screen 12 Range used in editing 44 Razor Dubber 54 Ready to record arm 28 Record Gain 30 Record Menu commands 123 Record Over 28 Recording 28 RecoverWaveform Command 99 Recovering Lost Clips 99 Red 38 Redbook CD 106 Reference 10 Referencing 38 ...

Page 148: ... format 114 Timecode Generator 120 Timecode Marks 127 Timecode ranges 40 TimecodeTrack 30 Track balance in mixed out mode 63 Track display 11 Track Keys 8 Track Menu 58 Transport Commands 122 Transport Mode Keys 9 Trim 48 Trim submenu 48 Trimming Numbers 118 U Undo 9 Undoing Edits 96 Unit 18 UNREFERENCED recordings 97 User Fields AudioBase 83 V Varispeed 72 W Warranty Policy 2 WAV Export 106 WAVE ...

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