Acoustica Mixcraft 7 - Manual (Page 82)

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 Formant Preserve
The Formant Preserve checkbox allows Mixcraft to
maintain the harmonic “imprint” of a sound when
transposing pitch up or down. This is most useful
for avoiding the so-called “chipmunk” effect when
transposing vocals upward, and conversely, the
“old-born-under-a-bad-sign blues singer” effect when
transposing downward.
 File Path
Not really a parameter per se, but the actual file name
as displayed in Windows Explorer is shown in yellow
text for reference. Clicking the yellow folder icon to
the left of the filename opens the enclosing Windows
Explorer folder. This can be time saver if you’re trying to
determine where the original file is located on your drive.
 Format
Again, not an adjustable parameter, this displays the
current audio clip’s format (e.g., WAV, Ogg, etc.), as
well its sample rate, bit depth, mono or stereo, etc.
SHOW/HIDE CONTROLS BUTTON
Click the [<<] Show/Hide Controls button to see more
sound data, instead of the controls. This toggles between
showing and hiding the controls. To show the controls
again, click the [>>] button.
ADJUSTING THE SNAP POINT, AUDIBLE CLIP
REGION, AND LOOPING
The looping and audible region of a sound has a white
background. The unused parts of the sound are shown in
green. If the clip is “closed down” smaller in the Main Clip
Grid than the entire looped region, the unused section
of the loop will have a gray background. The adjustable
points in the waveform display are as follows:
Why Does Mixcraft Ask If I Want
To Change My Project’s Tempo?
If you’ve tried dragging loops from the library onto the
playback grid, you’ve probably seen this window. You
may have clicked
Yes , not knowing exactly what it meant.
Understanding the relationship between project tempo
and the timing of clips used in a project is important, so
read on!
When a new, empty Mixcraft project is opened, the project
tempo setting is displayed in the transport in beats per
minute. (If you want to get a feel for the tempo, click the
Metronome icon, then click the Play button.)
Most of Mixcraft’s included loops a beat or musical
phrase, and are precisely edited to be an even length to
ensure that they’ll loop smoothly. They contain embedded
information that “tells” Mixcraft their original key and
tempo. (You can see the original key and tempo when
browsing clips in the Library tab.)
For example, a new Mixcraft project and its tempo was
set to 100 BPM. If a 90 BPM loop is placed at at bar one,
it won’t play in time with the project tempo. It also won’t
line up to bars and beats very well. If we drop in a second
loop with a native tempo of 163 BPM at bar one and
play back, it’ll be a timing train wreck. This is where the
Use Best Sounding Project Tempo window comes
in. Clicking Yes when this window pops up automatically
changes the project’s tempo to match the first loop’s
native tempo. Additional clips dragged into a project are
automatically adjusted to match the project tempo. Now
everything plays in sync. Mixcraft works a similar kind of
magic with key signatures by transposing imported clips
to match the project key signature (which is displayed and
adjustable in the Transport Bar)
.