MACKIE HDR24/96 - Manual (Page 54)

HDR 24/96
Don’t confuse Shuttle, Jog, or Scrub with a variable speed function. While you can vary the
playback speed manually in these modes, once you enter the Record mode, you’re back to
standard speed. The HDR24/96 does not allow you to record off-speed.
Also note that you can't enable Shuttle, Jog or Scrub while in Record or Record Standby, and
pressing the Record button will not disable any of these modes. You can enable Record while in
Scrub mode, but not while scrubbing. If you start recording while in scrub mode, then try to
actual scrub, it will end the recording pass.
The Autolocator
What is an Autolocator?
Essentially, an Autolocator is a transport control system, which keeps track of important "points"
within the timeline of your project then allows you to easily and quickly move between such
points. In addition to moving around within your project, the Autolocator provides integrated
commands that combine the locating process with actual operation of the transport in some
prescribed way. All of these Autolocating features are pointed toward doing audio production-
tasks with the least amount of
work on your part.
The idea of an Autolocator was hatched in a time when
tape ruled. Getting around on tape was a mysterious art,
and getting the play head to a new location on the tape
could be quite time consuming, particularly when the tape
needed to travel a long way to get where you wanted it.
Tape Counters and then Time Code striping made the
locating process easier. But still when the necessary tape
movement was time-consuming, the operator didn't really
want to watch over it just to hit STOP at the desired point.
So tape machines (and/or machine controllers) were
designed to watch the time code and stop and reposition
the tape to the point specified by the operator.
Autolocator technology was in those days an example of
partially digital control over an analog medium. With
refinement, Autolocating became quite effective, and a lot
of engineers and recordists became well versed in its
methods. In fact, a fairly extensive and well-conceived
feature set for both the audio recording and mixing
processes became somewhat standardized on the
Autolocator. Fast forward to today; pardoning the pun,
and we find that digital random access has eliminated the
rewind times, so what do we get from an Autolocator?
Well, the answer is "everything else." The paradigm for
Autolocating was so well thought-out over so many years,
that frankly it's hard to improve upon it (even though we
did, just a little).
In the HDR 24/96 the
Autolocator is a complete
framework for operation. How
much of it you use and how you
access those features will
depend greatly on your
application and working style.
When you operate the HDR
from the Remote 48 you will
find that the paradigm very
closely matches that of previous
tape-based Autolocator
technology. In the GUI, certain
things change slightly to
accommodate the advantages of
an interface that can present
multiple values on various parts
of the screen all at once. In
many cases this makes the GUI
easier. However, the GUI
requires you to pick up a mouse
and point the cursor at
sometimes-small displays. So if
you have a Remote 48 there are
many instances where its key
sequences are much faster.
Setting and Editing Times
The two most compete implementations of the HDR 24/96 Autolocator are found in the GUI and on
the Remote 48. However, these two interfaces differ considerably in the way that time values are
entered and edited. The GUI displays most of its time values, all of the time, and any time can be
directly entered and edited. The Remote 48 must Recall its times.
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