IX Strip attempts to provide most of the functions found on a single channel strip of a mixing console. It features Gain, Pan, EQ and Phase controls and implements it's own internal mute/solo logic. Not exactly the cutting edge of DSP but hopefully quite useful.
Parameters:
Gain | Boost/Cut +60/-120 dB. |
Level | Output level expressed as percentage. |
Pan | A pan control. |
Solo | See below. |
Mute | See below. |
Invert | Phase invert switch. |
EQ Bypass | Disable all EQ params. |
Four bands of parametric EQ with the following controls: | |
EQ(n) | On/Off switch. |
Freq | Centre frequency. |
Q | Q control. |
Gain | Boost/Cut +30/-60 dB. |
High and Low shelving with the following controls: | |
?? Shelf | On/Off switch. |
Freq | Boundary frequency. |
Gain | Boost/Cut +30/-60 dB |
High and Low cut filters with the following controls: | |
?? Cut | On/Off switch. |
Freq | Boundary frequency. |
Strength | Number of filter passes. |
Attributes:
Gain Inertia(ms) | 1 - 1000 (default 100). Approximate inertia time for gain changes, in milliseconds. |
Pan Inertia(ms) | 1 - 1000 (default 100). Approximate inertia time for panning changes, in milliseconds. |
EQ Inertia(ms) | 1 - 1000 (default 100). Approximate inertia time for EQ parameter changes, in milliseconds. |
Ignore Mutes from Group | 0 - 9 (default 0). See below. |
Mute Inertia(ms) | 1 - 100 (default 10). Approximate inertia time for mute/un-mute events, in milliseconds. |
Right-click menus.
Machine->Solo | As solo parameter, see below. Checked when solo active. |
Machine->Mute | As mute parameter, see below. Checked when mute active. |
Machine->Solo Exclusive | Mute all other Strips regardless of group, even ones that are solo'd. |
Machine->Solo Ex in Group(n) | Mute all other Strips in this group, even ones that are solo'd. |
Group->Solo Group(n) | Mute all Strips not in this group, nothing is actually solo'd. |
Group->Mute Group(n) | Mute all machines in this group. |
Group->Un-Mute Group(n) | Un-Mute all machines in this group. |
Set Group->(n) | Set this machine's mute/solo group to (n). Be aware that this will trigger an 'Un-Mute All'. |
Un-Mute All | Clear mute/solo from all machines. |
Info | Launches a dialog to display information about the status of all Strips. |
Mute/Solo Behaviour:
Strip's mute/solo switches do not behave in the same way as Buzz's own mute/solo functions and affect only other Strips. Each Strip belongs to a group and using the mute/solo switches will affect only other machines in that group. The effect of the mute/solo switches on an individual Strip will vary according to the mute/solo state of the other machines in the group. The logic is intended to mimic the mute/solo functions found on most mixing desks.
The attribute 'Ignore Mutes from Group' allows you to prevent an individual Strip from being muted due to soloing of other Strips. The default value is 0 (off/none), 1-8 will cause the machine to ignore remote mutes triggered by machines in that group. Setting the attribute to 9 will cause the machine to ignore all remote mutes.
New Strips are assigned to group one by default. If any machine in group one is solo'd then the new Strip will be created with it's solo switch active.
Deleting a Strip that is solo'd will un-mute it's group if the deleted machine was the only solo'd machine in the group.
The mute/un-mute routine uses volume ramping to avoid clicks. The time taken by the ramping is half of the 'Gain Inertia' setting in milliseconds.
Known Problems
It was reported that loading an earlier beta of Strip via Polac VST caused buzz to crash when using the mute/solo functions. This is probably still the case. Sorry.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to all the users at www.buzzchurch.com who have helped me in the making and testing of this machine. Special thanks are due to BTD, Kibibu and Kevin for providing various code snippets and for putting up with all my newbie coder questions. The EQ algorithms are based on the Cookbook Filters by Robert Bristow-Johnson which can be easily found on the web.
Contact
If you've got any comments, requests, bug reports, whatever, you can find me in the forums at buzzchurch (username 'd9') or you can mail me via deenine[at]hotmail[dot]co[dot]uk (but don't expect a quick reply.)
Disclaimer
This is the first machine I've made and I'm strictly amateur so use it at your own risk. If it kills your computer, take comfort in the fact that it'll probably kill mine too.
- IX