Manual volume ramp lengths: --------------------------- If you need more control over the transition to the new volume, it can be set manually by entering "rmp" on the line after your volume entry. This is followed by a tab and then the transition time in seconds. The ramp will begin at the time position above it. So be aware that if you want a 5 second fade into a chorus at 30 seconds into your song, you would need to have a time entry at 25 seconds into the songs. This is how it would look: t 0 25 0 v 1 -8 rmp 5 For an instrument to fade out at the end of a song you might have something like this: t 3 40 0 v 9 -48 rmp 20 Above, track 9 will start to fade from whatever volume it is at down to -48 dB starting at 3 minutes and 40 seconds. The transition will happen over a 20 second interval so by 4 minutes the fade will be complete. If you happen to make the interval longer than the time remaining in the song, the ramp length will be automatically recalculated. Manual volume ramp shapes: -------------------------- Beginning in version 1.063 you can change the shape of a manual volume ramp. You must set the ramp time as show above. The shape of the ramp is entered by beginning a line with "shape" on a line below "rmp". Then enter a tab and the desired shape. The shape must be a positive number, but it can be any any decimal number. By default, a ramp's shape is set to 1. This will give a linear transition with respect to change in decibels over the ramp time. A value between 0 and 1 would make the initial part of the ramp steep and the end of the ramp gradual. A value greater than 1 would make the initial part of the ramp gradual and the end of the ramp steep. Any positive number from 0.125 to 8.0 can be entered. Values between 0.5 and 2 will probably be most useful. For a 15 second fadeout that begins quickly and tapers off slowly, change the start time (it is set to 4 minutes below) and then enter the following: t 4 0 0 v M -96 rmp 15 shape 0.5 Above, "M" stands for master fader. Its volume should also be set a time 0. Incrementing the volume: ------------------------ By beginning a line in the faders.txt file with inc you can increment/increase the current automation time value by a number of seconds or fractions of a second. This allows you to use the t command to set the major time entries that might correspond to song parts such as chorus 1 or verse 2. Then the "inc" command can be used to quickly add additional time in that part. For example: t 1 30 500 v 1 -6 v 2 -4 inc 1.5 v 1 -1 v 2 -1 Above, "t" sets a time entry at 1 min, 30 sec, and 500 msec for channels 1 and 2. The inc line that follow inserts another time entry at 1.5 seconds later. If you followed one inc command with another one, the new time entry will be increased not from the first time entry using t, but from whatever the previous inc command had increased the time to. You can think of the inc command as updating the current time position. Offsetting automation entry time for an individual channel: ----------------------------------------------------------- Suppose you would like to use a "t" entry to designate the downbeat of a major part of a song, but perhaps the guitar comes in a little before that time entry. You can use the "ofs" command after you have made a volume entry to offset the guitar's time entry by a number of seconds compared to the current time setting. This setting only affects the one channel on a line above it. You will probably want to use this before you set any volume ramps on a line that follows. For example: t 1 0 0 v 1 -6 ofs -0.5 v 2 -8 In the above example, channel 1 has an automation entry at 1 minute minus 0.5 seconds and channel two will have an entry at just 1 minute. Note that like the ramp (rmp) function, the ofs function needs to appear after you have declared a new channel. But, the inc command (see above) needs to appear before a new channel just as you would use a regular time entry. Setting the Volume Change Rate: ------------------------------- You can set the rate of normal volume changes in decibels per second. In the prefs.txt file start a line with "dbps" followed by a tab and the decibel value. This must be a positive non-zero number. This does not affect ramps where you enter a defined length, just the normal "quick" changes. VCA Faders ---------- Beginning in version 1.15 vca style faders can be used. You are able to assign any number of channels to one of 8 vca faders, and by changing the value of the vca fader, all channels assigned to it change by the same amount. This is similar, but different from a submix. In a submix, the channels assigned to it actually get mixed before the submix channel's effects or gain. With a vca fader, the channels do not change their routing or get mixed together because of the vca fader. One application is for drum tracks with reverb on the toms only, for example. In a submix situation, decreasing the submix fader would not decrease the reverb since the signal to the sends from the tom channels has not decreased. With a vca fader, the level of the individual channels and therefore the signal sent to the reverb is decreased so that the reverb will drop with the dry signal. There are 8 vca faders available complete with automation including volume ramps. A channel can only be assigned to one vca fader at a time. Submix channels and the master fader can also be assigned to a vca fader! Recall that regular channel number are 1-127. When assigning to a vca fader, the master fader is channel 0. And submix channels use channel numbers 128-135. Assigning channels to a vca fader is essentially like assigning channels to a submix. In the faders.txt file begin a line with "VCA:" and then a tab, enter the vca fader number 1-8 and a tab, then enter the channels assigned to it with a comma between them. For example, to assign tracks 1-6 to vca fader 1 enter VCA: 1 1,2,3,4,5,6 To enter a volume setting for a vca fader, use the command "vca" instead of "v". This is followed by the vca channel number and volume setting, all tab separated. To set vca fader 1 to -6 dB you would enter vca 1 -6