User Manual

Spanner 3.0 User Manual
key modifier
shortcuts:
on pan-pucks:
opt-click = reset
cmd = link-pairs/toe
shift = move absolute
opt + (any others) = link all
cmd-shift-opt = rotate
right-click = z-axis
shift-right = main mix gain
ctrl-right = center %
on solo checkboxes:
click = inter-cancel
shift-click = add solo
opt-click = solo all on/off
cmd-click = toggle all
independently
Spanner 3.0 requires Mac OS 10.8 or greater with Pro Tools 11 or greater.
AAX Native, DSP and Audiosuite are supported in most formats from mono to 7.1.2
The Spancontrol 2.5 iPad app requires iOS6 or greater on iPad.
overlay window
the overlay window is designed to be set over top of the Pro Tools movie window and provide
a means of seeing pan position in realtime against the actual image.
the visibility, the size and the position of the overlay is remembered in a preferences file so
you should only ever need to arrange the window once (unless you move your QT window
around)
the overlay contains a duplicate set of pan-dots which can be directly controlled by mouse, or
alternatively you can pan using the original GUI or a control surface.
any time the GUI is visible and pan position is changing you will see a coloured vertical line
following the position of the pan.
the colours of these lines correspond to the colours of the input channel dots in the panfield.
the window is fully resizable so you can set the width to account for speaker placement or
match to the size of frame for the most theoretically accurate pan.
overlays are also now possible on Video Slave 3.3 or greater. you should first launch VS and
then open the session. any spanner UI which is opened will immediately connect to VS and
start sending it pan information. if an instance has failed to connect to VS, simply de/re-
activate it and open the UI.
"shortcut" controls
on most hardware controllers you will find a set of controls which are not present on the GUI.
these are non-automatable "meta-parameters" which actually control the real parameters Pan
and Fad.
these are intended to give more practical control of multichannel stems from a console and
have been included as the first page of controls on most surfaces.
the shortcut controls are pretty self explanatory but the distinction between spin and rotate is
worth noting.
spin and rotate
the spin and rotate controls are non-automatable meta-parameters - that is, they control the
Pan and Fad (X and Y dimensions) rather than affecting the audio themselves.
rotate (rot8) spins all channels around +/- 180 degrees from the centred fader.
spin will set the channels rotating continuously at a speed relative to the position of the fader
- so pushing the fader slightly up from center rotates slowly clockwise, pull the fader all the
way down and the spinning is fast and anti-clockwise.
output solos
the output solo buttons are non-automatable but feature a rich set of modifier key behaviours
which enable some interesting workflows.
these solo the output signal from each channel rather than the input channels represented by
all the other controls in the GUI.
note that opt-click will put all channels into solo (no audible change) and from this point the
checkboxes can effectively act as mutes.
it is also possible to solo the front 3 channels and then, using the cmd modifier, toggle back
and forth between front and rear.
"pimp meters"
this is a non-automatable parameter which can be set per instance.
it's purpose is to change the scale of the meter to give much greater resolution in the low
level part of it's range.
this mode is particularly useful for post production mixing and editing where low level
ambience material often exists.
smoothing
the smoothing control is non-automatable and not even really a parameter as far as the plugin