HDR 24 24/96 TECHNICAL REFERENCE 24 TRACK/24 BIT, DIGITAL AUDIO HARD DISK RECORDER AND EDITOR
HD24/96 Technical Reference 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS FOREWORD ................................................................................................................................. 7 About This Manual/How To Use This Guide ..................................................................................... 7 CONVENTIONS ............................................................................................................................. 7 Text Conventions....................................
HD24/96 Technical Reference 3 History List – Undo and Re-do..................................................................................................................... 21 FILE MANAGEMENT ................................................................................................................. 22 Projects and Playlists – Keeping Track of the Files .......................................................................... 22 What’s A Project?.................................................
HD24/96 Technical Reference 4 Auto Take .......................................................................................................................................... 41 Record Time Left............................................................................................................................... 41 MONITOR MODES ..................................................................................................................... 41 All Input....................................
HD24/96 Technical Reference 5 Region Length .............................................................................................................................................. 56 Fade In and Fade Out .................................................................................................................................. 56 Envelope Active ............................................................................................................................................
HD24/96 Technical Reference 6 APPENDIX C – NETWORKING (FTP) SETUP ............................................................................ 84 Peer to Peer Networking .................................................................................................................... 84 Required Cables and Hardware ................................................................................................................... 84 Hardware Interconnection ...............................................
HD24/96 Technical Reference 7 Foreword Welcome Aboard! Thank you for choosing the Mackie Designs HDR24/96 Hard Disk Recorder - a benchmark in affordable professional multitrack audio recording. Occupying only 4U of rack mount space, the HDR combines the familiarity of a multitrack tape recorder with a powerful, built-in DAW-style editor. About This Manual/How To Use This Guide Your HDR24/96 instruction manual comes in three parts.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 8 Hardware Overview The HDR24/96 has two user interfaces. The front panel controls are designed so that you can operate it just like any other multitrack recorder. Other than the naming of projects to assist you with session record keeping, if you’re familiar with multitrack recorders, there are very few unfamiliar operations. Using only the front panel controls, you can perform all of the normal recording, playback, backup, and file management operations.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 9 Pairs of SELECT buttons with << >> displayed above them are used to select among choices or move a cursor v through a text field. The (-)DEC and (+)INC (decrement and increment) buttons scroll through choices in the active field. Sometimes they duplicate the << >> buttons, and at other times, they interact, where the << >> buttons select the character which will be changed by the DEC and INC buttons.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 10 Status LEDs The group of LEDs to the left of the time code display indicates the state of several of the current setup options. 44.1k, 48k and 96k LEDs indicate the selected sample rate. VARI indicates that the sample rate is controlled by an external word clock source or video sync signal. 16 BIT and 24 BIT indicate the selected word length. ERROR indicates a clock or synchronization error, for example, a word clock frequency that is out of range.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 11 All the other controls have been addressed in the Quick Start Guide. Refer to that guide for their descriptions. Rear Panel The I/O slots and connectors for the remote, footswitch, keyboard, mouse, and monitor are explained in the Quick Start Guide. Here are a few more details about what you’ll find on the rear panel.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 12 The top portion of the screen contains the Tools/Meters panel and Transport Controls. The transport control buttons will be used throughout all project operations, whereas Meters are typically used during Tracking and Tools are typically used during Edit operations. This is why that portion of the screen is shared between the two functions.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 13 GUI Conventions Mouse Clicking Left click Most of the time when we say “click”, we mean left-click, that is, a single click of the left mouse button when the cursor is pointing to the text or object you want to change or move. Text menu items are selected with a single point-and-click operation. Time fields such as locate points and the time code display can be edited by clicking on a numeric field and dragging the mouse pointer up or down.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 14 dragging the title bar allows the window to be placed elsewhere within the confines of the screen. Most windows will float and can be condensed to only the title bar with the exception of the 'window-like' Lists. In some windows, you’ll find a Zoom box on the title bar which expands the window to maximum screen size, and a resize tab (lower right hand corner) to tailor the size to your liking.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 15 Shortcuts (modifiers) Shortcuts are made up of key combinations with the shift, control, and alt keys leading the pack for 'buddy' keys - the keys that need to pal along with pressing some other key in order to accomplish some operation without having to click and drag. For example, pressing the Ctrl plus the 'N' key will start a New Project operation. See the shortcuts list in the appendix. Numeric Keypad The numeric keypad is used for quick Cue point entry and location.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 16 Time Bar At the highest resolution, the display is approximately 12 milliseconds wide, or about half a video frame. At the lowest resolution, full scale of the display is 24 hours, the maximum recording time of the HDR24/96. The left and right arrow buttons to the left of the time/marker bar expand and contract the track display in time. Use high resolution when editing samples or small regions, use lower resolution to get the big picture of your project.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 17 virtual takes, and regions. The right section, which can be opened or closed, depending on what you want to see at the moment, contains the List Panel (see page 20). Track Area Scrolling Conventions The vertical and horizontal scroll bars that frame the track area are standard GUI tools. Scroll thumb buttons (resembling console fader knobs) appear along the scroll bar whenever the track screen is expanded so that there are more tracks than are visible on the screen.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 18 will play off screen and remain out of view. The Auto Scroll button blinking indicates that a zoom level has been selected that the auto-scroll function cannot track. Screen Drag (Special Scroll) Mode Holding the D key down when the cursor is in the track area temporarily changes the cursor into a hand icon with which to drag the screen in any direction, to the extent of the minimum or maximum axis values.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 19 Take View and Active Take Number Buttons The Active Take is the one that you’ll hear in playback or to which you’ll record. Since only one virtual take can be active at a time, the number displayed in the Active Take button indicates which of the eight takes is currently active. Clicking on a track’s Active Take button pops up a list box allowing you to select the active take. The number within the button changes accordingly to match the selected take.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 20 record the same tracks (name them for your band members or instruments) or are creating a new project for each song in a live session. If you work on a variety of projects, however, you’ll probably have different track names for every project, so you might as well retain the old, boring defaults and enter new names as you work.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 21 RENUM(ber) changes all the cue numbers so that they’re sequential with increasing time and contiguously numbered (no missing numbers as a result of deleted cues). Despite the ominous warning message which appears when renumbering the cue list, LOC points are not affected by this operation, nor are cue names or times changed. STORE changes the time of the currently highlighted Cue to the current transport time.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 22 File Management Projects and Playlists – Keeping Track of the Files What’s A Project? A Project contains all the audio that you’ve recorded while that project name is active. It also contains all the Playlists for that project, as well as housekeeping data such as sample rate and bit depth. What’s A Playlist? A Playlist is a road map for playback of all the audio files recorded for a project.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 23 convenient to back up a single song on a removable Mackie Media PROJECT removable cartridge, or hand off a song to your bandmate who has an HDR24/96 so he can add his tracks to it. If you’re recording commercials, you may wish to create a new Project for each client and make each commercial a Playlist.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 24 the New Project dialog box, select the drive you want to create the Project on from the Drive Select list box, then type in the Project name and click New. NOTE: You cannot use the following characters in Project names: / \ : * ? “ < > | . They are reserved for use by the system. Open Project Open Project opens an existing Project that has previously been saved on disk.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 25 If the Active Drive does not contain the Project you wish to Rename, press Disk Util and select Set. Change the Active Drive to the target drive from the Select Active Drive menu, and select OK. Press Project and then Page Right one screen. Select Rename. Using the << and >> Select buttons, choose the Project you wish to Rename and Select Ok.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 26 To reset the Template to the factory defaults (See Appendix B for the default settings): From the File menu, select Reset Template. Click OK in the Confirm Reset Template dialog box. Playlist Management Regions A region is a graphic representation of an entire audio file or a portion thereof. A region contains editable start and end boundaries (or borders) which define the start and end times of the audio file for playback and looping purposes.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 27 A region in the Region List can be renamed by double clicking on its name field and typing the new name. This does not automatically change the name of that region in the Playlist (the track area), however, when a renamed region is dragged from the Region List on to a track, it will carry the new name.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 28 This is a convenient way of managing a section of a song that you wish to use in multiple places. It differs from copying a region in that it does not use the clipboard, and it makes a permanent copy of the selected area as an audio file. Capture Region doesn’t work across region boundaries in the Playlist but it carries fades and volume envelope changes that have been applied to it. The selected area must be from a single region.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 29 Project’s tracks to another system. Because tracks rendered as a group create regions all having the same start and end times, by aligning the start of each file with a common marker, tracks can be kept synchronized. A Rendered track is placed in the Project’s Rendered file folder (see page 60) and on its Regions List, and it can be dragged from the Regions List into the project track area, imported into another project, or exported to a workstation.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 30 Selecting Yes clears the History list and Saves the Project, allowing you to delete all Recorded Regions not present in the Playlist. Selecting either Yes or No brings up the Purge Current Project dialog containing a list of all Recorded Regions slated for Purge. Click OK to delete all the Regions in the list, or select the specific Regions you wish to Purge, then click OK.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 31 Now you have heard it twice. So, after you unthinkingly put the PROJECT disk with the only copy of that symphony you just recorded on top of that subwoofer with the 150 lb. magnet, you’ll need to stay after session and write “I will back all my Projects onto two media” 100 times on the chalkboard. Media Management Formatting Drives Formatting a drive erases the drive contents and prepares the file system for use with the HDR24/96.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 32 Select Set Active Drive from the File menu, then select External from the pop-up menu. Select Format Drive from the File menu. Click Ok to format, or click Cancel to quit before formatting. When the format operation has completed, another message will appear prompting you to Verify the drive for recording and playback.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 33 Press the Disk Util button. Select Mount. Press the Disk Util button again to exit after the mounting operation is complete. To Refresh the Project file lists from the GUI: Select Mount/Refresh Drives from the File menu. The Refresh command is also conveniently located in the Open Project, Project Manager, and Import Audio Files dialog boxes.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 34 If the recorder is recording while chasing incoming time code, STOP will drop the HDR24/96 out of record status, even though time code continues to roll. If you’ve entered the Record mode with no tracks armed (by pressing PLAY and RECORD, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves here – see page 38), pressing STOP will take the master record button out of standby (flashing LED) status. The space bar is the keyboard shortcut for toggling between STOP and PLAY.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 35 panel or the remote controllers sends the transport immediately to the time set for that LOC point. There are, however, no equivalent buttons on the GUI. LOCs 1 and 2 can be accessed from the HDR 24/96 front panel, while all four LOCs can be accessed from the remote controllers. From the GUI, you can view and adjust the LOC times but you can’t jump directly to them. LOC 1 and LOC 2 do double duty as loop start and end points when the transport Loop function is selected.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 36 will be stored. If you press STORE a second time without storing a LOC time, the Store operation is cancelled. Looping (LOC 1 and LOC 2) Loop is a tool to repeat playback or recording from one point in time (Loop Start) to another (Loop End). The LOOP button toggles the loop function.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 37 comfortable time before your punch-in point, and as soon as you jump to that start point, you’re rolling. Auto Play is accessible only from the GUI Tools panel. The AUTO PLAY button is located at the lower right corner of the Tools panel, next to the GUI transport buttons. Cues Cues are Locate points accessible from the GUI that you can set anywhere in the project.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 38 ANOTHER NOTE: The HDR24/96 does not resolve its word clock to incoming time code, it only uses time code to synchronize transport time. Once the HDR transport has jumped to the time code time and started running, it runs on its internal clock, while continuously monitoring the incoming time code. It will stay locked as long as the time code doesn’t drop out or otherwise become corrupt for longer than its “flywheel” window of ten frames.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 39 Press or click on a Record Ready button. This stops recording on the disarmed track, but leaves the transport running. Whenever the transport is stopped, whether with the STOP button or when time code stops, the HDR24/96 drops out of Record mode. To record again, you must press the RECORD button again.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 40 Record Safe Record Safe locks out all Record Ready and Master Record switches. Any tracks that are armed become disarmed when Record Safe is activated. If the transport is running in Master Record mode (whether actually recording or not), the record operation is canceled. In the GUI, the Record Safe button is located on the pull-down menu under Transport. On the front panel, you’ll find the REC SAFE button above the floppy disk drive.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 41 button, and you can use the RECORD button to punch in and out anywhere within the Punch region. Automatic punching can only be set up, enabled, and disabled from the GUI or the remote controllers. Once the punch-in and -out points are set, you can use either the front panel, GUI, or remote controllers to control recording in the Punch mode. Punch must be disengaged in order to manually control recording operations outside of the Punch area.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 42 On the front panel, All Input and Auto Input buttons are located on the front panel in the area above the floppy disk drive. All Input All Input is most often used for rehearsal and level setting. When All Input is ON, both armed and unarmed tracks monitor their Inputs, and the Auto Input setting has no effect. When All Input is OFF, the output monitoring is determined by the Auto Input function. Auto Input Auto Input is used for recording.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 43 any soloed track will change its status to Mute. Tracks only unmute when the last Solo is turned off. When any track is in Solo, the muted tracks cannot be unmuted by clicking on their Mute buttons. Also, Mutes override Solos. It’s possible to have a track in both Solo and Mute status at the same time, in which case you won’t hear that track. If this all sounds confusing, experiment. You’ll catch on.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 44 Average Meter Mode has a slower response, somewhat like an analog VU meter. The meters move more smoothly than in the Peak mode, representing the average signal level. Which to use? Most people like watching VU meters, but in the digital world, peakresponding meters are really more informative. Since they inform you of every peak as it comes along, you have a reliable warning that you’re recording too hot or not hot enough. The choice is yours.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 45 Editing Operations Editing on the HDR24/96 is based around regions. If you’re an old hand at workstations, you’re probably already familiar with the concept of Regions. Feel free to breeze through this section and rejoin the class when we discuss tools. All editing operations are performed on screen through the GUI, so all the discussion in this section applies to GUI operations and displays only.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 46 The entire selection (at its present length) can be repositioned by dragging the gray area on the time bar. Multiple Area Selection To make the same selection on multiple tracks, after an area is selected on one track, Ctrl-click anywhere in another track’s area to duplicate the selection on the other track. Shift-clicking on another track will duplicate the selection on all the tracks between the first one selected and the one on which the mouse pointer is clicked.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 47 group with the hand tool. Alternately you can wire-frame select Regions by clicking in an empty Track area or ALT+clicking over a Region and dragging a wire frame around the Regions you wish to select. This method selects every Region both inside and intersecting the wire frame. Double-clicking on a track number selects all the regions in the active take of that track.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 48 Selection Start (left), Selection End (right), Selection (center) boxes These three boxes select whether the left boundary, right boundary, or the entire selection or region will be nudged. These are “radio buttons” - only one may be active at a time. When the Hand tool is selected, the boxes contain a waveform icon, indicating that portions of a region will be nudged.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 49 Edit operations may be undone or re-done in the order on which they appear on the History list. History List With the history list, editing isn't like heart surgery – the History list offers a safety net to undo any series of editing operations. The History List is discussed in detail in the List Panel section (page 21).
HD24/96 Technical Reference 50 clipboard along with areas of recorded audio. If pasted elsewhere, the pasted section will include the blank space. The Copy command is accessible from the pulldown Edit menu at the top of the GUI screen, or by clicking on the COPY button on the Tools panel. The keyboard shortcut is Ctrl-C. Paste Paste places the current contents of the clipboard onto the selected track, beginning at the Current Time.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 51 Snap and Snap-to Functions When Snap is enabled, dragged objects such as regions or selection lines no longer move smoothly, with seemingly infinite resolution. Instead they snap to fixed time increments with magnetic allegiance - i.e. they move smoothly, but when a virtual (and invisible) grid line is crossed, they stick briefly so you’ll know you’re in line time-wise with the snap grid.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 52 Sixteenth note Sixteenth note triplet Snap to Cues When Snap to Cues is enabled, the snap function will allow dragged objects and selections to 'cling' to any nearby Cue time. Region Manipulation Tools and Functions The I-Beam and Hand tools can be used to redefine and adjust the Start or End of regions. As a reminder, the start and end points of the region that you see on the screen may not necessarily be those of the original waveform file.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 53 Ctrl-click when dragging combines Copy and Paste operations, leaving the region in its original place and putting a copy elsewhere in the track area. Shift-click when dragging allows you to move a region, but constrains it in time. It can move vertically (to another track or take) but can’t move horizontally. This is particularly useful when building a composite track from multiple takes. It keeps things locked in time (of course you can do fine adjustments later).
HD24/96 Technical Reference 54 adjustable from zero to nearly the entire region length, with three different volume curve shapes. The crossfade occurs in the area where the regions overlap, but, since regions and crossfade times can be resized at any time, it’s easy to move the point at which the crossfade occurs and adjust the crossfade length for a smooth-sounding transition.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 55 Pressing the Shift key when the Node tool is active turns the pencil cursor into a doubleheaded vertical arrow. This tool allows you to drag the envelope line vertically and parallel to itself. In reality, it’s dragging the pair of nodes that define the line segment. If the envelope line is horizontal, Shift-clicking and dragging the line adjusts the overall playback level of the track.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 56 have a region with no name - i.e. left blank or erased on purpose. There’s nothing functionally wrong with that as long as you have some way of identifying the region when you need to do so (listening to it works fine). Naming is up to the recording engineer's discretion. It's good housekeeping practice to name Regions uniquely for ease of editing, manipulation and reference purposes, but unless your project involves a lot of editing, don’t go overboard.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 57 There are three selectable fade curves, which determine the rate of change of volume over the fade time - slow, linear and fast. Your ears will tell you which one works best for the application. Adjusting fades is best done interactively – listen, adjust, listen again. You may find it convenient to set up a loop around the fade region so that you can fine tune while listening.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 58 Region Lock status is a toggle. Unlock a locked Region by clicking on the LOCK button in the Region Edit or uncheck Lock from the right-click pop-up menu. NOTE: Region Lock does not prohibit recording over a Region. If you want to protect a Region from recording, move or copy it into another track or virtual take. System Setup The Setup menu, accessible from the GUI Windows menu or from the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+1 controls several of the HDR24/96 system level options.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 59 SYSTEM button. Appendix C contains information you’ll need to know when setting up your HDR24/96 for file transfers over a network. Digital I/O When DIO•8 or PDI•8 cards are installed in the HDR24/96 I/O slots, a pulldown menu will appear for each installed card. Setup options for each card are addressed in the Quick Start Guide and in further detail in Appendix A. The equivalent setup options are available from the front panel using the DIGI-I/O button.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 60 Generate MTC / SMPTE In the GUI window, these check boxes select whether MIDI time code or SMPTE time code (or both) will be generated. There are direct equivalents in the front panel SYNC menu. Be careful not to switch to Generate MTC when you have a time code source connected to the SMPTE jack. Outputs often don’t like to be connected to other outputs. Note: It is not possible to both generate and chase to SMPTE time code simultaneously.
HD24/96 Technical Reference Cache File 61 A folder containing audio file waveform image data. Cache files have a “.WFO” file extension. Each folder containing audio also files also contains a Cache folder. Cache files cannot be used by other systems and can be excluded from FTP backup and restore operations to save on storage space and reduce transfer times. The HDR24/96 automatically regenerates missing Cache files when the Project is opened.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 62 Voice Over.wav Cache Voice Over.wfo If you’re familiar with file management on computers, you’ll see something a bit surprising here. Note that, in this project, we’ve imported a file from another Project that has the same name as an originally recorded file in the current Project – easy to do when files are named automatically and generically. Examining the Region list for the LuigiPizzaJingle project would show two regions named Voice Over.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 63 Appendix A – Menu Tables GUI Menus Following is a description of the selections under the top-level pulldown menus. Many of these functions are described in detail in other sections of this manual. This table will be helpful in locating the correct menu for the function that you wish to select. If a menu selection has a shortcut from the keyboard, the shortcut keys are listed next to the selection.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 64 button. Save As New Template Shift-click and Ctrl-click may be used to select multiple projects for copying and deleting A TEMPLATE contains basic setup information which will open a new project with a known set of defaults which includinge such parameters as sample rate, word length, clock source, and track names. There is a factory default template which is used if a new template has not been saved.
HD24/96 Technical Reference Mount/Refresh Drives Set Active Drive Run FTP Server (Ctrl-f) Shutdown (Ctrl-q) 65 formatting, drive performance is automatically verified. Typically this utility is used to check a drive which you are installing yourself, purchased from an outside source. A housekeeping utility that assures that the (removable) drives and their contents are seen or updated by the operating system.
HD24/96 Technical Reference Delete (Delete) Capture Region (Ctrl-r) Paste Repeat Insert Time (Ctrl-i) Split Crop (Ctrl-t) Select All (Ctrl-a) Region Edit (Ctrl-e) Render Tracks 66 highlighted) at the position of the current time bar. This selection is grayed-out if there is nothing on the clipboard to paste. Almost the same as Cut, but with an important difference. A Deleted region is not moved to the Clipboard. After deleting, the Clipboard retains its former contents.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 67 may be comprised of many regions. The new file will be contiguous, including all blank spaces and audio from all the selected regions. Typically this function would be used if you wanted to export an edited track to an external workstation for further processing or editing. Rendering works on multiple tracks as well, allowing a multitrack project to be exported to an external workstation with the starting point of all the tracks aligned in time.
HD24/96 Technical Reference Snap To Grid Grid Setting Solo Latch 68 times) will snap to cue points on the Marker Bar. When Snapping is enabled, the various pointers will snap to discrete points on the Time bar. Resolution of the snap timesintervals areis set with the Grid Setting option. Selects the resolution of the “snap-to” times when Snap To Grid and Snapping are active.
HD24/96 Technical Reference One Button Punch Record Safe 69 Enables one-button recording from Play using the the front panel or remote controller Master Record button. Disables recording functions and un-assigns any tracks currently in record-ready. Same as pressing ALL SAFE button on the front panel or remote controller. Playlist Menu Item Save Playlist As Playlist Manager What It Does Allows you to assign a new name to the current Playlist and save it.
HD24/96 Technical Reference Menu Item General Parameter Mouse Speed Waveform Colors Footswitch Footswitch Remote Date/Time FTP Server Digital I/O 70 What It Does Pulldown menu to adjust the cruising speed of the mouse. Pulldown menu to select color the color scheme for the track display. Pulldown menu to select the function of the footswitch plugged into the jack on the rear panel.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 71 PDI•8 LocatorMMC The PDI-8 card can do sample rate conversion of the input data on the fly. Select Convert or not from the pulldown menu for each PDI-8 card. This is a catch-allcatchall for music-related timing functions and MIDI Machine Control device setup. MIDI Tempo Clicking on the Load button will search the floppy Map drive for a Standard MIDI File (.MID extension) from which to extract a tempo map. Files are listed in the pop-up window.
HD24/96 Technical Reference Sync Sample Clock 72 Pull-down menu to select the source for the sample clock. Choices are Internal, External word clock (BNC), or external video (BNC). Internal operates the HDR24/96 on its internal clock. Word Clock (BNC) synchronizes the HDR24/96 to an external word clock source, for example a digital console or a clock generator.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 73 Front Panel Setup and Utility Buttons and Menus The group of front panel buttons above the transport controls open menus in the front panel LCD screen. The following table list the selections available for each button and explains its operation. In general, buttons which are active in any menu will be illuminated, either steady or blinking, to guide you toward the next operation.
HD24/96 Technical Reference Mute 74 << << moves the cursor one position to the left to select the track to be muted or unmuted. The current cursor position is indicated by an Underscore (_) in place of the track number. Mute or unmute the track with the (-) or (+) button. >> As above. Moves the cursor position one position to the right. Mutes the selected track(s) and returns to the TRACK OPTIONS menu. OK PROJECT (FILES MENU) Note: There are five options under this menu.
HD24/96 Technical Reference Open 75 Opens an existing project on the current disk drive. If you want to open a project on another drive, first select the drive using the DISK UTIL menu. The default project name “Startup” is initially displayed. << >> Scrolls through the project names on the currently active disk drive. Pick the one you wish to open. Open Opens the selected project Cancel Leave the current project open. – No options. Saves the current project and its playlist under its current name.
HD24/96 Technical Reference OK 76 Confirms the selection. Backup << >> OK Used to select the name of the project to back up. Starts the backup process. Asks “Are you sure?” OK Makes the backup copy. Cancel Sorry, don’t have time for this now. Cancel Don’t bother. Returns to the top of the Backup menu.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 77 SYSTEM This is a catch-all of assorted system-level functions Menu Selection Submenus FTP SetupETUP TCP What It Does Starts the FTP server. Displays the IP address. Press Continue to exit. Sets the IP addressing parameters IP << >> These buttons move the v cursor through the digits in IP address. The ()DEC (+) and (+)INC (-) buttonskeys scroll through the numbers for the digit indicated by the cursor.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 78 Menu Selection Submenus What It Does In Selects the input port for DIO-8 cards 1-8 Selects the Track 1-8 card for setup 9-16 Selects the Track 9-16 card for setup 17-24 Selects the Track 17-24 card for setup ADAT Selects the ADAT port for input TDIF Selects the TDIF port for input Out Same as above for the output port of the DIO-8 cards StatUser Bits Sets the Channel Status bits (pro/consumer format) for the PDI-8 card. Not applicable for other I/Ocards.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 79 Time Code Rate << >> OK Bit Depth (next page [>])(->) << Selects the time code frame rate: 30, 29.97, 25, and 24 frames/second, with choices of drop frame or non-drop frame for 30 and 29.97 FPS.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 80 OK Negative Used if you need a negative value of TC Offset << OK Exit Video Field (next page [>]) Confirms the setting and returns to the SYNC OPTIONS menu >> Selects On or Off. If On, the TC offset is negative. (Transport time = Incoming time - offset) Confirms the setting and returns to the SYNC OPTIONS menu Exits the time code options and returns to the Sync Options menu. Selects the video frame rate when using Video Blackburst as the clock source.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 81 Appendix B – List of Parameters and How They’re Saved Setup Parameters – What’s Saved and When The HDR24/96 has many setup and configuration parameters and preferences, some of which you must set before use, others that you set in the course of working through your project.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 82 View Waveforms (on/off) TC Chase (internal TC/Chase TC) AutoPlay (on/off) Use Preroll (on/off) Preroll Time Project-Based Parameters These setup parameters may change from project to project. They are saved along with the project. Unless changed, however, they carry over to the next project, even after a shutdown. These are typically “house standards” from which you might deviate when working on special projects.
HD24/96 Technical Reference Nudge Selection Grid Setting Snap Splice Auto X-Fade Snap to Cues Snap to Grid Time Units Default Tempo Track Names 83 Center Ruler Marks Off Off Off Off Onf SMPTE 120 BPM Track 1, Track 2, etc. Parameters Not Saved with a Project The following parameters are not saved when a Project is saved, neither are they retained after a shutdown.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 84 Appendix C – Networking (FTP) Setup The HDR 24/96 comes to you with a handy 10/100mb local area network (LAN) card built in. The main purpose of networking the HDR 24/96 using Ethernet is to share or back up project files to a computer, network server/router or other device with an Ethernet connection and common protocol. The topic of computer networking can get very complex and we can’t give you a complete course here.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 85 Hardware Interconnection For the simple network described here, simply plug one end of the cable into the Ethernet port on the network card installed in the computer. Connect the other end of the cable to the Ethernet port on the HDR24/96. Either end of the cable can go to either device. Computer Software Required Windows 95, 98, NT for the PC or Macintosh 8.6 or higher.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 86 Select FTP Server. Note the IP address displayed. The factory default is 10.10.28.20. If your computer is set up for dynamic IP addressing, you can leave the default address as is or enter an address of your choice. You will need to know the HDR24/96 IP address to set up your FTP client software.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 87 Network | Configuration | TCP/IP | IP Address If you don’t see TCP/IP as a choice in the Configuration window (unusual for standard installations), you’ll need to install it from the Windows installation disk. See “TCP/IP Is Not Listed” below. You may or may not have to make changes to the TCP/IP settings, depending on how your computer is set up.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 88 The Subnet setting on your computer should be set the same as the HDR24/96. You should now be able to engage the “Connect” command and see the contents of the HDR24/96’ hard drive. The internal hard drive is C: the external hard drive is E: Now you can copy files from the HDR 24/96 to your computer, or from your computer to the HDR24/96. Refer to your FTP client program for details. Note: A folder named “System,” and files entitled “mackieos.EXE” and “PME.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 89 and clients employ a user name and password scheme for authorization purposes. The HDR 24/96 FTP implementation sets the client account to anonymous status, thereby allowing any fully functional FTP client to connect to the internal file system of the recorder. Because it’s possible that an unknown computer may connect to the mixer and/or add and delete files, care should be taken when connecting the mixer to a publicly available network (WAN).
HD24/96 Technical Reference 90 Appendix D – Synchronization If you had only one piece of gear in your studio which recorded and played audio, life would be dandy and chances are you wouldn’t be reading this section. But because you are, we’ll assume that your life has been complicated by the need to get several pieces of equipment to record and play back in sync with each other.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 91 before you can actually see a discrepancy between their time displays. This rate of sample clock drift is actually quite normal. Understanding the simple fact of clock drift puts you way ahead of most people in understanding how synchronization works. Going back to the watch analogy, let’s suppose we were able to get two wrist watches to run at exactly the same speed.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 92 Sample Clocks of both units are locked to each other, it doesn’t matter which unit generates time code. The example below shows a different way of setting up two HDR24/96 units that is also correct. In this example the machine on the left generates word clock and locks to time code, and the machine on the right locks to word clock and generates time code.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 93 The answer is that time code is used to synchronize the transport position, and word clock to synchronize the sample clock rate/speed of multiple devices. Although word clock synchronization always controls the sample rate of the slave units in the same way, there are two basic ways digital audio devices handle time code synchronization. Jam Sync Jam Sync is the method used in the HDR24/96, as well as every digital tape machine and most digital audio workstations.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 94 requirement for sample clock synchronization. MIDI data can be transmitted as soon as an external device tells it that it is time to go. If the time code source speeds up or slows down, the MIDI sequencer follows it. As long as the sequencer is a time code slave, there is no possibility for drift to occur.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 95 Basically, 29.97 fps time code is exactly the same as 30 fps time code except that it has been slowed down by about .1% so that it runs at the NTSC color video frame rate. The good news is that if you don’t produce anything that is going to synchronize to color NTSC video, you don’t need to use 29.97 fps time code. Even though the invention of 29.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 96 Video Synchronization Because analog systems do not have sample clocks, video is commonly used to synchronize the transport speed of multiple analog systems, most notably video tape machines and synchronizers. In a typical setup, a device called the “master house sync generator” generates a highly accurate and stable blackburst video signal which is distributed throughout the facility to every device that needs it.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 97 An example of how two HDRs can be synchronized to a VTR using video is shown below: Video / Word Clock Generator Blackburst Blackburst Blackburst Video Slave Video Slave VTR Video Slave In this setup each of the three devices is a video slave to the master video generator. This setup works well when digital audio is signals are NOT connected between the digital audio devices, but will not work when the digital audio signals are connected between the devices.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 98 provide the timing accuracy necessary to insure that digital audio signals are received within the acceptable time window. The picture below illustrates the relationship between the sample clocks of two digital audio devices locked to a common word clock signal (left) and a common video signal (right).
HD24/96 Technical Reference 99 One can also distribute word clock to all the digital audio devices from an external source (such as the Aardsync II from Aardvark depicted above) that generates both a master video blackburst and a resolved word clock output. For smaller home setups inexpensive video blackburst generators are available for under $300.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 100 Word Clock Time Code Resolver LTC Time Code Analog 24-Track Clock Slave / Time Code Slave Time Code Master Another common setup is to use a transport synchronizer that is genlocked to video. In this scenario, the synchronizer reads time code from the multitrack and regulates the speed of the tape transport so that the time code coming off the tape is resolved to the video signal.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 101 produces a jittery sample clock that degrades the performance of any A/D and D/A converters that are slaved to it. Another important point to note is that because MTC is sent in ¼-frame packets, it is not possible to achieve positional synchronization that is as tight as LTC. Whereas some devices may not get much better than ¼-frame accuracy using MTC, some devices like the HDR24/96 are able to achieve sample-accurate positional lock using LTC.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 102 There are times you may want to offset the position of two devices with respect to each other, but still keep them synchronized to each other. For example, you may have a tape containing audio that starts at 18:22:12:00, but you want to record this material to your HDR24/96 starting at 1:00:00:00.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 103 So what does this have to do with digital audio? Well, audio recorded on location is synchronized to the camera that is rolling at 24 fps. When the location recordings are brought in to the audio post production process, they need to be pulled-down by the film pull-down ratio to remain in sync with the picture (now in NTSC color video). While this 0.1% pull-down does not perceptively (to most listeners) change the pitch of the sound, a 0.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 104 analog multitrack tape that has time code on it - as the tape speeds up or slows down, the time code frame rate speeds up or down along with it. Unlike a SMPTE-striped multitrack tape where the position and rate of the time code with respect to the audio cannot change, digital systems can be set up to arbitrarily change this relationship at the touch of a button.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 105 Safe Synchronization Everything you have just learned above can be summarized into a few handy rules and maxims. Recite these rules 20 times each day until they become permanently etched into the neural pathways of your brain. 1. No two clocks ever run at exactly the same speed. Period. This phenomenon of nature cannot be corrected for by living in denial and pretending everything will be OK if you don’t synchronize the clocks. 2.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 106 Appendix E – MIDI Implementation Chart Mackie Designs Model: HDR24/96 Version: 1.
HD24/96 Technical Reference 107 Appendix F – Specifications Physical Dimensions: 7” x 19” x 13.25” (17.8cm x 48.3cm x 33.7cm) Shipping Weight: 35.1 lb. (15.9 kg) Rack Space Height: 4 Rack Units Electrical Operating Voltage: 100/120 & 220/240, 50/60Hz Power Consumption: 50W, max.
HD24/96 Technical Reference I/O Options AIO•8 Analog DIO•8 TDIF & ADAT Optical OPT•8 ADAT optical PDI•8 AES/EBU (w/ input sample rate conversion) Synchronization Time Code Frame Rates: 24, 25, 29.97, 29.97 Drop, 30, 30 Drop Video Field Rates: 50 Hz PAL/SECAM Composite and Blackburst 59.97 / 60 Hz NTSC Composite & Blackburst Time Code Formats: SMPTE In or SMPTE Out in ¼” balanced jack MTC In and Out SMPTE Levels: +4 dBu, -10 dBV (default), software selectable Sample Rates: 44.
HDR24/96 Technical Reference – Pg.
