User manual DIGITAL JUICE STACKTRAXX

[. . . ] D I G I T A L J U I C E StackTraxx USER'S GUIDE StackTraxx User's Guide M U LT I -T R A C K D I G I TA L M U S I C Inside Cuts with Creativity . . 20 USER'S GUIDE | STACKTRAXX | DIGITAL JUICE | 3 Inside (continued) Formats . . 43 4 | DIGITAL JUICE | USER'S GUIDE | STACKTRAXX StackTraxx User's Guide Cuts with Creativity ERY nearly every production needs music. You have three options: (1) violate the law and use copyrighted music, (2) compose and perform your own songs or (3) purchase buyout music from a library. [. . . ] Your DVD editing software should handle the upsample from 44 kHz automatically, anyhow. In other words, 44 kHz is almost always fine for DVD projects (upsampling errors will be obvious by the increased "chipmunk" pitch). Finally, settings below 44 kHz might be appropriate for projects that you know you are going to eventually compress for distribution on the Internet, but, once again, any editing software worth using should handle this downsampling automatically any. The short answer: the 44 kHz default is the right setting in most situations. Sample Width--The Sample Width is the bit depth of the individual samples. 16-bit samples are the default for CDaudio, DVD-video and many other standards, such as DV video and StackTraxx. You can select 8-bit in order to Figure 8: The Settings tab determines the physical format of the media that the Juicer produces. 22 | DIGITAL JUICE | USER'S GUIDE | STACKTRAXX StackTraxx User's Guide Settings Tab (continued) create 50% smaller files, but your editing software should handle this for you when you render. Normalize--Normalization is an audio tool that maximizes the overall volume without creating distortion, making a mix louder. Normalization is not necessary (or available) when you are splitting StackTraxx into the component parts ("Split into Tracks" on the Output tab), since you will perform your own mix in your editing software. File Size and Format Since StackTraxx are rendered out of the Juicer in an uncompressed PCM format, the size of the resulting file (or files) the Juicer outputs is entirely determined by the options you select on the Settings tab and the inherent length of the selected track. The equation is: (duration * Rate * Sample Width * Channels)/8 = rendered file size (MB). Since there are 8 bits in a byte, we divide the entire equation by 8 to get the final file size. So, for a 10-second StackTraxx file we get: (10 seconds * 44, 100 Hz * 16 bit * 2 channels)/8 = 1. 764 MB Since this equation applies no matter how many instruments (tracks) are mixed into the final file (or files), you need to multiply this number by the number of tracks you are rendering out of the Juicer. In other words, if you are splitting the mix into five different tracks, you need to multiply by 5 to get the total disk space required. In our example, this means you would need about 7-12 MB of space to get the 4-7 separate tracks in a ten-second cut from a StackTraxx song. USER'S GUIDE | STACKTRAXX | DIGITAL JUICE | 23 Output Tab All of these variables are set on the Output tab at the bottom of the Batch Window (Figure 9): Save Location--This is the location where the Juicer will save the rendered files. Save Name--This is the name of the rendered file or the base name for multiple files. Split into Tracks--Select this option to divide a StackTraxx song up into its component parts. All tracks that are selected on the Effects tab will be rendered. Figure 9: The Output tab determines the location and name of the files the Juicer outputs. Split i n t o T r a c k s The core feature of StackTraxx is the ability to separate the component parts out of the song and let you mix them yourself. You can optionally select which tracks you want to output on the Effects tab, but you must select the Split into Tracks option on the Output tab to actually get the source tracks as separate files. If you do not select Split into Tracks, the Juicer will mix the selected tracks (again, as chosen on the Effects tab) into a new song automatically. The individual tracks are save in the folder you determine with a simple naming convention: trackname_duration_part. wav (or *. aiff on the Mac). For example, for the song "A Cold World" from the PowerStacks collection, if we selected the 0:10 second cut and selected all of the five possible tracks, we'd get the following files (Figure 10): AcoldWorld_10_Bass. wav AcoldWorld_10_Drums. wav AcoldWorld_10_Lead. wav AcoldWorld_10_Rhythm. wav AcoldWorld_10_Synth. wav 24 | DIGITAL JUICE | USER'S GUIDE | STACKTRAXX StackTraxx User's Guide Output Tab (continued) Figure10: The Split into Tracks option means that the Juicer will output multiple files into the selected Save Location. If you enter a Save Name in the text box on the Output tab, the default track name will be replaced with your text. So, for example, if you enter "monkey" in the Save Name text box, you'll get files named "monkey_10_Bass. wav, monkey_10_Drums. wav. . . " and so on. Effects Tab The Effects tab (Figure 11) at the bottom of the Batch Window is where you can select which tracks you want to output to separate files (using the Split into Tracks option on the Output tab) or which tracks you want to include on a remixed version of your chosen song. [. . . ] Home theater systems and DVDs often have six channels in a 5. 1 surround sound set up (left front, right front, left rear, right rear, center and subwoofer). You can select the number of channels (mono or stereo) for the Juicer to output on the Settings tab in the Batch Window. codec--A codec (COmpressor/DECompressor) encodes digital media on a computer. There are many different codecs that can be used for high-quality archiving or for highly-compressed distribution on the Internet. [. . . ]