BEATNIK
Feb 1, 2001 12:00 PM, By Randy Alberts
Talented DJs everywhere can create mind-blowing remixes from stereo master tracks using little more than a sampler and some effects. But what if you could get even closer to the music by remixing each voice, drum, and instrument part in a song, just like the pros who have access to multitrack masters? Whereas in the past you would have had to spend thousands of dollars and countless hours to set up a professional multitrack remix studio, now you can get similar results with little more than a desktop computer and a spare $89.95 for Beatnik's Mixman StudioPro 4.0.
Billed as a real-time music-creation, remixing, and performance system for Macs and PCs, Mixman StudioPro 4.0 began shipping this past fall. Now merged with Thomas Dolby's Beatnik, Mixman has expanded its flagship remix program considerably since introducing it in 1996. Cool new features abound in Mixman StudioPro 4.0, making it easy for any user to flange, distort, detune, chop, paste, reverse, and remix everything from a funky bass line to tripped-out space effects with a few mouse clicks.
HOW IT WORKS
I reviewed Mixman StudioPro 4.0 on a Pentium II/400 MHz PC with 64 MB of RAM. The Mac version adds powerful MIDI support for synchronizing the program with hardware synthesizers, samplers, and drum machines, and a Mac VST plug-in version of Mixman StudioPro is on the horizon. The PC version also has some serious power under the hood, but you'd never know it from remixing with the simple, intuitive interface that the software offers for either platform.
You can get up and remixing in a few minutes. After a quick install, launch Mixman StudioPro and load a demo song into the Remixing Studio (see Fig. 1); then click on Play and start using the buttons on the dual turntables to toggle the 16 digital-audio sample loops on and off. Clicking and dragging the mouse over the futuristic WARP (Wideband Audio Realtime Processor) control during playback creates expressive and wild effects for the entire mix. A large tempo dial with an attractive graphic metronome keeps the beat visually, and you can adjust each track individually for volume, stereo pan, and pitch transposition — up or down as much as two octaves — to create dramatic special effects on each track.
The quickest way to get a good groove going is to load a demo mix or any of dozens of Mixman Singles (preformatted Mixman tracks from known artists). I preferred creating my own songs from the ground up by hand-selecting each of the 16 sounds from the hundreds of included Mixman TRK (Track) files and the thousands from the Soundisc library. Double-clicking on one of the turntable sound locations brings up a file directory that organizes sounds into musical genre folders, in which you can audition and load sounds into your current mix.
Using its patented technology, Mixman StudioPro matches each new sound you load into the program to the song's master pitch and tempo — it's impossible to make a truly bad chordal or rhythmic choice (unless you think a metallic robot synth riff just can't live with a country pedal steel guitar loop). I wish that StudioPro offered a way to audition new sounds in real time with the currently playing mix — but I like the random nature of first auditioning and loading 16 tracks to fit my mood, then seeing what I can come up with in the resulting remix.
Mixman StudioPro comes with more than 800 TRK files, hundreds of loops and sounds, and 5 free Mixman Singles with online registration. You can download additional Singles and Soundiscs right into the Mixman turntables for your editing ease; these feature music from the likes of George Clinton, Skinny Puppy, and Heaven 17. You can also download dozens more user-created sounds and loops from www.mixman.com and share your own with other Mixman fanatics at the site's My Mixman and Mixman Radio locations. Soundiscs containing tons of sounds from musicians, groups, producers, and sound designers are available for a wide range of musical genres, all preformatted and ready for remixing in Mixman StudioPro.
FOUR ROOMS ON AN INTEL CHIP
The program is divided into four studios accessible through the main Control Room; each sports black-and-silver graphics with a host of color-coded controls and indicators. You'll spend most of your time in the Remixing Studio, a dual-turntable — style onscreen interface with controls for playback, tempo, and global effects. The interface also provides controls for recording, saving, and exporting remixes. The FX Studio has an assortment of green LED buttons and volume faders for adding up to four effects processors to a single track (see Fig. 2). The Editing Studio is a graphic-based piano-roll sequencer that displays song parts as editable horizontal bars. The Recording Studio accepts audio signals from any microphone, guitar, CD player, or CD-ROM input off the sound card, so you can record your own CD sound effects and bass lines, synth parts, and vocals right along with any of the Mixman Singles, Soundiscs, and D*Plates. You can even roll your own groove using sounds entirely of your creation.
Mixman StudioPro offers several output options when a remix is ready for the masses. You can save new mixes as MP3, RealAudio, and Windows Media files for the Web or burn them to CD as 16-bit stereo WAV files. New in version 4.0 is the ability to export a remix in Beatnik's RMF (Rich Music Format) for real-time playback with the Beatnik player program and browser plug-in. You can easily set up your own My Mixzone section for free at the company's Web site, which allows Web surfers to hear your personal Mixman StudioPro grooves or even remix your remixes, if you choose that option. You can also upload Mixman StudioPro files and Webcast them over the site's Mixman Radio station.
The FX Studio holds enough signal-processing tools to keep dedicated knob tweakers busy for months. You have a choice of 25 effects algorithms, including Delay, Distortion, Filter Sweep, Reverb, Pitch Shift, and Wah-Wah, along with a library of 99 presets that hold the individual parameter settings for each effect. I loaded the Low Tom loop into the Remixing Studio and sent it to the FX Studio, where I added the Multi-Filter Sweep effect preset to give the drum a warm, almost vowel-like breathing tone. This preset has fader controls for Frequency, Resonance, and Wet/Dry effect mix levels. You can add up to four more effects to a single sound before sending it back to the mix. The fact that the effects processors don't work in real time takes some getting used to, but the FX Studio's countless sound possibilities make up for it.
The Editing Studio lets you graphically alter the Remixing Studio mix recordings (see Fig. 3). Even if you've never tried a software music sequencer before, you'll find this interface easy to use. Don't want that drum ’n’ bass groove to come in just yet? Using the mouse, just move that performance event back a couple of beats, copy it to another section, or delete it altogether with the Eraser tool. You can also draw in new parts with the Pencil tool for fine editing of a performance or simply go back to the Remixing Studio to cut it live again.
The Recording Studio offers a simple way to record your own instruments, voice, or CD sounds into Mixman StudioPro through the sound card as mono 16-bit WAV files. It's easy to hook up and record original sounds with a metronome click track that beeps in time with the song's tempo; however, I had difficulty recording a track to the click and getting it to play back in tempo in the main Remixing Studio window. For recording sound effects and long pad sounds it works fine, but if you want to record your own perfectly looped instrumental and vocal WAV file parts in tempo with an existing beat, you'll need a waveform-editing program that can loop and save WAV files to and from Mixman StudioPro, such as Propellerheads' ReCycle.
WRAPPING UP THE REMIX
Mixman StudioPro 4.0 requires a Pentium II/233 MHz or faster PC with 32 MB of RAM (64 MB recommended) and 40 MB of free hard drive space — 300 MB if you want to install all sounds from the Mixman disc. (On the Mac side, you'll need a Power Mac/233 MHz running Mac OS 8.6 with 96 MB to 128 MB of RAM.) I couldn't run Mixman StudioPro with a SEK'D Siena sound card, but the program performed flawlessly with a Creative Labs AWE 64 Sound Blaster card; it handled some fairly dense signal processing and long WAV files before stuttering the audio playback.
Mixman StudioPro 4.0 packs a lot of remix punch for less than the cost of a single guitar-effects stompbox. The built-in turntable crossfader is smooth enough to make anyone feel like an aspiring DJ; the effects sound good, and the ability to recall different automation snapshots of all remix settings at the touch of a computer-keyboard F-key makes for some dynamic mixes and breakbeats. I'd like the options of looping recorded WAV file parts automatically, auditioning new loops along with an existing remix, and adjusting individual track effects in real time. However, Mixman StudioPro's great interface, simple operation, and almost endless sonic possibilities give me enough creative tools to remix well past midnight for months to come.
Randy Alberts is a Pacifica, California — based musician and writer exploring music and recording technology. Special thanks to SEK'D for the use of its Siena sound card for this review.
PRODUCT SUMMERY
BEATNIK
Mixman StudioPro 4.0
$89.95
PROS: Inexpensive. Easy to use. Large library of included and optional sound-loop genres. Good effects. Lets you post your own remixes to the Mixman Web site and interact with other users.
CONS: Individual effects processing isn't in real time. Can't audition new loops in real time during playback of an existing mix. Doesn't work with some PC sound cards.
Overall Rating (1 through 5): 4
Contact: tel. (650) 295-2300 e-mail info@mixman.com Web www.mixman.com
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