Letters

Response to Review of Mixman Products

Regarding the review of Mixman StudioPro 4.0 and DM2 that appeared in Computer Music Journal 27:1 (Spring 2003), we'd like to make some corrections. Mixman Technologies, Inc., merged with Beatnik, Inc., in 1999. However, Mixman went independent again in June 2002, and there is currently no relationship between the two companies.

The reviewer indicated compatibility issues with Windows XP and 2000. The DM2 was first released in a limited fashion in April 2001, and a full release came out in August 2001. There has been a free update for Windows XP and 2000 since August 2001. The DM2 found in stores as of summer 2003 comes XP- and 2000-ready, with no update needed. (Look for the blue box at US$ 79.95.)

Mixman StudioPro 4.0 is no longer sold. Mixman StudioPro 5.0 is available as a download from the Mixman Web site for US$ 49.95. Mixman StudioPro has been succeeded by Mixman StudioXPro (US$ 99.95), released November 2002. It has many significant differences, including 32-track playback (up to 128 samples per track), punch-in recording of most real-time input data, scratching and transformer controls without DM2, auto-W.A.R.P., voice overdub, and a step sequencer module.

Mixman software from its inception has been designed to be fun and easy to work with, while sounding great. While many professionals view Mixman as not being a "serious" tool, there are many powerful and idiosyncratic functions in Mixman software that would benefit any serious studio musician, composer, or sound designer. Several of the algorithms in our DSP module are designed to work specifically with Mixman's proprietary TRK format. In our step sequencer module there is a function known as "Explode a Track," which reveals all the embedded samples within any Mixman TRK file. The speed with which one can use Mixman also makes it attractive; some professionals have referred to Mixman software as a "Swiss army knife" of music software.

Richard Appelbaum

President and Chief Executive Officer

Mixman Technologies, Inc.

San Francisco, California, USA

Smooth Octophonic or Hexaphonic Panning from the Quadraphonic Configuration

This working note describes a simple but effective implementation of an octophonic or hexaphonic panning mechanism that can be integrated into (directly realized as a part of) any fully programmable sound-synthesis language. It is conceived of as potentially becoming part of a musical composition, as with any other procedure written with a sound-synthesis language, and is not limited to a post-synthesis effect processor.

Doing more and more work within the hexaphonic and octophonic environment has required more detailed control over various kinds of spatialization. To my knowledge, resources for implementing anything beyond standard 5.1 surround panning are rather scarce for the PC (I am not a Macintosh user, but I gather there are more options for that environment), and while Nuendo (also with the Panhandler plug-in) offers up to eight channels, it is not as efficient a means for designing detailed panning or ambience controls as is Samplitude, which allows you to draw in non real-time and hence very carefully any kind of spatialization trajectory you require. However, Samplitude does not go beyond the 5.1 configuration; any other channels have to be laboriously worked in independently.

There undoubtedly will be forthcoming other software devices and plug-ins that do some kind of multi-channel panning. Besides considerable expense in some instances, one drawback of all of these is that they are separate from the sound-synthesis language the composer might be using. Although in many instances it is sufficient to apply the panning trajectory after the sound has been generated, what is missing is the possibility of using the sound-synthesis algorithm itself as in some way controlling the spatialization. To do what you might call compositionally functional spatialization, the multi-channel panning needs only be implemented using the resources of the composer's sound-synthesis language. The composer can then move one or many sounds with trajectories that can be described in whatever manner desired, for example as the result of mapping frequency content to some particular...