Recording - October 2012 - 51

educational purposes. VariPhrase is also used for tempo-matching files in the two Tracks to create synchronized crossfades; tempo matching is done by hand with a visual grid for transients, which is a bit fiddly. What R-MIX calls “editing” is the ability to, in some cases, isolate a part and change its relative level, add effects to it, or find and remove noise. The Effects (two compressors, three delays, three reverbs) sound okay but have no tweakable parameters other than effect depth, which limits what you can do with them. The same holds for Noise Cancel’s four basic algorithms, intended to remove hiss, hum, wind noise, and HVAC airflow and motor rumble. This is pretty basic stuff, fun and easy for the beginner but perhaps frustrating for the pro. Where I find R-MIX shines is in repurposing audio files, especially loops, by removing or accentuating certain parts. Figure 2 shows a section of a rhythm track from The 1 Is Silent by mindSpiral; in one example, I’ve excised the heavy kick drum to leave a light and scurrying rhythm pattern, and in the other, I’ve compressed and boosted the kick to near-dubstep levels to give the loop an entirely different sound and feel. I found I had to import audio loops into iTunes as WAV files before I could get R-MIX to read them; it refused to load WAV loops with any kind of metadata, saying they were corrupted. Final thoughts R-MIX shows a lot of fascinating potential. There are a few places where the existing functions could be improved—less warbly VariPhrase pitch and time control and more keyboard shortcuts—but my main wish list is for items that will turn R-MIX into a totally professional application: hosting external plug-ins for better effects and noise control options, 24-bit audio support, automated tempo match, full automation-lane (rather than snapshot-per-marker) control of parameters other than Track level, and a wider set of file and loop import/export formats. If you need all those things, for now you’ll have to roughly double the amount of money you’d spend on R-MIX

Figure 1. Acoustic guitar alone (left) and in a mix (right)

Figure 2. Removing a kick (left) and boosting it (right) and multiply your learning curve by a factor of ten (conservatively!) to master a professional waveform editor. On the other hand, if you like the idea of a fun, easy-to-learn way to do things to your audio that were previously thought impossible, then R-MIX wins in a lot of ways. For sound designers looking for new ways to tweak and twist audio, it can produce very cool results in a hurry; loops can be repurposed for new applications with a few clicks; and its ability to help isolate sounds for education/practice is superb. It’s not yet all things to all engineers, but there’s enough here to make R-MIX as handy as it is fun. R-MIX goes a long way toward taking the mystery (and fear) out of manipulating audio... and for some users that will make it instantly worth its asking price. Price: $249 ($199 street) More from: Roland Corp., US, www.rolandus.com

http://www.rolandus.com http://www.CRAS.edu http://www.CRAS.edu http://www.audiorecordingschool.com/consumer.html

Recording - October 2012

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