Pyramix Virtual Studio Quick Tour

The Evolution of Digital Audio Production


List of Topics:

Main window overview

The Pyramix digital production system is the most powerful digital audio production system on the market integrating realtime mixing and editing with surround sound capabilities. Using a single Mykerinos DSP card it can record 64 channels of audio while playing back 64 channels of audio simultaneously.  

With a clear and easy to learn interface, a mixer designed to mimic the functionality of standard digital consoles, plus vastly superior automation and DVD surround sound production support, it is no wonder that Pyramix is currently the No.1 selling system in Europe. 

In the following pages, we will try to highlight some of the most powerful features built into the system and illustrate why the Pyramix system is the only system you will ever need for both recording, post production, broadcast production and surround sound production. 

One of the most powerful features built within Pyramix is it’s ability to allow complex functions like recording, playback and even automatic backup to work in the background without crashing, unlike most other digital systems. If in fact the system crashes for some reason, Pyramix automatically detects this crash and restores you to your prior backup seamlessly.  

Pyramix also has multiple undo and redo levels plus history lists so that when an editing mistake is made it can be easily restored. 

* With MADI interface and appropriate hard drives.


Main Interface. Click for full view.

The New Video Interface

With the release of 3.1 Merging has added a new video interface to Pyramix allowing both the preview of AVI files (video for windows format) and using any supported windows video capture board, capture video directly while recording audio at the same time. 

Using Merging’s proprietary “frame rate interpolation system” your audio and video is always in sample accurate sync even if both audio and video frame rates are totally different. The “frame rate interpolation system” allows timing information to be embedded within the sub-frames of the audio data allowing extremely accurate sync of both audio and video. Most other systems ignore the sub-frames and hence sync is lost between audio and video during frame transition. This is the reason that other systems can only claim that they are “close to sample accurate”. 

Features:

  
Video Interface

Capture Interface

Surround sound support for HDTV, FILM and DVD

Shown is the Pyramix surround sound interface which is built into our “Virtual Studio Mixer”. Pyramix is one of the few systems supporting both 16, 18, 20, 24 and 32bit file formats plus sampling frequencies of 32, 44.1, 48, 64, 88.2, 96 and 192kHz.

All controls to our surround sound interface is fully automatable allowing both placement and seamless movement of effects, sounds, music and ambience to be done in realtime. Pyramix also supports stereo signal allowing the placement and movement of stereo fields in the surround space.

Using available DTS and Dolby AC3 encoding plug-in a multichannel mixdown to standard DTS and AC3, 6 channel digital surround sound format can be produced. Using the same process a surround sound audio CD can also be produced either in DTS or AC3 format. 

Features:


Surround Interface. Click for full view.

The Virtual Mixer

Shown is and example of a custom 13 input (including 1 mid-side input), 8 bus, 2 aux, dual surround sound bus mixer.

Pyramix has one of the cleanest, most flexible and easy to use mixing interfaces of any digital audio production system. Engineers familiar with standard analog or digital consoles will immediately feel at home with our Virtual Studio Mixing technology.

Mixer Strip Features:

Surround sound channel support with independent panner, gain and solo function. User definable multi-bus configuration for producing multiple music mixes or multi-language production using the surround multi-bus select (up to 4 busses are supported).  Full automation support. Click for picture.

Mono, stereo and mid-side channels support with fully independent mono/stereo/m-s strip pan controls, multi-channel bussing, up to 64 channels, and both channel solo and mono/stereo monitor solo functions. Click for picture.

Effects sends and returns plus the internal effects bank with channel auxilliary send gain controls with individual IP (in place), PF (pre-fader) and solo function buttons. Gain and button controls are fully automatable. Users can have as many send and return busses as necessary for their projects (unlike other digital audio systems which limit the user to a pre-defined number of effects busses). Click for picture.


Mixer Interface. Click for full view.

Effects

In-line effects bank which is user configurable for all channels. Users are not limited to a certain number of effects. The in-line effects bank supports both Pyramix realtime effects and DirectX plug-ins allowing for a greater number of effects choices which are available to the user. Realtime effects included with the Pyramix system is:

The FXO is a mastering effect used to mono to surround sound outputs with a combination, EQ, gate, delay, lowcut and highcut filters with both automation and channel linking built in. Similarly the FXI uses the same combinations of effects for the users input stage. The FXO (using it’s linked channel function) is the ideal effect for surround sound mastering use.

All effects are pro-audio quality, fully automatable, with easy to use interfaces and both pre-defined and user defined settings, using 32bit processing for the most transparent sound reproduction.
Additional plug-ins available:


Effects Interface. Click for full view.

Input and output assignments and busses:


Input and output. Click for full view.

The Most Complete Editing Features

Along with the normal editing features like cut, copy, paste Pyramix offers a variety of powerful post production editing tools and functions unique to only Pyramix. Nearly all of the systems editing functions can be accessed via quick keys allowing the advanced user to work in synergy with the Pyramix software.

Screenshots shows you the general layout of the editing interface. Integral to fast and easy editing is the powerful realtime markers, audio clip/segment/sample edit (for quick clip/sample/segment editing) using the “clip adjust point/handle” and fade-in and fade-out adjustment points/handles. The graphical interface redraws the edited audio clips in realtime while changes are created.

Marker interface (click for picture) allows for marker naming, realtime jumps to marker locations even while in playback. User can also lay down markers and name them during playback or recording. This is a powerful tool for editors to jump precisely from point to point in a project when working on complex or multipart compositions and/or lay down CD markers.


Edit Interface. Click for full view.

Edit Interface. Click for full view.

Realtime Fade

The realtime fade interface pictured below is used to create precise fade-ins and fade-outs plus crossfades. With it’s intuitive user interface, quick recall functions, it’s ability to load and save fade libraries, and realtime waveform display and preview makes this the most versatile and powerful fade tool in the industry.


Realtime Fade Interface. Click for full view.

Slip Mode Editing and the Fill function

Slip mode editing is a special professional feature available in Pyramix especially useful for audio for video/film post-production.

In "window slip mode" the edit window can be moved along the audio clip/sample/segment without changing the edit window size.


Window Slip Mode, example. Click for full view.

In "media slip mode" the audio clip/sample/segment can be moved within the edit window without changing the edit windows position in time.



Media Slip Mode, example. Click for full view.

Both modes can be used during playback and greatly enhances editing flexibility when doing post production for film or video.

Another unique function which greatly enhances post production for video and film is the fill function, pictured above where a user can select a audio clip/segment/sample and fill a certain region of time with it. The fill tool is fully configurable and includes clip alignment, different types of fills and automatic fade/crossfade processing.


Fill Function. Click for full view.

Pyramix also has a variety of snap, group and edit functions:

Track and Record Functions

Using the input and output channels assignments users can quickly assign or change inputs and outputs, even assign multiple inputs to a single output. Using the "input assign" button users can also specify if the track monitors just audio files saved on the hard drive or/and physical inputs.

Track solo and mute functions are standard as are the "waveform display" button which both enables and disables the audio waveform display and the rubber band editing tool for gain.

"Automation display" button provides realtime monitoring and editing of automation data which is then superimposed onto the actual waveform display data. Using a list, the user can display different automation data recorded or being recorded and select the controller data they are editing.

"Track group" assignment button provides a flexible way of editing multiple groups of audio clips/samples/segments simultaneously.

"Track arm" feature provides a quick and easy way for the user to enable play, record/manual punch in and out or automatic punch in and out modes for the track.


Track Functions

Pyramix also allows the direct playback and recording (without conversion):

Pyramix supports the import and export of CMX EDLs and will support OMF EDLs.

Digitizing Interface

The digitizing interface above is built into Pyramix and provides and easy to use interface for broadcast or live recording. It supports simple input select functions and a simplified mixer for realtime input gain control. It also features direct video capture (providing user has a windows capture interface) and auto digitize mode which can be used to automatically capture audio from VTRs or audio feeds. Sync can be switched between internal, timecode and "time of day" when using this mode.

Recording is a breeze, just set the number of channels, set the bit and sampling rate you need and start recording. It has a fast audition mode which can be used to audition recorded material before finalizing the take. This interface is also very popular amongst recording engineers because of it's simplicity and can be used in a live situation when recording bands prior to post production.


Digitizing Interface. Click for full view.


Special Features

Controller interface

Fully user customizable surface control settings. Just drag and drop, editing, machine, transport or mixer controls to the different controller elements, faders, buttons, knobs and transport and save. Controls can be saved as default controls or as individual controls for a particular project or person. User can then record automation data directly from the surface control even while pre-recorded automation data is playing back to the surface control.


Controller Interface. Click for full view.

Sychronization

All common framerates are supported by the Pyramix system as shown in the "timecode settings" panel above.
Pyramix also reads and writes SMPTE timecode using LTC and or VITC with comprehensive settings for both synchronization types.

Pyramix can also be used to burn SMPTE timecode to video tape (see "video burn in settings" panel on the previous page) and both the size, placement and configuration of the burn in window can be set by the user.

Pyramix supports both MMC and Sony 9 pin machine control allowing bi-directional communication between these types of devices.


Synchronization. Click for full view.

Both SMPTE timecode for post production of video and film and "bars and beats" can be displayed at once in the same composition. SMPTE timecode strip can be changed to reflect CD timing, frames, milliseconds or samples display. Click to view timing bar.

Using the "bars and beats" display the for music, Pyramix supports an additional "bars and beats" interface specifically for music related projects that allow both realtime changes in BPM (beats per minute) and changes in time signature allowing for orchestral pieces.

CD and CDR Interface

Unique to Pyramix is it's CD interface (seen above) which allows the user to quickly transfer (depends on speed of SCSI CDROM) entire albums of music, sound effects, audio clips digitally and place them into the timeline of a composition with markers.

Pyramix also has a full featured CDR interface built into the software which allows the user to master full featured RED BOOK audio CDs and print a detailed "table of contents" file directly from the composition window. The user is no more limited to the 2 second pause per track which is inherent in nearly all non-professional CDR software and the user can even define track changes with no pauses, during crossfades or to break up long passages of music. The mastered CDR with it's "table of contents" file can later be taken to a reproduction house for replication.


CDR Interface. Click for full view.

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