Radio Production Manual - California State University ... · Manual for Operation of MZ 288 Radio and 160B – Audio Edit Labs 1 Radio Production Manual For MZ 288 and 160B Originally

Manual for Operation of MZ 288 Radio and 160B – Audio Edit Labs

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Radio Production Manual For MZ 288 and 160B

Originally written and compiled by Nick Pernisco and re-written and updated by William Wilson

For CTVA 230 Karen Kearns,

Radio Production Option Head


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Basic Operations Turning on the system

Turning on the room consists of two main steps.

Turn on the main power supply switch at the top of the rack on the right side of the desk.

Turn on the IMac computer by pressing the small button in the lower rear left side of the computer. The system will log in directly to the student login. No password necessary.

Make sure that the monitor amp (located at the right side of the console) is on as well as the Maudio Ultra IO interface located beside the right sound monitor. Don’t adjust the knobs on the amp, but make sure the red LED shows that the monitoring system is active. Without this on, you won’t hear anything through the speakers!

Only adjust the headphone volume using the headphone amp tucked away in the left side of the desk. This will ensure that all volume levels are even across the system.

Note: Each volume knob on the headphone amp corresponds to the headphone jack inside the studio (booth).


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Starting a New Session

When the computer system starts up completely, users can start a new Pro Tools session by placing the mouse over and double clicking the ProTools Icon in the bottom dock.

Click Open Session and locate the CTVA 230 basic template that can be located and launched from the CTVA 230 drive/folder on the desktop.

Occasionally you may get a Session Note message, simply click NO. Once you open this template for the first time, you must SAVE AS and assign your own name for your session file. You must SAVE AS with YOUR file name to the CTVA 230 Student Projects drive/folder also on the desktop. But FIRST Click NEW FOLDER and assign your name for the new folder. Click Create then click SAVE. Your session file and all your audio files will now be saved into this folder.

NOTE: You will not be able to save to the CTVA 230 folder and neither will you be able to change or modify the template session in that folder. That template is not to be modified as it is to be available as a template for all 230 students.


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This step is for saving your project files to the local computer drive. We prefer that you use your own external drive for the security of your projects. To do this simply plug your flash USB drive into the left side of the keyboard or your Firewire drive plugged into the rear of he IMAC and SAVE AS to your external drive with your name as file name.

You are now ready to begin your new Pro Tools session. Follow the steps below if you are continuing an existing session.

Opening an Existing Session

To open an existing session, Launch the Pro Tools program as described above and from the dialog box you have the option of opening a recent session (if you have recently opened this session lately in ProTools) or more likely you will want to click “OPEN SESSION” and go locate your session files whether they be on your external drive or in the CTVA Student Project folder. Navigate to the drive and folder where your session exists and launch it.

Recording into Pro Tools

Recording into Pro Tools from a microphone or a CD or importing audio files is a fairly simple process. Just think of Pro Tools as a tape recorder, and the Mackie HUI as a mixer. The Mackie mixer has limited functionality than the software but it gives you a physical interface for mixing. Some of the functions on it may not be available but it is useful for getting a good level mix for your project. And of course the Pro Tools software has full functionality to record, manipulate the audio and output your project. You can prep a track to record by accessing the following features on the mixer.

Find an empty space on the track you want to record on. You can choose to record to any track within Pro Tools. By default track 1 and track 2 are mono tracks preset to record from the mic in the booth. And track 6 is a stereo track preset to record from the CD player. You may import audio files into stereo tracks 3, 4 and 5 which are pre-existing or add additional tracks to your project as needed.

Press the Rec/RDY button at the top of your selected channel’s strip. For example, if you want to record on channel 1, just press the Rec/RDY


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button at the top of channel 1’s channel strip. When this is done, the selected channel will indicate that it’s armed for recording.

You can also click the red record mode button on the track you selected in ProTools. Once you do that it will begin to blink.

Track 1 is preset for input 1 (mono) which by default through the Fast Track Ultra IO is the microphone input. This applies to Channel 2 also. The selected track’s input button is located on the left side of the Pro Tools window, or on the Pro Tools mixer window.

Note: If you’re recording the microphone, make sure the input is set to INPUT 1 (mono). If you’re recording from the CD player, make sure you use stereo track 6. Of course you can add or delete mono or stereo tracks but make sure you assign an input for new tracks. Imported audio will not require an input assignment.

Set your input level. You can do this on the microphone by asking your talent to speak into the mic (“test, 1, 2, 3!”), and adjust the Channel 1 gain level on the M-audio Fast Track Ultra IO. Typically a range between the 12:00 and 3:00 position is acceptable. While someone is testing the microphone note the green LED blinking on the Channel 1 input. If the Red LED is blinking then the input level is too high, turn down the Channel one level. Once you set it you should not have to change it again. In fact, we recommend you don’t touch the gain knob at all.

If you don’t want to hear the other channels when recording, simply press the MUTE button on each channel you’re not recording on.

Press the Record and Play buttons together to begin recording on the mixer or access the record and play buttons on the Pro Tools transport.


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When you’re done recording, press the Stop button.

If you are working alone you may pull the microphone, stand and headphone into the control room from the booth. The cables are long enough.

Importing an audio clip into a track in Pro Tools

1. From the File menu, scroll down to import and select “Audio”

2. Locate the location where your audio clip has been saved. Your audio clip should be an mp3, aif or wav file. Whether from your external drive or a sound effects clip in Itunes or from the download folder on the IMAC. An ideal place to save all window in Pro Tools and it should be available in the Audio files folder.

3. Once you choose your audio clips they wil be available in the CLIPS IN CURRENT FILE WINDOW. Click add to copy your audio files or Click Convert to convert mp3 files and your file will be formatted to import into a track.

4. When you click DONE, a window will come up to request a destination. Choose your project folder on your external drive or in the CTVA Student Project Drive.


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5. The audio clip will “process.” You have the option of saving it in the clip list in order to drag into a track at a later time or you can choose to import it directly into your session into a brand new track. If you choose a brand new track it will be available immediately to mix and edit. If you chose clip list, you can later rag the audio clip into an existing stereo track and then you can begin to edit or mix.

Playing back your recording

Playing back your recording is as simple as placing the mouse cursor (using the selection tool) before the area on the timeline you’d like to play. Then simply press Play on the Pro Tools transport screen or Play on the Mackie board.

Use the Mackie mixer level controls or the level controls in the mix window in Pro Tools to get an overall mix of all tracks. These settings will be the mix that will get bounced tio disk in thefolowing step so please save and maintain these levels.

The Mackie board has some unique features that allow you to shuttle (rewind or fast forward quickly) or scrub (rewind or fast forward at a slower pace while listening to the audio). To enable the scrub or shuttle feature, simply press the appropriate button on the lower right of the board, then use the wheel to move around in your session. To stop shuttling, simply press the Stop button.


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Note: When the scrub or shuttle functions are enabled, the system automatically disallows the usage of the mouse. To regain control of the mouse, simply re-press the appropriate scrub or shuttle button (the one that’s lit) to turn it off.

Bounce To Diosk and Burn to a CD

Bounce the ProTools Session

1st – go to FILE

2nd – BOUNCE TO DISK

Choose the Following Settings in the Bounce Window

Click bounce

Save as to your folder in the 230 Student Drive

Click ok then your project will play and bounce to create a .wav file in real time.

CLOSE the Pro tools session

Burn to a CD

Open Toast Titanium 11 (the toaster on dock at the bottom).

Select Audio at the top and then select audio CD.


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Find your .WAV file (in your folder) and drag into the Toast window. Click Burn and the process will begin.

Mackie Board The Mackie Board allows the user to control various aspects of the Pro Tools system, including the volume controls, arming and unarming tracks, muting, isolating, routing, recording, playback, scrubbing, and shuttling. To better understand the advanced features of the board, be sure to read the board’s manual located in this room.

The Transport Section

The transport section contains all the necessary tools to play, stop, rewind, fast forward, and record on the Pro Tools system. The buttons in this section are similar to those on a typical tape machine. The functions of each button are exactly the same as on a tape machine.

The buttons located directly above the transport buttons will rarely (if ever) be used for our purposes. To read more about those buttons, please refer to the actual Mackie HUI manual located in this room.


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Arming, Soloing, and Muting Tracks

Arming, Soloing, and Muting tracks can all be done from the Mackie mixer. Everything you need in order to do this is available on each channel strip. Directly above the fader section are the Mute and Solo buttons. Use these to mute a single track, or solo a single track.

To arm a track for recording, use the Rec/RDY button located at the top of the channel strip. This will arm the corresponding track in Pro Tools (press the Rec/RDY button on fader channel 3 in order to arm track 3, for example.

Controlling Track Volume

When you’re done recording and want to listen to something, just press the Play button to play it back. If you’re mixing a session and want to control the volume of each individual track, just raise or lower the corresponding track’s fader. For example, to raise the volume on track 5, simply push up the 5th fader from the left.

Pro Tools allows the user to automate the volume on each track. This is useful when one sound on the track needs to be lower than another sound on the same track.

To do this, simply click on the Waveform button on the left side of the desired track, and change it to show Volume.

Then by using the grabber tool (the little hand), drag the mouse next to the black line that appears across the waveform. Click on the black line to create envelope points. These points can then be dragged in order to adjust the volume at different intervals. Drag the point down in order to lower the volume, or drag the point up in order to raise the volume. When you play back the track, the Mackie’s faders will move along with your volume edits!

Talk Back

The talk back feature allows the engineer to speak to the voice over talent in the next room. The way this works is through a small microphone on the board, along with a button that mutes all other channels while piping the small microphone to the talent’s headphone.


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To use this feature, simply press the talk-back button, then speak into the small microphone.

Note: This feature is temporarily unavailable.

Controlling Control Room Volume

The user can control the control room’s volume by adjusting the main output control on the Fast Track Ultra IO. The headphone level can be controlled by the headphone amp on the left rack below the left monitor.

Mackie’s Computer Control Section

The Mackie HUI has specialized buttons that allow the user to control common computer functions such as Save and Change Tools.

The Save button allows the user to save their project by simply pushing this button. When a change has been made since the last save, the Save button’s light will shine red. This means the user can push the button to save the session. When they push the button, the button will blink in order to confirm the save. The user then pushes the button one last time to save the session. The red light will turn off until another edit has occurred in the session.

The Tool button allows the user to cycle through the Pro Tools software’s toolset without having to click on the specific tool on the program’s toolbar. The cycle even toggles through the all-in-one tool, which combines the Trim tool, the Selector tool, and the Grabber tool.


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Pro Tools Pro Tools is the computer software used to record and edit our radio projects. Think of this software as simply a recording device that lets you edit out anything you don’t want. In fact, at its most basic level, Pro Tools functions like a tape deck. You can set the tape deck in record mode, plug something into it, press record, and it’ll record what you feed it. Pro tools works in the same way.

When we record audio into Pro Tools, we are actually “digitizing” the audio and storing this data on a computer hard drive. There is no audio tape. In fact, Pro Tools is so powerful, it can potentially take the place of a mixing board, and studio processing gear, allowing a project to be produced entirely within the computer.

In our studio, the Ultrafast IO is the interface that connects the physical audio devices like the Mackie mixer and he microphone and he CD player to the software and it manages these inputs and arranges the output of your mix to the speakers and to the headphone.

Operating Pro Tools is analogous in many ways to operating a word processor. Since Pro Tools operates in the Macintosh environment, the functions are based on the standard Macintosh convention including: point and click, cut, copy and paste. If you’re not familiar with Macintosh, please visit one of our campus’ many Mac labs, or go online to learn more about it.

Below is the basic Pro Tools window. In the center of the image, you have your tracks. Imagine this to be the tape on your tape deck. This is where everything is recorded. The benefit here is that you can actually “see” the sound being placed onto the computer.


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At the top of the window, you have your editing tools. These tools let you cut up the audio, delete audio, move audio around, and do lots of other things.

Getting Started

A project in Pro Tools is called a session and is analogous to a word processor document. A new session provides the user with an empty work space. This work space is where audio is recorded, edited, and mixed into a final product. It is possible to create a new session or open and edit an existing session.

All session files are stored on one of the four Pro Tools hard drives. The files are structured in a standard Macintosh hierarchy. With every newly created session, a folder is created on the hard drive bearing the (user designated) name of the session, along with the session folder. The session folder contains three items:

The session file, which also bears the name of the session and has an icon resembling a reel of tape.

A folder called audio files which will hold all audio clips recorded for this session.

A folder called fade files which will hold all fade data created in the session.


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Pro Tools Functions, Modes, and Tools

Pro Tools has many functions, modes, and tools that allow the user to manipulate the audio in various ways. We’ll talk about the most important and most frequently used ones here.

Slip, Shuffle, Spot, Grid

The four buttons in the left corner, slip, shuffle, spot, and grid represent the four modes of editing. For now, set it to slip mode by pointing and clicking on the slip button.

Zooms and Views

The four arrow buttons are used to enlarge or shrink the current viewable workspace. The numbers below the arrows allow the user to quickly switch to a user-defined zoom setting. This is great for quickly switching to your favorite view.

Tip: You can quickly zoom in or out, as well as zoom the waveform by using the Mackie HUI’s arrow buttons. Just make sure you press the MODE button so the light beneath it is on. When that red light is on, the arrow keys will allow you to zoom in or out (left and right buttons), and zoom the waveform (up and down buttons).

Pro Tools’ Tools

The tool you’ll use the most is probably the selector tool. This allows you to select part of the audio and cut it (by pressing Delete) or delete it (using the Apple-E command).

The trim tool allows the user to place the cursor near the waveform’s edge and trim off a user-specified amount. This is useful for removing the beginning or end parts of an otherwise useful take.

The grabber tool allows the user to grab a waveform and drag it to another place in the timeline. This is useful for moving a take to another track or moving it further down in the timeline.

For a complete overview on these valuable tools, please check the tools section in the Pro Tools manual in this room.

Trim Tool

Grabber Tool

Selector Tool


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On the left side of the window, you have your track control options. These control the inputs, the outputs, and other things directly related to each track.

The right side of the window contains links to open audio files. This is essentially a list of files that the current session is using. A useful purpose for this list is when you delete items. The interesting thing is that, unlike tape, nothing ever gets deleted in the digital world. This is called non-destructive editing. You can delete it from the track view, but you can always click-and-drag the sound back from the list. This means your precious takes will always be there for you.

Note: Always remember to SAVE your session frequently. Every five minutes is the best thing to do. In order to save the session quickly, simply press Apple-S to save it. If you take anything away from this class, it’s that you’re still working on a computer, and computers are notorious for losing things. Save frequently and backup your data!

Managing Audio

Pro Tools has many functions that allow the user to manage the session’s audio. This includes naming tracks, grouping tracks, naming clips, managing the region list, and creating fades.

Naming Tracks

Users can name the tracks before recording on it. This is useful for keeping track of what sound goes where. For example, I could name the track for my first announcer “ANNCR 1”.

Simply point and double click on the track button (Audio 1, etc.), type a new name and press Return. All clips recorded on each track will derive a default clip name from the track name, so if you don’t rename the track, it will simply name the clip “Audio 1…“. If you decide to name the track “ANNCR”, for example, all clips on that track would include the word “ANNCR” in the name.

Grouping Tracks


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It’s useful when working with stereo pairs of tracks to group them. By grouping them, all editing functions work in tandem (on the grouped tracks), so you don’t have to remember to apply your editing choices to both tracks. To group two or more tracks, point and double click on the first track’s label (“Audio 1” for example) you wish to group. Next, point and shift-click (clicking while holding down the Shift key) on the second track’s label you wish to pair. Next, press COMMAND-G. This will group the two tracks and make them respond as one during editing. You may later ungroup the tracks by selecting the grouped tracks and once again pressing COMMAND-G.

Naming Clips

Naming mono files is fairly straight forward. You simply double click on the clip and enter a new name in the dialog box. Original clip names are derived from the track name. If you plan to record a sequence of similar material, it is usually better to change the name of the track before recording and let it derive names from the track (see Naming Tracks for more information).

Naming stereo files requires a little more effort. To name stereo files, you must name each side separately. Choose a common name for both clips you want to name as left and right (such as “Music”). On the left side, add “.L“ and on the right side add “.R“. Doing this will make the region list much more manageable, because the items are listed in the region list alphanumerically. When you pull two sides of a stereo clip out into the edit area, it will automatically put the clip that is alphanumerically lower in value on the lower track. Since “L“ is alphanumerically lower in value than “R” , the track assignment always works out perfectly. Also, be sure to group your stereo tracks for easier stereo editing.

Managing the Region List

Notice as you make edits, your region list grows. If you have a clip and you make just one edit in it, the region list will reflect four clips. This means that the original clip, the edited section of the clip, and the section to the left and right of the edited clip will each have their own entries. If the clip you are editing is stereo, it will create twice as many regions. It doesn’t take too long before the region list can become overwhelming. To help manage this, you can periodically Remove Unused Clips. From the Region List menu, choose Select Unused Audio, then choose Clear Selected and the Remove option. This will clear out your region list of unneeded clips.

Creating Fades

It’s possible to create a fade in or fade out on any clip. It’s also possible to create a cross-fade between two adjacent clips on the same track. Before understanding how to create fades, it’s important to understand four keyboard


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functions: The TAB key makes the cursor move to the beginning of the next clip or the end of the current clip. Option-Tab toggles the cursor in the same way, but in the reverse direction. Combining either of these functions with the Shift key will make the cursor move in its respective direction and highlight the selected area at the same time.

In order to create fades you must highlight the fade region by using the commands described above. For an incoming fade, point the cursor (using the selector tool) to the point where the fade in will end and press Shift, Option, and Tab. This will highlight the fade region to the beginning of the clip. Then press Command-F to bring up the fade menu. To create a fade out on a clip you must point the cursor to where the fade out will begin, and then press Shift-Tab, which will highlight a fade region to the end of the clip and then follow the same routine as a fade in. To create a cross fade between adjacent clips on the same track, highlight the region you wish to cross fade by choosing the region with the selector tool, and then follow the same routine as a fade in or fade out.

Pro Tools Shortcut Keys

Most of these shortcuts are also available in one of the on-screen menus. Remember that the Command key is the key that looks like an apple.

Command-A (Select All) Highlights all clips on selected tracks.

Command-B (Delete) Removes selected clip from edit area.

Command-E (Separate) Creates a separate region from the highlighted section.

Command-T (Trim) Deletes entire region except highlighted section.

Command-F (Fades) Opens the fade menu.

Command-H (Heal) Will recombine adjacent regions that were originally part of the same region, and make on region out of them and then delete the pieces from the region list.

Command-G (Group) Will group two or more tracks that are highlighted, if they are not currently grouped, or ungroup highlighted tracks that are currently grouped.

Command-L (Lock) Locks a clip in place so it can’t be moved or edited. If a clip is locked, a little lock icon is displayed in


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the lower left hand corner of the clip. Use the same command to unlock a clip.

Command-Z (Undo) Will undo the last operation.

Command-S (Save) Saves the current session to disk.

Command-X (Cut) Will cut the current selection and copy into the Macintosh’s clipboard for later pasting.

Command-C (Copy) Will copy the current selection into the Macintosh’s clipboard for later pasting.

Command-V (Paste) Will paste whatever is in the Macintosh clipboard into your current application.

1 Studio in Room MZ 160B The studio in room MZ 160B is available for use by radio students. The equipment in this room is much different than in MZ 288, but there are also similarities in that Pro Tools is the primary recording and playback device. Most everything that you understand about Pro Tools in MZ288 above applies here also.

Power

Locate 4 Red power buttons in the control room. There are two on the rack to the right. One on the console and one on the left rack.


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Also turn the power on the Mac Pro tower in the right siderack.

Sony Console

The Sony console is a 48 channel board. It is made up of twenty four “flying” or motorized faders. The mixer has saved settings for different types of operations. In order to set this for Radio Production, Load the “230 Configuration” preset. On the menu display, select System then Title Manager, then the display to the left has several presets identified. Move the arrow to 230 Configuration and select it. Then click LOAD at the top of the menu page. A message will appear “Are you sure you want to LOAD the title…” Click Yes. The Sony board will now load the preset appropriate for Radio Production.


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Pages 1 & 2

• Channels 1-24 are located on page one while the second group, 25-48, can be found on page two. To locate the page buttons, go to the bottom right of fader #24. One must toggle through these buttons to select the correct channel.

For example: To listen to the audio originating from CHANNEL 24, one must first push the PAGE 1 button (if not already selected) then raise fader #24.

Mixer Inputs (sources)

The in-studio mic is patched to channel 1. A mic cable is patched into the Input/output panel channel 1 in the studio. When this is in place then the control room mic will appear on Channel 1. Please select +48V phantom power on the channel in order to activate power for a tube mic (condenser mic).

Additional mics can be pluged into the input panel in the studio. There are also several fixed input sources. Channels 21 and 22 are CD player 2 and Channels 23 and 24 are CD player 1. DAT Player(digital audio tape) although not used often is on channel 19 and 20. MBOX interface (in-studio) is on Channels 9 and 10. And a DVD player from in-studio is on Channel 11 and 12. Although these are typically used for class studio demonstrations and not usual for recording, they are full time channel assignments.


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Pro Tools Interface with Mixer

Channels 37 and 38 on Page 2 are the Pro Tools audio returns. When playing back or mixing a Pro tools session these must be turned up in order to monitor the Pro Tools output in the studio. Only these faders should be up while mixing.

When recording any of these sources into Pro Tools, a new stereo track with input set to AES 1-2 will feed the output of the Sony Mixer into the track for recording.

Launch Pro Tools the same as you would in 288 from the Icon in the dock. Locate the MZ160B Audio drive on the desktop. And locate the CTVA 230 Fall 2012. Save your session and audio files to your own named folder in ths location.


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Accessing Channel Menus

• To access a channel’s menus of parameters, push the access button above the fader.

Setting Up Channels

• Each channel is set up in a way that it is able to properly receive audio from a particular device. Before using the console, one must understand what +48V is and the purpose of using a PAD to comprehend this section. Located above the faders and gain controls are very important buttons (+48V, Input A/B, PAD IN/OUT). The +48V must be pushed IN whenever a CONDENSER (capacitor) microphone is used. Otherwise, leave it out, especially when unsure. When the PAD is IN, it reduces the signal 20dB. The following chart lists the way the board should be set up:

Volume

• To control the volume for the studio one use the knob indicating STUDIO LS. To hear the master fader in the FOLEY ROOM, the PGM must be IN. To cut the signal push CUT.

• For the control room, the volume can be found under CR MONITOR.

Note: When playing audio over the CONTROL ROOM MONITORS make sure that microphones in the room are either cut or not in the direct path of the mics pickup pattern. Also, if mics are present in the FOLEY ROOM then make sure they are CUT before any audio is played on those monitors.

Accessing Compression

• Select the desired channel and then push access COMPRESS/DUCK button on the EQ board (located below the touch-screen).

Note: A default compression is set into the console. This may result in lower recording levels (when recording to Protools, etc.). To increase levels, either raise the master fader so the dB output is around 4-6 dB or normalize sound clips (found under Audio Suite in Protools).


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1.1 Lexicon Effects Unit

The Lexicon is an effects processor known for high quality effects. A majority of the effects are time based (reverb, chorus, delay, flange, phaser, etc.). the Lexicon needs to be routed via the PATCH BAY.

To Route

• Take the output of the audio source (L/R if applicable) àconnect it to the input of the Lexiconàthen connect the output of the Lexiconà to channels 13/14.

Effects

• Programs on the Lexicon can be changed using the jog dial on the right side of the system. To select an effect, push LOAD. Make sure the bypass is off.

Intensity of the effect

Using the four dials on the left side, the parameters for a given effect can be changed.

Documents

Radio Production Manual - California State University ... · Manual for Operation of MZ 288 Radio and 160B – Audio Edit Labs 1 Radio Production Manual For MZ 288 and 160B Originally