Using MixAction Software As A Theater Sound Cue System

With the forthcoming release of MixAction drawing closer I thought I’d take this opportunity to talk briefly about how MixAction technically gets it’s “smarts”. Theater sound software draws heavily upon the theatrical idea of “Cues”.  It’s a common phrase to those involved in theater audio.  In order to pack in sufficient levels of flexibility and creativity MixAction allows numerous parameters to be applied to individual sounds and indeed groups of sounds – grouped sound cue’s being a subject of a future post. The most frequent method employed in similar software is the use of some kind of database style format, whether it be a real database or an XML file type format.  These are pretty easy for the programmer to implement in a manner of speaking, but for the user of the software they tend to make the process of working with and manipulating audio a process where they have to repeat the same actions in different theater projects every time they start a new production. In other words there is no facility for easy re-use of that cool pre-set sound or groups of sounds you implemented in a previous production.  You have to start over.  So it’s not really a very empowering or creative process for the person using software that works this way, it’s boring and repetitive, not to mention such presets can not be shared with others in your field of theater audio sound. Secondly the the loss or damage of a “project file” whether it be a database or an XML file means a loss of all your project settings.  Anybody who has even a basic familiarity with computers will know that it’s “Murphy’s Law” when it comes to the unexpected going wrong.  Files do get lost, damaged, corrupted or messed up.  Usually at a critical moment. While nothing can rule out a disaster completely MixAction approaches it’s sound cue system in a slightly different way.  If you are familiar with Sony Acid Pro you’ll know about it’s loop format files.  You’ll know that loop files are “smart” in that they retain a lot of information that can be re-used across projects such as tempo, pitch, volume automation and a whole lot more.  MixAction uses a similar idea, though of course MixAction is not a loop composing product, so it uses a system that is logical for a program that works with theater sound.

MixAction MXA Audio Format

MixAction adapts a standard audio file format, we’ll elaborate after release exactly which one, and writes information to the file that relates to your settings in relation to the file inside your project.  In turn this information is read back by MixAction during playback and the appropriate actions are taken – just as you intended. The bonus here too is that you can re-use these sound settings in another project just by including the sound inside that project.  You can share the sound with another MixAction theater audio user and, yes, the sound can be played back on pretty much any other sound software system, or portable player, if it supports this format (that’s most!).  Those “other” packages or players of course won’t bother reading the extra MixAction information, which of course is fine for you and I.

MixAction Works With Copies

MixAction works with copies of the original sound – never the original.  In fact it imports audio file formats and converts them seamlessly, as you build your project, to it’s theater smart MXA format.  This means you can actually build your own audio library of “theater cues” for use in your MixAction theater projects.  In addition our forthcoming audio library, to be announced soon, allows you to download additional, pre-formatted sound files and sound file collections all ready to use – or adjust to your own needs – inside MixAction. When creating the specification for MixAction MXA files we made sure the following benefits to you applied:

• Adjustable bit rate means you can select the audio quality from MP3 sized file formats right up to audio CD quality if you want it.
• Files must be capable of being played on standard audio software programs – today.
• Files must be re-usable.
• Future versions of MixAction need to be able to play sound files created in previous versions of MixAction.
• Previous versions of MixAction need to be able to play sound files created in future versions of MixAction – though they might not be able to use any “new features” of the newer MixAction version.
• MixAction MXA audio files must be useable directly in the forthcoming Studio edition of MixAction.
• MixAction MXA audio files should be streamable – just like the kind of files you receive listening to a PodCast, Internet radio station etc for maximum flexibility.
• MXA files created by MixAction users should be share-able between other MixAction users providing they have distribution rights to the content (original audio or audio you have the right to distribute such as public domain)

We’re pleased to say the MixAction MXA audio file format meets every single one of the criteria we specified – and more – making it a definitive theater sound cue system and format. Scott Kane CEO And Primary Developer – MixAction Theater Audio