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MixPre Series Firmware v2.20 May 24, 2018 - Link


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 MixPre Series Firmware v2.20 May 24, 2018

https://www.sounddevices.com/support/downloads/mixpres-firmware

 

Last update May 24, 2018

Changes introduced in 2.20 include:

New

For all models:

  • Output gain range increased by 20dB.
  • Added Output Mute option.
  • Added Output Mute * shortcut option.

For MixPre-10M

  • Import of WAV audio files (native and non-native) when creating a Music Project.

For MixPre-10T

  • Displays a timecode reset notification in Free Run and Time of Day modes when timecode is reset after the timecode hold time of 4 hrs is exceeded.

For MixPre-3 and MixPre-6 only

  • Jump to cue marks by holding Play and rotating the headphone encoder.

For MixPre-3, -6, and -10T only

  • Plugin support: A new System > Plugins submenu for installing future licensed plugins.
  • New Record > Record Bells menu option to disable record bell notifications.
  • Added Inputs MS Decode submenu to select MS decoding to both ISOs and Mix or Mix Only.
  • Recordings that are split across multiple files now playback seamlessly.
  • Playback of non-native WAV files in Audio Projects.

Changed

For MixPre-3, -6, and -10T only

  • In Remix mode, re-recorded files are now placed in the same project folder as the source file.
  • A file's 'Name' has been increased to a maximum of 20 characters.

For all models:

  • Channel Screen meter remains visible and active when adjusting channel gain.
  • Headphone Clip Indicator is now displayed in power/battery level indicator in the top right of the screen.
  • Post fade channel clipping is now indicated by a channel's ring LED illuminating red.
  • Projects are now sorted by creation date/time in the Project > Open menu.
  • Menu screens now allow the user to switch from one parameter to another with a single touch.

Fixed

For MixPre-10T only:

  • USB Thumbdrive was prematurely shown as full.
  • Time of Day timecode was incorrect after power cycling within the timecode hold time (4 hours).

For MixPre-10M only:

  • Mute was not muting tracks with Input source set to Click.
  • Metronome Volume and Click track level were inconsistent.
  • Rendered audio files were not automatically copied to the USB Drive.
  • Cue marks that fell outside of the Play In / Stop region were still embedded in the rendered wav file.
  • Cue marks set as Play In, Record In, Record Out, Stop were not being moved correctly.
  • Rendered isolated wav files would occasionally contain discontinuities at crossfades.
  • Phantom Power setting was not carrying over to the linked input in a linked pair.
  • Playback would not always work after recording the first take in a music project.
  • 44.1kHz sample rate would not carry over to new projects.

For MixPre-6 and -10T only:

  • MixPre-6 channels 5 & 6 and MixPre-10T channels 9 & 10 were displaying 6dB too high.
  • Solo and Mutes were not linked when Link Type was set to 'All'.

For MixPre-3, -6, and -10T only:

  • Audio bleed-through into the record start/stop bells.
  • MS balance control was occasionally resetting to center.
  • Cue marks were not copied from the original file to the re-recorded file.
  • Track Arm indicators would flash after playing back.
  • Phantom Power setting could be displayed incorrectly in the Channel screen after playback.
  • Re-recording was only possible when the source file contained three or more tracks.
  • Headphone monitoring source would change after playback.
  • Previous project was not loading when reinserting the SD card.
  • Recording would stop when recording automatic file splits to daily folders over midnight.

For all models:

  • Jumping between cue marks has been improved.
  • Media I/O Error message was incorrectly displayed for a full SD card.
  • In some DAWs, MixPre audio file signal clipping was occurring at -0.1dBFS.
  • Zero byte split files were created on some SD cards.
  • Pop-up dialog windows could appear one on top of the other.
  • Improved handling of pop up dialog boxes.
  • Improved audio scrubbing.
  • Improved transport handling.
  • Improved media performance.
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What do they mean by output mute option...? 

Is this the output mute option many of us have been begging for ??? The one that Auto mutes the output when in stop mode and opens up the output during record??

If so, I hope this is also possible on the 6 series units.. dooner rather than later..I am so over not having this function...of all the mods, this is a real important one for me..

Still hoping. If this is it but for mix pres only, I hope it is coming soon to our 688 and 633 units..

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4 hours ago, afewmoreyears said:

Is this the output mute option many of us have been begging for ??? The one that Auto mutes the output when in stop mode and opens up the output during record??


Doesn't mention anything about it being auto mute. But it would be a nice feature to have. Currently I employ the air gap measure to quickly give the actors some privacy between set ups. (physically unplugging my transmitter from my recorder's output cable)

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16 hours ago, afewmoreyears said:

 

What do they mean by output mute option...? 

Is this the output mute option many of us have been begging for ??? The one that Auto mutes the output when in stop mode and opens up the output during record??

If so, I hope this is also possible on the 6 series units.. dooner rather than later..I am so over not having this function...of all the mods, this is a real important one for me..

Still hoping. If this is it but for mix pres only, I hope it is coming soon to our 688 and 633 units..

 

No, it's just a button in the menu to mute the outputs.

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16 hours ago, afewmoreyears said:

 

What do they mean by output mute option...? 

Is this the output mute option many of us have been begging for ??? The one that Auto mutes the output when in stop mode and opens up the output during record??

If so, I hope this is also possible on the 6 series units.. dooner rather than later..I am so over not having this function...of all the mods, this is a real important one for me..

Still hoping. If this is it but for mix pres only, I hope it is coming soon to our 688 and 633 units..

That is really the "TV commercial audio mixer" button isn't it?  Such an inconvenience and object of unnecessary stress on the set, and it seems like it would be such a simple hack for the SD programmers....    Or give the firmware the ability to have an extra audio output become a switch closure output or etc so we could roll our own switch under control of the recorder...?    Or via the USB keyboard circuit...?  Us old cranks remember the tricks you could do with similar outputs of Nagra, which we've never gotten back to since.

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Funny, but,  aside from Comteks themselves and all that goes on there, lack of an auto mute function is my biggest pain in the ass on any given day... The fact I have to think about it in some small way every time I go into record, and every time I cut... matters... I'm about 99%....  It's almost placed in my sequence of events to be automatic on my part... but still is not..  It's the one percent failure on my part that is the problem...  It can be a big thing for "THEM"... and in turn, since it's usually shouted...for me.  

I wish the SD gods had a feeling for that...  I would really love for this to be added... These machines are almost perfect for me, and getting better as updates come out.. This one tweak .... that's all... this one tweak..

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35 minutes ago, Christian Spaeth said:

Auto mute? Sounds like a nightmare to me. I couldn't bear all the people coming up to me telling me their Comteks are broken because they don't hear anything between takes. No thanks.

That is exactly the point.   Trust me, on the most rarified of (particularly) USA commercial shoots ANY audio coming through the village headsets when the camera is not rolling will provoke a swift and terrible response from production, often starting with the director herself.  That's just how they want it--no audio unless we're rolling.   No one wants this to be a feature that could not be turned off, but it is an undeniable fact of life of certain kinds of shoots, with no really elegant solution since digital systems came along.  Maybe Aaton could figure this out....even just the outputable switch closure or etc....or Zax.

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1 hour ago, afewmoreyears said:

Funny, but,  aside from Comteks themselves and all that goes on there, lack of an auto mute function is my biggest pain in the ass on any given day... The fact I have to think about it in some small way every time I go into record, and every time I cut... matters... I'm about 99%....  It's almost placed in my sequence of events to be automatic on my part... but still is not..  It's the one percent failure on my part that is the problem...  It can be a big thing for "THEM"... and in turn, since it's usually shouted...for me.  

I wish the SD gods had a feeling for that...  I would really love for this to be added... These machines are almost perfect for me, and getting better as updates come out.. This one tweak .... that's all... this one tweak..

 

What recorder are you using? It's possible to build a cable with a reed switch and use the gpio to pass audio when rolling.

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On 5/29/2018 at 10:07 PM, Philip Perkins said:

That is exactly the point.   Trust me, on the most rarified of (particularly) USA commercial shoots ANY audio coming through the village headsets when the camera is not rolling will provoke a swift and terrible response from production, often starting with the director herself.  That's just how they want it--no audio unless we're rolling.   No one wants this to be a feature that could not be turned off, but it is an undeniable fact of life of certain kinds of shoots, with no really elegant solution since digital systems came along.  Maybe Aaton could figure this out....even just the outputable switch closure or etc....or Zax.

 

In that case it would of course be a useful feature. I just never worked with that kind of people I guess. I've had a few directors explicitly ask me to leave the boom mic open in between takes as they wanted to hear what's going on on set and never take off their headphones. 

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Bit different to leave the boom mic open vs leaving the actress' lav open. 

Actually, that would be a handy feature, not to automatically mute an entire output but only to automatically mute (well, remove from the routing) certain specific tracks that are being sent to that output. 

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8 minutes ago, IronFilm said:

Bit different to leave the boom mic open vs leaving the actress' lav open. 

Actually, that would be a handy feature, not to automatically mute an entire output but only to automatically mute (well, remove from the routing) certain specific tracks that are being sent to that output. 

 

It‘s part of my regular mixing routine to close all open mics except for the boom. I don’t just do it for the actor‘s privacy, but that’s how I think a mix should be. If I have everything open all the time it‘s not really a mix. So I have never really needed the auto-mute feature. 

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    In the commercial world there are anywhere from 8 to 20 clients and agency persons watching like hawks everything that is shot...it's really their show... Then you have the director trying to get something done with their personal vision. Think of the client agency persons as 20 other directors..mostly these folks have an idea on what they want, but many lack actual skills in our shooting world. 

   The director wants the feed shut off so they can walk out and have discussions with talent on what to do and how they want takes shot.. without the 20 other people chiming in on HOW the sausage is made.  They would rather have the take come out as interesting and to the liking of everyone without the client agency input. The directors want their vision not the other folks.. But, the client agency folks will input anyway all day long.  It's those conversations between Talent and director the directors want private. Producers too.. I think they are most worried. I have heard BOTH directors and talent bashing the script, the action, the spot and the product a million times... probably not something the director or producer wants the people paying for the commercial hearing... It can get really touchy and this is a big deal to them. If they hear that feed open between takes, they freak... and will say to kill it and not to leave it open between takes PERIOD... boom or Lavs...

 

So, you could imaging leaving this feed open accidentally even two times out of 164 times rolling that day... only 2!! but those are a bad two and somehow, this is what stays stuck in their heads after a days work.

  You would think a boom open a bit away from the conversations would be OK..but they still see it as an open mic on set...

 

This is why we in our world would love an auto mute option and why it is so important..  Its the director, the talent, the producer and the client agency....they all have something to protect.. 

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I am in the ride with AFMY on this, having had my ass royally kicked over those "2 times a day" when I forgot to close the set feed, or forgot to reopen it when we rolled.  AFMY is right about the culture of these shoots--there is a director whose position is tenuous and then a large flock of back-seat drivers, all of whom think they could direct the piece as well as the current director and are ultra-paranoid about their own position within their agency's hierarchy.  It is a very charged atmosphere, often made worse by the presence of representatives of the client's client, who is ultimately paying for the shoot.  Often prod. co producers spend a lot of energy keeping the agency folks at a physical distance from the set, sometimes ushering a small delegation in and out to speak with the director in person, otherwise they are supposed watch and listen from "the village".  On this subject the "strike zone" for the mixer is pretty wide, and in fact this matter takes priority over quality of sound recorded in the eyes of the production company.  Having the sort of automateable mute AFMY describes would lift a huge burden off commercial mixers.  If SD et al can't help, there is an opportunity here for a 3rd party solution, since many mixers would pay good $ for something that really works.

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To take the concept one step further, having STOP resulting in operator selectable routing options would be even better. 

For example:

1 - mute all

2 - mute all tracks - except *Boom*

3 - mute all, and open *return B* (where one could have an mp3-player or radio play tunes while not rolling)

* for 2 and 3, track number and return would be user definable.

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You’re right and I understand about the commercial situation. I only have a few each year so they are not at the front of my head. 

The situation re director and agency people is actually similar here, but I have never experienced it as quite as tense. 

 

The 788T has got the option to switch headphone presets automatically between  playback and standby/record. 

So it seems like it could not be too difficult to move this to record/playback vs standby. Then add the ability to assign two different output options to a given output. You could just choose a unused track or whatever, but also keep the boom-op feed open. 

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Is there a way to make that change in the 788 routing oneself, like on one's own?  I ask since I don't think SD is going to devote any more labor to updating the 788 firmware at this point....   It seems like it might work.

 

I should add that the scenario I described above goes double for celebrity directors!

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A question about mixpre:
Is this a problem only on my device? Is that how it works?

My mixpre-6 feels very slow at knobe speed response.
It sound like logarithmic faders rather than linear faders.
Always my mix dialogue sounds like I missed a word or half a word.

 

 

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I'm in the same boat as AFMY and Phillip.  I have had many conversations with commercial producers about always keeping the comteks silent except when rolling.  Directors too who don't want client listening in on how they direct talent so they only provide feedback on the take, not on the direction.

A roll / cut based mute feature would eliminate a lot of other set conversations that I often have too, not just about client and director.  I am in such a habit of having everything muted always and pfl'ing when I need to listen (still wish the nomad pfl worked better than it does because of this) that I often get semi-panicked notes from camera/vtr that my reference hops or hardlines aren't working cause there is nothing showing on the meters.  Then they ask me to open a mic and I have to explain why I can't, but can send them tone if they want it.  I would love to be able to choose to mute certain outputs except when  rolling, but not others.  I have no interest in leaving some mics open (I can do that with a fader), for me it's all about an individual output control.

I would have built a box for this for the nomad already except you can't use gpio and a fader panel at the same time on that system, and the fader panel is way more important to me.

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