Unique Perspective: M-Audio ProjectMix I/O- PRESS PLAY

Computer-based DAWs seem to have virtually no limitations—except those imposed by using a mouse to do the job of dedicated hardware. ProjectMix I/O finally puts all that tactile control back under your fingertips. It also combines that control with M-Audio’s acclaimed FireWire audio interface technology, eliminating clutter while integrating everything you need to transform your computer-based music system into a full-fledged digital audio workstation.

• record audio directly into Pro Tools M-Powered > industry-standard format
• use with Pro Tools M-Powered, Live, Logic, Cubase, Digital Performer and SONAR > total compatibility
• 10-bit touch-sensitive motorized faders > totally intuitive mixing and editing
• built-in 18 x 14 FireWire audio interface > no additional hardware required
• 8 phantom-powered mic/line preamps > pro input right on board
• assignable rotary encoders > control mixes, effects and synths
• LCD display > full track and parameter readout
• Dedicated transport controls and jog/scrub wheel > seamless session flow
• ADAT Lightpipe, S/PDIF and word clock I/O > total digital connectivity

M-Audio ProjectMix I/O Overview- PRESS PLAY

Today, more professional music is produced at home than ever before—and the new ProjectMix I/O delivers what you need to take your computer-based studio and productions to the next level. Seamless integration with all major DAW software. The ability to record directly into industry-standard Pro Tools sessions. Faders so you can feel the mix with your fingertips instead of dragging a mouse. On-board display of critical parameters for intuitive operation. Motorized control to craft more accurate mixes. And professional multi-channel I/O including mic/instrument preamps, Lightpipe and S/PDIF. ProjectMix I/O is the universal solution that combines the best of the hardware and software worlds for a new standard in streamlined production. Compatible with Pro Tools M-Powered 7^, Ableton Live 5^, Logic*, Cubase*, Digital Performer*^ and SONAR*^.

* DAW software version must support Mackie Control, Logic Control or HUI protocol.

ProjectMix I/O gives you just about every kind of I/O you might need for a session—and at the same price as many control surfaces lacking audio altogether. Eight analog input channels all feature ¼” balanced and XLR microphone inputs with individual mic/line switches. Of course, phantom power is provided for up to eight condenser mics and input 1 even features a front-panel instrument input so you easily plug a guitar or bass right in. 8 x 8 ADAT Lightpipe I/O brings the simultaneous input total to 16 and allows you to expand your system with devices like M-Audio’s award winning Octane preamp. This allows for eight more channels of preamp via Lightpipe. 2 x 2 S/PDIF handles all your other digital connectivity, and word clock synchronizes ProjectMix with other digital devices.

ProjectMix I/O also serves as a 1 x 1 MIDI interface, allowing your computer to connect with MIDI hardware. Monitoring options include two ¼” headphone outputs with separate volume controls for working with a partner, as well as two stereo output pairs for routing to monitors, processors and mixdown devices. There’s even an A/B headphone source monitoring switch for cueing. ProjectMix I/O brings all of this to your computer with a single, simple FireWire connection.

Dedicated transport controls are another feature that makes doing sessions with ProjectMix I/O a breeze. You get illuminated controls for record, play, stop, fast forward, and rewind, plus a jog/shuttle wheel and locate buttons for easy project navigation. Sets of keys for in/out points, zoom, region nudge, looping and more will having your flying through sessions with incredible efficiency.

M-Audio’s design team gave a great deal of consideration as to what features would provide the most value in an affordable package. They knew that cutting-edge features like high-resolution 10-bit touch-sensitive moving faders, large LCD display and mic/line switches on all channels were important. They also found that much of the expense of other units on the market owed to a dizzying number of controls that many users find daunting. Our engineers opted for a streamlined design that places some functions under the control of the keyboard and mouse, where they are best suited. The result is a controller that doesn’t have much of a learning curve, is much more intuitive to use and comes in at an unbeatable price. Check out ProjectMix I/O for yourself at your local M-Audio dealer. We think you’ll agree.

The motorized touch-sensitive faders on each of ProjectMix I/O’s eight channel strips and master strip record and playback your changes, making for seamless mix automation. And touch sensitivity means that when you touch a fader in motion, it immediately disengages for manual control and re-engages automation when you release. This provides for both smoother operation and the elimination of motor burnout prevalent in older technologies. ProjectMix’s faders also feature higher resolution than other control surfaces in its price range.

ProjectMix I/O’s eight channel strips can map to as many channels as your project by simply pressing the bank +/- and channel +/- controls. Each channel strip features all of the functions you’d expect to help you zip through sessions, including buttons for mic/line, record enable, mute, solo, and select. In addition to a touch-sensitive motorized fader, each strip has an endless rotary encoder knob whose function is assigned by one of 15 dedicated buttons for EQ, aux send and more. Related information is displayed in the LCD window directly above each encoder. The encoders and LCD double to control assigned plug-in parameters as well.

Professional music creation has never been more accessible. Designed for use with select M-Audio recording interfaces, Pro Tools MP 9—the latest version of Pro Tools M-Powered™ software—improves upon the industry-leading features that made it the top choice for music and audio production. Enjoy 48-track mono or stereo audio recording, editing, and mixing with up to 24-bit/96 kHz fidelity. Shape sounds and add effects with over 70 included plug-ins. Easily compose music with full MIDI and score notation tools. Get great-sounding, phase-accurate mixes with Automatic Delay Compensation. And collaborate with other Pro Tools users in studios around the world. Pro Tools MP software puts all this power—and much more—at your fingertips.

Pro Tools is the world’s most popular, most advanced music and audio production platform. Now Pro Tools MP 9 software gives you the power to work with many of the same features that make Pro Tools the top choice of today’s audio professionals. Create amazing music, collaborate with other Pro Tools users, transfer projects between professional and personal studios, and more. The possibilities are endless when you’re part of the largest community of digital audio workstation users on earth.

Pro Tools MP comes fully packed with a huge, comprehensive collection of music creation and sound processing plug-ins—giving you a well-stocked studio right out of the box. You get an incredible array of pro-grade effects and utility plug-ins, including EQ, dynamics, delay, reverb and many more. You can also create and play music with groundbreaking virtual instruments from the renowned Avid virtual instrument development group: the Mini Grand piano, Boom drum machine, DB-33 tone-wheel organ, Structure Free sample player, and Vacuum and Xpand!2 synths.

As if that weren’t enough, Pro Tools MP software also lets you take advantage of a variety of RTAS and AudioSuite plug-ins designed by the recording industry’s largest professional third-party developer community. Track with powerful host-based vintage instruments, polish your mixes with effects and mastering plug-ins, and more. Check out our wide selection of signal-processing plug-ins and virtual instruments

Pro Tools MP software enables M-Audio hardware enthusiasts to easily access the powerful recording, editing, and mixing features of Pro Tools. With up to 48 simultaneous stereo tracks of 16- or 24-bit digital audio, and support for up to 96kHz sample rates, Pro Tools MP is an ideal companion for M-Audio interfaces and audio interface keyboards—whether you’re recording solo or entire bands.

Once you’ve finished your recording, you can fine-tune your performances with Pro Tools software’s unmatched nondestructive editing tools. Shape sounds, compose parts, and add effects with RTAS instrument and effects plug-ins—then create polished mixes with professional mixing features and full mixer automation.

Pro Tools MP now features Automatic Delay Compensation (ADC)—previously only available with high-end Pro Tools|HD systems—which makes it easy to get great-sounding, phase-accurate mixes. During mixing, latency issues can arise when an external processor or plug-in algorithm induces enough latency to interfere with musical timing. Issues can also occur when you’re maintaining nearly identical signal sources on separate tracks or paths—for example, a pair of bass tracks—and you insert a plug-in with latency on one of those tracks. When activated, the ADC feature automatically makes adjustments to compensate for all latencies in the I/O, internal and external routing, and plug-in algorithm processing, ensuring that recordings and mixes stay perfectly time aligned, phase accurate, and sounding great.

When you’ve achieved the perfect mix, it’s easier than ever to share your work. Quickly export your projects in a wide variety of audio formats, including MP3—then share them with the world.

Pro Tools MP features a variety of tools that ease and speed loop-based music creation. In addition to importing REX and ACID files, the Loop Trim tool also makes it easy to turn audio or MIDI regions into loops. The Elastic Time and Elastic Pitch features make it a breeze to change tempo/time and pitch on the fly. As a result, you can integrate a wide variety of loops and audio files with your current session throughout the entire writing process. And DigiBase—the program’s internal database—even has a Loop Preview feature that allows you to preview loops in sync, in real time, before bringing them into your session.

Elastic Pitch allows you to you to effortlessly manipulate or correct the pitch of any audio region in real time, right inside the Edit window. Easily transpose an entire audio region in semitones—up to four octaves in either direction—without affecting its timing or tempo. Fix a less-than-perfect vocal performance by altering the pitch of individual notes in cent intervals. You can also create cool sound effects by linking pitch changes with time compression/expansion using the Varispeed algorithm.

Elastic Time is a powerful real-time tempo manipulation feature that makes it easy to change tempo or time on the fly. For musicians, composers, and music producers, Elastic Time puts loop-based music creation in the fast lane, giving you the freedom to explore different tempos and experiment with loops and audio files that sync with your current session throughout the entire writing process. For post-production editors and engineers, Elastic Time makes it easy to stretch or squeeze audio tracks to fit video time frames, using high-quality algorithms that make your time manipulation virtually undetectable.

With Pro Tools MP software, you can change the tempo and timing of loops, music, dialog and other sound files without cutting up audio. Easily create loops from any audio file—even entire compositions—with the help of powerful tempo and transient analysis. Want to hear how a certain audio bit will sound in your song? The Context Preview lets you quickly audition loops and audio files in sync with the tempo of your session. Even imported audio files and loops automatically conform to match your session’s tempo.

Pro Tools MP also makes it easy to perfect the timing of performances. You can improve errant beats by quantizing audio to your session’s Bar|Beat grid—or to grooves extracted from other audio or MIDI performances using the Beat Detective feature, which offers exceptional peak detection accuracy. You can also fine-tune “Elasticized” regions, with precision control over each individual beat, using the warp track view and warp markers. You can even make the same precise changes across multiple grouped tracks while preserving timing offsets in multitrack recordings, such as with drums.

To ensure that you get the highest quality results, Elastic Time delivers some of the best-sounding processing in the industry. You can choose from several premium time-stretching algorithms on a per-track basis. You can even adjust the decay and processing window length to tailor the audio processing for each track, rather than settling for a one-size-fits-all algorithm.

It’s easy to create flawless performances with Pro Tools MP. Track compositing features let you quickly piece together the best possible version of a performance from multiple recording passes. Simply loop-record multiple takes on an Audio track, view and audition the takes in Playlist view, select the best parts from the track’s alternate playlists, and copy them to the main playlist with a single click. You can also rate regions on a scale of one to five to help identify which takes you like the most when compositing playlists.

Pro Tools MP software’s fully integrated MIDI sequencer and editor allow you to record, edit, and mix up to 256 MIDI tracks alongside your audio tracks. Dedicated Instrument tracks combine the audio and MIDI elements of a given virtual instrument into a single channel strip to streamline your workspace. Launch your favorite instrument plug-in to get the sound you want. Engage loop recording to quickly develop a multi-layered drum pattern, then use Groove Quantize or Groove Templates to give it the right feel. Switch to MIDI Step Input to lay down a difficult passage. Turn on real-time MIDI processing to quantize your performance as it goes down.

Based on the Sibelius notation engine, the Pro Tools MP Score Editor window lets you view, edit, arrange, and print MIDI data as music notation. Whether you want to compose music using the notation tools—or transcribe recorded, imported, drawn (with the Pencil tool), or step-entered MIDI data into notation—the Score Editor features everything you need and nothing you don’t. Write parts on a single staff—treble, bass, alto, or tenor clef—or grand staff. Place and edit notes, and edit the meter and key signature on a whim. Add chord symbols such as Dm7 and guitar chord diagrams to sessions. Transcribe MIDI parts in real time. Print out a score in its entirety or print only certain instrumental parts. You can even export sessions as Sibelius (.sib) files for further finessing in Sibelius.