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Merlin User Manual 4401KB Mar 11 2009 04:48:54

1. 66 The Setup Menu cccccssesseeeeesesseeeeenees 68 Synchronisation Detailed Explanation 69 How Merlin Synchronises 0ee 69 Digital Synchronisation Conflicts 69 Pull up and Pull down seee 69 Control of Sony Machines 0e 70 Conflict Of SYNC 0 0 eeceeteeeeeteeeeeeeeneeeees 70 Compatibility with other Fairlight products 70 The LTC Setup Menu ccccsseseeresees 71 LTC Master scort ais ce 71 The 9 pin Setup Menu commnccccnnnnncnnnnnos 72 Entering Timecode Values o o o oooio 73 The Numeric Register 73 WINS rip iaa 73 Copy Add or Subtract Master Time 73 Copy Last Value ooococinccnncnncononccccicaciconno 73 Entering a Value 73 Trimming NUMberSs seee 73 Displaying Subframes eeeeees 73 The Offset Menu cccccsssseeeeeeeseseereeeees 74 The Preroll Menu ccssesseeceeeseeseeteeenees 75 Transport Commands ccccsseseeeereees 76 Basic Controls isrener 76 Play Again Command cceceereeeees 76 Record Again Command ccccceecees 76 Record Here Command l 76 LOCATION KEYS iria cita 76 JUMP KeYS eerren 76 Jog and Shuttle 0 ec eeeeeseeeeeeeees 76 The Jogger Wheel cccccesesseeeeeeeees 77 JO reirte oidos 77 SNUS citas sa 77 Audio Freeze Frame Loop Jogging 77 The Jog Menu oooooccccccccoooccccccccconnncnccncnnnnns 77 The JUMP KeYS oooooocccccccoocccc
2. 33 Selecting Clips for Editing 33 Timecode Ranges ccssssseceeceeesseeeeeees 34 Setting Up a Range ce eececeeeseeesettees 34 Simple Method 0 cccccceeceeeeeeeeeeeeeeetees 34 Using Range Menus ecce 34 Shortcut to Range Setting 35 Automatic and Manual Ranges 35 The Edit Menu Cut amp Paste 36 Selecting Audio oooonconncnnnccnncooccncocccanccnnnos 36 Cutting or Copying to the Clipboard 36 Selecting Destination Tracks 36 Other Paste Commands oococcocccnnccccoccccnnos 36 Pasting From the Clipboard 36 The Edit Menu 37 The Cut Submenu 37 The Copy Submenu n se 38 Edit Commands with a Range 39 The Cut Submenu ceecee 39 The Copy Submenu n se 40 The Trim MeCnu ccccccsseseeeecesseseeeeeeenees 41 Restore Trimmed Audio eee 41 Super TM ina 41 Trim Menu Illustrated ooooooooninnnnnnooo o 42 The Nudge Menu ommcccconnniccncnnnnnnnnnnnnnos 43 A O 43 Razor Editing cccccssseeeceeeseeseeeeeeeeeeseeeees 44 The Razor Mem netan 44 The Razor Submenu Illustrated 45 Original Track Layout 0 cece 45 SPCC acta Sats Sage tunes serve a ATE 45 DUPliCAte cirio 45 Delete civic iio cin cis ee A ais 45 The Track Menu ccccccsseseereeeseeteereenees 46 E E A 47 The Fade Menu
3. User Manual 19 Fades Each clip can be given a fade in and fade out These are performed in the digital domain before the audio is con verted back to an analogue signal at the output When the fade of one clip is placed over another clip a crossfade between the two clips occurs Press the Fade key and select the track s on which you want to fade clips The clips to be faded are the ones on the selected tracks which lie directly underneath the cursor The Fade menu achieves the fade in and or fade out If two fades lie on top of each other only the fade on top will act and the clip underneath will crossfade as illustrated above The Fade Menu Causes a fade from x dB at the Head of the clip to the clip level at the cursor Sets the level at the mid point ofnew fades where both clips have the same loudness In theory this should be set to 6 for perfectly in phase audio and to 3 for completely ran domly phased audio You can also set the value outside these limits to Selectanumber of frames up to 99 to be the Auto Causes a fade from fade intime then hit EN achieve desirable fade in and fade i TER to execute the fade the clip level at the bars out contours cursor to x dB atthe In X Point Tail of the clip pan uo ore It is possible to move the mid the Auto fade out i P fthe fade earli later i time thenhitENTER point of the ade earlier or ater in time To do this hold t
4. 18 LY PACA 57 Bulk File Handling oooooooocnnncnnnnconnnncccoo 57 Bump sync of CLIPS eect 43 Cc Capturing offsets 0 0 0 0 eeeeeeeeees 74 CD Red Book export l 64 Change input settings ooooo o ooo 16 Clear error Messages oocoooococcccccccccccocccconnos 9 Glip level sica bd anria 50 Clip NAMES eect eee ee ete eeetteeeeees 30 AE 33 Clip selection for editing 33 A cate feeta tee ee eee os cede 23 A 89 COMMIT gating ooooocoocccocnoccoconocccccccnccc no 51 Compatibility with MFX2 and MFX3 70 Configuration Files 0 ceeeeeeeees 91 Copy Clip NAME ns 30 Copy Files oooooooonococonocococcocccoconccccnannncnnno 57 COPY head cccccccococcccccccocnnccccccnonanonccccnnnnno 38 Copy Master Time ooooocconiocccinoccccccccccno 73 Copy Tall ee 38 Copying files ooooooooonnnnnnnonnnnoninccccno 20 Create new folder 0 0 0 2 ccc cceeeeceeeeereeeeees 20 A 47 Crossfade from Zero i 49 94 Current Time a ioa 13 Current Track A 23 e i Ra EE Radi 12 Cut amp Paste eccere 36 CUU CODY estes ti italia 37 D DaD file export o oooiccconnconncconoccciccccccnno 64 Default fade ooooooococoonccconncccccconcccoconccnnnnos 49 Delete DIOCK ooooooooooccconiccooccccccocconccccccnnnos 44 Device display ooooooonoocccccnnccocncccccccccnnnno 11 Device Page cocooocccccccccooocccccccconnnncccnccnnnnno 15 Digi MENU sii
5. ceccceeeceeeeeeeeeeees 47 Fades With a Range cceeceeeeeeeeeees 48 More About Fades 49 Crossfades and Channels nin 49 Fade Defaults raiona 49 The Level Menu cccccssssseceeesseseereeeees 50 Range i od 50 Track Selection iisti t 50 Mode Selection cc eeceeeeeeeeseeeeneereaes 50 The Gate Menu cccccsseseeeeeeseeteeeeeeees 51 Gating During Recording eee 51 Gating After Recording s s s 51 Gate Menu Illlustrated 52 Undoing and Redoing Edits 53 Undo and Redo Buttons ee 53 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 34 35 e Managing Disk Space o cccnmncccccninnnnnnns 54 Throwing Out Rubbish a se 54 RANGE isccococinincondoindancnan o codi dende dels das 54 The Disk Menu ooooooonccccccooocccccconanncccccnnnno 54 Recovering Lost CIipS ooommomccccornnancr 56 The W Display rinni 56 The Recover Waveform Command 56 The Waveform Show Command 56 Bulk File Handling the Backup Menu 57 Marking Attached Files 0 0 0 0 eee 59 Backup Progress Display 60 More About File Management 63 Warning on Overwrite essees 63 The Backup Display acce 63 The Export Menu cccsesseceeeseeseereenees 64 Rules for writing to CD seese 65 Machine Control ccccsesseecreeseeseeeees 66 Synchronisation Quick Guide
6. Page 39 User Manual The Copy Submenu a The whole range is Copied to the clipboard and the cursor position stored as a sync mark From there it may be Pasted to anew location by pressing the ENTER key The whole range is back timed i e the part of the audio that was under the cursor when you pressed the range Soft Key will be placed under the cursor at its new location The contents of the clipboard are erased This diagram shows the range before copying to the clipboard A a o oo has From Point Cursor To Point After copying the clipboard contains only the highlighted audio with the cursor position saved as a sync point a gt ome The video screen displays the clipboard outlines showing you what will be pasted in when you press ENTER Page 40 M User Manual 15 The Trim Menu The Trim menu is used for resizing clips We grab some part of a clip such as the Head the Tail or the whole clip move somewhere and DROP it using the ENTER key The audio always remains in sync with its previous position but with a different amount of the originally recorded material exposed The Trim Menu allows multiple track selection so you can slip or trim many clips in the same move l A j Grabs the Sync Point Press ENTER at any timecode and the Sync Point will be relocat
7. Sometimes the tragic happens A clip is accidentally erased and we don t realise until later so it s too late to UNDO the erase Worse still there are no other clips that reference the particular Master Recording so it is not even possible to copy another clip and place it where we think the erased clip was As long as we know that the Master Recording is still on the disk which it will be unless we have used the dispose command since we erased the last clip referencing the master recording we can recover from our accident The W Display To see a list of all the unreferenced master recordings type lt Blue gt W The top section of the video display changes to show a list of master recordings or waveforms as they are known by the software which have no clip referencing them You can scroll the list up and down by pressing the lt add gt and lt sub gt keys on the alphanumeric keyboard You are looking for one of the unreferenced master recordings and you have at least one clue which one it is and that is the Birthday which tells you the timecode at the start of the original recording The Recover Waveform Command If you have found a master recording that you think is the one you want type RW number lt RETURN gt where number is the number printed at the left end of the line The RW stands for Recover Waveform This command will place a clip using the full length of the master recording on your current track with its head
8. The warranties remedies and disclaimers above are exclusive and take prec edence over all others oral or written express or implied to the extent permitted by law in the geographical area of the product s use No employee of Fairlight ESP agent distributor or employee of an agent or distributor is authorised to offer any variation from this policy Copyright 2000 Fairlight ESP Pty Ltd Unit 2 1 Skyline Place French s Forest NSW 2086 AUSTRALIA Telephone 61 2 89779999 Fax 61 289779900 Text and Graphics Andrew Bell OPN 1909 DEO 10 11 12 Contents Getting Started oo nocconnnnccccnnnonnnancnnnnnnnnanno 7 The Merlin Console sssasssssnnnnsnennnnnnnnnnnnnn 9 How the Merlin Disk Recorder Works 10 Merlin ScreenS ooonmmnccccnonnnnnnccnnnnnnnnnennnas 11 The Merlin Recording and Editing Screen cccssssseeeseeeee 13 The Device and File Pages mo 15 The Patch and Meters Display 16 The LCD Display ccccccsesseeeeeeeeees 17 Starting a Project cccccssseseeeeeeeeeees 18 Folder VIEW pisarointia 18 Navigatio annnars 18 From and To KeyS ccce 18 Fil VIEW irose seseina endana 18 The Project Menu nce 19 More Project Menu Options o c 19 Automatic Project Extension 21 Password Protection ccceceeesereneees 21 Multi User File ACCESS 00 eeeeeeteereneees 22 MMS CUPS watece nc node
9. Merlin User Manual Software Version 16 1 Part Number DMER100 A Document Number 140 ae UU Soo anak 2 sa5 aa S sr a Manual by Andrew Bell Copyright O February 2000 Ref Merlin Rev16 1 Manual 00 02 THE BENCHMARK IN DIGITAL AUDIO Important Notice The material in this document is copyright to Fairlight ESP Pty Ltd and may not be quoted or reproduced in any form without written permission from the com pany LIMITED WARRANTY POLICY All the software and hardware provided with or purchased especially for Fairlight products has been tested for functionality Fairlight ESP Pty Ltd will make its best efforts to correct reported defects for future releases subject to technical practicabilities Fairlight ESP will also replace any defective media on which software has been delivered provided that the item to be replaced is returned to the dealer who supported the product within 90 days of purchase Fairlight ESP Pty Ltd makes no warranty or representation either expressed or implied with respect to the system s performance or fitness for a particular purpose In no event will Fairlight ESP Pty Ltd be liable for direct or indirect damages arising from any defect in the product or its documentation Further Fairlight ESP Pty Ltd will not accept any liability for any programs sounds audio recording or sequences stored in or used with Fairlight products including the cost of recovery of such data
10. A name is suggested by the software based on the date and time when the file was created To change this edit it using the arrow keys backspace and alphanumeric keys Press ENTER when you have the right name unmark Press to start the backup when all de sired files are marked Press to unmark a File or Folder If a Folder is unmarked everything inside it is unmarked whether it is currently marked or not A File s attachments are unmarked at the same time as it is but if they have also been explicitly marked in their own right they remain marked Press to mark a File or Folder Marking a Folder marks all Files inside it and those inside Folders inside it down to as many levels of Folders as have been created If any Project File has attachments to other files i e clips have been borrowed from them a window will appear showing all attached files and allowing them to be included in the backup see Marking Attached Files below Projects marked as attachments have a special icon to show this they may also be marked explicitly in their ownright The currently open Project cannot be marked for backup Nor can any file on the current archive unit Page 58 M User Manual PROJECT BSANPLE RATE EEREN MF FUJITS DISK SIZE While marking files for backup restore THLIS ARCHIVE UNIT mfx1 sciB MARK TEST b MT mfx1 s040 aid ns Tick indicates marked for backup or restore Mar 6 12 52 5
11. When JOG is selected circular motion of the wheel moves the system forwards clockwise movement of wheel and backwards anticlockwise movement in time The movement follows your circular movement as if you were directly winding film or tape on to a spindle An on line 9 pin machine will be jogged at the same time as the Disk Recorder The audio on the Disk Recorder tracks is played while you jog much like scrubbing tape This can be used effec tively for locating edit points The gear ratio of the Jogger Wheel depends on the resolution of the display on the video screen so as you Zoom in and out using the Zoom key the Jogging action becomes finer and coarser respectively This allows you to jog very large distances several hours if you wish or very small ones according to the needs of the moment You can change the behaviour at the different Zoom ranges by changing the Jog Factor see next page Holding down the lt ctrl gt key while Jogging increases the speed by a factor of 4 Playback of audio will not occur if jogging speed is too far above normal play speed If audio is very jerky when jogging select a larger Zoom number Shuttle SHUTTLE is selected using its own dedicated key The speed of movement through time is proportional to the angle you have turned the wheel as if it was the speed knob on an electric train set Audio playback occurs during Shuttling with the same restrictions as for Jogging Shuttle m
12. numbered 1 to 24 then choose a Track which has that input patched to itself There is no direct way to choose a particular input Twenty Four Track Meters This display shows the output lev els of every physical output of the system Whenever atrack is armed the meter shows you the input to that track Small red rectangles in dicate the input s patched to each track When a track is playing a stereo clip the right side ofthe clip appears on the next highest out put and the meters show this Selecting a track above 24 causes a second bank of meters to be dis played Patch Display This display shows you the inputs which are patched to each track as well as the type of input selected and the gain set ting for each input Grid showing the type of input selected out of ANLG 10 ANLG 4 AES EBU or SP DIF Page 16 User Manual 8 The LCD Display The LCD Display is used to show parameters and timecodes whenever Merlin is being used The Soft Keys just below the LCD screen are used to perform the majority of setup and editing functions in the system Mode Keys are used to choose a menu in the LCD then the Soft Keys are used to set parameters and execute commands A bank of switches with the current Mode highlighted Master Timecode Position Numeric Register The LCD Menu showing soft key labels associated with the current Mode User Manual
13. 44 100 2 Set Sync Source Digi Menu Ifyou want the Master Sample Clock to lock to an external source set Sync to whichever signal is your best clock source in order the best are AES EBU Word Clock Video Make sure the sync signal is connected This will govern Merlin s digital sample rate so stability of this signal has a direct effect on audio quality If you are not synchronising to anything choose Internal 3 Set Frame Rate Setup Menu Set the TC Format to whichever type of timecode you are going to use or whatever video frame rate you are going to input If your choice is drop frame DF or non drop frame ND you must also select whether the frame rate will be 29 97 NTSC colour television or 30 4a Controla Sony Machine 9 pin Setup menu If you wish to control a Sony video machine press the 9 pin button If there is a Sony Machine plugged into the A port it will come on line Open the Setup menu if desired hold down the Blue key and press the 9 pin Button to set up additional parameters for controlling the 9 pin machine Once it is set up use the button to put the Sony machine online and offline Make sure that the video machine is locked to the same sync source as you chose in item 2 normally this is video sync 4b Chase Timecode LTC Setup menu If you wish to chase linear timecode without machine control use the LTC button to toggle between chasing and running free While chasing timecode you have the cho
14. 56 Recovering Lost Clips eceeeeeeeee 56 A euesan ni annees 33 Redbook CD eccna 64 FREDO e E AA E 8 Reference ceca 10 Referencing oooooocccccccocononccccccconanocnccninannnn 32 Regain disk space a 55 Rehearse mode cocccccoooooccccccccccnnnccccccnnnnnos 84 Renaming Files oooooononnccccnnnnicocccccccccnnnno 20 Replace trimmed audio ceee 41 Restore FllOS icono 57 Restore Trimmed Audio 0 41 Return to Birthday 000a 56 ROWING osoin pareren aderans 76 Rubbish Removal n 54 S A a A ER 31 Sample rate Choice ooooooccoconcconccccioccccccno 29 Scrubbing re 77 Seconds KEYS n 79 Seedname ccocccccccoccccoonnccconnncnonnnnnnnnnnnnnino 30 Selection for editing oooooooonnnnnnnnnnnn co 33 Shuttle o oo cece e cece eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeteeeees 77 SOG escoria 31 Solo and Mute keys oooooooooocococcccccccccccccccnno 8 Sony 9 pin control setup oooooooonnconnncco o 72 0 ot conc ncnnnnnnnnos 44 Stereo M X ee 29 Stereo to MONO eee eese 56 AO o og ae oe rr oee peers ae eee eee reer eee 76 Storage devices ooocooooocccccoooccccococccconnnncnnn 15 Subframe nudging ccoooococococcccccocccccccnccinno 43 Sync mark edit MENU eee 37 SA cess Eia 32 Synchronisation Quick Guide 66 System Disk 2 90 System Page a an 94 T Tallit eee cos eet 10 32 Takes display comarca 11 ENRICO 13 Tape Mode Recording o oooooooccconicnccccccoso 24 Threshold kona 51
15. 77 LOOPING cccococoococcnccccooononononoconnnn cnn ncccnnannnno 83 M Machine Control ooonnocccccnnnncococcccccccnnnnno 66 E cde lass ceeeataaaieeansaaesens 12 Main Screen illustrated 13 Managing Disk Space ee 54 Marks use in setting range 34 Master Recording ooooooiiiiiicciicccccoo 10 23 Master Recording Numbet 0068 32 Master TIME civic 9 Media Read ooooooooccccccccccccccccccccccccccnninnns 22 Merlin Console Illustrated 8 Meter Settings 0 0 0 eee 94 MEEN eerun 28 Mixed Output coooocoocccccccccooccccccconannccncnnnnnnos 29 MK file SUFIK irronneen 14 Modify Write oooooooccooncccioocccicccciccancccinos 22 Mono Stereo coooocccccccococccccccconnoncnccnnnnnnn 26 Move Files ccccccccececteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee 57 Moving files rresiaren 20 MT file suffix 00 2 eect ee teeeeeetteeeeeees 14 Multi User File Access cceeeeeeee 22 Multiple input assign 0 eee 26 MUte italiano 31 N Name Locations 0 ccceeeeteeeeeeeeeeeees 81 Name track A 30 Navigation through directories 18 Negative numbers typing ee 26 New Folder 00000sceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees 20 New Mode Recording oooooo 24 New Project ccceececeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeneeeees 19 Node EEE o A bets aaan 18 Numeric Keypad aaee 9 Numeric Register oooooccoocnnoccccco
16. Data compression will improve the read and write speed to around 7 times play speed or better but will not allow the files to be read by an EXA 8500 File Display Sorting Allows you to choose the order in which files are displayed on the F Page Meter Settings The Meter Calibration Law sets different curves for the channel meters There are two groups from 1 to 3 has a lower limit of 54 dB and from 4 to 6 has a lower limit of 72 dB Within each group the lower numbered curves devote more meter length to the higher levels You can change the meter calibration law at any time the meters are displayed by typing law number lt RETURN gt where number is the meter calibration law you wish to use Meter Red Level allows you to set the level at which the meter elements are coloured red You can also change this at any time the meters are displayed by typing red number lt RETURN gt where number is the audio level where the meters are to turn red You may include the minus sign or not just as you prefer Crossfade from Zero This is used when you have set a crossfade that is longer than one of the clips in the overlapping region When ON is chosen the short clip will fade in such a way that it will reach a level of x at the edge of the clip even if the crossfade is not at an end When OFF is chosen the clip will fade in the normal way as dictated by the crossfade parameters and then it will stop playing at its end with the level still up Fad
17. Fairlight ID which is FA But many editors do not recognise this device name because it is too recent and it is then useful to be able to give a device name that is familiar to the editor or other controller To open Sony_ID for editing first QUIT then type ED DD USR SYS SONY_ID lt RETURN gt To change Merlin s device name edit the last line in the file OxFA 0xA0 Change this ID to the ID for any Sony device that the controlling machine knows All the Sony devices listed in this file have their corresponding ID at the beginning of the line which can be copied over the Merlin ID This will not affect the ability of another Fairlight product to recognise it The Sync Configuration File This file contains some settings that are used by the synchronisation system To open it for editing first QUIT then type ED DD USR SYS TCS_CFG lt RETURN gt This file contains a number of things that you can change But do not touch them unless you know exactly what you are doing because you could stop the system from working properly Fairlight will not take responsibility for changes made to this file without supervision The explanations in the file tell you what can be changed Most of it is only relevant to the system programmers but there are some Environment Variables which are like Preferences towards the end of the file Page 92 M User Manual TM Each of the lines setting the Environment Variables has
18. M Page 17 9 Starting a Project A piece of work on Merlin is called a Project When you wish to begin recording a Project must be open By pressing the Project key you can see the directory of files in the system and access file management functions The Directory The Directory is arranged in a hierarchy as follows Domain a network group consisting of servers and clients Node a machine on the network which could be a server a Fairlight machine Merlin MFX or FAME or another computer Unit a SCSI storage device hard disk magneto optical platter or tape drive Folder a directory on a disk Folders may be nested to many levels inside each other File a Project file or other useful file in the system Domain AAA EE TF FL RD 5 bos TYPE Node OF LSE project MT Jun 19 13 15 13 28 48k Unit Folder File Folder can be gt 5 expanded RELEAS From and To Keys press ENTER ove focus between Folde View and File View Folderview Fileview On the left side of the screen the hierarchy of items other than Files is On the right side of the screen one level shown in a descending indented structure From an operational point in the hierarchy is shown in a vertical of view Domain Nodes Units and Folders are seen in the same way list This level may contain Folders and except that only Folders can be created deleted and renamed Hence Files which are contained in one forth the term Folders will be used to indicat
19. Print OptiONS seeiis annaa 94 Backup Options ccceceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees 94 File Display Sorting ccceceeeeeeeeeees 94 Meter Settings oooonionncnnnnnoncnnnnnncconacinn 94 Crossfade from Zero i e 94 Fade Def on Butted Clips eee 94 Auto Update DL File l 94 Wave Menu Audio Format cece 94 O A 95 Page 4 User Manual User Manual Page 5 Page 6 User Manual 1 Getting Started 1 Connect a stereo audio source to analogue inputs 1 and 2 They are at the rear of the Merlin mainframe Make sure the output from tracks 1 and 2 is not fed back to these inputs via your console 2 Power up Merlin It will always boot up with the Project Menu active The light under the Proj key on your Merlin console will confirm this 3 Along the bottom of the LCD display there is a row of words the Project Menu and below these Soft Keys that do what the words suggest Press the new Soft Key to create a new Project for recording 4 Name your project by typing My First on the pull out keyboard and pressing the lt Enter gt key You have now created a new project called My First and you are ready to record 5 Press Track Arming Key number 1 in the top row of keys Its red light should begin flashing showing that it is armed for recording 6 The video screen now displays input meters at the top with track 1 shown armed Pla
20. TIMELINE visos 12 Time Reference i i 23 TIMECOS cc ee h 28 Timecode Arithmetic 73 Timecode drift ooocccccccccccccccnos 69 timecode format oooooooococcccccccccccccccocinonos 68 Timecode Locations cccccoonnnnccncncco 81 Timecode ranges ee eeeeeeeeeeeeeeetteeeees 34 Timecode Track oooccccccccccccccccnono 28 Toggle Mute group n 31 Track Arming KeyS ooooccocciocooocccccccoonccccnnnnno 8 Track balance in mixed out mode 50 Track display cis ciaci n 11 Track Menu oocccccccoccccccccococcncnnnconcncnonincnnnos 46 Track Selection Keys oooooooncccccnnioccccccccnno 8 Transport Commands ooccccocccccccccccccnnnccnn 76 TriM SUBMENU 0 0cce ccc ceeeeeeceeeeeeeeeeeees 41 Trimming Numbers i i 73 U A O 8 Undoing Edits ooooooooccoconncoccccccocconcccccnnos 53 UU aT Serene mere eater E pee e 18 UNREFERENCED recordings 54 W Warranty Policy aaae 2 WAV Export iiieeeeeeeseererrreereern 64 WAVE file Export oooooooocccccoooccccccccooonnccnnos 65 Wave Menu Audio Format 94 Waveform 9 cree 12 Waveform display ccccceeeseeeeeeees 11 Waveform display amplitude 50 Waveform Show Command 56 Writing to CD oooooocoinncccnnncconnncccicoccccnnncos 64 X X Level in fades 0 0 0 eecee cess eee 47 X Ratio in fa
21. appear Time Line These four lanes are timing graduations in hours minutes seconds and frames They expand and contract with changing Zoom scales The finer graduations are not shown unless the Zoom scale gives at least one pixel for each unit of time in that lane F Mona Selected Clip The selected clips are shown in red If you are working in a Menu with an editing range the parts of the clips inside the range on selected tracks are shown in the same red colour In all cases red indicates that the clip s will be affected by the next edit com mand Fade These lines indicate a fade If the fade occurs where clips are over lapping then a crossfade between the two clips results Cursor Also known as the Play Head or Now Line Indicates the current timecode position of the disk project Audio clips play as they pass this line In edit modes without ranges the clips se lected for editing are always the one s touch ing the cursor Page 12 User Manual TM and Editing Screen pressing the Blue Key with certain keys on the Numeric Keypad Several of the screens are shown or described in the next five pages Current Time This field shows the timecode po sition of the current disk project Clip Names Each clip is named as it is recorded and can be renamed in the Name Menu These names scroll as the clip moves across the screen Atmos Zoom range Shows
22. as formatting hard disks Making a System Disk If you want to have a spare bootable hard disk that can be used in case of failure of your main disk type the follow ing chd dd lt RETURN gt This puts you into the root directory of your current system disk where the relevant files are to be found bootgen tsX0 dd bf lt RETURN gt This creates a bootblock on the target drive X is the SCSI address of the drive To install software on a hard drive first you need a release file There may be one on your hard disk already To find out type dir lt RETURN gt This searches the directory for all files If the system displays any file something like 16 1 05 gz then that is a release file The numbers should be the same as those of the software version you are currently running this is printed in the Merlin console whenever you QUIT from the Merlin application If you do not already have the correct release file for your current system software type xrelease f 16 X_Y gz lt RETURN gt substituting the correct numbers for your current system software Now type upgrade lt RETURN gt The screen will change to show you a list of choices and you should first choose the software version you want out of the listed choices The system will then start the Media Daemon which checks for available devices on the SCSI bus You should then choose the SCSI address of the disk you want to upgrade After the software has run its routine
23. backup device options crossfade characteristics and meter scaling These functions are described in other sections of this manual Do not change parameters on this page unless you know what you are doing User Manual M Page 11 5 The Merlin Recording The Disk Recorder Page is Merlin s display medium It consists of a number of different sub pages which are auto matically changed to suit functions being performed You can also force the display of a screen that you want by Disk Light The Fairlight logo flashes red when a disk is writing and blue when it is reading During network activ ity it flashes white Range Size In modes that use timecode ranges to indicate the active editing area this field shows the size of the current range in timecode units The pic tured mode Grab does not use a range Selected Track The track s selected for editing by lighting their Track Select Keys on the Merlin Console are shown with their numbers and track bed in a light colour Unselected Track Tracks that are not selected for editing are shown in dark colours Their Track Keys are not lit up Audio Waveform Displays a graphic of audio amplitude versus timecode The data for this graphic is generated as the audio is loaded from disk just prior to being played As soon as you locate the transport to a new place the audio for that timecode location is loaded and the waveforms quickly
24. between a Sony machine and the Disk Recorder first move the Sony machine to a timecode and take the Disk OFFLINE using the Disk button Now move the Sony machine to another timecode Select the OFFSET Menu then Disk and press the capture Soft Key to produce a new offset for the Disk which keeps it in sync with the Sony machine s current position Page 74 M User Manual 33 The Preroll Menu Each machine in Merlin has its own preroll and postroll value The actual value used at any time is the largest preroll of any of the online machines This means that you can set the system to slow down to the performance of the slowest starting machine that is currently connected Allows you to choose whether you are setting the Preroll or the Postroll which are independent of each other Sets the preroll for the Sets the preroll for the 9 pin machine Disk Recorder Not active in this revision of software User Manual Page 75 34 Transport Commands Recall Basic Controls The Play Stop Rewind and Fast Forward keys all behave more or less as you would expect When you want to enter record use the Record and Play buttons together The Rewind and Fast Forward keys can be pressed more than once Each extra time gives an increase in speed starting from 16 times play speed These controls will only work if either 9 pin Gen or DISK is enabled Play Again Command The Play Again comma
25. created when recording new material not when overwriting old material In Tape mode this will depend whether any audio is present at the punch in point Metering Input Levels The input levels to the armed tracks are shown as vertical bargraphs at the top of the screen These are seen on the Video Display whenever the default AutoRecord menu is displayed For tracks that are not armed for record meters show the playback levels The behaviour of the meters can be changed so that the background colour changes to warn you when a certain input level has been reached This is done by setting the METER RED LEVEL field on the System Page type lt Blue gt S then use the mouse to change the value of RED or type RED eve lt RETURN gt where level is the desired audio level with or without a minus sign The meter scaling can also be changed This is done by setting the METER LAW which affects the range of the meter and its linearity Meter LAW can be changed on the System Page type Blue S or by typing LAW n lt RETURN gt where n is a number from 1 to 6 Entering Record Usingthe Merlin Record Button With the setup for recording complete start recording by pressing the Play and Record buttons at the same time Merlin will not enter record until it has locked to the synchronising signals in the system This takes a short time after entering Play longer if you are running in sync with a video machine If you try to enter record earlier than the s
26. directory Number of project see Setup open project if any view current disk Menu see Starting a Project Each storage device has a number from 1 to 6 plus a backup device which may be number 7 E You can name each device when initialising PROJECT BS X NEAME PATE it if you wish see Preparing Disk Drives for ENAN Work UNIT bao a VOLUME ES Manufacturer of disk drive Tees DISK SIZE Total size in Megabytes each megabyte is ap REE SPACE proximately 10 seconds of mono audio at 44 1 kHz PEE disk Space an Mena ees FL RD N N Unused disk space in minutes and sec y FILE MOUNT Psest MD CUN RE onds of mono audio at 44 1 kHz A 18 da MOVED FILES STATUS FILES pro ject MT 6 TEMP Name of domain or working group of sys AUDIO SERYERS tems Name of network node which may be a Merlin MFX or FAME system a server or another computer Unit or hard disk disk drive attached to system Folder or directory on a disk drive Projects are named on the Project Menu or renamed on the Name Menu The MT at the end of the name indicates a multitrack file or project Other file types you may see are MK files macro files omf files OMF export files WAVE files and more Page 14 User Manual TM and File Pages Complete loca tion or path list of cur rently selected file Indicates if the disk is removable e g Mag neto Opti cal drive LAST
27. fade at both ends unless it is butted up to another clip even when you do not specify one The value here is used every time the system powers up you may change it temporarily while the system is running The number is set in time units which are equivalent to sample periods at 48 kHz A table shows you the equivalents in subframes at various frame rates DitherOutput 24 This allows you to set the dithering of the digital and analog outputs In most cases this should be left at 24 but if you are outputting to a digital system where only 16 or 20 bits are going to be used you should set the dither accordingly User Manual M Page 91 DefaultInputType1 This will set the input type for newly created projects immediately upon power up Once a project has been loaded or created all new projects created after it will inherit the patching and input type from it The numbers of the different input types can be seen in the file you are editing PlayInhibitThreshold 24 When you are recording a large number of tracks at once the machine may sometimes have difficulty keeping up with the disk playback bandwidth requirements Turning on this function by setting it to the number of tracks you are recording tells the machine not to try to load playback buffers on the tracks you are recording This means when you exit Record there will be no audio loaded to provide playback This feature was designed for the MFX3 system and is unl
28. iaa 23 Time Code Reference n c 23 Overlapping Clips cc eeeeeeeeteeeeeteeeeee 23 TO TACK orei baa lavas toeds 23 The Current Track ccccecceesceeeteeereeeeeeees 23 Recording i2cct5 decccs fececeedeieestdeteciecezeeateness 24 Selecting Tracks for Recording 24 Recording Modes ceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees 24 New Mode ia aota aie Aaa aiian 24 ape Mod mrig enee Reale 24 Monitoring of Armed Tracks 0 ceeee 25 The Patch Menu 26 Metering Input Levels 0 00 0 eee eeeeeeeees 28 Entering Record ororen nenieca arasin 28 Using the Merlin Record Button 28 Timecode Track ccceceesseeeeeeteeeneeeees 28 Playback 3 cierne ni cess 28 Punch in Punch out aaa 28 Automatic Drop in s e 28 The Digi Menu ccccccctetttteeeeeees 29 The Master Clock cccceeseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees 29 Use of Ranges cooocccicccincccicccconccionananccinninns 30 Keyboard Use eerren 30 Automatic Naming ooococccoccccccoccccconacininnncnn 30 Solo Mute Disable and Safe 31 Track Saa aigiadetnas 31 Disabling Tracks ceee 31 Editing Suicidio 32 A ea eia KRE 32 Master Recording Number 32 FEA tesno A an 32 Talara da a N in 32 Syne Poison adele 32 Timecode Reference i 32 13 14 15 16 17 20 21 22 EU iii ai 33 Ed A atin ieee 33 NaMe eree ekrido arraren arar tarda attari 33 Project Layer osito 33 Summary of Editing Commands
29. it should restart the system but if not you should do it by typing RESTART lt RETURN gt Y Page 90 M User Manual 43 Configuration Files Merlin uses a number of files to store setup information These are normally set to sensible values at the factory but in some cases you may need to change them The Configuration files are stored in OS9 partitions on the boot drive that is the drive with SCSI address zero The names of the files which are given below include the disk partition and all elements of the directory tree that is needed to access them Note Some options are only taken into account when the machine boots up Therefore to ensure your changes take effect restart the machine by switching it off and on Before Changing a Configuration File It is always necessary to access the operating system in order to edit a configuration file and therefore to QUIT from the disk recorder application if you use a Mac or PC you will be familiar with the idea of quitting from an application it is exactly the same inside MERLIN First type QUIT lt RETURN gt Y and wait for the hash prompt to appear Note commands are written here in UPPER CASE and bold but the system is not case sensitive so you can type them any way you like Editing a Configuration File Type ED filename lt RETURN gt where filename is the name of the file you want to edit Now you can move the cursor around the file using the arrow key
30. marking the Directory Browser is displayed so that files from any hard disk can be found and marked Having pressed the backup Soft Key the first thing to do is select the destination for the backup If this is to be your Exabyte tape device browse so that the cursor is located on its reference in the File Page Alternatively you may select any Folder on a hard disk to be the backup destination or even create a new folder for the backup The following menu gives the command options Return to the main menu Press to create anew folder Type aname for the new folder then press ENTER The browser will move into the new folder immediately and you may start marking files User Manual M Page 61 Press to start the copy when all desired files are marked Press to mark a File or Folder Marking a Folder marks all Files inside it and those inside Folders inside it down to as many levels of Folders as have been created If any Project File has attachments to other files i e clips have been borrowed from them a window will appear showing all attached files and allowing them to be included in the backup see Marking Attached Files on an earlier page Projects marked as attach ments have a special icon to show this they may also be marked explicitly in their own right The currently open Project cannot be marked for backup Nor can any file on the current archive unit Press to unmark a File or Folder If a Folder is
31. new location by cursor to the Tail of the clip is Cut pressing ENTER Otherwise as for Head User Manual The Copy Submenu Cursor ao Original Clip As for the Cut Submenu The audio fromthe Head ofthe clip to the cursor is Copied It can be Pasted as described The whole clip is Copied to the above clipboard and the cursor position stored as a sync mark The trans port can then be moved to another time and or another track selected then the audio may be Pasted there by pressing the ENTER key Paste The part of the audio that was under the cursor when you Cop ied will be placed under the cursor at its new location The audio from the cur sor to the Tail of the clip is Copied Otherwise as for Head ee Se Paste Paste ae Page 38 User Manual Edit Commands with a Range When a range is created the LCD menu changes to show alternative commands The Cut Submenu The contents of the range are erased The whole range is Cut to the clip board and the cursor position stored as a sync mark From there it may be Pasted to anew location by press ingthe ENTER key The whole range is back timed i e the part of the audio that was under the cursor when you pressed the range Soft Key will be placed under the cursor at its new location
32. no more data in the Master Recording A 30 second recording has been made and this time the last 15 seconds of the resulting clip Clip A are covered by pasting another clip Clip B on top Now we go to the Space menu move the transport so that Clip A is touching the cursor and press Commit Now erase Clip B and it can be seen that the part of Clip A that was underneath Clip B has been removed This part of the data on disk has also been removed minus the Handle This time we do the same thing but we make a copy of Clip A on another track After committing the original Clip A and erasing Clip B we find that Clip A has been trimmed as before but it can still be extended using the Trim command This is because whenever there is a clip anywhere in the project that references the same Master Recording even partially the Master Recording will not be touched allowing the uncommitted clips to be trimmed out to their fullest possible extent Notes Disposing and Committing create blocks of free space that can be used by the project They cannot however be used by any other project or file because the blocks are inaccessible little islands in the middle of the project Packing shoves all the data down towards the beginning of the file so that it occupies a continuous block and then gives back the empty piece at the end An illustration of this is provided the section called Operations in the Disk Menu To regain the maximum possible d
33. of the tape drive User Manual M Page 57 The Backup Submenu In this menu files are marked for backup and then the operation is started During marking the Directory Browser is displayed so that files from any hard disk can be found and marked Having pressed the backup Soft Key the first thing to do is select the destination for the backup If this is to be your Exabyte tape device browse so that the cursor is located on its reference in the File Page Alternatively you may select any Folder on a hard disk to be the backup destination or even create a new folder for the backup The following menu gives the command options new Folder Native Return to the main menu Press to create a new folder Type aname for the new folder Sets the storage mode of an Exabyte tape allowing you to create tapes that can then press ENTER The be read on older tape drives such as the 8200 8205 8200 compressed mode browser will move into the new 8500 or 8505 8500 compressed mode Native mode means the most up to date folder immediately and you mode that the tape drive can store The cursor must be highlighting the tape will asked to name your BU drive when the command is entered Press this Soft Key then use the Jogger backup file See below Wheel or and keys to set the tapemode followed by ENTER Having selected a destination for the backup you will be asked to supply a name for the BU file that will be created
34. range all the audio inside it will be red on the selected tracks Use the From and To keys to create or change a range see below B EX In this example a range has been created and tracks 1 2 and 4 selected The selected audio is shown in red on the 4 video screen Cutting or Copying to the Clipboard E Use the Edit Menu Soft Keys to cut or copy audio to the clipboard EN ES The CUT RANGE command is issued The ghost clips show 4 the contents of the clipboard A Selecting Destination Tracks e After cutting or copying audio to the clipboard pressing any track key will cancel the previous selection and select a destination pattern based on what was cut or copied You may change that selection before pasting The screen shows you an outline of what is to be pasted 7 After moving location and selecting track 5 Tracks 6 and 8 are K automatically selected The ghost clips show where the clipboard will go if ENTER is pressed No ca Pasting From the Clipboard Press the ENTER key to paste the clipboard contents into the selected tracks If the clipboard contains more tracks than you have selected less than the full clipboard is pasted If you have selected more than the number on the clipboard only the number on the clipboard are pasted After pressing ENTER The ghost clips have become real clips in their new location Other Paste Commands The FILL commands are available i
35. the Zoom number from 1 to 16 of the horizontal scale Higher numbers indicate finer display less time on screen Shows information about the clips pieces of audio onthe currently selected track You also see layers of clips that are underneath and cannot be heard This screen is automatically displayed whenever you enter an editing Menu You can also force its display by typing lt Blue gt k Takes Screen N Y 4T Screen Shows four tracks You can select this screen by typing lt Blue 4 gt The features of this screen are identical to those ofthe 24 16 8 4 2 and 1 track displays They are selected by typ ing lt Blue 5 gt lt Blue 8 gt lt Blue 0 gt lt Blue 1 gt lt Blue 4 gt and lt Blue 7 gt respectively Tracks higher than 24 can be shown by selecting any one of them This will cause the block con taining that track to be displayed Unselected Clip Clips must be touching the cursor in order to be selected unless a range is used by the editing mode In either case unselected clips are shown in blue and are not affected by editing com mands Track Names Each track can be named in the Name Menu These names are fixed in position on the screen User Manual Page 13 6 The Device Explanation of Terms 4 Gbyte hard drive Number of SCSI ID and The timecode by Seagate SCSI items in cur Logical Unit frame rate for the Name of the current address 0 rent
36. whole mode where only clips entirely inside the range will be affected Any editing menu will use only one of these modes The redness of the clips always shows what will be affected Setting up a Range A Range is the span between two timecode numbers When using a Range for editing only audio between the two timecodes is affected The Range keys From and To are used for setting ranges Simple Method To set a Range press and release the FROM TO keys at the start end of the Range you wish to edit If there is no range at the moment you may press just one of these keys and use the Jogger Wheel to drag out a range You may issue edit commands at any time while dragging out a range Using Range Menus The following description applies equally to the To key Holding down the From key causes a menu to appear described below At the same time the graphics show the existence of a range with its end at the cursor Pressing the Soft Keys affects the range end position as follows Pressing this Softkey latches the Menu you can let go of the From Key and adopts the time in the Numeric Reg ister as the range start You can now type in or edit a timecode number and press ENTER For details on edit ing Timecodes see Entering Timecode Values Pressing this Soft Key latches the menu adopting the current Location as the range start You may now type inaLocation number or select one with the Jog ger Wheel or and leys and
37. 34 44k1 E indicates expandable to include attached files A indicates marked by attachment to another Project file Marking Attached Files Ifa Project file you mark has borrowed audio from other files Merlin will display a list of the files from which they are borrowed allowing you to mark them as well k k BACKUP MENU Mark Library File nter when done PROJECT As FRAME RATE 7 DF SAMPLE RATE Ski UNIT VOLUME SAAGE VENDORGE DISK SIZI FREE SPACEREF FREE TIME PATHLIST ARCHIVE UNIT TRANSFER TIRE A indicates marked ATTACHED LIBRARIES E web2 sc Q CYEAH WAV un 4 19 28 498 0Kb Current highlighted choice Select the attached libraries to be backed up Press enter when done Page 59 User Manual At the same time a new menu is displayed unmark all unmark Mark all the dis played files Unmark all the displayed ules Mark the currently high Unmark the currently lighted file highlighted file When you have marked all the attached files you want to back up press ENTER to return to the previous screen Backup Progress Display Once a backup has begun the display shows its progress estimating the time to completion based on the current speed of transfer to the backup device Because multiple source devices are involved and because variable data compression algorithms may be used by the backup device these estimates may not always be accurate Backup occurs in the back
38. EDIT f_ SIZE SRATE Jun 19 Shows the last date on which the file was altered Indicates if the device is write pro tected 13 15 13 23 48k Indicates the device disk file system This could be RBF the OS 9 file sys tem FLFS or MDR DOS proprietary Fairlight file systems or NTFS Win dows NT file system only on servers or other PCs Size of files given in hours minutes and seconds for Merlin Project files those with suffix MT Sample rate of audio in current project see Arm Menu The Device Page This page shows information about the stor age devices attached to the currently selected node machine The page is automatically displayed whenever you open or close a project or begin a file copy or backup procedure You can also force its display at any time by typing lt Blue gt D The File Page This page is split into sections showing the network structure in which machines are placed and information about one of the storage de vices including the files it contains One file is highlighted making it ready for opening copy ing or whatever function you have in mind You may scroll the highlighted bar up and down the screen choosing a file to be acted on by the next command This display is shown whenever you are open ing a file deleting etc You can force its display at any time by typing lt Blue gt F Shows the sam pling rate of the audio in the file User Manua
39. INATION track This applies to the first four Soft Keys The function of the fifth Soft Key is to select a buried piece of audio and bring it to the top of the stack so it can be heard While the Track Menu is current the top section of the screen shows the presence of layers of audio at the current cursor position on the current track This display is used as a guide to the layers that can be brought to the top for listening and editing Used for swapping audio between tracks Selectthe SOURCE track then press the swap Soft Key then select the DESTINATION track All the clips and parts of clips within the range will be swapped between the two tracks All layers of audio are swapped Used for swapping the positions on the screen of two tracks Use the SOURCEand DESTINATION selection as described above to exchange positions and outputs between two tracks Used to copy audio from one track to another Select the SOURCE track press the copy Soft Key then select the DESTINATION track The audio in the range on the source track will be copied over the same range in the desti nation track All layers of audio are copied Press this Soft Key then use the Jogger Wheel or the plus and minus keys to select one of the clips shown as separate layers at the top ofthe screen Press ing ENTER bring the se lected clip to the top of the stack As move except the audio on the source track is removed Page 46
40. If toggled ON forthe PREROLL heard during ON during the Preroll ON during the Record GPO is ON RECORDand each stage of section section during the POSTROLL the AutoRec Postroll section periods of the recording AutoRec Menu User Manual Page 87 41 Disk Information The following diagram illustrates some aspects of the way Merlin uses a hard disk A project is spread across anumber of disk Project 2 segments interspersed amongst data from other files The disk operating system is especially designed so that these segments are always very large avoiding the frag mentation that can occur with hard disks generally Clips maintain pointers head and tail that tell the computer where to start and end playing Master Recordings Editing is all achieved by moving the pointers A copy ofaclip is simply another set of pointers to the same Master Recording Two different clips are referencing Master Recording 4 while one is referencing Master Recording 2 Project 2 Unused Disk Spa d When all copies of a clip are erased there are no longer any playback pointers to that Master Recording One of the clips referencing Master Recording 4 has been extended at the Tail which is done by moving its Tail Pointer The clip that was accessing Master Recording 2 has been erased leaving no pointers at all to Master Recording 2 Page 88 M U
41. Menu and also being told to chase LTC there is a natural conflict If ever this condition arises Merlin will issue an error message Compatibility with other Fairlight products Any project created under MFX2 MFX3 MFX3plus MFX4 or any FAME or Prodigy product can be loaded into Merlin where it will be converted to a project with full Merlin facilities Compatibility with MFX3 48 Prodigy 2 and FAME 2 is bi directional but backward compatibility with all other models is not possible Page 70 User Manual 30 The LTC Setup Menu To access the LTC Setup Menu hold down the Blue key and select LTC To put Merlin into LTC chase press the LTC button without the Blue key Chooses which LTC input port is being Ifswitched on the system Master Clock will be driven read allowing you to have two timecode by the incoming timecode when LTC is on line connections and choose whichever Is Generally it is better to use video or AES EBU as a appropriate for the current job Master Reference but the Master ON setting is useful if the source of timecode cannot be locked to one of these references LTC Master If Master is ON the system sample clock is locked to the LTC input When it is off the sample clock is locked to House Sync while the transport still reads and chases the timecode input when the LTC button is ON User Manual Page 71 31 The 9 pin Setup Menu To access the 9 pin Setup Men
42. Note that even when a track is safe it can be selected for editing but only copying FROM the track TO the clip board ready for pasting on other tracks is allowed Disabling Tracks Disk Recorder tracks can be disabled from playback This differs from muting them in that the audio data from disabled tracks is not fetched from the disk It is though those tracks do not exist This can be useful because you can place clips on disabled tracks providing extra storage or virtual tracks that are not played When you re enable tracks there is a delay of a second or two while they are reloaded To disable tracks hold down the Blue key while pressing MUTE Then the currently enabled tracks will be lit up and the disabled ones will be flashing You may now toggle the status of any track Double pressing any track key will make it the only enabled track Holding down one Track key and double clicking on another will fill in the tracks between User Manual M Page 31 12 Editing The Clip Editing in Merlin is achieved by performing operations on Clips First we will explain the way a clip is structured A clip is born when we record or by being copied from another clip It contains information about the following Master Recording Number This is a piece of audio stored on disk It is never altered by editing A clip plays by referencing part or all of a Master Recording Many different clips may access
43. T Ie 1T FRAME RATE REA SAMPLE RATE Et FOLDER FILE NANE E Clipname O Trk_Clip No O Other Sets the destination drive If desired you can add a Determines how the WAVE files will be Use the up and down directory name where you would named Use the left and right arrows to arrows to move between the like these WAVE files to be move between choices If Other is chosen available drives on your placed The WAVE Import page another field appears allowing you to system can search for them and find enter a new file name of up to 8 characters them in this directory but they cannot be borrowed successfully from it only kept see Import Menu for details Press the ENTER key to start the WAVE export process Note If there are multiple clips with the same name in the range being exported the system will complain when Clipname is chosen as the source of the file name Each one will successively cause a request to overwrite the previous one or choose a new name If Other is chosen and you have entered a new name for the files numbers will be appended to each successive file to distinguish the names User Manual M Page 65 27 Machine Control Merlin controls a 9 pin machine chases and generates longitudinal timecode LTC at all frame rates The buttons shown below are used to set up and control these processes Setup Menu Used to set system frame rate time display format and NTSC rundown Preroll M
44. UND Pressing ENTER establishes the range and takes the system back to the previous editing mode Shortcut to Range Setting The Track Keys can be used to set range ends very quickly using the following key sequence lt From TrackKey gt hold down the From key and press a Track Key then release the From key Sets the range start at the Location represented by that Track key Similarly for the To key Automatic and Manual Ranges Ranges can be set to Manual or Auto on the Setup Menu This determines whether ranges persist across different editing modes Please see the explanation attached to the Setup Menu User Manual Page 35 14 The Edit Menu Cut amp Paste The EDIT menu is the most powerful and flexible of the menus in Merlin It is used for Cutting and Pasting clips and parts of clips It now has multitrack capability To use the Edit Menu you must first press the Edit Mode key Then L Select some audio and cut or copy it to the clipboard 2 Locate to the position where the audio is to be pasted and select the track s where the audio is to go 3 Press ENTER to paste the audio into the tracks This can be done many times as the clipboard remains intact until you cut or copy some new audio to it Selecting Audio Tracks are selected using the Track Keys If there is no range any clips that are touching the cursor centre line will go red indicating that they are selected If there is a
45. a panel allowing the public access ofthe file to be set See below for details on public access To remove an existing pass word enter a blank box in the password dialog box This makes a copy ofthe open project butaccesses all ofthe audio data from the original file This is used to extend a file to another project or disk drive when you have filled the one you are on or to make a copy of the edit list so you can try radical changes The command syntax is exactly the same as for Copy Extend takes only a few seconds and opens the extension file after creating it See below for more information Automatic Project Extension Merlin Project files have a maximum size of 4 Gigabytes If this limit is reached while recording is in progress the file is automatically extended This is hardly noticeable when it happens but will cause a split in the clips that are currently recording Once a file has been extended all the audio data from the original or parent file is in read only mode and therefore cannot be destructively over recorded in Tape Mode If this is attempted recordings will be made instead of the old ones being replaced Editing of extended audio is however unrestricted because this is a non destructive process Automatic extension can be switched off on the Setup Blue S page Password Protection Any Merlin project may have a password which restricts access to the material When there is no password one can be applied by a
46. aits until manually stopped The toggle remains active until changed which means that all recordings with OPEN selected must be manually termi nated Returns to the previous level of the menu May be initiated anywhere in the cycle Has an effect equiva lentto infinite Postroll with play back continuing after the record ing has finished until manually interrupted Applies only to the current cycle after which things go back to normal User Manual M Page 85 40 The GPO Menu GPO means General Purpose Output It refers to 8 contact closure lines at the rear of the machine which can be used to trigger events external to the machine GPO Type GPOs switch at specific timecodes or upon certain events Each GPO is given a type which determines what type of event triggers it Use the GPO Menu to set the type and other parameters Choosing a GPO The first 8 Track Keys represent the 8 GPOs when the GPO Menu is active Only one can be selected at a time TheGPO Menu The first Soft Key is always labelled Type The other Soft Keys depend on what has been selected as the Type This information is presented in tabular form on the facing page Electrical Properties PIN 37 GPIO OUT 0 PIN18 GPIO OUT 1 When ON each GPO output is aa GPIO QUT 2 shorted to ground When OFF it PIN35 GPIO OUT 3 is open and can be connected PIN34 GPIO OUT 4 via a resistor to the desired PIN15 GPIO OUT 5 trigger
47. al already on the track is the same bit depth as the current setting for recording and if the existing material and the recording setup are either both Mono or both Stereo Overwriting means directly replacing the recorded data on the hard disk This cannot be reversed in any way so if Recording is commenced at the wrong place a permanent mistake is made On the positive side while overwriting is occuring no disk space is being consumed because we are replacing what already exists on disk Material that has been imported into the project borrowed or material from earlier versions of the project that have been extended cannot be overwritten because the media is actually in another file If while overwriting the material in a clip the transport reaches the end of that clip it will be extended but only if the clip has not been trimmed at the tail This rule prevents Merlin from overwriting audio that is not visible on screen which is considered too dangerous If the clip s tail has been trimmed a new clip and Master recording will be started when the tail is reached Once a Tape Mode recording begins it erases all clips or parts of clips in its path except the clip if any that it is replacing So after a Tape Mode recording the range of time just recorded will have no layers of clips only the one that has just been recorded Tape Mode is used when it is desirable to save disk space when a simple edit structure with no layers is desired
48. an asterisk at the beginning This means the line is not actually being used but a hard coded value for the variable is active The value shown in the line is the one hard coded at the factory If you want to change a value remove the asterisk and change the number Then save the file and restart the system Remember it is advisable to consult your Fairlight service centre before doing anything major to this file User Manual Page 93 44 The System Page This page is used for setting some system parameters To reach it type lt ese gt S that is type the lt esc gt key then an S Y our mouse is used to make changes on this page then save them to disk if necessary Whenever you wish to save the current configuration click on the SAVE icon To get out of the System Page select any mode or one of the other lt esc gt key or Blue key options see pages 2 4 and 6 PrintOptions Many of the fields on the S Page concern the operation of the printing software These are applicable to other Fairlight products sharing aspects of Merlin software but not to Merlin Changing them will have no effect Backup Options Tape Drive Options The first field allows you to choose the format when backing up to an Exabyte 8500 or 8505 You may choose 8200 format in which case owners of the EXA 8200 can read your files The second field allows you to choose whether the backups use data compression only if you are using the EXA 8505
49. and when Merlin is being controlled by an external source such as a mixing console The reason for this last item is that if many passes through approximately not exactly the same range of time are performed the clips created by New Mode would result in many tiny pieces being played which is not only confusing but can affect disk bandwidth adversely Page 24 M User Manual Monitoring of Armed Tracks When tracks are armed you have a choice of listening to their input source or their playback track To control the monitoring function use the Input Mon button When Input Mon is toggled ON the armed tracks play their input source all the time except when the transport is in Jog When Input Mon is OFF the armed tracks play their playback track when the transport is in Play or Jog but play their input for all other transport modes All unarmed tracks are in repro or track mode all the time User Manual Page 25 The Patch Menu The Patch Menu is used to choose inputs for the tracks as well as the type and gain of each input In this submenu the Track Keys are first used to select which tracks are having their inputs patched Once the patch or group button has been pressed the Track Keys are used to patch inputs to the selected tracks Press to patch inputs to selected tracks Track keys will flash indicating that they nowrepresent Press to change the gain on the in
50. are armed When panning of the tracks is switched to OFF the normal determined n the Level Sync source as defined by Menu the Sync Soft Key is used f User Manual Page 29 Naming The Name Menu is used to give names to clips tracks or the whole Project Clips can also be automatically named Press the NAME Mode key The LCD gives you a menu as follows Rename the currently loaded project by press ing this Soft Key then typ ing a name of up to 18 characters and pressing the ENTER key Toggles between Global and Track based autonaming See below for de The clip to be named is the one on the a tails Name the currently highlighted current track positioned under the cur track by typing a name up to 15 sor it will be coloured red Press Soft The seedname is used as the characters and pressing ENTER Key then type aname up to 24 charac beginning of an automatic You can then choose another ters and press ENTER You may then name A number will be ap Track Key and type its name and move immediately on to another clip pended to this name and ENTER and name it If a range exists all the incremented eachtime anew clips within it will be named with one clip is recorded See below command for more details Use of Ranges If a range has been created all clips that are wholly inside it can be named with one command Keyboard Use As soon as you press one of the naming Soft Keys the current name of the thing
51. at the cursor position Then you can play the clip to find out whether it was the one you wanted If the master recording is a stereo recording it will have two waveforms and you will often see them on consecutive lines They will have the same numbers in their birthday size and space fields Occasionally due to the dispose command the two waveforms will not be at consecutive positions in the display To recover both sides into a stereo clip type RW number 1 number 2 lt RETURN gt using both waveform numbers You cannot create a stereo clip out of two original mono recordings The software will simply refuse You can make a mono clip from one side of a stereo waveform but this will prevent it from subsequently being made into a stereo clip By typing the two waveform numbers in reverse you can reverse the right and left sides of the waveform To get a clip back into sync with the position it was originally recorded highlight the clip and type the Return to Birthday command RTB lt RETURN gt The Waveform Show Command If you wish to show all the Master Recordings in the project type WSa lt RETURN gt This stands for Waveform Show ALL Each referenced Master Recording will show you the name of the first clip that references it If you want to return to a display of only the UNREFERENCED master recordings type WS lt RETURN gt Page 56 User Manual 25 Bulk File Handling the Backup Menu The Bac
52. at were previously removed A clip can be thought of as an instruction to the computer to play a certain Master Recording at a particular time within the given pointers Page 10 User Manual 4 Merlin Screens There are 10 user screens in the Merlin software Some take up the top section of the screen and others the lower part There are always one upper and one lower display on the screen Displays are automatically changed in response to recording editing and transport control commands but they can also be placed on the screen by command A description of each display follows Display Name Upper Lower Key sequence Automatic Display Arm Upper lt Blue gt A AutoRec Menu The display shows the amount of recording time left in the currently used disk drive the length of the cur rently recording clip and the input output meters Patch Lower lt Blue gt P Patch SubMenu Shows the inputs that are patched to each track plus the type of input selected Track Lower lt Blue gt T Whenever a project is open Shows clips on the tracks with waveforms that scroll when the transport is moved The number of tracks shown on the screen can be changed up to 24 by holding down the Blue key and pressing the number keys in the Numeric Display These are marked to show the numbers of tracks that will be displayed Takes Upper lt Blue gt K Edit Menu and others Shows clip information including mono stereo audi
53. ay be entered directly from Play In this case the shuttle speed will be identical to play speed when first entered and can be trimmed from there In addition the Rewind key will reverse the direction of a forward shuttle instantly and Fast Forward will do the reverse Audio Freeze Frame Loop Jogging A variation on jogging allows you to listen to an audio loop which plays up to the Master Timecode position with the width set on the Jog menu The loop plays at normal play speed allowing you to hear some kinds of edit point more easily When used with a serially controlled master video machine loop jogging has the extra advantage that the frame being looped is the exact one that is shown by the video machine This is called audio freeze frame The Jog Menu To choose the kind of jogging you want hold down the Jog key and select from the momentary menu that appears on the LCD Toggles between loopjogging Audio Freeze Frame and normal jogging Set the width of the Increasing this number gives you a faster jogging speed ps eo Laing at the existing zoom scale The number represents the zoom This number sets eda pa deel scale at which jogging at play speed is comfortable the attenuation of Jogger then press Pressing Zoom and Jog at the same time sets this number the audio when ENIER equal to the zoom number loop Jogging is on User Manual M Page 77 The Jump Keys The Jump keys allow you to move i
54. be at 44 100 Hz 2 EQ level settings and crossfades between the clips on the track are not performed as the audio is written to CD The clips are played as though they were butt edited together and EQ is ignored 3 CD tracks are defined by consecutive clips with the same name Silences may appear between these clips without starting a new track Where a clip has a different name to the one before it a new track will be started 4 Index markers can be created by placing normal Merlin Locations at the appropriate timecodes Locations 0 and 999 will not produce index markers 5 To set the Precount to a track place a clip named PCOUNT all upper case as the last clip of the preceding track If no such clip is placed there the precount will be zero 6 A CD write cannot be stopped except by switching off the CD writer The disc will be destroyed 7 A CD must all be written in one pass There is no way to append information to it The WAV Export Page The WAV Export function may use either the red clips under the cursor or if a range is present clips that are wholly included Real time audio features such as EQ level and fades are ignored only the raw waveform data is exported When the WAV Export Soft key is pressed a display appears with choices for export destination name etc To move between text fields use the M8 key for previous and the M9 key for next the macro key must be OFF during these commands a T_MENU pla PROJEC
55. btract Master Time The Master Timecode can always be copied captured into the Numeric Display by pressing the down arrow key to the right of the LCD screen Pressing Blue Plus or Blue Minus will add or subtract the current Master time from the Numeric Display Copy Last Value In some menus there is a LAST option on the Soft Keys This will copy the last Timecode used for the parameter to the Numeric Display and you can enter or trim it there as described below Entering a Value The ENTER key is used to copy a Timecode from the Numeric Display to the parameter you are setting The TIME option on the Soft Keys must be selected it usually is automatically Trimming Numbers After a number has been copied to or from the Numeric Display the first number you type on the Numeric Keypad will clear the Numeric Display and successive numbers will roll on to the Display from the right If you press the or key the number you have typed will be added or subtracted from the number that was cleared just before Pressing or before typing any numbers increases or decreases the current value by one frame or by one subframe if subframes are selected for display The and keys are always available for trimming timecode numbers except when you have selected a menu param eter which has a numerical value or a series of choices Then they will cycle you through values and or choices For example when selecting Machine type on the Setup men
56. by all actions which change clips or parts of clips in any way but not by changes in setup or configuration such as arming tracks or patching inputs Pressing the REDO button takes the system forward in time after one or more edits have been UNDONE Notes l Immediately after an edit there are zero levels of REDO available This is regardless of how many UNDOs you made just before the edit 2 After the following operations UNDO is not possible All Disk Menu operations Changing frame rate when there is a clip straddling midnight timecode 00 00 00 00 You can however reassert the previous frame rate and get back to where you were before changing it 3 Immediately after a recording pressing the UNDO button will cause the newly recorded clip to disappear from the screen but the recorded data remains on the disk It can be removed from there using the dispose command which is available in the Disk Menu User Manual Page 53 23 Managing Disk Space After recording for some time you may fill the hard disk you are working on If you wish to continue recording you may extend to another hard drive and continue see Project menu or throw out some rubbish from your work so far Throwing Out Rubbish You may have a large amount of audio that was recorded but is not being used It has either been erased trimmed from the clips or is being covered by other clips on the same track At any rate it is not now audible If we
57. cccccccccnnno 18 Fragmentation ccecceeeecseeeeeeeeeeeeteees 88 FES SPACE cerradura cdi 55 From and TO 0 000 eee eeeeeeeceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeneaes 34 User Manual M Page 95 e G Gain Structure System ooo 27 Gap previous or NeXt 0 0 0 eee 34 Gated Recording ooooooiooocccccccccconnccccncn no 51 General Purpose Interface 005 86 Getting Started 0 ee eeeeteeeeeeees 7 Global clip NAMING ee eee eee 30 GOTO Command l n 80 OPI Types cinco rr 87 H Hard drive preparation 90 PCA A O 32 Head of Clip eooooooccccincccocncccoiccocccconononccnnno 10 Hold Gating anuna 51 l Info level and bit depth 50 InitialiSing drives 0 2 e 90 Input CONTO oseanen 26 Input display 11 Insert Silente oiii ens 44 J Ve o AA A E A EA EA 76 JOG MEDU ee 77 Jogger Wheel ocoooccconcocococccccccoconnnncccnnnnno 77 A e taut etans on 76 JUMP KOYS 0000 eeeceeeeeeeeteteeeeeeetttteeeeeeeeee 78 Jump to Clip NAME 1 0 0 ea 78 K Keep all borrowed clips oo 54 L Last date of modification 15 A erin E E 33 A teen 33 Level display info 0 eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees 50 Level Menu l ereere 50 LOVE AMP erronei 49 Locations eerren reer 81 Locations display eeeeeieeeee 11 Lock to Master cece ceeeeeeteeeeeeeeeees 71 LOOP JOGGING ooooccccocooccccccccoconnncccccnannnno
58. ccconnncccccnnnnno 78 Modified Jump Commanas 78 Selecting Names seses 78 The Seconds Keys 79 36 37 39 40 41 42 43 44 The GOTO Command coccnnnoncccnnnananncnnnnnnas 80 Locating by Name l a 80 Special Feature ccceceeeeeseseseeeeeenees 80 Locations snein nises iisas 81 CY CIO soicococoninosionrionsnnsccnccnanancnicanisiiiss 83 In and Out Points iaaiaee 83 Automatic Recording ccccsssesseeeres 84 Mode Siirteen tias 84 In and Out Points u a 84 The AutoRec Menu cecce 84 The AutoRec Menu second leve 85 The GPO Menu mnnncnnconccccnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnanannns 86 GPO TY Pe rrenean oaaae 86 Choosing a GPO naisesse 86 The GPO Menu ossee 86 Electrical Properties oooooooconnnnnccnnnocicinoncos 86 Disk Information ccseeceessseeereeeeeeeees 88 Operations in the Disk Menu 89 Preparing Drives for Disk Recording 90 Formatting Optical DisksS 90 Making a System Disk 0 cece 90 Configuration Files cccessseeeeeeees 91 Before Changing a Configuration File 91 Editing a Configuration File 91 Saving Changes to a File 91 The MDR Configuration File 91 The Sony_ID file 2 2 2 2 92 The Sync Configuration File 92 The System Page ccccccconnoccccncnnnnnnancnnnnnnas 94
59. conform with project their chronological or der in the project User Manual M Page 81 Making and naming Locations can be done during recording You can enter the Name Loc menu create a Location then immediately press ENTER to select the recently created Location type a name and press ENTER because the newly created Location is always the current selection You can create special Beat Marks for musical uses by typing the following IBM number tempo beats lt RETURN gt where IBM means Insert Beat Marks number is the number of bars required tempo is in beats per minute and beats is the number of beats per bar lt RETURN gt is the Return key in the alphanumeric keyboard Beat marks are placed at the beginnings of all bars starting from the current timecode and are named bar1 bar2 etc They can all be deleted by typing DBM lt RETURN gt delete beat marks Whenever loc is selected on a Soft Menu or the Name Loc menu is entered the Locations display is shown on the video screen You can also display it at other times by typing lt Blue M gt or lt esc gt M When the trans port is in motion the Locations display automatically scrolls to show the last Location reached Locations are generally not the best way to create edit points on the fly if the edit is to be done immediately The best way is to use the From and To keys see Edit Menu Page 82 User Manual 38 Cycling Cycling mea
60. cts downstream from the Merlin For example trouble may occur if at the same time as recording your digital input your Merlin outputs are feeding the inputs of a digital console If you choose INPUT the digital console will be required to sample rate convert all of Merlin s outputs or synchronise with its Master Clock The best solution to digital sync conflicts is to drive all digital devices from a single studio wide word clock signal Then all devices will have identical word rates so whispers never occur and digital interconnections may made with ease In this instance Merlin s sync setting is always used Pull upand Pull down The normal sample rates used by the digital audio industry are 32 000 44 056 44 100 and 48 000 samples per second The normal frame rates are 24 25 29 97 and 30 These last two may cause confusion when used together Merlin can accommodate the 30 or 29 97 frames per second rate so if you slow down the frame rate from 30 to 29 97 Merlin can slow its internal sample rate to match This is called Pull up or Pull down depending in which direction you are taking the speed When you choose a frame rate you are telling Merlin what frame rate to expect To put it more scientifically you are telling it the frame rate at which the chosen sample rate will be accurately reproduced For example if you tell Merlin that the NTSC frame rate is 30 in the Setup menu and the sample rate is 44 100 it will automa
61. d change it use the Patch menu described below Recording Modes The Tape Mode switch toggles between destructive Tape Mode and non destructive New Mode recording New Mode When the Tape Mode switch is OFF Merlin records in New Mode which has the following properties Whenever Merlin enters record a new Master Recording is created for every armed track If there are clips already on the track the new material forms clips that are placed on top of the existing clips Later the Track Menu can be used to bring the lower clips to the surface New Mode is mistake proof going into record over the top of existing material does not damage it in any way It is also very useful for recording multiple takes of the same performance eg while recording instrumental overdubs or alternative ADR lines because there is no need to change recording tracks in order to preserve a good take TapeMode When the Tape Mode switch is ON and illuminated bright red Merlin records in Tape Mode which has the following properties When TAPE mode is selected the recording process chooses for each track whether to create a new recording or replace an existing one depending on the situation where record is entered If recording is commenced where the track is empty of clips anew Master Recording is created If recording commences where there is an existing clip its Master Recording is overwritten subject to these rules overwriting can only occur if the materi
62. d forthe previous Soft choice allows you to determine whether the cor rect frame rate is 29 97 or 30 frames per second This field determines at which frame rate your selected sample rate willbe accurately reproduced For example ifyou choose a sam ple rate of 44100 Hz and you set this field to 30 the system will run at precisely 44100 Hz when 30 frame timecode is used for syn chronisation Butifyou use stand ard NTSC video at 29 97 fps as a sync source the system will run down to 44056 Hz This may be desirable if you plan to return the audio to a 30 fps environment later Often projects that are finished on film require a setting of 30 but projects finished on video nor mally use 29 97 Determines what happens to ranges when changing menus Modes In Auto Mode ranges are always switched off when en tering anew Mode unless the new Mode must have a Range In Manual Mode ranges are always preserved unless the new Mode cannot have a Range Also in Manual Mode pressing the cur rent Mode key again toggles the Range on and off keeping the last timecode values that it had Sets the baud rate for com munication between the Meroin console and its main frame Do not set this to other than 38400 Always set the correct sample rate and frame rate before making your first recording this will avoid problems later Page 68 User Manual 29 Synchronisation Detailed Exp
63. d level of menu with special Puts AutoRec into Re Locates to the Preroll commands hearse mode position and stops Ifpressed while in Rehearse Mode puts AutoRec into Record Mode Otherwise togglesbetweenRecordand If Rehearse is selected the tranport loops continuously between Preroll Playback modes and Postroll with the armed tracks switching to input between the In and Out points Causes the transport to move with behavour depending on mode If Record is selected the transport does one pass from Preroll to Postroll dropping into Record between the In and Out points then switches into Playback and does a second pass from Preroll to Postroll Then it returns to the Preroll position IfPlayback is selected the transport does one pass from Preroll to Postroll then returns to the Preroll position Note The GPI Menu provides contact closures which can be set to work with the AutoRec Menu Page 84 M User Manual TM The AutoRec Menu second level Allows recording to be started early If pressed during preroll the trans port enters Record im mediately then the Record cycle proceeds normally In PLAY BACK modethis key has no effect but in RE HEARSE mode it switches the recording track to input immedi ately Toggles between two states PROG where the programmed time is used to terminate the recording and OPEN where the recording is not terminated automatically but w
64. der items clips tracks projects lt RETURN gt key is also used to clear error messages from the status line on the video screen second from top User Manual Page 9 3 How the Merlin Disk Recorder Works When we record in Merlin the audio is turned into digital data and stored on hard disk together with the other recordings we have made It also appears as a clip on the screen which is a reference to the Master Recording we just made Project 2 Project 2 Unused Disk Spa i l j Immediately after our fourth recording we can see the Master Recording on the hard disk and its referencing clip on the track where we went into record The clip references the Master Recording by pointing at the audio to be played in this case the whole Master Recording When we edit the audio we do it by changing which part of the Master Recording we are pointing at We call these pointers the Head and Tail of the clip Here we have split the original clip so that the first part is on a differ ent track In fact we now have two clips which point at different parts of the Master Recording On the first one we have also removed part of the Tail which has moved the Tail pointer to an earlier part of the audio The Head and Tail pointers can be moved by editing at any time allowing us to cut pieces off the clip or replace parts th
65. des o oooccccccoccccccccoccccncnnnos 47 Z ZOOM A saaaeds a a R 9 77 ZOOM range ON SCIEEN n 13 User Manual Page 97 Page 98 User Manual
66. e Def on Butted Clips This option allows you to decide whether fade defaults are used at butted clips It is generally a good idea to leave it switched off if the audio is continuous across your edits Auto Update DL File Allows you to have Merlin create a Dubber file automatically whenever a project is closed Options are NEVER ASK you will be prompted each time a project is closed or ALWAYS Wave Menu Audio Format This field has no effect in Merlin Page 94 User Manual Index Symbols 4 point edit eee eeeeeeeeees 39 40 AT SCEE iiciin eniai 13 O A me tanned 72 A Access Modes assinar 22 Append Write cceeceeeceeeeeetteeeeeeeneees 22 Arm display ccccceceeeeesseteeeeeeeeenees 11 Arming Tracks 1 00 2 ee eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeteeeeteeeeneees 27 Attenuation of clips 20 eect 50 Audio Freeze Frame 77 Audio Waveform n 12 Auto naming 30 Auto Update DL File 00 0 0 ees 94 Automatic Dialog Replacement 84 Automatic display change o oooo 11 Automatic Drop in a 28 Automatic Recording cccceeeeeeeeeeees 84 B Backup Menu cccceeeesceeeteeeeeeeeees 57 Backup Options o 94 Beat Marks ccccecccceceeeeeeeeteceeeeeeeenees 82 Birthday conectaba 56 Bit depth display info oooooon oin oo o 50 Bide Key stiioocioia te 9 Browsing through files
67. e any of these levels in the highlighted Folder on the left side of the hierarchy A Folder containing other Folders is shown with a sign screen Navigation At any time while browsing the Directory there is a current navigation point where a file or folder is highlighted This point may be in the Folder view or the File view To cross from the File side to the Folder side and vice versa press the From and To keys To move the navigation point up or down the screen use the and keys or the Jogger Wheel To open a Folder and reveal the other Folders and Files inside it press lt Blue gt or Jump Right To retract all Files and sub Folders under a Folder press lt Blue gt or Jump Left To select the next previous Node on the network press lt ctrl gt lt ctrl gt To select the next previous Unit on any node press lt shift gt lt shift gt To open a File press the Enter key This can only be done in the File view Page 18 M User Manual 1 The operation of keys in this interface is very similar to that of Windows 2 There is no way to open a File other than by pressing the Enter key 3 Locked files have an L indication This usually means that another user has the file open 4 Any navigation moves done with the plus and minus keys e g lt ctrl gt can also be done with the Jogger Wheel For example holding down the Blue key and turning the Jogger Wheel anticlockwise will open th
68. e entire directory tree for the network The Project menu All file operations other than opening are done by moving the navigation point to a Folder or File and then pressing a Soft Key in this menu When there is no file open the menu looks like this The first step in any project You will be prompted for a name before you can continue so type one of up to be prompted for confirma 15 characters The current device number is displayed tion and in the case of a in the upper LCD and you can change it using the Folder you will be page Numeric Keypad if you wish to start your new project prompted again ifthe Folder More ona different device Press ENTER to create the new contains Files project If there is a project open when you press this Press this key to access key it will be closed before the new one is opened Note other functions See next names should contain only the following characters A Z a z 0 9 __ underscore Although Merlin will allow entry of some other characters you are advised NOT to use them as they may cause problems in exchange with other computer systems Press this Soft Key to delete a File or Folder You will User Manual M Page 19 Project Menu Options Creates a new Folder underneath the currently selected one i e the one where the Navigation Point is You must sup ply aname for the new Folder then press Enter Initiates the copy sequence First you must
69. e in the upper LCD with a flashing square to its right Use the alphanu meric keyboard to add or delete characters from that name or Clear it and type another You may insert wild cards using the Soft Keys any any number of characters any one any single character or one or none any single character or no character You can find names that contain both of two strings by inserting and 4 between them or either of two strings with an or between them amp is evaluated before Note Upper and lower case charac ters are not distinguished If you have searched for a name in the GoTo menu the same name will appear in the Jump to Clip Names menu allowing you to move quickly through all of the names that match your request Page 78 M User Manual The Seconds Keys The Seconds keys allow you to move in either direction by a number of seconds which can be changed at any time Pressing either of the Seconds keys moves the transport in the indicated direction by the number of seconds currently chosen for that key To change the number of Seconds hold down the Blue key and press the Seconds key that you want to change A menu becomes visible Set the desired number of seconds and press ENTER Note the forward and backward Seconds keys store independent numbers of seconds User Manual Page 79 36 The GOTO Command GO TO is used to locate to SMPTE times Locations r
70. e into that Location You can create up to 998 Locations in any project numbered from to 998 and there are special Locations zero which is the earliest point in the project and 999 which is the latest You do not need to set these Locations the system works these out automatically You may not explicitly change the name or position of these two special Locations as the system is responsible for updating their position Note marks 0 and 999 are never moved inwards only outwards so if you erase the last piece of audio in your project mark 999 will not move to an earlier timecode To Recall a Location press Recall Loc then press a Track Key corresponding with the Location you want to recall The transport will immediately locate to that point in the project Double Recall clicking the Recall Loc button will cause the transport to locate to the last Location you created Loc or selected for any purpose Locations are remembered by the project so they will all be there when you reopen it You can change the name of a Location at any time Press Name Loc then select a Location by pressing a Track Key or by Jogging using the or keys or typing a number then pressing ENTER Once ENTER is pressed the name can be typed followed by ENTER again to accept the name Now a different Location may be chosen in the same way as before and its named changed Removes the selected Renumbers the Loca Location from the tions to
71. eating when you record is called a Master Recording you could be creating up to 24 at a time It starts when you drop into record and it ends when you drop out You are also creating clips which are displayed on the tracks you are recording Each clip is a reference to the Master Recording instructing the computer to play it at that timecode and out of that output Later you may edit this clip and this will be fully described in the section Editing Time Code Reference Each clip has a time code reference built into it that causes it to remember the right time to play Unlike a tape machine which must record all of the silence in between the useful audio Merlin only stores the useful audio and the time that it should be played Overlapping Clips You can record many clips on the same track even if they overlap The track can only play one clip at a time how ever and this will be the most recent one you recorded or copied to any piece of track during crossfades the top layer and the next one down are both played It is useful to think of the clips as being stacked on top of each other as they are recorded with only the topmost one being visible to the tape head This is illustrated below Clips are recorded or pasted on top of earlier clips We hear only the top layer white portions The same group after one clip has been trimmed revealing the audio underneath The Track A track
72. ed Grabs both Head and Tail Move within the clip without the transport to another timecode anything else chang and press ENTER Both the Head ing and Tail are moved while the audio maintains the same sync relation ship to Time Code This results ina pineal porel PEE aie Oil rabs the Tail ofthe clip Other creer pan al alip being ENTER the Head will be relocated wise the same as for a layed but bei intained i a EE making the Clip longer or shorter but the sync of the clip remains unchanged Restore Trimmed Audio Trim head or tail is important because it is the only way to put back parts of a clip that have been removed by editing Super Trim If Super Trim is toggled ON in the Setup Blue S Menu each time a clip is selected for Trim Head or Trim Tail the clip is immediately shown at its full possible extension in the chosen direction i e showing all the audio in the original recording at the Head or Tail respectively The extension is always shown on top of overlapping clips on the same track even if it is really underneath them This allows the clip to be scrubbed with full waveform visible before choosing the place to trim the Head or Tail If you need to see the clips that have just been covered by the clip extension press Head or Tail a second time and the clip will shrink back to its size before you started changing it The normal trim procedure works in exactly the same way but the cli
73. een left unreferenced because of the editing of the affected clips but ifthe Handles field is set to anon zero value commit leaves at least that much extra audio at the extremeties of the Master Recording so that the ends can be pulled out later See next page for further information The audio data for clips which have been extended from other projects are kept into the current project This means that references to Master recordings in other projects are removed and anew copy of the referenced audio is brought into the current project This has the effect ofmaking the current project independent of any other and can be backed up with confidence that all the audio needed to reproduce this project is carried within it Ifadding the extended audio data causes the Project file to reach 4 Gigabytes the operation is stopped Page 54 M User Manual TM More About Committing Commit is complex Here are some examples intended to clarify its workings l A 30 second recording has just been made and then the first ten seconds are trimmed off Now we go the Disk menu and press commit while the cursor is touching this clip with Handles set to zero The effect will be to remove the first ten seconds of audio data with that disk space becoming free If Handles was set to 2 seconds only the first 8 seconds of data would be removed Attempting to enlarge the clip using the Trim menu will fail because there is
74. emembered timecode points or named clips It is a Supermode which means that you will be returned to the mode you were in before the GoTo command GoTo commands are terminated with the ENTER key if you want to locate or with the Play key to preroll the selected point and go into play immediately Allows you to locate to the time in the Nu meric Display Edit it first if you wish then press ENTER to go there or Play to preroll and start playing The TIME key is al ways lit when you enter the GO TO menu Locating by Name Choose a Location by number then press EN TER to go there or Play to preroll and start playing Each time you type an ad ditional digit the display shows you the mark cor responding to the last three digits you typed You can use this feature to browse through sev eral marks before acting on one of them Copies the SMPTE time you last went to using the GO TO command into the Numeric Display TIME is then selected automati cally so you can press ENTER or PLAY immedi ately or edit the number first Locate a clip by its name See below for details Special Feature You can locate to any of the first 48 Locations in a shorthand way Simply press GOTO then the Track Key corresponding to the Location you want to locate Selecting the clip name Soft Key brings up a list of names in the lower section of the video display screen At first this is the names of all clips in t
75. enu Used to set prerolls times for Offset Menu l automatic recording and play Used to set offsets for 9 pin back LTC Disk and Gen 9 pin Button Disk Button Takes a 9 pin machine on and off line When used with the Takes the disk recorder on and off i a anaes Blue key it opens a menu for line When it is off line it does not i setting parameters for 9 pin locate nor is any sound heard from it i Machine control Gen Button LTC Button Puts Merlin in and out of LTC chase When used with the Blue key it opens a menu for setting parameters for LTC Switches the timecode genera tor on and off When used with the Blue key it opens a menu used to choose outputs for the generator The precedence of the machines as Timecode Masters is fixed as follows 9pin or LTC gt Disk gt Generator A machine is master when all the machines above it are off line Page 66 User Manual TM Synchronisation Quick Guide Synchronisation is a complex subject in the digital world If you just want to set things up quickly and get down to work here is what to do before you record the first audio in your project 1 Set Sample Rate Digi Menu Start a new project open the Digi Menu and set the Sample Rate at which you want to finally output this project If it does not matter then choose the sample rate at which most of your digital sources are recorded If you don t care either way choose
76. environment and therefore must prevent conflicts between users which could compro mise the integrity of file data To do this it defines five different access modes which are listed below in order of ascend ing openness Media Read At this level only the audio data from a Project is being read and nothing is being modified When audio clips are borrowed from other Projects see Importing for details the borrowed from Project is first opened for Project Read see below in order to check the file headers and other information that guarantee the project integrity and is then dropped back to Media Read A project open for Media Read has a book like icon on the File Page display representing itas a Library Project Read At this level the header information is being read and nothing is being modified No other user may modify the project while it is in this state Project Read occurs on first opening a file for import and on first re attaching a Project when opening another Project which borrows from it In both these cases as soon as the header information has been read the Project is dropped back to Media Read Marked for Backup When a Project is marked for backup it is at the same level as Project Read because the header information is backed up along with the audio data The Project remains at this level throughout the backup except at the end when it is briefly raised to Append Write see below in order to change the La
77. er This is called the default fade and you can control its length One way is to type FDEF n lt RETURN gt where n is the length you want in subframes This method lasts only during the current session and is not remembered by the project or the machine To change it permanently you must edit a Configuration file see Configuration files Notes l If one fade lies on top of another starting later than the underlapping clip s fade out point both of the fades are performed normally without any induced crossfade effect This occurs only while there is overlap between the two clips so it is not a good idea to extend the underlapping clip past the end of the overlapping fade 2 Trimming the end of a clip where a fade occurs will result in a fade with the same Timecode point inside the clip but starting or ending at the new Head or Tail When a clip Level other than 0 dB is applied the Fade will reach the applied level see the Level Menu 4 If you try to create a fade that overlaps a fade at the other end of the clip the other fade will be pushed towards its end of the clip so that there is room for both fades without overlap c a 5 It is possible to interrupt a fade by placing another clip on top of it This can be used to create ramped level changes 6 If a crossfade is positioned so that one of the clips is not as long as the fade requi
78. for selecting audio tracks for editing and other purposes Double clicking one of the Track Selection keys causes exclusive selection of that track To select a range of tracks hold down one key and double click on another this will select the range between the keys and deselect all others The Track Selection keys are also used to select Location points within the Project Mode Keys Each Mode key displays a set of choices on the LCD screen to the right To access a Mode written in Blue hold down the Blue key while pressing the Mode key To leave a Mode simply select an other Disable Key Used to disable tracks from play back Differs from muting in that disabled tracks cannot be immedi ately switched on because they are not being loaded from disk and changing the selection of disabled tracks will cause buffers to be re loaded Y R Pl Record Ei a Solo and Mute Keys La Eg gt h 0 Hold down key to display soloed or l muted tracks on the Track Keys then press them to change selection Undo Key Reverses the most recent edit Pressing again reverses the edit before this one up to a maximum of 64 levels Redo Key Reimplements the last edit that has been undone This can be repeated until all edits are redone Enter Key Used to terminate command sequences or confirm destructive actions Seconds Keys Move the transport by a predetermined amount Jump Keys Transport Controls os a i press n M
79. ground allowing other work to continue normally Once the backup has started you may visit other menus and perform other tasks such as editing or recording but whenever the disk recorder needs to get audio from the disk the backup process is stalled Any time you return to the Backup Menu you can see the progress of the backup The backup can be stopped at any time by pressing the STOP Soft Key You will be asked to confirm this wish before it is carried out The Restore Submenu In this menu files listed in a BU file are marked for restore and then the operation is started When the original backup was performed all the marked files plus the BU file were placed in a single directory and this is where they must be found in order to be restored First you must browse to a BU file then press the restore Soft Key The video screen now displays the list of files that were backed up at the time the BU file was created and you may move up and down the list in order to mark the files start restore unmark Press to start the restore when all required files are marked Press to mark a file for restore A dialog box will appear Press to unmark a File asking for confirmation This is described below Page 60 M User Manual TM Each time you mark a file for restore a dialog appears naming the file and telling you the directory where it was originally located You are now being asked what you want to do and
80. he Blue key to execute the fade out and press this Soft Key Its label will change to X Point and you can enter the position ofthe mid point as a percentage of the duration of the Notes crossfade 1 Auto In and Auto Out can be performed together 2 You can use the mouse to shift the point of equal level right and left within the duration of the fade Just click anywhere inside the graph at the top of the screen User Manual M Page 47 Fades With a Range When a Range is established the Fade Menu changes its behaviour allowing fades across multiple clips Creates anew Master Recording over the range and sets a fade from its beginning to its end Also splits the clips underneath so that no unex pected crossfades occur Creates anew Master Recording over the range and sets a fade from its end to its beginning Also splits the clips underneath so that no unexpected crossfades occur Applies a fade at the head ofall clips wholly contained in the range Applies a fade at the tail ofall clips wholly contained in the range Page 48 User Manual TM More About Fades Crossfades and Channels During a crossfade two clips are actually playing one fading down and the other fading up Merlin can play crossfades on all tracks at the same time but not for an indefinite period of time Fade Defaults Every clip has a small fade at the head or tail to make it sound smooth
81. he project As you type letters into the LCD the list changes to show only names which start with what you have typed You can use wild cards like the ones shown below to widen or narrow the search for names Use the and keys or Jogger Wheel to move up and down the list of displayed names and press ENTER to go to the highlighted one or Play to Preroll and play that clip The track where the clip was found is always selected as part of the locate Currentnam ing criteria Adds a wild card to the name in the upper LCD shown as the punctuation marks above the labels means any number of characters means any one character means any one character or no character Allows you to add another string Name willbe shown only if both strings are in it Allows you to add another string Name will be shown if either of the strings is in it Page 80 M User Manual 37 Locations Locations are remembered timecode points that you insert into the project as easy finders or as labels To make a Location press the Store Loc Key at any time then press a Track Key corresponding Sore with the Location number you want to store Alternatively double press the Store Loc key and Loc then your Location will take the lowest available number It is also possible having pressed the Store Loc key to jog to a Location number or type a Location number using the Numeric Keypad then press Enter to stor
82. i ic peo ci 29 Directory of Files 0 0 2 0 cee 18 Disable nacionalidades 31 Disk Activity Light oooooooonnnnnnnconnnccccnoo 12 Disk Information oooononccccnnnnnicoccciccccccnnno 88 Disk Recorder Page ceeeeeeteeeeeeees 12 Disk Segments ieee 88 Displaying Subframes cc eee 73 DISPOSE coimas oil 54 89 A N E 54 DOMAIN orcas a 18 E Edit Locations ccceeeeeeeeeteeeeeeeeteees 81 Edit M nu noiiire 36 Edit with range ee 39 CURING tee tios 32 Editing a Configuration File 91 Editing illustrated oonooooonnnnnncnnnnnn 36 Editing selection ccccceeeeeeeeeeeeeeees 33 Entering Record ccccceeeeceeeteeeeeeeennees 28 Entering Timecode Values 66 73 CN 88 Export Menu e ereere 64 Extend proj Clasicas irc 21 F Fade Def on Butted Clips 94 Fade DefaUll ooooooococnoccocococcccococcccocncccconno 49 Fade MENU cccccceeceeeeeeeeeeteeteeeeeenees 47 Fade ON SCIEN cc ccceeeeeecteeeeeeeeteeeeeeeees 12 Fast Forward cccccceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeneeees 76 Feet and frames ececeeeeecceeeteeeeeeeenees 68 File DrOWSING ooooccccocooccccccccccononccccncannnnno 18 File display visioocionini niacin ramas iia 11 File Display Sorting ooooonocoonnncccninccccccoo 94 File exchange export 64 SO iiaa iei 15 ee E E E E E tence 18 Folders and Files ooooooooccccnnnio
83. ice whether to trigger then switch to House Sync turn Master OFF in the LTC Setup Menu or lock the sample clock to LTC Master On The former choice gives better audio quality 5 Start Work Merlin will play as long as its light Disk is on and will synchronise to either 9 pin or LTC if one of them is lit You cannot have both 9 pin and LTC switched on together You cannot change sample rate after the first Master Record ing has been made but you can change timecode format and machine control settings as often as you like without changing the timing of Merlin s playback User Manual Page 67 28 The Setup Menu This is used to select synchronisation fundamentals timecode format type of NTSC timecode etc Reopening a project will recall the settings it had when last open Choose units for displaying time Time code TC Feet and Frames in 16mm format F F 16 Feet and Frames in 35mm format F F35 or Hours Feet and Frames at either film speed H F F 16 and H F F 35 Use and or jog Press EN TER to confirm selection All feet and frames measurements are based on a 24 frame per second film speed regardless of the timecode format you have actu ally set Sets the frame format for video sync or chasing timecode Use the and keys or Jogger to choose 24 fps 25 fps NTSC DropFrame DF or NTSC Non Drop Frame ND Press ENTER to confirm your selection Note When ND or DF is selecte
84. ikely to be needed in Merlin This parameter does not normally need to be altered unless you are doing a lot of recording with more than 16 tracks armed BeepsTrackNumber If you are using the AutoRec Menu and you have set one of the GPIs to BEEPS you will also get audible beeps from one of the outputs This parameter allows you to choose the track that the beeps will output It may be the track you are recording on if you want BeepsVolume Sets the audio level of the beeps Set it to 99 if you do not want any beeps BeepsFrequency Sets the frequency of the beeps in Hertz MinSegmentDuration 0 Sometimes a large amount of editing can result in lots of tiny clips sandwiched between larger ones These clips are played but not really heard and can absorb a lot of disk bandwidth by requiring a single disk seek to fetch only a few inaudible samples By setting this parameter to a non zero number these unnecessary seeks are avoided In addition any files that are being passed to the DaD will play much better if this parameter is set to 16 or more sam ples The Sony_ID file The Sony ID file tells the system about the characteristics of different 9 pin devices such as how many analog and digital tracks it has and whether it is a fast or slow machine There is one line of importance that you can change When Merlin is emulating a 9 pin device it replies to the controlling machine with a device ID Normally this is set to the official
85. ilable when the transport is inside Commandis the AutoRec Menu selected Record range If COMMAND is chosen the GPI turns on only while the transport is in Record PREROLL Remains on while Indicator lights COMMAND Pulse Fire the tranport is for artists TIMECODE As above As above prerolling Similar to above POSTROLL Remains on while Indicator lights COMMAND Pulse Fire the tranport is for artists TIMECODE As above As above postrolling Similar to above A RREH Remains on while Indicator lights Fire the AutoRec for artists As above menu is in Rehearse mode A IRREC Remains on while Indicator lights Fire the AutoRec for artists As above menu is in Record mode AIR PLAY Remains on while Indicator lights Fire the AutoRec for artists As above menu is in Playback mode BEEPS GPO fires three Cueing for artists Spacing Pulse Offset Fire times leading up Time between beeps As above Offsets beeps As above to a programmed from scheduled recording record time PREREC GPO fires once at Streaming lights Pretime Pulse Fire a given interval Set a time in frames by As above As above before a pro which the GPO grammed precedes the recording recording Loc GPO fires when Track starts for Pulse Fire transport reaches CD recorders As above As above each Location in Play or Record CUEMUTE Can be set On or Controls whether AHEAD IN PAST Off independently original track iS ftoggled ON GPO is Iftoggled ON GPO is
86. in Merlin behaves something like that on a tape recorder But it is not the same A track is simply a piece of time on to which you may record or paste clips All the clips on a track go to the same output The Current Track Throughout this manual reference is made to Current Track s They are the ones you have selected for recording or editing Selecting tracks for any purpose is always done on the Track Select Keys except for arming them and the last one you selected is a special Current Track which has a higher priority than the other selected tracks The video screen changes when necessary to show the group of tracks that includes the current track Selected tracks are shown with their numbers and backgrounds in lighter colours than unselected tracks User Manual M Page 23 10 Recording Setup for recording is controlled by two menus and a toggle The Patch Menu connects inputs with tracks while the Tape Mode Menu accessed by holding down the Blue Key while pressing the Tape Mode key allows critical recording parameters to be set The Tape Mode switch itself toggles between destructive Tape and non destructive New recording modes which are described below Selecting Tracks for Recording Making a track ready for recording is called Arming the track Merlin s upper row of Track keys is dedicated to this purpose A track can always be armed as long is it has an input patched to it To see the patching setup an
87. isk space highlight the whole project from Mark zero to Mark 999 then Dispose Commit and Pack The first two operations are virtually instantaneous All Space Menu operations are permanent No UNDO When Committing nothing will happen to the Master Recording that a clip is referencing unless the selected range contains all clips that reference it It is a very good idea to dispose often during recording sessions Each time a useless recording is made UNDO it to remove it from sight then dispose The next recording will immediately occupy the freed disk space Committing with Handles set to ALL is a way of removing the parts of the clips that are not heard but pre serving the Master Recordings entirely This can be used for example when a stack of clips have been placed on top of each other to simplify the edit structure down to one layer effectively without losing any re corded audio data Disk Menu operations do not have any effect on material that was extended from another project because that project is in read only mode DO NOT use Disk Menu commands on any project which has been extended unless you are absolutely sure that the audio data you are about to destroy is not needed in the extension project Warning Packingis dangerous Ifanything goes wrong you will lose the project forever You are advised to back up the project before packing User Manual M Page 55 24 Recovering Lost Clips
88. kup Menu provides four file handling commands which all use the same scheme for choosing files The commands are Move moves all the marked files from their current locations to one target directory Copy copies all the marked files from their current locations to one target directory Backup as in copy but a BU backup file is also created listing the files involved and the locations they came from This is stored in the target directory where all the backed files have been copied Restore the reverse of backup restore opens the BU file and uses it to mark the files They can be sent back to their original location or to anywhere else on the system The Backup Menu can work with files anywhere in your system copying and moving them between hard disks and on and off Exabyte tapes All operations operate in the background and are suspended whenever Merlin needs to access its hard disks for play or record When backing up or restoring from tapes files cannot be appended to the end of existing tapes so they are always erased as part of the procedure The Main Menu In this menu the choice is made of which file management activity to begin Eject the tape ifany in your Exabyte Open the backup Open the copy tape drive To do this the cursor submenu submenu must be located on the tape device in the File Page The name of the tape Open the restore Open the move device is SCX0 where X is the SCSI submenu submenu address
89. l Page 15 T The Patch and Meters Display The Patch Display shows all the information about which input is patched to which track and what choices have been made on each of the inputs This display is shown whenever the Patch Menu is selected You can also force its display at any time by typing lt Blue gt P The Meters show you the audio level at each output It is automatically displayed whenever you enter the Arm menu and you may force its display at any time by typing lt Blue gt A k MENU Xx PROJECT MAA FREE i List of tracks by name When you first create a project these will be named Track 1 Track2 etc but you can give them your own names using the Name Menu Grid showing the input s patched to each track Note that the same input can be patched to many tracks but only one of them can be in record at a time When two inputs are patched to the same track it means that stereo clips will be created when the track goes into record Note To change the settings for an input you must open the Patch Menu and 1 4 5 6 m 0000000 own 0000000 This track has been selected so that its in puts can be changed It is possible to select any number of tracks for this purpose Note that the inputs that are currrently patched to this track are also se lected SAMPLE RATE Shows the gain cur rently applied to each input List of inputs
90. l is above threshold A yellow light appears when it drops below and finally a red light comes on when the level has stayed below the threshold for longer than the hold time i e gating will now occur 3 When COMMIT is toggled ON the system will ask you to confirm by pressing the ENTER key before anything destructive happens While the computer is waiting for confirmation you may play the audio to check whether it is okay before pressing ENTER To escape at this point press any soft key or mode key 4 See next page for illustration of the gating parameters User Manual M Page 51 Gate Menu Illustrated High Original Audio Example 1 Handles gt gt e Threshold af IN a N A ph wv ier A YI Hold Example 2 Handles gt gt OOO ETT A O AC mbeo T E Threshold As Mm D ad E Z H gt ADA v nite an oo x y g lt gt a 1 ie Hold Page 52 M User Manual 22 Undoing and Redoing Edits Undoing an edit means going back to the state the Project was in before you made it Edits can be undone and redone on 64 levels which means you can go back to how things were 64 edits ago if you want Undo and Redo Buttons Pressing the UNDO key causes the system to return to the edit version you had just before the last change in the edit list Changes in the edit list are caused
91. lanation Merlin can track the position and motion of external transports such as a Video Tape Recorder timecode striped audio tape or a timecode generator The disk recorder will play in time with the Master Timecode source so that sound and picture coincide 1 Position This is an absolute location reference to a sequence of pictures or audio It is used to determine whether the disk recorder is playing the right part of its project For video position reference is usually provided by 9 pin Sony protocol from an RS 422 port For audio tapes LTC is normally used though 9 pin is also a possibility 2 Motion The motion of an external machine is a measure of its speed and the disk recorder must move at the same speed to remain in sync This translates into producing the correct number of samples every second which is called the Master Clock rate This can be locked to a Digital Word Clock a video signal an AES EBU timimg signal by the internal crystal a timecode source or a Digital audio source which is being recorded If the Position Reference and Motion References are not the same it is possible that they will drift apart over time This will be shown by a warning at the top of the Merlin video screen which indicates when an inconsistent timecode frame was encountered How Merlin Synchronises Merlin goes through a number of steps in achieving synchronisation in play mode 1 Read the position reference and start loading up the co
92. lence at the Tail Page 32 M User Manual TM When clips overlap the Fades become Crossfades Level Every clip has an audio level After fading in and before fading out the clip plays at this level While the clip is fading the effects of the fades are added to the level EQ Every clip has a 4 band equaliser built in to its structure Merlin plays existing EQ settings created in MFX files but has no way of changing them Name A clip may have a name up to 24 characters long This is given to it in the Name Menu Many clips can have the same name Project Layer Each clip occupies a unique layer which is used to determine which clip will overlap when two enter the same timecode and track The layers are assigned chronologically so the most recently created clips have the highest numbers Summary of Editing Commands All editing is achieved by altering clip parameters as follows Editing Menu Command Name Editing Action Edit Cut clip Removes selected clip s places a copy of them on the clip board ready for pasting Cut head or tail Moves head or tail pointer to reduce the size of the clip places the removed piece on the clipboard Copy As in cut but pointers to original clip are unchanged Enter key Places a copy of the edit clipboard at the current timecode position on the top project layer Trim Trim Move head or tail pointer Fade Fade Head or Tail Moves fade in or fade out point Level Level Set o
93. n either direction by convenient amounts or to important landmarks in the project only on currently selected tracks Hold down a Jump button and select from the menu or just press and release to repeat the last type of jump you made Choose your own Jump length by typing Variable keep holding the Jump key down then jog to Jump to next or previous display any number up to 999 Location remembered frames Then release the Jump point in the project key to go there Jump to next or previous point or fade point end of fade in or start of fade out See next entry for Jump to next or previous ae int H Point Jump to the next or previous a port pointe and Jue PN lip with a i or Tail of a clip on the cap wita a giyen TER on current Track s See The any track Its track is also Clip double clicked To change l the given name see below Backwards Forwards later in earlier in time time Modified Jump Commands Holding the Blue key while Jumping will locate the transport to the start or end of the Range if one exists Holding the ctrl key while Jumping will locate to the next or previous mark despite the selection in the menu Holding the SHIFT key while Jumping will locate to the next or previous point despite the menu selection Selecting Names To change the given name first hold down the Jump Key and strike the clip name Soft Key Now release both of these keys and you ll see the last used nam
94. n the Edit Menu only when a range is present They are used to paste into a specific range The Blue Paste command creates new recordings made from the contents of the clipboard Page 36 M User Manual The Edit Menu The Edit Menu is divided into two submenus called the Cut Submenu and the Copy Submenu The first Soft Key is used to choose which one of these you want to use To set the default submenu when Edit is entered hold down the Shift Key and press the first Soft Key When you use the Cut submenu any clip or part of a clip you act upon is removed to the clipboard but with the Copy submenu the clips are copied to clipboard and also retained in their original position The Cut Submenu Cursor ae Original Clip The whole clip is Cut and placed on the clipboard and the cursor position stored as a sync mark The transport can then be moved to another time and or a new track selected then the audio may be Pasted there by pressing the ENTER key The part of the The clip ceases to exist Not the same as Cut Clip because it does not put the clip in the clipboard but simply removes it audio that was under the cursor when you leaving the clipboard un Cut will be placed under the cursor at its new changed location The first part of the clip from the Head of the clip to the cursor is Cut and placed on the Clipboard It can The last part of the clip from the be Pasted at a
95. nd has a special key in the transport section Pressing this key causes the transport to repeat exactly the same play range as the last time Merlin went into play or record A preroll ofthe normal length is added Record Again Command The Record Again command has a special key in the transport section Pressing this key causes the transport to repeat exactly the same record range as the last time Merlin went into record A preroll of the normal length is added Record Here Command The Record Here command has a special key in the transport section Pressing this key causes Merlin to jump back preroll and go into record at exactly the timecode position where you pressed the key Jump Keys Location Keys The Location keys allow you to create and recall up to 998 Locations which are remembered points in the project Please see the section on Locations for details Jump Keys The JUMP keys allow you to locate to convenient places quickly Hold the key and select any item from the menu or simply release the key to choose the default the last item you chose from the menu Jogand Shuttle These two transport modes are designed for movement under the direct control of the user Page 76 User Manual 35 The Jogger Wheel The Jogger Wheel is used for many purposes in operating Merlin These include transport functions which are described below and changing of parameter values which is described with the appropriate menus Jog
96. need some space to do more recording and are sure that some of the audio is not needed we can get rid of it to create that space This is done on the Space Menu which is shown below For a pictorial explanation please see the diagrams on page 116 Range The Commit command may operate in a timecode range which is set up using the FROM and TO keys If no range is specified the clips under the cursor on the selected tracks are affected The Disk Menu Frees the disk space occu pied by all completely UNREFERENCED record ings e g clips that have been erased or recordings that were undone When using keep borrowed extra audio may be brought in for both ends of extended clips if editing was done before the extension occured This allows the clips to be expanded later using material that was trimmed offoriginally Above 99 seconds the display shows ALL meaning bring in all of the original Master Recording The project is packed into the smallest possi ble area of disk releas ing the remainder for general use This may take some time because the audio on the hard disks will be moved around Commit performs two actions acting on all clips that are touching the cursor on selected tracks or all clips inthe range ifyou have created one Firstly itremoves all the clips and parts of clips that cannot be heard usually because they are covered by other clips Secondly it frees the disk space that has b
97. nicccconnncnnos 9 O Offsetting 2 0 2 eee ceee ects eeeeeteeeeeeeeees 74 Optical Disk formatting ooo ooo coo 90 Output pad ee eieren 29 Overlapping Clips 0 00 2 ee eeeeeeeeees 23 Overwrite warning on restore 63 P A A 89 Pad on outputs 29 Panning in mixed out mode 50 Password Protection ceceeeeeeee 21 Pasting audio ee er 37 Patch Display cccccececeeeeeteeeeeeeenees 16 Patch Display illustrated 16 Patch Menu ceeceeeeececeeeeteeeeeseeeneeees 26 Patching inputs aaa e 26 A ea R 76 Playback eeeccceeeeceeteeeeeeeeeeteeeeeeees 28 POINTEMS iia 88 Predial Eu ENEA aida 75 Project Extension ooooconooccccnnoccoccccccccnnnnos 21 Project Layer ceeceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees 33 Project MENU ecn 19 Project Read re 22 Public Writei sssiseicsainrn i 21 Pull up Pull down 0 eeeeeeeeeeees 69 Punch in Punch out 0 ccceeeeeeeeeee 28 Put back trimmed audio eee 41 Page 96 User Manual R A ccestuagead ES 34 Range automatic and manual 35 Range setting oooooooconnnnnnionccinnocconcccccnnnos 34 Range Size on screen i 12 Range used in editing ooo 39 RECON o aoa 76 Record Gain aaee 26 RECONING erence a 24 Recover Waveform Command 005
98. nly Media Read Append Write Backup Project Read Media Read Media Reads may co exist in any number meaning that a Project may sustain for example any number of users at Media Read level i e borrowing clips from it and also one user at up to Append Write level who may be recording and editing If any user is currently attached to the Project by borrowing the user who is editing it will not be able to perform overwrite recording committing etc Another constraint is that in order to initiate a Media Read a user must first pass briefly through Project Read in order to check the header information This cannot be done while another user has the Project open for Append Write since the second user might be changing the header information at the very moment that the first one is reading it So if a user is editing a Project no one else can attach to it although any users who were already attached to it before it was opened for editing will be able to maintain their attachments The action of opening a Project for Import also causes it to briefly enter Project Read even if it has already been opened and closed previously during this session This means that if another user has opened the Project for editing since the first time it was opened for Import it will not be able to be opened for Import again Import is not available in the first Merlin software release Page 22 M User Manual The Clip What you are cr
99. ns playing through a section rewinding to the beginning and playing again continuously To make a Loop play press the Loop key To set the start and end times for the loop press the Cycle key Now the From and To keys can be used to set new loop points if you only set one end of the Loop the previous time for the other end will be retained In and Out Points The From and To keys and their menus are used to set up the In and Out points for automatic recordings The use of these keys is described in the section Editing with a Range A quick way to initiate cycles is by using the Track Keys to represent Locations as follows Cycle Location 1 Location 2 To start cycling at any time press Cycle Enter or double press the Cycle key To stop Cycling press any other transport key User Manual Page 83 39 Automatic Recording Merlin provides an environment for automatic recordings with the minimum of effort This environment called the AutoRec Menu is the default mode for Merlin Modes There are three modes for this menu and it is always in one of them They are Rehearse Record and Playback The behaviour of the commands depends on which mode is current In and Out Points The From and To keys and their menus are used to set up the In and Out points for automatic recordings The use of these keys is described in the section Editing with a Range The AutoRec Menu Opens a secon
100. nyone who opens the file There are three levels of access available to a file with a password one of which must be chosen when the password is created These are Public any user can open the file and change any part of it A password is not requested upon opening the file Read Only any user can open the file and play the audio but cannot change anything A password is requested when first opening the file and if none is supplied read only permission is granted Extending the file will then create a new unpassworded file extension which can be edited as required without changing the original file If the correct password is supplied when opening the file then full write delete rename and move permission is granted Private no user can open the file at all without supplying the correct password Notes l Even a file which has Public Write access cannot be deleted renamed or moved Any attempt to perform these operations will result in the system requesting a password 2 Once you have opened a file using its password all other projects with the same password will be opened without the machine requesting you to supply the password again This may apply to several passwords that have been used in a single session on the machine and the only way to make the machine forget these passwords is to restart it User Manual M Page 21 Access Modes Levels of Openness Merlin operates in a networking
101. o level duration source file if borrowed and layer number Where several clips are stacked on top of each other it is possible to see the top four layers By going to the Track Menu you can scroll down to lower layers and lift any clip to the top layer File Lower lt Blue gt F Project menu Backup Displays a list of files on the current storage device and information about that device Device Upper lt Blue gt D Same as file Displays a box for each storage device on line and configured in the mdr_devices file A fuel guage shows the available storage on the device in blue the size of an open file in yellow and the amount of freespace in an open file in green Locations Upper lt Blue gt M GoTo Location and Name Location This display shows a list of Locations in numerical order with their names Three columns are shown with the active column in the centre showing timecode positions of the locations When the transport is being moved the locations display scrolls to highlight the latest location passed by the transport Waveform Upper lt Blue gt W The waveform display shows a list of all the Master Recordings in the project This can be scrolled up and down using the arrow keys on the alphanumeric keyboard It is used for recovering clips that have been accidentally erased See Recovering Lost Clips System Lower lt Blue gt S This is used to change system setup parameters including print characteristics
102. ock A digital audio system needs a Master clock to determine the precise moments at which audio samples enter and leave the system When transferring samples directly between two systems using the AES EBU inputs and outputs it is necessary to synchronise the Master Clocks of the two systems Merlin provides a number of synchronisation inputs and the Digi menu is used to choose which one of them will be used Selects the source for Master Sample clock synchronisation Includes Internal crystal sync AES EBU Word Clock Video and Input This last choice allows you to choose one track whose digital input will be used as the source for House Sync When switched to AUTO finds the lowest numbered armed track with a digital input Chooses the sample rate of the project Cannot be changed after the first au dio has been put into the project by recording or by importing from another project When switched on causes all tracks to be Allows the audio level of all outputs to be re duced or increased in the digital domain In some cases this will re sult in reduced audio resolution Merlin stores a separate set ting for the pad when Stereo Mix is ON so that it is not necessary to change the Pad every time Stereo is M if any and selects it as the mixed to stereo and sent turned ON or OFF sync source This means that to outputs 1 and 2 In sync may change if different this mode levels and tracks
103. one Master Recording The process of editing may change which part of the Master Recording is accessed by the clip or at what timecode this happens but does not change the Master Recording at all Head The Head is a pointer to the first part of the Master Recording that the clip plays Immediately after recording the Head will be at the Start of the Master Recording By editing you can move it elsewhere Tail The Tail is a pointer to the last part of the Master Recording that the clip plays Master Recording Clip Heard Start Head Possible Tail End Sync Point Fade In Point Fade Out Point Sync Point The Sync Point of the clip is a point that you can place anywhere in the clip It is usually chosen as the clearest moment of the audio that you can use to check whether it is in sync For example it might be a particularly loud crash in a sequence of smashing plates Until you set a Sync Point in a clip it is at the Head of the clip The Sync Point can be found by jumping to points see Jump keys Timecode Reference The clip is played at a predetermined timecode and this is stored in the clip Fade Every clip contains a fade in and a fade out By default these are of zero length so the clip reaches its maximum level right at the start But you can set fade points in the clip so that the level is ramped up from silence at the Head to maximum at the Fade In Point and from maximum at the Fade Out Point to si
104. ove the transport to Record may be entered by press y 0 Set the amount next or previous Points ing Play and Record together clip A and ends or by pressing the Record key Transport Smart Keys timecode Marks or by alone The control for this set These keys provide special specified intervals ting is on the System Page Type functions for making re lt Blue S gt cording easier Page 8 User Manual Console Disk Button Takes disk recorder on and off line While offline it will not re spond to transport commands 9 pin Button Master Time Puts a 9 pin machine on Shows the line or activates 9 pin slave timecode position mode if selected Press with of the current the Blue key to set this ma master machine chine s parameters Cannot be activated when the LTC button is on BoE ee Hoods Gen Button Enables and disa bles the timecode Jog and Shuttle Numeric Register Used for timecode en try and arithmetic Keys Holding down the Jog key shows a menu of setup generator LTC Button Location Keys Turns on LTC chase Press For storing and recall with the Blue key to set this ing remembered machine s parameters points within the Project Cannot be activated when the 9 pin button is on parameters for jogging and Keys Used to increment and decre ment the Numeric Register the Zoom range or any selected parameter in a Soft Menu Numeric Ke
105. p is shown differently Turning SUPER TRIM off on the Blue S page stops this feature User Manual M Page 41 Trim Menu Illustrated In each illustration the first diagram shows the situation at the moment a Soft Key is pressed and the second diagram shows the results of moving the cursor and pressing the ENTER key pear Trim Head eure loo kee omen Cursor Head moves to Cursor position but audio sync is fixed Clip may be shortened or lengthened Kas a Cursor Trim Clip Cursor Head and Tail move with Cursor but the audio sync remains fixed Page 42 User Manual 16 The Nudge Menu The Nudge Menu is used to slip clips forward or backward in time by a fixed small amount This can be done while playing if desired so you can use it to synchronise tracks on the fly In this case there will be a short interuption to the playback while the edit list is re compiled Range Range is optional on the Nudge menu You may set up a range of timecodes using the FROM and TO keys as described under Editing with a Range You may also select any number of tracks to be affected The Nudge Menu will affect all clips that are wholly contained in the highlighted range and on the selected tracks If you have no range set up then only the clips under the cursor on the selected tracks will be nudged Nudges the se lected clips for Sets the amount of
106. press ENTER This has the same ef fect as pressing the time Soft Key ex cept that the previous Range end from be fore entering the menu will be adopted Now it can be edited in the usual ways be fore pressing ENTER This Soft Key does not latch the menu The time of the Project Head i e Mark 0 is adopted as the Range Start and you have the same options as for the prev gap Soft Key This Soft Key does not latch the menu The From Menu finds the nearest previous moment of silence between clips on the current track and adopts it as the Range start At this point you can press other keys to continue moving the Range start Release the From Key at any time to accept the current Range start Press the prev gap Soft Key again to find a further previous gap Press any other Soft Key and switch to its functions Ifthis latches the menu the ENTER key will be needed to complete the sequence Press either Jump Key to move the Range start Page 34 M User Manual KKO ome om From Point Cursor To Point While a Range Menu is latched You can use the Jogger Wheel to move the end of the Range You can use the Jump keys to move the end of the Range The video display highlights the Range that will be created if you press ENTER The Numeric Register shows the current value of the Range end that is being changed nA eA L
107. puts to inputs The ANALOG DIGITAL toggle becomes the selected tracks This can be done with active allowing either type of input to be selected the Jogger Wheel the and keys or the Press one key to patch that input to all selected Numeric Keypad If you want to type a tracks or any two keys together to patch stereo inputs Releasing the keys makes the patch and returns the Track Keys to selecting tracks negative value press the lt Clear gt key then lt minus gt and then the number Press to assign multiple inputs to multiple tracks in mono only The tracks are selected before pressing this Soft Key All the Track Keys flash indicating that they represent inputs Any number of inputs can be selected simultaneously and upon release they are patched sequentially to the selected tracks If there are more tracks than inputs the inputs wrap around to the beginning again allowing multiple sets of the same inputs to be patched to multiple tracks Analog Digital Whenever the patch or group commands are issued the 4th and 5th Soft Keys change to allow a choice between Analaog and Digital inputs Only one type at a time can be patched so choose the appropriate one before making a choice of inputs using the track keys Mono Stereo This is not selected explicitly but is simply determined by the number of inputs patched to the track When two inputs are patched to a track it will automatically record stereo clips It is possible
108. r Trim Change clip audio level Nudge any Change timecode reference Track Pop Change project layer Razor any Cut time out or insert time into Project Selecting Clips for Editing When you edit only clips on the selected track s will be affected The clips or parts that can be changed are alwaysshown in red To select the tracks you want use the Track Select Keys not the Track Arming Keys The selected ones will be lit The clips on the selected track that are affected are chosen in two ways 1 On some menus the clip s that are touching the cursor are the ones that will be affected by the commands you issue This is true on the Trim and Track menus 2 Some menus require you to construct a range between two timecodes inside which the audio is affected This is done using the FROM and TO keys The Razor menu uses a range Many menus work with or without a range such as the Edit Menu User Manual M Page 33 13 Timecode Ranges Merlin allows two methods of choosing what to edit One mode is called clip or object based editing and the other is called range or timecode based editing Some editing menus such as Grab work only in clip mode while others such as Block work only in range mode Many menus can work in either mode sometimes with slightly different com mands for each There are also two range modes part mode where any parts of clips included in the range will be affected by edit commands and
109. re A1 4 analogue tracks of which one may be the timecode track DA1 24 the first 24 digital or analog tracks or DA25 48 a second bank of 24 tracks These selections are not always as obvious as they might seem e g some DAT machines use Al and A2 while others use DA 1 and DA2 When set to Chase Merlin watches the timecode from the 9 pin machine and relo cates if it jumps When Run is selected Merlin locks up and continues to play with House Sync until Stop is pressed regardless of the 9 pin machine s behav jour Page 72 M User Manual TM Entering Timecode Values Most functions of the system can be accomplished without typing timecodes simply by capturing current positions But it is often useful to issue commands with specific timecodes The Numeric Register The Numeric Register is located in the top half of the LCD beneath the Master Timecode Display It is used to store and edit timecode numbers prior to making use of them Timecodes may be typed into the Numeric Display using the Numeric Keypad copied into it using the down arrow key and some soft keys trimmed using the and keys or the Jogger Wheel and finally entered into a parameter with the ENTER key Details below Time Many menus have a TIME option When this is selected the system is ready to accept a timecode into the active parameter This is always copied from the Numeric Display by pressing ENTER Copy Add or Su
110. res part of the fade will be cut off To prevent this select the CROSSFADE FROM ZERO option on the System Page e CROSSFADE FROM ZERO ee le OFF ON 7 Fade defaults do not usually occur at butt edits between clips To turn them on enable the Fade Def on Butted Clips option on the S Page User Manual M Page 49 20 The Level Menu The Level Menu allows you to set an amount of attenuation for each clip The range is from 99 dB to 99dB zero is the default when a clip is first recorded The clip fade in and fade out rise to and fall from this level Range Many clips can be altered at the same time using a range This is created using the FROM and TO keys as described in the section on Editing with a Range When using a range only clips that are entirely within the range are affected Track Selection Any number of tracks may be chosen by pressing their Track Keys ModeSelection When CLIP is selected the Set and Trim parameters alter the level of the currently selected clip s When DISPLAY is selected the Set and Trim parameters affect the vertical size of the waveform display When TRACK is selected only possible if Stereo Mix is ON Set Trim and Pan affect monitoring of the selected tracks in the stereo output These settings cease to have any effect when Stereo Mix is switched OFF Sets the value of the current pa rameter on selected clips tracks depending on the MODE set ting
111. rresponding audio on all active tracks 2 When ready start playing but with the outputs muted Use variable speed to reduce the error between the Merlin position and the Position Reference until it is very small uy Switch to the Motion Reference for continued playback The system is said to be locked once this switch is made and the audio is unmuted 4 Warn of error status if the sync error increases if a reference signal is lost etc Digital Synchronisation Conflicts When you are recording a digital source it must be synchronised to the same Master Clock Reference as Merlin or an overflow too many samples or underflow too few samples may occur at the input This causes a characteristic periodic form of digital distortion called a whisper A whisper sounds like a brief glassy or metallic buzz and occurs about once every few seconds depending how fast the samples are overflowing or underflowing One way to guarantee digital synchronisation is to choose the digital input signal itself as the Master Clock Refer ence for Merlin This is done in the Digi Menu by selecting INPUT under the Sync Soft Key or AUTO under the Inp Sync Soft Key This latter source of timing will only be used when a digital input is armed with the normal sync setting used at other times A side effect is that the word clock rate of all digital outputs will also sync to the digital input which may cause digital synchronisation confli
112. rt exchange Export Exports a file to the root of the current disk drive which can be outputting an current disk drive which can be peat by DD Dabber E by Faitlight s File Exchange used for turning Mer Meri Hark 10 product The file will be named lin audio into way Redbook CD over XXX DL where XXX MT is th partners The file will be named SCSI DL where is the XXX ML where XXX MT is the files See next page name ofthe currently open Project name ofthe currently open Project Opens the CD Exports a file to the root of the Opens the WAV Export submenu Submenu used for The CD Submenu The CD submenu allows one track of stereo or mono audio to be written directly to a Yamaha CRW4416S Compact Disc writer note this model changes from time to time please consult your Fairlight distributor if model unavail able A range is set up to indicate the start and end of the Compact Disc which cannot exceed 75 minutes in dura tion The following controls are available on the submenu Ejectsthe CD from Writes the audio to the the drive oo f CD at twice real speed Starts a test write This will go through the entire write procedure checking everything works but will not actually burn a CD Useful for saving media if uncertain about the result Page 64 M User Manual TM Rules for writing to CD l All sample rates are supported Regardless of the Project sample rate the output to CD will
113. s To add text move the cursor to the desired location and start typing Text is always inserted never overwritten To remove text use the DEL or BACK key Saving Changes to a File When you have the file exactly the way you want type lt esc gt ZY This will close the file and save your changes If you want to abandon editing without saving changes type lt esc gt Q Y To return to the Disk Recorder program type MFX4 lt RETURN gt The MDR Configuration File This file contains many settings that are used by the Multitrack Disk Recorder program MDR To open it when Merlin is running type CFG lt RETURN gt Editing is described in the section above omit the line ED filename lt RETURN gt as you have already performed a shorthand version of it After saving the file you must restart the machine before changes take effect Important The MDR Configuration File contains many things that you should not change If you do some opera tions ofthe system may become unstable or not work at all DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING that is not described fully here The following lines may be changed ArmKeyDelayon Normally there is a delay in the reaction time of the Track Keys to allow for the possibility of double clicking Change this setting to off in order to remove this delay useful when using the Track Keys to put individual tracks into record When it is off double clicking does not work FadeDefault 72 Every clip is played with a
114. s Sometimes Arming a track disarms another track This occurs when there is already a track armed that is patched to the same input Repatching It is not possible to repatch an input to a track while the track is in record The Tape Mode Menu While the TAPE Mode menu is active the Track Keys can be used to arm and disarm the tracks A handle is extra audio at the start of the recording This may be set up to 30 frames and it causes Merlin to enter record earlier than you tell itto For this to work the track must have been armed for at least the length of time corresponding to the handle length The extra audio does not appear in the clip created immedi ately after the recording but may be uncovered using the Trim Head command in the Trim Menu User Manual M Page 27 Notes Arm Many Tracks Any number of tracks can be armed at the same time You may patch one input to as many tracks as you like but only one track at a time can record or monitor it If a track is armed and you try to arm another one patched to the same input the new choice will replace the old one This is true even if Merlin is in Record where recording will end on the originally armed track and continue at the next audio sample on the new track Arm on the Fly It is possible to arm tracks while the system is in record The track goes into record immediately as long as it has a patched input Handle in Tape Mode Handles are only
115. s are split at both Note ends l To set the level for just part of a clip first use the SPLIT command to break it into the right sized pieces then set the appropriate levels 2 To create a ramp between different levels in one clip first copy the section whose level is to be changed using the Edit Menu then paste it back on top of its source Change its level as desired then use the Fade Menu to create fades at either end of the clip This will cause it to crossfade with the source clip underneath which will be playing at the original level 3 It is possible when using the Level Menu to push the level of a clip over digital maximum Check meters Page 50 User Manual M 21 The Gate Menu The Gate Menu allows you to remove silence in a clip by erasing ranges where the level is low It has a number of parameters that allow you to achieve exactly the result you want Like any editing function gating is non destructive meaning that you can UNDO it but a special form of the commit command is included in this menu for more information about committing see the Space menu Gating During Recording Whenever you record a new Master Recording the system stores the information about levels that it will later use to execute the gating function This allows you to perform gating instantly on newly recorded audio If the memory is assigned to storing gate points runs o
116. s desired postion A toggle in the menu allows you to choose which you prefer In this menu the upper portion of the LCD shows the current position or offset of all the machines in the system Mode POSITION Toggles between displaying and changing Choose any machine s then set its offset or its desired timecode machine offsets or positions position by editing the Numeric Register then pressing ENTER The LCD Menualso changes temporarily to give you the options shown below restore capture Restores the ma chine s offset to the value it had before it was selected for changing effectively UNDOing an offset Makes the offset equal to the current position relative to the Merlin change Console s Master time display The device being offset must be OFFLINE during this process or it would always locate to its existing offset 1 The Position of any machine when on line is defined as Merlin console position plus Offset So if for example you give a machine a 30 second offset it will immediately locate forward 30 seconds unless it is the Master in which case all the other machines will locate backwards by 30 seconds 2 The Merlin Console will display the time Master minus Master Offset when the Master is online 3 Only positive offsets are allowed so if you want a minus one hour offset put in a 23 hour one Or CLEAR the Numeric Register type the number press the Minus key and then ENTER 4 To capture an offset
117. select the destination directory for the copy by browsing and pressing the Okay Soft Key If required you may create a New Folder by pressing this Soft Key typing a name and pressing Enter Then open it by browsing and press Okay to make it the destination Folder Now you must supply a name for the copy by editing the one in the upper LCD Press ENTER to start the copy Note that if the machine you are copying from orto is in Play at the time the copy will be held off until the machine stops and will be held off again each time the machine goes into Play The Move sequence is exactly the same as the Copy sequence except that the original file is removed If the desti nation Folder is on the same storage device as the File the Move command takes only a few seconds regard less of File size Goes back to the first level of the Project Menu Allows any File or Folder to be renamed Edit the currentname in the upper LCD and press Enter Domains Nodes and Units cannot be renamed here and the currently open Project can only be renamed in the Name Menu Page 20 M User Manual TM When a Project is open the Project menu looks like this This removes the open project from view saving it first Press this Soft Key to set or change the pass word of the currently open file A dialog ap pears requesting a password to be entered then asking for confirmation After this the cursor moves to
118. ser Manual TM Operations in the Disk Menu Disposeremoves all clips which are not used at all in the project The space they occupied becomes avail able for furtherrecording inthis file but not for other projects Project 2 Unused Disk Sp The Dispose Command has removed Master Recordings 2 and 3 because there are no pointers to them Commit removes all the parts of recordings that have been edited Project 2 out i e are not within the pointers The space thus freed becomes Unused Disk Spac available for further recording in this file but not for other projects The Commit command has removed sections of Master Recording 4 that were not being referenced by any clips Pack squeezes all the remaining Project 2 audio data into contiguous space within the file segments by copy Unused Disk Space ing into the free space within the file At the end of this process the free space is right at the end of the file and this is then truncated so that it becomes true free disk space The Pack command has moved all of the audio so that it occupies the least possible space on the hard disk The extra space that was inside the file is released as free disk space that can be used by any file User Manual M Page 89 42 Preparing Drives for Disk Recording It is assumed that any new hard drive you buy will be preformatted with a suitable sector size To ensure that this is the case only buy dri
119. st Backup date Append Write When a Project is open for recording and editing audio is normally being appended to the file rather than removed Although the edit list may be constantly changed in the most destructive ways the audio data and the Project header information which describes it are generally added to but not changed This means other Projects which depend on the integrity of that information are not affected Modify Write Only a few operations have the ability to change existing audio data or audio header information These include Overwrite recording Commit Dispose and Pack Project Status is raised to Modify Write only during these operations If another user has the Project open permission for Modify Write is not granted and the operation cannot proceed Multi User File Access This section contains information relating to network clients which may not be Merlins they may be MFX or FAME products instead Some of the actions described here are not available in Merlin software but the information may be useful to understand the network directory screen which can be affected by any client on the network In a network many users may have access to the same files and sometimes they will want to work with them at the same time The following chart shows which access modes may co exist Access Mode Coexists With Modify Write None Append Write Media Read onlyO Marked for Backup Media Read only Project Read Media Read o
120. t select the tracks to be edited and the Range time over which the edit operates see Editing with a range page 25 The Razor Menu This willremoveall ofthe audio in the Range and the time as well so the ends of the range come together Useful for re moving audio after a recut of pictures The audio in the range and the time it occupies are moved to the cursor position This is equivalent to cutting a piece of tape and re inserting it at the cursor position A period of silence equal in length to the range is inserted at the start of the range A copy of the audio in the Range and the time it occu pies are inserted at the cur sor This is equivalent to making a tape dub of the audio in the range and in serting the copy at the cur sor position Page 44 M User Manual TM The Razor Submenu Illustrated Original Track Layout Delete The Range and the audio in it are relocated to the Cursor position Duplicate The Range and the audio in it are copied to the Cursor position User Manual M Page 45 18 The Track Menu The TRACK Menu is used for editing across tracks and amongst layers of audio that have been recorded on top of each other Most of its functions start with selection of a SOURCE track followed by a command then selection of a DEST
121. the replies are as follows Okay restore the file back to its original location If there is already a file of that name present you will be asked if you want to overwrite it Allokay restore all files I mark to their original locations without asking PickUnit allows the file to be restored to a different disk location Having typed P to choose this option the browser allows you to move to any Folder on the system except the Folder where the BU file is located While visiting other Folders you may delete any files you choose this feature is provided so that you may remove other files in your chosen destination that might have the same name as this one Press the Okay Soft Key to confirm the destination for this file and resume marking other files Sometimes a disk from where some of the files were originally backed up is no longer on the system or it is too full to allow the marked files to be restored there When this happens you are prompted for another destination for the files Note that the same directory structure in which the original files were housed will be created on the destination device Restore occurs in the background allowing other work to continue normally Any requirement for the system to play or record however will cause the restore to be stalled and to continue after playback has been stopp The Copy Submenu In this menu files are marked for copy exactly like backup and then the operation is started During
122. the variable wards in time by nudge which is operated by the one frame following two Soft Keys Can bea number of subframes from 1 to 99 Use the Jogger Wheel and the and keys to set the amount then press ENTER Nudges the selected Nudges the selected clips Nudges the selected clips backwards in backwards in time by the clips forwards in time imebyone frame amount shown under Vari by the amount shown able under Variable Notes 1 When Nudging the clips in a Range the software automatically moves the Range so that all the clips remain inside it after being nudged 2 The Nudge Menu has an alternative mode in which the audio is slipped within the clip but the boundaries of the clip remain at their current timecode positions This is known as Nudging Sync To get into Nudge Sync mode hold down the Shift key while pressing the Nudge Mode Key This action is repeated to go back to Nudge Clip mode A label in the upper LCD tells you which mode the system is in User Manual M Page 43 17 Razor Editing Razor Editing is used to insert or delete time on multiple tracks as though you were cutting tape with a razor blade A range is always started as soon as you enter the menu When you use a razor command many clips may be trimmed slipped split or created but you need take no account of this The Disk Recorder software will do all the housekeep ing for you To fix the target of a block editing command you mus
123. this could be CLIP level DIS PLAY amplitude or TRACK moni tor level This may be a negative or positive number After press ing this Soft Key you will see the current value below the Set label Type the value you want or use the Jogger or and keys then press ENTER to set the parameter value Ifanegative number is to be typed first type lt Clear gt lt gt then the number then ENTER Trims the value of the cur rent parameter up and down on selected clips tracks Press the Soft Key then type anumber use the Jog ger or the and keys to change the number then press ENTER to make the change All the same pa rameters affected by the Set Soft Key can be changed using the Trim Soft Key but the changes are relative to the current settings Pan is only visible when Stereo Mix is ON It affects the pan position of the selected audio in the stereo mix If MODE is set to TRACK the pan value affects the whole track If MODE is set to CLIP only the currently selected clips are affected By default clips have Pan set to OFF and are controlled by the Pan value for their Track Ifa clip has a value for Pan this overrides the Track setting Pan values are positive if right of centre and negative if left Info is visible when DISPLAY mode is selected When it is ON each clip shows its level if non zero and its bit depth The selected clips are split into two at this point Ifa range has been created clip
124. tically pull down the sample rate to 44 056 if you feed in timecode at 29 97 If however you change the NTSC field to 29 97 Merlin will play at 44 100 at 29 97 frames per second and will pull up to a sample rate of 44 144 when timecode runs at 30 frames User Manual M Page 69 per second It is advisable to choose a sample rate at which you want to make the final transfer of the project Then record your material at whichever frame rate is going to be used during that final transfer The importance of this choice is that you do not want to compromise the quality of your final product by using sample rate conversion at the moment it leaves Merlin for the last time You should make these choices at the very beginning of the project and then you may use any other combination that suits your purposes temporarily during the recording and editing process Control of Sony Machines Sony machines are those conforming to the Sony 9 pin transport protocol Merlin can either control one of these machines which should be connected to 9 pin Port A It is best if that machine is being referenced by the same house sync signal as Merin normally video If this is not possible Merlin and the Sony machine are essentially free wheeling and Merlin will relocate ifa relative drift of more than one frame occurs This will cause a dropout in the audio Conflict of Sync If Merlin is being told to synchronise to one of its digital inputs see Digi
125. to have some tracks patched for mono recording and others patched for stereo It is even possible to patch an input to one track in mono and as part of a stereo pair on another track though they cannot be armed at the same time In the disk recorder a stereo pair has the following properties as distinct from any pair of mono tracks 1 Editing is always performed on both sides at once 2 The output numbers are always a consecutive pair 3 Ifa clip overlaps a stereo clip on the preceeding track the right hand side of the stereo clip is not heard Page 26 M User Manual Gain Structure TM 1 To get Unity Gain through the system with Analog inputs set Gain to zero and set Type to Analog 4 2 The maximum analog input level with Unity Gain is 24 dBu More than this will cause overload of the Analog to Digital Converter If your audio source is lined up to give 4dBu output at 0 VU this will correspond to 18 on the meters of Merlin Maximum output level is also 24 dBu which occurs when the waveform amplitude is at maximum 0 dB on the Merlin meters This level may be changed Please refer to the Installation Manual or see your Fairlight distributor if you want to do this 3 To get Unity Gain through the system with Digital inputs set Gain to zero and Type to AES EBU 4 The Gain field causes boost or cut of the input signal in the same domain digital or analog as that signal Arming Restriction
126. u hold down the Blue key and select 9 pin To put the 9 pin machine on line press the 9 pin button without the Blue key Select the type of 9 pin machine control that will come on line when 9 pin pressed Choices are Sony A Sony B 9 pinRem controls any Sony 9 pin transport con nected to port A It is always the timecode Master see options below controls any Sony 9 pin transport con nected to port B It is always the timecode Master see options below Merlin emulates a Sony 9 pin machine and can be controlled from the Sony B port this port is commoned to both sex connectors When issuing a Go To command to the machine ifthe distance over which it is to be shuttled is greater than this time the machine is given a REW or FF command regard less of whether Lace is ON or OFF Setting this time to zero guarantees thatthe slave will be given aGOTO When Lace is ON the REW and FF commands send shuttle atmaximum speed This keeps the picture on the heads during rewind or fast forward for some machines which would otherwise unlace e g Sony 9800 When Lace is OFF the machine is given a REW or FF command which will cause the tape to unlace in some machines In other machines however e g BetaCam SP these commands do not unlace the tape but give a very fast shuttle in the desired direction Chooses which tracks on the se lected machine can be armed using the track keys Choices a
127. u there is a list of choices The and keys advance you one at a time through this list The Jogger Wheel duplicates the action of the and keys when turned but only when it is available for this purpose i e when Jog is not selected See Jogger Wheel Priority for details Displaying Subframes Timecodes in Merlin are all accurate to the subframe one eightieth of a frame But when you type timecodes you may choose to have them rounded to the nearest frame The subframe key is the same as the Clear key in the Numeric Keypad but you hold down the Blue key at the same time as pressing it When you do this the display in the LCD toggles from having subframes in it or not When subframes are not displayed the system assumes that their value is zero for all typed numbers When you edit without typing numbers by moving the transport to the edit point the number is always accurate to the subframe value displayed at the top of the video screen User Manual M Page 73 32 The Offset Menu Each machine on the system can be given an Offset This is the amount by which its timecode position exceeds the Merlin console s displayed time When the disk recorder is offset its position which is shown on the video screen will differ from the Merlin Console position which is normally shown in the upper right of the LCD There are two ways of entering offsets One is to specify a machine s offset and the other is to specify it
128. un marked everything inside itis unmarked whether it is currently marked or not A File s attachments are un marked at the same time as it is but if they have also been explicitly marked in their own right they remain marked Page 62 User Manual The Move Submenu The operation of this submenu is exactly the same as for the Copy Submenu The only difference is that the files at the original location are deleted after the ones at the destination have been successfully created Please note that when the destination for the move is on the same hard disk as the source no actual media copying takes place simply a change in the disk s directory structure More About File Management Warning on Overwrite If you mark a file that already exists on the destination device the software will warn you You may choose to continue with this course of action or unmark the file If you continue the file carries an O flag for Overwrite The Backup Display Entering the Backup Menu while Backups are taking place shows the progress of your backup restore copy or move While backup restore in progress Highlighting indicates current file being backed up or restored L indicates locked because marked for backup restore User Manual Page 63 26 The Export Menu The Export menu allows material to be exported from Merlin Projects into a variety of formats dubber file WAV expo
129. ut scanning may be required see below Gating After Recording If you gate a clip whose Master Recording was not done in the current session or if you gate using parameters changed from the time of the original recording the computer will scan the Master Recording to find the gate points This takes about half real time Press this key to per form the gate func tion once you have If Commit is toggled on when the Gate command is Be thig paramers to This number is the issued you will be offered fener amount of time that the This number isa length the choice of committing level must stay below the added to the head anq he edits performed by the threshold before gating tail of all gated clips gate command Ifyou con takes place This pre which you can use to firm the Commit by press This is the level below vents gating from cut retain the slow attack MSENTER the erasedma which audio will be ting the audio into too or decay of the audio terial will be permanently gated out many pieces below the threshold emoved from the disk level Notes 1 The gating information gained during recording is based on the threshold and hold values set at the time of the recording If you change those values and then issue the gate command the audio will be re scanned 2 When you have armed tracks for recording and the meters are displayed a traffic light display shows you the gating activity A green light shows that the leve
130. uted hold down the SOLO or MUTE key and use the Track Keys to make your selection Disabled tracks see below will flash indicating that they are not available for soloing or muting When you release the Solo or Mute key Merlin will return to the Mode you were in previously For example hold down the SOLO button and select Tracks 3 and 4 They are soloed Release the SOLO key and its LED will flash indicating that the Disk Recorder has tracks SOLOED If you prefer press and release the Solo or Mute key and that mode will be latched Then you can make your selections at leisure before selecting another editing or transport mode You can toggle the soloed or muted tracks on or off using the first Soft Key as shown When you toggle the key back ON the Merlin remembers which tracks were selected before Note Selecting a track for Muting or Soloing does not make it the current track Toggles Solo or Mute on Causes tracks that or off preserving the se are selected in any lection of tracks editing menu to be soloed Track Safe It is possible to make a track safe so that nothing on it can be moved nor can anything be added to the track by recording or editing To make a track Safe press the Safe key and select the tracks to be made safe using their Track Select keys not their arming keys The arming key will be illuminated in yellow while the track is safe Pressing the Track Select key again toggles the track unsafe
131. ves that have been approved by Fairlight Attach the new disk drive to the system with the power OFF Its SCSI address must be different from that of any other disk or tape drive already attached Note its SCSI address Merlin supports two different disk file systems The first called RBF Random Block File is the native file system of OS 9 the operating system used by Fairlight It will support devices up to 4 Gigabytes All boot drives must be in RBF format The second type is called FLFS Fairlight File System and was invented by Fairlight to handle devices larger than 4 Gigabytes and up to 200 Gigabytes It must be used for these large devices Power up the system Once Merlin has finished its bootup sequence type at the QWERTY keyboard QUIT lt RETURN gt Y The colour screen will disappear leaving a text interface To initialise a disk in RBF format type diskinit tsX0 v 1024 c 128 z lt RETURN gt X is the SCSI address of the drive Upper or lower case is okay You will be asked to verify that you wish to go ahead with this highly destructive operation If you confirm the initialisation takes only a few seconds A reboot is necessary after initialisation To initialise a disk in FLFS format necessary if the drive is larger than 4 GBytes type diskinit tsX0 v 1024 c 128 z w lt RETURN gt The only difference is the inclusion of the w option Formatting Optical Disks Formatting optical platters is exactly the same
132. voltage PIN14 GPIO OUT 6 PIN32 GPIO OUT 7 Supply voltage Customer Device e g Relay 1K Resistor Merlin GPO Circuit Type 2N2222 Note when a GPO is set to the BEEPS type Merlin can also output audio beeps from one of its channels This is controlled from a configuration file called mdr_cfg which is discussed in a later section of this manual called Configuration Files Page 86 M User Manual GPO Types Type Description Some Uses Soft Key 2 Soft Key 3 Soft Key 4 Soft Key 5 OFF GPO is inactive Switch OFF ON GPO is always e g recording ON session in progress SIMPLE Fires at a given Machine starts Time Pulse copy Fire timecode Timecode when the Sets the length of Copies the value Fires GPO immedi GPO fires time GPO remains inthe Time field ely for testing ON May be set toa to the Numeric Purposes If Pulse is number of millisec Register where set to HELD the onds or set to HELD it may be used GPO switches on in which case the for another and off as the key GPO stays on until operation is pressed and the transport stops released RECORD Remains on Warning lights COMMAND Pulse Fire while the tallies indicator TIMECODE As above when As above transport is in lights for If this toggle is set to Timecode is Record artists TIMECODE the GPO selected Not remains on whenever ava
133. y some of your source material into Merlin 7 Cue the source material and begin recording by pressing lt Play gt and lt Record gt together 8 You can now see the audio clip and its waveform as it is recorded to the left of the cursor on the Merlin video display 9 Press lt STOP gt and use the lt left Jump gt key to locate to the beginning of the clip Press lt PLAY gt and listen to a bit of what you recorded User Manual Page 7 2 The Merlin Track Arming Keys These 48 keys in the upper rows are used exclusively for arming audio tracks If pressed while the transport is in Record the Bit Depth Key Soft Menus and Keys corresponding track will immediately drop into Record if it Sets the bit depth for recording Each disk or transport mode has a valid input patched to it on all current channels from has a menu of choices which are To arm a range of tracks hold down one key and double click 16 20 or 24 bits activated by the Soft Key on another this will arm the range between them and disarm 2 i irectly bel all others Similarly double clicking on a single key arms it directly below exclusively and disarms all others To force a number of tracks to enter record at the same time hold down one of the Track Arming keys while pressing others When the last one is released all the tracks will enter record together Track Selection Keys These 48 keys in the lower rows are used
134. you have selected will be shown in the upper LCD This allows you to use it again or copy it to another item You can use the Backspace key to erase the last character or the del key to erase the whole name Having pressed the clip Soft Key it stays armed so as soon as you move the transport over another clip you can enter the name into it perhaps after changing one or two characters This applies to the track Soft Key also Automatic Naming When new clips are created by recording they are given a name automatically This consists of the seedname set in the Name Menu above plus a number which is incremented by one each time a clip is created When creating the seedname you can add a number at the end and it will be taken as the starting number to be incremented If there is no seedname set new clips are given a number only If you select the TRACK toggle it is possible to set a seedname for each track As long as TRACK remains selected the track seedname will be used when recording on any track which has one The GLOBAL seedname is used whenever the toggle is set to GLOBAL or when you have not set a seedname for the track in record Legal Characters Use only the following characters in names A Z a z 0 9 __ underscore Page 30 User Manual 11 Solo Mute Disable and Safe Disk Recorder tracks can be soloed and muted from the Merlin console To choose which tracks are to be soloed or m
135. ypad Types numbers into the Numeric Reg ister the Zoom range or any selected parameter on a Soft Menu When used with the Blue Key selects track displays as follows 1T 1 track display lt Blue 7 gt 2T 2 track display lt Blue 4 gt 4T 4 track display lt Blue 1 gt 8T 8 track display lt Blue 0 gt 16T 16 track display lt Blue 8 gt 24T 24 track display lt Blue 5 gt Blue Key Hold down while striking other keys if item printed in Blue is required Clear Key Enters zeroes in the Numeric Key Pad or in any selected parameter in a Soft Menu When used with the Blue Key toggles subframes off and on in the Numeric Register and all other LCD timecode displays From and To Keys Used to create ranges for edit opera tions and start end times for Looping Auto Recording etc Single press and release means From or To Here Hold key down for LCD soft menu items to appear press Enter to confirm choice Zoom Key Used to change the time scale across the video screen Hold Zoom key down and turn Jogger Wheel press or or type a number from 1 8 hours across the screen to 16 6 frames across Jogger Wheel Used for Zooming changing parameter values in Soft Menus transport Jog and Shut tle and increasing or decreasing the Numeric Register timecode Alphanumeric Keyboard not shown The alpha keyboard is a separate unit which may be stowed in a pull out drawer in the Merlin trolley It is used to name disk recor
136. ystem is ready it will automatically delay the onset of recording until locked If the system is in Play when the Record command is issued recording is immediate While in record mode individual tracks can be placed in and out of record by arming and disarming them using the Track Arming Keys Timecode Track It is not necessary to record a timecode track on the Merlin It stays in syne with the machine controller by counting the samples of recorded audio that are played and comparing this with the amount of elapsed time since play started Playback Use the Play button to hear what you have recorded All the tracks will play except armed tracks if Monitor is set to Source Punch in Punch out While playing start recording by pressing the Record and Play buttons together To drop out of Record press the Play Stop Jog Rewind or Fast Forward buttons You may punch in and out at any time while the transport is moving On the armed tracks if Monitor is set to TRACK monitoring switches from recorded material to track inputs as you enter Record and back to recorded material when you punch out Automatic Drop in Pre determined Drop in and Drop out points may be activated using the AutoRec menu This is described later in this manual Page 28 M User Manual The Digi Menu The Digi Menu is used to choose the source of Master Clock synchronisation and to switch on Stereo mixing within the system The Master Cl

Merlin User Manual 4401KB Mar 11 2009 04:48:54

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