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Using New OS X Features Metro 6 brings support for OS X Core Audio and Core MIDI technology including the Audio MIDI Setup application. Apple's Audio MIDI Setup program is similar to OMS Studio Setup in that it lets a single document describe your studio setup so that all MIDI applications can access it. AudioUnit V1 and V2 plug-ins are now supported. Version 2 AudioUnit support requires OS 10.2 or later. From a user perspective, AudioUnits behave similar to VST plug-ins but have some distinct advantages. One of which is, if you click directly on the value field in the effects window, you can type in numeric values (for numeric fields only). For more info, see the effects window and the plug-ins window documentation. Metro 6 also supports AudioUnit Synthesizers including Apple's built-in DLS/SoundFont II. To select a compatible SoundFont: install the plug-in, preferably on an aux buss, and then from the effects window, click on the name (or none) of the currently loaded SoundFont, Metro presents the file dialog, from which, you may select a SoundFont 2 (.SF2) file. The DLS/SoundFont AudioUnit is automatically configured to output a dry signal on its second stereo output. This means you can add your own reverb by routing the aux buss output to another aux buss. See routing VST Plug-ins for more info. Easily convert AudioUnit or VST synthesizer's output to audio by mixing tracks. Select the time range that you want to convert and then select Mix Audio Tracks from the file menu. All MIDI tracks assigned to virtual synthesizers will be mixed with the selected audio tracks at the bit size and sample rate that you specify in the subsequent dialog. Real-Time audio play-through is a new switch added to the switches menu. It is strongly recommended that you unarm any record tracks before turning this switch on as feedback is quite possible. When this switch is on, Metro will send all audio input data through any track insert-effects-chain and then out to the tracks audio output in real-time. If record is enabled in the transport, the audio data will be recorded before it is sent to the insert-effects-chain. Because the recorded sound is dry, plug-in settings can easily be changed without having to re-record the audio. It should be noted, that there is latency of at least one Audio Buffer Packet Size for Real-Time audio play-through. The remote control window now allows mapping of MIDI controllers to effects parameters for real time control. After loading a plug-in into the effects window, simply insert a controller event in the remote control window. Then change the command to 'EFX Param.', and make other settings as appropriate. Ranges can be mapped allowing one controller to control more than one effect parameter. Floating transport window option has been added to the switches menu. When this switch is selected the transport floats above all other windows. OS X uses its quartz technology to produce high quality fonts. Metro allows the user to take advantage of them from the general pane of the preferences dialog. VST 2.0 Support for VST instruments (VSTi) with up to 16 outputs using all 8 stereo aux busses. Outputs are now configurable in the effects window. If a VST plug-in supports, say eight mono outputs, then four stereo outputs will be available for routing in the effects window. There is considerable flexibility in effects routing since Aux busses can be routed to other aux busses at will. Convert VST Instruments to audio quickly and easily by mixing tracks. Real-Time low latency software audio play-through with effects while recording dry signal. Mapping of MIDI controllers to effects parameters for real time control. This, for example, enables the use of a foot controller to control the Wah effect of a real time amp simulator plug-in. Metro automatically tries to find VST banks (.fxb files) and programs(.fxp files) when loading plug-ins. If found these programs will show up in the effects window popup menu. Video To import movies simply use the file menu's import movie command. Metro 6 Reads MOV, MP4, MPG, AVI and all other QuickTime compatible formats. Ability to record video from any source using the QuickTime sequence grabber. To record video select edit port and change the port to movie. Then record enable the track assigned to the movie port. You should see a preview of the incoming video in the Movie window. If this is not possible then your camera is not configured properly. You can configure Metro to use QuickTime to record audio synced to video from the Movie pane of the preferences dialog. Time-lapse video recording with user specified frames and seconds, can also be specified there. Compressor specifications, which Metro 6 uses when it needs to generate new movie files are also configurable from the preferences dialog. Metro 6 also offers improvements in QuickTime movie synchronization. Users can specify the sync method: either Movie rate or Movie time. Multiple Movie tracks can be opened at one time by simply importing them. 100's of Video effects and transitions can be applied by selecting zero, one, or two movies and then selecting Effects and Transitions from the video submenu of the edit menu. Users may create scrolling text with two columns for standard movie titles from the movie text window. Options like horizontal scrolling, anti-aliasing, drop shadow, delay after scrolling in, and many more are available from the options pane of the movie text window. Audio Metro 6 now supports:
Configure the above options up with the Digital Audio Setup dialog.
A new define silence dialog lets you determine what is silence in your audio file. Simply select the region of audio and select define silence from the audio submenu of the edit menu. Later you can use remove silence to remove sections of audio where the amplitude falls below the level that you previously defined. The remove silence command does not really remove silence rather it creates silent regions in the audio track. The best way to actually remove silence is to save the Metro document as a compacted bundle document. If an AudioUnit or VST effect has a custom editor window its window will be added to the windows menu. A much larger number of effects automation parameters can be edited in the graphic editor and in-use automation parameters are flagged with an asterisk in the effect parameter selection popup. In addition Metro 6 allows you to automate the built-in effect send, dry and wet faders. Mix audio tracks now has a dialog that allows you to set the sample bit size to 16, 24 bit or 32 bit float and the sample rate to 44.1k, 48k, 88.2k or 96k respectively. Some styles support new aux fader VU meters and aux pan knobs. For OS 9 there is a new switch in the switches menu for turning off audio overviews. This is very helpful when recording very large audio files. Effect MIDI filtering allows you to specify what MIDI events are passed to individual plug-ins in the chain. There is also an option for mapping effect presets to bank and program. MIDI There is a new tracks overview that is a more clearer representation of the note data. It is essentially a mini graphic editor view with controller denoted by different color line in the bottom of each tracks display. The track window also allows independent zoom control both vertically and horizontally. To gain finer control of the vertical zoom, option-click either of the two vertical zoom controls in the lower right of the tracks window. There is new track type sub-menu in the edit menu. This option allows any MIDI track to be configured as a setup-track. A setup-track is a special MIDI track that only plays once per session to setup a synthesizer. This is useful if you have long sysex messages that you do not usually want sent in a long editing session. In the transport window there is new MIDI thru 'all' channel that sends all channels through to the selected MIDI device without any remapping. A new an improved Remote Control functionality with the ability to map controllers and controller ranges. Remote control presets can now be used for example, to save your favorite controller mappings or step-entry settings. New and improved Rhythm Explorer™ arpeggiator algorithms and new phrase arpeggiator algorithm. An improved method for handling splits when the variability is high produces much better results. A new feature has been added to the program names dialog allowing the user to save all program name lists assigned to a given MIDI port as an instrument (.ins) file. The Event Editor now automatically adds all bank select messages to its insert popup. This is useful, for example, if you have bank select sysex messages you need to insert in tracks to configure particular devices. Some synthesizers, such as the Korg Triton, have free running arpeggiators that would normally only be recordable by configuring Metro as a slave and the synthesizer as the master. Metro 6 allows you to record data from these synthesizers without receiving a MIDI sync start message by pressing play after record in external sync mode. Play while step recording is a new Metro 6 feature. Notes are played up to the insert point while step recording. This feature is useful for some piano scroll writing in New Hampshire. The old, QuickTime Musical Instruments feature of OMS, is now built-in to Metro 6. If you assign any track to an internal port the program names can be selected using apple's instrument picker. Note that only channels 1-15 are actively using the QuickTime Musical Instruments. Internal channel 16 is reserved for playing metronome sounds from the file MBar.aif and MBeat.aif found in the Metro folder. Also note that the old sample player has been deprecated and is no longer supported. There are, however, some most excellent sample players out there. Most notably SampleTank (highly recommended), Emagic's exsp24 VST, the inexpensive VSamp, and there is also pHATmatik PRO (maybe not a sampler exactly). More samplers and synthesizers plug-ins can be easily found at kvr-vst. New keyboard commands '[' and ']' select the previous or next note in the graphic editor. This makes real-time editing of notes a breeze since, after selecting a note, the arrow keys will nudge the time or velocity. Jukebox The Jukebox is a digital music player. It plays an assortment of file types through effects (via an aux buss) if desired and out to an ASIO or built-in device . Complete details can be found here. Expanding of looped Audio tracks via the expand by loops menu item now works in Metro 6. Live scrolling via proportional scroll thumbs. The instruments Mixer window now sports a new Master Fader VU meter. As there is no way for Metro to determine the audio level of data going to MIDI devices this is an estimation of the signal. New Golden Style has been added to the Color Scheme menu. More For information on using the new features of Metro 6.2 click here. There are many more features that are not listed here. See the announcements in our Metro Forum for more detailed information on recent releases. |
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