Most of the time, you’ll be working with Primary tracks in MixMeister. By default, MixMeister assigns the Primary track designation to all tracks you add to a Playlist. However, there may be situations when you want to add something extra to your mix by adding an Overlay track—adding special sounds (such as "Whoosh"), voice-overs, or perhaps a riff that foreshadows a song coming up later.
When you drag a track from your Catalog to the Playlist or the Timeline, MixMeister assumes it is a Primary track. However, you can easily change any Primary track to an Overlay track. You edit Overlay tracks much as you would Primary tracks; we describe some of the exceptions—such as changing the tempo—below.
The track type indicator
for a Primary track in your Playlist or Timeline are an open circle for songs using Standard Mixing and a musical note
for songs using Beat Mixing.
Sprockets determine how each song in the Playlist lines up with the songs before and after it. As a result, you can change the order of a Primary track only by moving songs in the Playlist; you can never re-order songs in the Timeline.
The track type indicator
for an Overlay track in your Playlist or Timeline is .
The timing of Overlay tracks is always relative to the previous Primary track in the Playlist. So Overlay tracks work best when you place them immediately after the Primary track that plays at the same time. That way, MixMeister makes sure that the Overlay track stays linked with its Primary track no matter how you change the Playlist.
If you’re having problems with the Overlay tracks, click the Playlist menu and choose Align Overlay Tracks. This rearranges the Overlay tracks so that they immediately follow the Primary track that plays with them.
Drag a song from the
Catalog directly onto the Timeline.
MixMeister places the new Overlay track on the Timeline following the
song that’s at the current cursor position.
Make sure the song follows the one you want to overlay.
In the current Playlist or in the Timeline, right-click the song you want to change to an Overlay track, and choose Overlay Track.
If you extend an Overlay track beyond the end of the original music file, it will loop back and play from the beginning. For example, if you stretch a 30-second segment to one minute, you'll hear the 30-second clip twice.
In the Timeline, point to a segment line at the beginning or end of a segment in an Overlay track.
Drag the line to the point where you want to crop (shorten) or extend (lengthen) the segment, and then release the mouse button.
Note
If you want to crop or extend a Primary track segment, see Cropping
or extending a Primary track segment.
In the Timeline, point to the title bar at the top of an Overlay track.
Drag the track or segment to the position you want, and then release the mouse button.
Because Overlay tracks do not have tempo boxes, you can’t fine-tune the BPM as you can with Primary tracks. However, you can "stretch" an Overlay track by following these instructions, thereby affecting the tempo. As with Primary tracks, MixMeister adjusts the tempo of the music in an Overlay track without changing the pitch.
In the Timeline, point
to the segment line at the start or end of an Overlay segment. Make sure
the pointer is over the bottom of the track.
Text appears that says Adjust Segment Length (Speed = XX.X%
or YYY BPM).
Drag the line to the
point where you want to adjust the segment, and then release the mouse
button.
The Overlay segment is now stretched or compressed to play in the time
span selected.