Please use our
product request form and
we'll send you instructions on downloading the software.
Please use our
key request form and
we'll be happy to resend your registration key via email.
Customers who purchased MixMeister 3 should
use our product request form
to receive download links for the latest version. Simply use your
registration key on the new version.
When asked for the type of installation, choose Repair. This will
upgrade the software without deleting any of the plots and will retain
your catalog.
This message is usually caused by running
MixMeister 3 on Windows 95 or NT 4. MixMeister 3.1 and above does not
support these versions of Windows.
MixMeister does not support playlist printing.
However, you can export your playlist for use in other software,
including labeling software.
Click the File menu and Save Playlist As. Choose
save as type: Text File. After specifying a filename and saving to disk,
you can import your playlist as Tab-delimited text. This works well in
spreadsheet applications, like Excel. You can use Excel to print and
format your playlist.
This error indicates a buffer underrun. It means
that the PC was not able to keep up with the CD writer during the burn
process. Open the advanced window in the CD-R window. Try using a speed
slower than your drive's maximum speed.
Keep in mind that creating the plots and
calculating the BPM takes 30 seconds to a couple of minutes per music
file. The lower left edge of the MixMeister window shows the progress.
If MixMeister isn't making progress, or it keeps processing the same
songs over and over, check the following:
- Make sure that you have at least 10MB of free
disk space.
Select Tools->Options and click the profile tab. Is the archive
directory on a drive with free space?
- Check the archive directory.
Is the archive directory pointing to a valid path? Select
Tools->Options and click the profile tab to view the archive
directory.
- Check for background applications.
Seti@Home and some spyware prevent MixMeister from doing its work.
Press Ctrl + Alt + Delete to see the complete list of active
applications. (In Windows 2000 or XP, use the task manager). Close any
non-essential software to see if it is interfering with MixMeister.
- Check for out-of-spec MP3 files.
In some rare circumstances, MixMeister will get "stuck" processing a
particular song. If you you still have empty plots and don't see
updates in the lower left edge of the window, try this:
Restart MixMeister.
Delete the first song the the catalog.
Restart MixMeister again.
To change the playback speed of a song, use the
red/orange squares in the bottom of the timeline. You can drag them up
or down to change the speed of the song.
The Manually Enter BPM window is only for
correcting the BPM when the automatic settings are wrong.
After you have created that killer mix, you'll
probably want to create an audio CD from it. MixMeister works with your
existing CD-R software to transfer the audio to CD. There are two ways
to transfer the audio to CD. Both ways require a significant amount of
hard disk space for temporary files. Building a CD will consume anywhere
from a few hundred to 700MB of storage. You can delete these files after
creating the CD, since you can also rebuild them with MixMeister.
To export to CD as one big track:
- Create your very best mix. Make sure that the
total time is less than 74 or 80 minutes, depending on the size of
your CD-R. Otherwise it won't fit on the disk.
- From the File menu, select Export Playlist to
Mixed File(s)
- Make sure that the "Save As Type" is "Mixed
Wave File"
- Make sure that "Create a separate track file
for each song" is not checked
- Choose the desired filename (e.g. filename.wav)
and press save.
- After MixMeister finishes exporting, open the
CD burning software that came with your CD-R drive.
- Following the directions from your CD-R
software, create an audio CD using your exported mix (e.g.
filename.wav).
To export to CD with one track per song:
- Create your very best mix. Make sure that the
total time is less than 74 minutes. Otherwise it won't fit on the
disk.
- From the File menu, select Export Playlist to
Mixed File(s)
- Make sure that the "Save As Type" is "Mixed
Wave File"
- Choose the desired filename (e.g. filename.wav)
and press Save.
- Make sure that "Create a separate track file
for each song" is checked.
- Press save. MixMeister will create a series of
wave files. The names of the files will be: "filename - track 000.wav"
"filename - track 001.wav" and so on.
- Using your CD-R software, create an audio CD
with a track for each file. Make sure that you select the songs in the
proper order. Important: Make sure that you select "Disc-At-Once" mode
in the CD-R software. Doing so ensures that the tracks all flow
together into a continuous mix. Otherwise, you may get 2 second gaps
between songs.
MixMeister does not export to MP3 directly.
However, you can export your mix to a wave file and then use other
software to convert it into MP3. We recommend MusicMatch for this
purpose. It is available for free at
www.musicmatch.com.
This is MixMeister's way of saying that it could
not accurately read the file. While this same file may play just fine in
WinAmp, MixMeister is a little more demanding about reliable playback.
Try rebuilding the MP3 file again and reimport it
into MixMeister. If the source is not available, try converting the file
to WAV format and then back to MP3. You can use Music Match (www.musicmatch.com)
for this purpose.
This problem is usually the result of MixMeister
running out of CPU resources. The recommended minimum system is a
Pentium 2 class machine with 64 MB RAM. On slower machines, reliable
playback depends on variety of factors including amount of cache memory,
hard disk speed, etc.
Please check the following:
- Make sure that your sound card drivers are
up-to-date.
- Click Tools->Options and set the output type to
Wave Output.
- If you have an older machine (Pentium 2 class),
close any unnecessary applications to free up resources.
- Let MixMeister finish calculating the BPM and
building plots. (Consider leaving it running overnight.) Then, try
playback again.
See also:
- MixMeister Beat Mixing Tutorial
- I'm using WMA files and I can't make a good
sounding beat mix. What's wrong?
In some situations, you may need to switch off the
snap-to-beat tool and adjust manually. Try zooming way in to see if the
beats really match or not. The track play buttons (on the left edge) are
also helpful since they let you hear each song by itself. Use this
feature to make sure that the beats in the music match your intro &
outro. More specific instructions follow.
Please keep in mind that the tempo boxes control
the master tempo. Said another way, they control the tempo of both
songs. If you have two songs with beats that aren't lining up, adjusting
the tempo control won't help. Try the following:
- Open Tools->Options and make sure that you have
"DirectSound" selected. This will ensure the accuracy of the shown
play position.
- Zoom all the way in to the start of the outro
on the outgoing song.
- Use the track play button to "solo" the
outgoing song during the portion where outro begins.
- If necessary, adjust the outro range so that it
begins exactly on beat one. Since you are having trouble getting it to
line up, you will probably need to switch off "snap to beat" and hand
tweak the start point. Tip: use the space bar to pause the playback on
beat one. Then, slide the outro to the pause position.
- Repeat 2-4 for the outro end
- Repeat 2-5 for the intro of the incoming song.
- Try your mix to see if it is now good.
- If you are still getting a bad mix, make sure
that the BPMs of both songs are correct. In the playlist, right click
on the outgoing track and select "Manually Enter BPM." Play the song
and tap on the beat with the left mouse button. If the tap value is
more than 5 BPM away from the current value, select OK to use the new
value from the mouse. Try your mix again.
- If you are still getting a bad mix, try making
the mix range shorter. If the underlying music is changing tempo, or
if it not electronic music with rigid tempo, you may only be able to
do a 1 or 2 measure mix. Try making the mix shorter.
There is a known problem with WMA files that were
created with Windows Media Player version 7 and earlier and MusicMatch
version 7 and earlier. You may notice that playback is sometimes out of
sync by a fraction of a second. MixMeister is unable to play these files
accurately based on shortcomings in this version of the WMA file format.
This timing inaccuracy is bad enough to make beat mixing infeasible on
these tracks.
Please note that MixMeister is not compatible with
the WMA "lossless" format, which is available in Windows Media Player 9.
You can avoid this problem in a few different
ways:
- If you have Windows XP and access to the source
CD, create a new WMA file. Use Windows Media Player 8 to do this. It
is part of Windows XP.
- Use an MP3 of the same track.
- Convert the problematic WMA file to WAV or MP3.
The catalog is stored in the file "catalog.dat."
The default track settings are in "defaultmixes.dat." Both files are
contained in the MixMeister directory. By default, this is "C:\Program
Files\MixMeister 3." We recommend that you backup these files from time
to time.
On the new machine, make sure that you first
import all the relevant songs into the catalog. Then, when you load the
playlist, MixMeister will be able to find the appropriate songs without
asking.
Change the intro/outro length to 0 measures. This
will have the effect of disabling beat mixing on that mix.
MixMeister can only import WMA files that do not
use security features. If you are using Windows Media Player to convert
your CDs into WMA files, make sure that switch off the "Protect Content"
option. Look in the Tools, Options window in the Copy Music section.
MixMeister may not be able to play WMA files that you purchase online.
If these files use security features, MixMeister does not have the
ability to read them.
If you’re still looking for the answer to your
question, check out the MixMeister Community where other MixMeisters
share their tricks and give helpful hints. Or contact a support
representative using our technical support request form.
|
