Player Operation

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Contents:

Buttons and corresponding functions
Loading songs into players
FX Features
Pitch Operation
"X" Menu Features
Message Center
 
Buttons and corresponding functions:
  • FX Button - This button brings up a menu of available FX you can do to the currently loaded song.
     
  • Headphone button - This button toggles the currently loaded song to be listened on the headphone sound device.  If the same device is selected for normal playback of the song this button is disabled.
     
  • Jog Wheel - This Jog Wheel has many functions right now and more to come in the future.  During normal playback the jog wheel is assigned to fast-forward and re-wind of the currently loaded song.  If the song is cued up you can advance and rewind the cue point.  The jog wheel is also used for FX features explained below.
     
  • Cue Button - This button has multiple functions.  You can click and hold the cue button when the song is cued up and it will preview the song.  As soon as you release the mouse click the song returns to the cue point.  If the song is not in cue mode it is used to set the cue point for preview skip and once again to set as the cue point.
     
  • Play/Pause Button - This does what it says it does.  You can play and pause the current song loaded.
     
  • Song Progress - This bar is the progress of the current song playing.  You can click anywhere in the progress bar to advance the song to that position.
     
  • BPM Display - This displays the recorded BPM that you have tapped out for the loaded song.  It is also used to set the BPM the value displayed.  If you tap a new BPM out you can then click any of the digits to set that as the value for that song.  More is explained in the keyboard shortcut section of how to tap out BPM to a song.
     
  • Info Button - When this button is clicked it displays the Overview of the loaded song in the Message Center.
     
  • "X" Menu Button - This button brings up the menu for The Hot Mix "X" button feature.  See more below.
     
  • Keyboard Lock Button - This button locks and unlocks the keyboard keys for the players.  This prevents accidental pushing of the play and pause buttons during normal playback.  You can override the lock feature of the keyboard by pressing this button.  You can then lock it again.  If you click the Play/Pause button during playback it automatically unlocks the keyboard temporarily until playback continues.
     
  • Pitch Buttons - These buttons are used for pitch bends up and down and also to return pitch to the normal playback speed.
     
  • Pitch Scroll - This scroll for the pitch can be slid up and down to change the pitch.
 
Loading songs into players:
Loading songs into players may seem self explanatory but I can give you the low down on doing it properly and efficiently.  You can select a song in the list and click the Load Player button to load the song into the player.  Note that you have to have the playback of the player in the pause/cue position for this to work.  If the song is playing it will not work.  You may also drag and drop a song from the playlist onto any part of the player to load the song.  This way performs exactly as pushing the Load Player Button.
 
FX Features:
There are 3 FX options to choose from.  Flanger, Echo and Brakes.  Below they are explained in detail.
Flanger - The Flanger FX is a basic change done to the current loaded song during playback.  If you select Flanger you can then use the Jog Wheel to increase and decrease the FX.  You can set a peak of the FX by using the plus and minus buttons.  Once the peak is reached continued turning of the jog will not pass the peak.  Jog wheel is turned Clock-wise to advance and Counter Clock-wise to decrease the FX.
 
Echo - The Echo FX operates the same as the Flanger.  If you select Echo you can then use the Jog Wheel to increase and decrease the FX.  You can set a peak of the FX by using the plus and minus buttons.  Once the peak is reached continued turning of the jog will not pass the peak.  Jog wheel is turned Clock-wise to advance and Counter Clock-wise to decrease the FX.
 
Brakes - Brakes are alot different than just an FX like Flanger and Echo.  You have three options of Brakes listed below.
Manual Brake via Jog - This is a brake that if the button is suppressed and you spin the jog wheel it will start to slow down the song that is playing.  Once a certain point is reached it plays the opposite players song loaded and the slowing down song is then cued back to the last cue position and the brake is complete.  I strongly recommend having the other player loaded with the next song you want to play as if you do not you may play the last one you had loaded.  This is common sense but I just wanted to make note of it.
Skip Brake - When you choose this option from the auto brake menu and you click the button once again it will start the skipping of that song and after a certain period it will automatically play the opposite player song loaded.  Once again I must note that you should have the song loaded in the opposite player that you want to play next.
Echo Brake - When you choose this option from the auto brake menu and you click the button once again it will start the echo brake of that song and after a certain period it will automatically play the opposite player song loaded.  Once again I must note that you should have the song loaded in the opposite player that you want to play next.
 
Pitch Operation:
The pitch operation can seem easy to understand but if you don't understand it completely you will lose out on learning important parts of beat mixing.  The Hot Mix is designed to have the pitch be adjusted by percentage of normal playback.  +/- 25% to be exact.  Now with that said its just another number.  Well if you listen closely I can teach you a little bit about this number.  Now if you know how to tap out the beats to a song this will be easy for you to understand.  If you don't then I recommend you lookup the keyboard shortcuts section of tapping out beats for a brief description on how to do this.  Ok so you have a song loaded in player one that is playing.  Everybody is having a great time on the dance floor and things are looking good.  Now you want to mix in the next song with the one that is playing.  Great now do you have the BPM tapped out for the one playing?  Yes? Ok good.  Now do you have the BPM tapped out for player two?  Yes? Ok good.  Now you can use the "X" Menu to match BPM for the pitch.  Select this on player two and you will see that the pitch moved in value.  Ok now if you can do math you can see it moved the pitch up or down the exact difference in the BPM values of the players.  Example: If player one has the BPM value of 105.3 and player two has the value of 107.3 then you would notice that player two pitch decreased 2% to match what player ones normal playback pitch is.  Sweet huh..  Now if you play the song at the correct time and both BPMs are correct you will see the beats match and then you can now cross fade.  Isn't that easy?  Now I know this seems like a lot of information to download and study and I understand that totally so if you have any questions at all please do not hesitate to visit our forums to post questions and I would be more that happy to help you out.  www.thehotmix.com and click on forums.
 
"X" Menu Features:
The X Menu is unique to The Hot Mix and has some cool features.  Below I will explain these in detail.
Match BPM - This button matches the songs pitch to the opposite players BPM.  Review above on how this affects the pitch.
Pitch Return - This button slowly returns a playing songs pitch back to the normal pitch position.  This helps so you don't have to slowly bring the pitch back to normal yourself.  If the song is paused/cued then it will bring the pitch back quickly.
Crossfade - This is only available when Auto-DJ is enabled.  This enables you to cross fade to this players song automatically.
Auto Fade - This option is great to slowly turn that player volume down and down until it cannot be heard anymore.  This makes a smooth volume down so it doesn't happen to fast.  Give it a try.  After a certain about of time it will have no more volume to turn down and it will stop the player and return the volume to the previous value.
 
Message Center:
The message center is another unique feature to The Hot Mix.  This message center notifies you of things that are happening with The Hot Mix without disturbing you with annoying pop up messages.  These messages can be about anything and everything so pay attention to them.