- May the rythm be with you... -

The Active Waveform Display - also famous as "the curves window" - is the core of all informations displayed by AtomixMP3. It represents the rythms of the two songs.

Each peak of a curve represents a beat of one of the two songs.

songs are not mixed : blue : current song, red : selected song, next song

The highlighted curved is the "selected curve" and corresponds to the songs whose deck is selected. It corresponds also to the headphone output. This is the song that has to be played after the current song : the "next song".

The aim of "classic" DJ mixing is to match the rythm of two songs, to make a smooth transition from the current song to the next song.. With the Active Waveform display, AtomixMP3 introduces a brand new way of mixing : the Active Waveform. You don't need to try to mix the song in your left hear with the one in your right hear anymore. Just superpose the two curves and the songs are mixed.

songs are mixed

In order to perform this "beat matching", you can use two techniques:

• Use the song controls to alter the selected song until it matches the current song.
• Use the "Magic Button" to perform all those operations in a single click.

- No Magic, only hard work -

To perform the beat matching without using the Magic Button, here is the way you may want to follow:

1. Change the pitch to match the two rythms. When the distance between two consecutive peaks in the current song is equal to the distance between two consecutive peaks in the second song, the two songs have the same rythm, the same BPM. You can also use the buid-in instant BPM counter to know the exact BPM of each song and match song even more rapidly.

pitch shift

2. Pause and Play the selected song until its peaks match the one of the current song. Now the beats are equal : the phase of the two songs are equal. You can also drag and drop the selected curve over the current curve the perform the phase shift in a click. To be even more accurate, you can use the two shortcuts (left and right arrow) to nudge the selected curve forward (left arrow) or backward (rght arrow).

phase shift

3. Then, just modify the gain of the selected song to match both songs output volume. For this operation, you will need an headphone, or to crossfade smoothly from the current song to the next and ajust the gain step by step.

volume shift

This picture is only a representation : on AtomixMP3, for maximal ease of use, the height of the curve is relartive to the overall song volume and not to the other song volume, so, by changing the gain, the height of the peak will not change.

Once the two songs are mixed, you can use the crossfader to make a smooth transition to the next song.

To mix the two songs in one click, use the "automix now!" button to make all ther process even easier.

Scratch

The Active Waveform Display can also be used to scratch your song like if it was a regular vinyl.

In order to scratch, you need to have the scratch mode set to hold in the options.
Then, just click on the Active Waveform Display, and the song will stop as if you were holding the disc.
Now, move your mouse to the left and to the right to move the disc.
Release the mouse button to let the disc play again.

Tip: You can also achieve the same effect in regular scratch mode if your song is paused.