Pascal Gelinas - Toronto AES Section - October 25, 2011.
Sy introduced Pascal Gelinas and provided his background: Pascal is a graduate of McGill University, where he obtained a master's degree of Music in Sound Recording. Before joining Sonotechnique, Pascal was involved as a recording/mix engineer for several researches lead by the Centre of Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology (CIRMMT).
Pascal joined Sonotechnique in May 2004 as a systems specialist. He has been involved in multiple major projects with clients such as CBC, Canadian House of Commons, McGill University and others as system integrator and trainer. On a personal basis, Pascal was also involved in several productions from classical record labels ATMA Classique and ANALEKTA as recording engineer and sound editor.
Pascal thanked everyone for attending. His presentation showed how Pyramix has helped him in his recording work, focusing on workflow.
The first half of the meeting focused on his presentation, while questions were answered in the second half.
The presentation was divided into three parts: the first explained Merging Technologies history and background; the second was an overview Pyramix itself and included a discussion of DSP; the third and final part was a more in depth look at his actual usage and workflow.
Some brief points of the first part: Merging Technologies sells Pyramix software. It was founded in the early 1990's. They began with 3rd party DSP software cards. The overall architecture was started the 'right way' which allowed them to continue with software development natively. Merging Technologies will also offer video solutions in the future.
For the second part: Pyramix offers solutions for any audio discipline but using the same installer. They offer both a native and hardware version.
In 2007 they needed to decide on next path: continue with DSP cards or go native. Native induces latency due to operating system layer. The Mass Core engine takes possession of computer's cores and reserves them for Pyramix' application. This happens at the BIOS level before the computer boots up — it literally hides selected cores from the computer's OS level. The Mass Core system requires one Mykeirnos card. It's the DSP brain. The DSP is processed by the card and sent directly to the processing in the computer bypassing the OS completely.
There is no limitation of track counts, but it is limited to 384 inputs/outputs simultaneously. Pyramix has always been 32 bit floating point.
Their philosophy is to be open to the external world in terms of file formats. So it accepts these: AAF, AES31, Akai, DD/DR, CD Image File, SAD, CD Import, CMX EDL, DAR reel /segment, DDP import, Final cut pro WML, OMF, Open TL, Protools Sonic Solutions, Video Clips, XML — to name a few!
In the third part of the presentation demonstrating workflow, Pascal displayed to what was referred to as a 4-point editing project.
He also discussed Virtual Transport which synchronizes two or more machines over a network cluster. Responding to a question, this is available in a native system as well.
There are three levels of gain structure in Pyramix. Two being real time clip gain and envelope gain independent of clip gain. He demonstrated this by minimizing a transient momentarily in a wave file. This is fully independent of an automated mix control.
The third level (of gain structure) is the mixer which has full automation. These gains can all be independent of each other. In response to a question the gain in cross fade is clip gain not envelope gain.
Finally, he talked about the internal libraries in Pyramix. These are a collection of multiple titles. These can be audio titles or other types. Libraries can be transported between sessions. There two types of libraries — document and global library. Libraries can be 'offline': they can point where files are. Files don't need to be mounted on your system, they can be somewhere on your drive or network.
After a few questions, a break was taken.
After break Pascal wanted to add a few points regarding libraries: one can drag and drop plugin presets as well to A/B different settings, quickly and efficiently, with sessions, instead of loading presets manually each time.
The following are responses to some of the questions after break:
Merging Technologies uses the old paradigm of a reel-to-reel tape machine and a separate mixer. You can create a track and a strip separately or together.
Everything in the mixer is delay-compensated.
Different types of automation can be hidden or displayed simultaneously. Pascal demonstrated this.
Custom fades can be stored in the library.
There is plugin support for both VST & VST3 formats
Pyramix supports multiple monitor/speaker setups
Metering options were shown: PPM; phase; VU; loudness: true peak metering. EBU and ATSC protocols are supported as well. You can determine what meters you want to see.
Regarding mixdown and rendering: you can export to same variety of output formats as input formats.
Multiple CD projects can be created.
Fades can be stored with each track/song.
Customization is available in Pyramix. Every short cut can be customized.
Pyramix is Windows based. It can be run with Boot camp on Mac.
At the end of the meeting, Executive committee member Frank Lockwood stated he's looking to create a Pyramix user's group for Toronto.
Sy thanked everyone for attending and made a reminder about next month's meeting.
