(8.D.2.3) Mixers
This section contains the following pages:
General Information
Mixers combine separate audio sources into fewer channels, or into each other.
MixerV3
A Mixer is an M x N array of gains that transform M input channels into N output channels. This is useful for combining signals together, and consolidating many gain values into a single module. Our Mixer module is smoothed, and optimized based on the amount of non-zero coefficients specified by the user. It supports input pin controls or single pin, multi-channel controls. A mixer is good for handling many channels at once, so it excels in the algorithm for downmixing from surround sound 5.1 to stereo. This means transforming 5 input channels to 2 output channels:
The Mixer module holds a matrix representing the downmix equations, which are shown in its inspector (in linear units):
Lt = L + -3dB*C + -3dB*(-Ls -Rs)
Rt = R + -3dB*C + -3dB*(Ls + Rs)
The Mixer module stores a matrix of all the gain coefficients and performs matrix multiplication to apply the gains to the appropriate channels. When the matrix becomes large, this computation becomes very expensive. It may be beneficial to deinterleave out channels if they don’t require the mixing stage.
SMixer2x1
This mixer takes in two pins of arbitrary channel count and outputs the sum of the two with a scale factor specified in the module’s variables.
Wet Dry
This module is similar to the 2x1 mixer, except the two pins are exclusively balanced from one another to achieve either same energy or same amplitude. This setting can be configured in module variables. The linear mixing value represents the ratio from 0-1 of the mixing of the signals. A value of .5 means equal mix from both signals, and is similar to the Smixer2x1 module. Values under .5 mean that the signal is less “wet” so more of the “dry” pin comes through. Values over .5 drive more of the “wet” pin.