Zetta Audio Marks
- Derek Murphey
Zetta is a powerful Automation system, but it needs to be given some parameters to playback elements in a way that fits your programming style. That’s where Audio Marks come into play!
These marks can be moved by clicking and dragging the line that represents the marker. Audio will play while dragging the mark to help place it in the correct location. You can switch to “stutter” mode by holding the SHIFT key while dragging. You can also disable audio playback by holding the CTRL key while dragging.
Let’s take a look at each marker's purpose and role during Zetta playback.
Trim In
Marks the start point of the audio. Audio before the Trim In point will be ignored.
Fade In
Marks the fade end point at the beginning of the audio. When the audio is played it will fade up for the length of the Fade. The value for the Fade In reflects the duration of the Fade In.
Mix In
The Mix In marker allows a "deeper" segue with the preceding event. Normally, Zetta will line up the previous event Segue with the next event Trim In. If there is a quiet opening or fade-in for the audio, use Mix In to start the next event earlier. If Mix In is set, Zetta will line up the Mix In with the previous event Segue mark.
Intro 1-3
In most cases, the intro is the audio before the vocals begin. The audio can be marked with up to three intro points to show where the accents in the introduction are when playing in the log.
Early Segue
A special type of segue mark that acts in conjunction with a Link-Song chain, or 'Bed' asset flag.
Link-Song Chain - Will set the start of the next event at the Early Segue point of the previous event, so long as the intro is not too short, in which case the next event will start so the link ends at the intro of the next event. If the event does not have an Early Segue point, Zetta will start the next event at the earliest mark Segue/Trim Out/End of Audio.
Segue
Defines where the next event should start in Live-Assist or Auto mode.
Fade Out
Marks the start of the fade at the end of the audio. When the audio is played it will fade down for the length of the Fade. The value for the Fade Out reflects the duration of the Fade Out.
Trim Out
Marks the end point of the audio. Audio after the Trim Out point will be ignored.
How do I get my Imaging and Songs to play nice and tight without manually segueing?
Imaging (LINK) needs to have Early Segue and Segue Marks, possibly Mix In to tighten up the front.
GSelector clocks should utilize Link-Song Chain type wherever possible
Songs need to have at least one Intro mark (even if it's at 0.00012s)
By far, the tightest logs are achieved using the Link-Song chain type with GSelector/Zetta. The beautiful part about this chain type is that it can act like a normal Segue chain 90% of the time, but will kick things up a notch when it sees the appropriate Audio Marks in Zetta.
Let’s take a look at two scenarios, using the normal / default Segue Chain. Here, the DAY SWEEPS01 imaging is about 60% fully produced but ends with the last 1/3 dry voice to allow playing over a song intro.
Let’s look at the same transition but change the DAY SWEEPS01 chain type to Link-Song
What about those songs that have a 1-second intro, but the Early Segue mark calls for 7-seconds of dry imaging over the ramp?
GSelector clocks can be adjusted to schedule the Link-Song chain type by clock position.
You can also change the Chain Type on the fly from the Zetta Log
Stop
Segue
Auto Post
Link-Song
NOTE: Setting the Zetta Asset “Chain Override” will not apply when Links are scheduled via GSelector. The Chain Type selected here applies when dragging the Link onto the log from the Library/Hot Key/Etc.
