Soon, we will be adding one filter into the Synchromesh audio chain - a multi-band compressor. This one filter has the handy effect of doing it's job, but also being a simple 'high, mid, low' tone control and a basic compressor in one filter.

If you're not an audio professional, this filter may be new to you. It's a new tool that has become standard for onsite audio playback. It's available to more and more A1's in their digital consoles and outboard processing. It lets them balance out the tone of different video clips, and to tame excessive bass, or sibilance etc. One reason we're adding it to our chain is that we transition between clips, so it's very difficult to coordinate changes in external equipment at the same time.

But the main reason we're adding it is that it's a great tool to keep all your videos sounding great, and providing a consistent audio level and quality! Of course, the defaults are 'flat', so if you don't need it, you'll be able to ignore it, but it will be there when you need it.

If possible, Synchromesh will try to mix between different channel layouts. The only exception to this is if a clip has a 'discrete' channel layout - essentially this means 'don't know' - it's a custom channel layout that can't necessarily be mixed to one of the standard layouts. This will be mixed to the stereo outputs based on a very simple formula - Left/Ch 1 to Left, Right/Ch 2 to Right, and all other channels to both Left and Right. Use the channel gains (of the clip) to set gain and pan of each channel (up to 8).

Each Synchromesh audio output can create a separate mix, between the playing clip and a transitioning clip, and also between channels of one clip, to create the correct channel layout.

In practice, this means that audio channels can be used as a finished playback mix. As each new clip is played, a clean cross-fade matches the video transition. The gain of each clip can be set to maintain consistent levels, and as with all video adjustments, the gain change is non-destructive - it's generated by the output mixer, not burned into the file.

Each channel within a clip also has a gain adjustment, so when using discrete channels, or surround mixes from different houses, you can adjust the mixes to get back to a consistent set of levels from your DDR.

If an output has a channel layout other than stereo, then the clip will be mixed based on the clip's layout. If the layout matches, for instance a 5:1 clip playing to a 5:1 output, then each channel is gain corrected and mixed. If the channel layout is the same type, but layout is different, for instance L-C-R... instead of L-R-C... the deck will translate if the layout in the media can be detected.

Synchromesh players output analog audio with a user-defined channel layout. By default, every deck will output a stereo mix-down on any playback onto all audio outputs. The supported outputs are:

• DDR - 2 balanced TRS outputs, with optional SDI, 2-8 embedded channels. Headphone output.
• Turbine - 2 unbalanced outputs (standard 3.5mm stereo jack), stereo or 5:1 on HDMI connector
• Octane - CoreAudio hardware or internal audio hardware of Mac

Each output can be configured with a channel layout. Currently only stereo is supported, but we will soon be supporting:

• Stereo Mix-down
• 5:1
• 7:1
• Discrete

Each output can also be selected as pre or post effects and mix.