within the framework of zs4, the term mixing means the combination of multiple media tracks into one.
the zs4 Project icon in the project treeview as well as sub-mixers (added from the effects treeview) represent what we refer to as (sub) mixer. the audio of such tracks is a combination of the audio tracks in the child/sub-tracks of the mixer track. in a similar fashion the video signal of such a "mixer" track is a combination of the video signal of all child objects/tracks.

when attempting to conceive of a video mixer, the old-school audio mixing consoles come to mind. this article attempts to draw the (technical) parallels between traditional audio mixing and modern zs4-style video mixing.

when thinking of a audio-mixing-consoles we remember a row of "sliders" representing the volume settings of each channel and a (usually) smaller set of sliders representing the master volume. i'm bringing this up to illustrate how certain control parameters in an audio mix (track volume, pan etc) affect the channel (sub-track) and others affect the main (mixed) audio signal (all subtracks in the exact same way). similarly each video subtrack of a zs4 mixer (master track) is associated with an opacity (volume), position (pan) and rotation (no close audio equivalent).

when thinking about more sophisticated mixing consoles there is also the concept of "sub-groups" to remember. different from usually hardwired limits on traditional audio mixing consoles, the zs4 concept of mixing has no fixed or maximum numbers of sub-groups nor does zs4 limit how many subgroups a subgroup has, nor does zs4 limit the number of sub-grouping levels. it can conceptually mix down the four snare-drum microphones to a "snare-subgroup" and combine that snare-mixdown with the mixdowns of kickdrums with the tom-toms into a "drum-kit" submix. the same thing can happen for drummer number two as well as the "percussionist" (also a drummer) of the band, these may be mixed down along with the bass player track to the "rhythm-section-subrack" and that subtrack can be mixed into a final mix with the keyboard signal, which can be itself a combination of "n" sub-sub-sub signals.....

well its been obvious where i've been going with the above. the same, of course, is true for video tracks...

NRT technology does not have to consider bandwith limitations since it is alright to take 10 minutes to compute the mixdown of a segment that is merely 10 seconds long.

MediaMixer

Parents

Track Arrangement

ZS4 Manual