The basic stage menu shows you the top view of a human head. The nose is pointing to the top of the screen– northward. Within the gray area (the head), instruments can be placed on a line between the left and right ear – this is conventional mixing; the stereo panorama can be modified by dragging and dropping the instruments along this line between the ears.

The fader for MASTER VOLUME is always shown on the right to allow quick access to the important master volume.

Changing from Mono, Stereo to 3D

You will see four icons in the lower right corner. They are labelled mono/stereo/3D/i3D. These mode restrictions are stored in the presets/show files.

Standard Stereo Headphone Panorama

Stereo mixing for headphones is the most obvious mixing. Of course, it already feels more transparent than a mono mix. However, Instruments can be placed in 1D only – between the ears.

If the icon you want to move is hidden underneath another one, just click on your icon and the one on top will move to the background. This way, you can step through all icons until you reach the one you want to move.

Stereo linked channels can be moved by using one of the icons – left or right channel. The other channel will follow and be placed symmetrically around the middle of the head.

The 3D Orbit

The first ring around the head is called the 3D orbit. Instruments and signals placed here are processed with KLANG’s unique 3D audio engine for headphones and in-ears. Now, these instruments appear to be on a virtual ring around your head and it is possible to place them not only to the left and the right but also in front and behind your head. This 3D orbit is used to define the position of the sound source around your head; it does not interfere with the height/elevation setting in any way.

Stereo linked channels can be placed by moving one of them. The other one will automatically follow, all the while keeping the original angle between the two channels and your head center. If you want to change the angle between the left and right channel, keep a second finger on the second channel (if you are using a touch device) and move the other individually. On Windows and Mac OS X computers, press the SHIFT key while moving an individual stereo channel. Please note the the second channel will automatically move to another orbit or inside the head if the first channel is changing its orbit.

The i3D Orbit

The second and outer circle is called i3D orbit and is very similar to the 3D orbit. They both use the same distance to the head, but instruments on the i3D orbit are now interactive (that is what the i in i3D stands for). Once the KLANG:vektor motion tracker is associated with a user, all instruments on this i3D orbit are fixed to the coordinate system of the stage. Hence, the motion tracker will cancel out your head movements so the instruments’ location on the orbit stays fixed to their location on stage and will not move when you turn your head.

Orbit Tools

In STAGE view expand and collapse the Orbit tools with the +/- Orbit Icon in the lower right corner. The i3D Lock has been there before, so let’s take a look at the new features.

Flip left / right position

There are these situations where you decide, that the mix should be exactly the other way around, instruments on the left side should go to the right and vice versa. This icon does exactly that. It takes all instruments (no matter if they are placed stereo, 3D or i3D) and throws them at the opposite side. To revert this, simply press again.

Rotate All/Group

Sometimes you want to adjust the position of all instruments of a group at the same time, or create some flow and rotate all instruments at once.

Select the Rotate All/Group icon and it will turn purple. Depending whether you have selected a particular group focus or the Solo-Link (ROT. GRP) or no focus is selected (ROT. GRP), all instruments that are shown in color on the 3D orbit will be rotated simultaneously. Just drag one icon and the others follow. Instruments inside the head (stereo panning), will not follow.

Once done, press the Rotate All/Group icon again to leave the mode.

Mix Monitors from FoH Position

For musicians and most monitor engineers the STAGE view works just great as it is. But what if you mix monitors from FoH and you want to place instruments where you see them for a monitor mix? No problem, activate Mix Monitors from FoH Position button

When clicking again on the STAGE menu, you will notice a new view. The dots below the stage icon indicate the view you are in. You can toggle between these views by using the STAGE icon.

This second view allows you to move sources not only around your head in the horizontal plane but also move them vertically – above and below your head. Imagine this as a transparent virtual ball around you where you place and pin instruments. This ball (like the globe) can be flattened on a 2D paper like a map.The vertical lines indicate the 360° orbit around your head, with the middle line being the front and the outer rim being the back. The horizontal lines show the level of your source, with the middle line being your eye level: So, a source placed right in front of you at eye level will show right in the centre of this screen, like the Lead Vocals in our example below. The guitar (purple icon) is placed to the left and slightly below eye level; the two keyboards (blue icons) are positioned slightly to the right and above the head.

Stereo linked channels will always be placed on the same height/elevation when moved. If you want a different setting, just deactivate the stereo linking for these channels.

In booth Orbit and Landscape view you will have the following features for improved, faster workflows.

Icon Zoom

Snapshot Everywhere

Group Focus – Less Icons

In the top right corner, a list of buttons for each group is shown. Click on one of these groups to focus on its channels’ spatial mixing: The instrument icons of the other groups become smaller and grayed out so your view is cleared up. To go back to view all instrument icons, click on the activated Group button again to deactivate the Group Focus.

Solo-Link Focus – See only what you hear

Once channels of a mixed are set to SOLO in FADERS view, the Solo-Link Focus will automatically be activated and hence Orbit and Height will show these channels only. You will notice the Solo-Link button below the Group Focus buttons. To deactivate simply click on the button again and you will see all activated channels in STAGE view.