Fairlight MFX3 Tips and Hints

by Andy Somers

Considering the large number of new Fairlight installations here in town, I thought it might be useful to write a regular column for the Newsletter to assist those of you who are new to the system. But first, a bit of introduction.

I've been using the MFX series of workstations for about four years now. Along the way, I've trained many sound editors on the system. With that experience, I've noted a lot of key points to making the system work for you in a more useful manner. That is the main point of this column: to bring my experience and the experiences of other editors together so that the whole community can benefit from that collective experience.

Having said that, I am going to make the assumption that you have already had at least some basic experience on the Fairlight MFX3. What I intend to cover are those issues that may not be a part of the basic class, in particular, techniques as they apply to what we do when editing sound for film and television projects.

This Month's Topic: The User interface

Oddly enough, I've found that when training someone who's cut only on sprockets, and has no computer experience whatsoever, it's sometimes a little easier than training someone with experience on a different workstation. In particular, if you're used to a mouse-driven interface like ProTools, AudioVision, or Waveframe, the Fairlight's mouseless hardware interface may appear a bit daunting. But then the Fairlight was designed to handle more like a sync block or tape machine and less like a computer. The MFX3 is a computer that's intended to not seem like a computer. As a result, it presents a different way of working than mouse driven systems.

There are many ways to take advantage of this. The manner in which you place your hands on the console is important to maximize your use of the system and prevent fatigue.

Figure 1 shows that if we use the left hand to handle the track keys and macros, and the right hand for machine control and editorial functions, neither hand has very far to travel.

Perhaps more important, is how you use your right hand (see Figure 2). As you can see from this drawing,the right hand is centered over the jog wheel, with the thumb near the ENTER key and the pinky near the ZOOM key.

The index and middle finger are in easy reach of the editorial and transport control keys, as well as being ready to grab the jog wheel. Think of this as a "home" position, as in touch-typing on a typewriter or word processor

Since you'll be using the ENTER key a lot (pasting, trimming, slipping, etc.) you'll find that it's most efficient to always use your thumb. If you're using the new MFX3Plus console, use your index finger for the FROM key and your ring finger for the TO key. Then use the pinky for the ZOOM, JUMP, and UNDO keys. (Note: on older MFX consoles, like the one in Figure 1, you'll want to use the pinky for ZOOM, FROM and TO, and UNDO).

The reason for being consistent with your finger placement is something called motor memory. A typical touch typist can type over 100 words per minute because their fingers know where to go Their fingers have motor memory. If you use the Fairlight console consistently, you too will develop motor memory. Instead of thinking about what button you need to press, your fingers will do it for you. You'll edit effortlessly, and your speed will increase exponentially

One area where this becomes particularly important is when zooming to a different display size. While training, I often find that people new to the system will change their zoom by using their right index finger on the ZOOM key and rotating the jog wheel with their left hand to set the zoom level. Always try to avoid this! When going to a new zoom level, use your right pinky on the ZOOM key, and rotate the wheel with the other fingers of your right hand. Do this always and you'll be a happier camper for sure.

Zooming is a very important and unique aspect of the Fairlight. I know you're saying "Unique??! but all systems can zoom in and out!" True. What's unique is that the Fairlight can zoom in and out instantly, even while in PLAY or RECORD, and you never have to wait for the clips to redraw. This helps you in several ways. One is that it helps you to move around your project (zoom out, jog, zoom in). Another is that since zoom size affects your jog speed (along with jog factor) you can adjust the feel of your machine control on the fly

That's all I have room for this time. Next time, I'll write more about using zoom, moving around efficiently, jog factor, and using machine control. In future articles I'll cover techniques for the various editorial modes, and how to write cool macros to amaze your friends and make your life easier. If you have a question you'd like me to answer in this column, you can e-mail me at: editor@ myndex.com

Happy cutting!