A Prototype Mixer to Improve Cross-Modal Attention During Audio Mixing

Abstract

The Channel Strip mixer found on physical mixing desks is the primary Graphical User Interface design for most Digital Audio Workstations. While this metaphor provides transferable knowledge from hardware, there may be a risk that it does not always translate well into screen-based mixers. For example, the need to search through several windows of mix information may inhibit the engagement and 'flow' of the mixing process, and the subsequent screen management required to access the mixer across multiple windows can place high cognitive load on working memory and overload the limited capacity of the visual mechanism. This paper trials an eight-channel proto-type mixer which uses a novel approach to the mixer design to address these issues. The mixer uses an overview of the visual interface and employs multivariate data objects for channel parameters which can be filtered by the user. Our results suggest that this design, by reducing both the complexity of visual search and the amount of visual feedback on the screen at any one time, leads to improved results in terms of visual search, critical listening and mixing workflow.