Introduction

Making Paks for Mixtikl (zipped up content collections) is much easier that it may at first seem. If you either know how to make samples / loops, or how to work with them, the you know enough to be able to make Paks. And if you don't know that, then you can still contribute to the community by meta-tagging files. Your Paks can of course include your own load image!

Don't forget, you can also use your own loops and samples in Desktop Mixtikl without first creating a zipped Pak. However, if you want to have portable content (i.e. to use on your device and desktop), you will need to make a Pak.

The KEY thing to remember when making your Pak, is that your MUST zip it up correctly, with the right path structure.

Important considerations

• If your Pak is to include audio loops we recommend:
  • Use loops at 44 Khz Mono Ogg.
  • Aside from performance & footprint issues, stereo loops require twice the RAM and more processing power. We recommend being consistent, so recommend opting for mono. If you have or keep the WAV masters at 44KHz stereo, then you can always use them in years to come.
• The Recommended Pak sizes to aim for are:
  • 500Kb-1MB
• Try to work with high quality "master" audio samples which you then edit and resample.
• For song related Paks, content will generally be 1 to 4 bars loops from the various chorus elements of a song/track (e.g. beat1, beat2, bass, keys, synth, vox1, vox2 etc) and can also include "sting" samples for "one shot" playback.
• Tempo and the content size are closely interrelated: a 1 bar 60bpm audio clip is 4 seconds in length (each beat is 1 second in length and there are 4 of them in a bar), and a 1 bar 120bpm audio clip a 2 seconds in length (each beat is 1/2 second and there are 4 of them). Therefore Paks with a slow tempo will generally be larger than those with a fast tempo!

Tools You May Need

• Noatikl: to create generative .partikl files and .noatikl files
  • Note: .partikl files contain both Noatikl file data and associated Synth/Effect definitions and ogg/dls sounds; they can be used either standalone within Noatikl, or they can be used as content for Mixtikl Mixer content cells.
• Mixtikl Desktop (Win or Mac version): to create mixtikl files, test Paks and play your mixes!
• Textpad, Notepad (or whatever): to tweak your pak.xml files (these define the tempo & key).
• Winzip (7Zip or whatever): to package-up your Paks into self-contained zip files.
• Audacity, Wavelab or similar: to create your loops and ogg files.
• Polyphontics, Awave Studio or Microsoft DLS Producer: if you need to create any DLS 1 wavetables for your Partikl content.