Best Practices?

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arthurputy
Posts: 31
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2014 4:46 am
Primary DAW OS: MacOS

Best Practices?

Post by arthurputy »

Hi all,

DP newb here. Looking for some best practice suggestions on a few things I'm struggling with in my first week with DP.

1. Automation

Working in the MIDI editor one of the biggest challenges I am finding is with how DP is showing me multiple CC's at the same time (superimposed). I know there is the quick filter but I'm finding it difficult to use. Example: I have drawn some automation using CC16, CC17, CC18, CC20. All are being showed superimposed over each other. I want to view only 16 but I can't tell which one is 16 to select it for filtering! Is the best/only way to do this using colors? I wish that I could configure it so that it just automatically filters based on what I select in the insert menu (can it be?) Do you guys typically do automation in the MIDI editor or the Sequence editor? Would be cool if there was an automation selector like the track selector where you could just select which automation you want to see. Also, I can't figure out how to see different automation lanes (separate lanes vs. superimposed)

2. Track organization

Coming from the Logic/Ableton/Cubase world I'm of course used to consolidated VI tracks. I actually like the way DP handles it because I feel it reflects what is actually going on. I am finding however that my track numbers are much higher and was wondering if there are any best practices on this front (aside from folders). What I have been doing is this:

- Create instrument track and add to VRack
- Create MIDI Track
- Create AUX track and route instrument track to it. (I read somewhere that this is recommended as VRacks don't support automation?)
- Then I will typically take that AUX track and route it to another AUX Track for grouping (for example drums/pads etc).

So for a single VI I end up with 3-4 tracks. Am I overcomplicating things? Is there a better way?

3. MIDI Note Editing

I haven't been able to find a way to "fold" MIDI when editing notes. What I mean is show only the piano roll for notes which have data. I think the Drum editor does this, can the MIDI editor as well? (In Ableton its called "Fold")

TIA!
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Shooshie
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Re: Best Practices?

Post by Shooshie »

arthurputy wrote:1. Automation

Working in the MIDI editor one of the biggest challenges I am finding is with how DP is showing me multiple CC's at the same time (superimposed). I know there is the quick filter but I'm finding it difficult to use. Example: I have drawn some automation using CC16, CC17, CC18, CC20. All are being showed superimposed over each other. I want to view only 16 but I can't tell which one is 16 to select it for filtering! Is the best/only way to do this using colors? I wish that I could configure it so that it just automatically filters based on what I select in the insert menu (can it be?) Do you guys typically do automation in the MIDI editor or the Sequence editor? Would be cool if there was an automation selector like the track selector where you could just select which automation you want to see. Also, I can't figure out how to see different automation lanes (separate lanes vs. superimposed)
First, if you want to see the differences between your CC lines, change their icons in the Legend window. You only get to do that to 8 at a time, but that's usually enough. Then you can easily select one and choose the quickfilter.

Use the MIDI Graphic Edit Window, unless alignment with audio is critical. Usually, you can work in MIDI, then align the MIDI with audio later. The Sequence Editor has its charms, but it slows me down radically for pure MIDI work.

Learn the pros and cons of each mode of editing CC data: Lines, Points, and Bars.

Use colors to help you make sense of multiple tracks and data. First of all, I like to use custom themes: AmpGUI.net, where some of Andy's mods really enhance my visual contrast, not to mention my mood. Then I set up QuicKeys routines for fast-switching between color sets for tracks. Here's a youTube video about that: using custom colors to increase productivity and aesthetics in DP.

Set up your windows in Preferences so that you can see selection ranges, events, cursor, etc., in the headers of each window. You have to get accustomed to looking up there and seeing what you have selected (as in CC number), range of selection, and so forth, but the information has to appear somewhere, and I'd rather it be up there than blocking my view of what I'm working on. (as in some sort of heads-up display that follows the cursor)

Learn to use the resolution restraint check-boxes at the top left of each edit window to constrain your movements to certain increments, or uncheck them to move freely. The COMMAND key toggles it on/off temporarily.

You might benefit from a couple posts I made in the Tips Sheet Thread, regarding working with selections and editing automation points. Don't gloss over them; read them carefully, because they can greatly simplify your work.
The one on selections deals with quickly grabbing a selection of note events PLUS their control point events (breath control, expression, etc.) for copying, dragging, or other edits. There are other ways to do it, but none actually work as simply or as quickly as the method I describe here, though you have to do some preliminary setup in the COMMANDS window so that you have the commands at your disposal to make it happen. Once it's set up, from that point onward each selection takes a fraction of a second, literally. I used to grope around trying to select those exactly, and it took forever to make each selection. Now it's pretty much instantaneous.

Here's one you don't see every day. I use Apple's Mission Control to help me keep my windows organized at almost full-screen for each window. Set the Control Panel to "Float" and it will follow you to each window as you go from space to space, where your edit windows and mixing board all lie waiting at full-size, making it easy to keep track of where you are in each window, without too much scrolling and searching. There's also a post about it in the DP Tips Sheet.
arthurputy wrote:2. Track organization
Coming from the Logic/Ableton/Cubase world I'm of course used to consolidated VI tracks. I actually like the way DP handles it because I feel it reflects what is actually going on. I am finding however that my track numbers are much higher and was wondering if there are any best practices on this front (aside from folders). What I have been doing is this:

- Create instrument track and add to VRack
- Create MIDI Track
- Create AUX track and route instrument track to it. (I read somewhere that this is recommended as VRacks don't support automation?)
- Then I will typically take that AUX track and route it to another AUX Track for grouping (for example drums/pads etc).

So for a single VI I end up with 3-4 tracks. Am I overcomplicating things? Is there a better way?
I always used the AUX track method. I like the way it preserves the MIDI rack analogy, which is the way I've worked since the beginning of MIDI. There is an instrument "out there" somewhere in your rack. (V-Racks in this case) You can create as many MIDI tracks as you want and choose the output and channel for the instrument you desire in each MIDI track. No reason why you can't have 10 MIDI tracks control the same instrument (if it accepts polyphony, which nearly all do), so if I'm doing a lot of work on the continuous data controllers, I may select the CCs, drag them to a scratch track (an empty MIDI track set up identically to the original track) and edit them there. You can overdub your expression control, vibrato, etc. in the scratch track, edit it, and when you have it like you want, simply drag it into the original track, and it will merge. (Tracks Overview Window)

More recently, MOTU added an "input monitor" button on each audio track. With that button, you can essentially use the audio track as your aux track. That can save you a step later in the process when it comes time to freeze tracks. Rather than freezing them, you just record enable your audio track(s) and record the audio to it (them). There are still reasons to use Aux tracks, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. You have to decide which one works best for you and the way you want to work.

I've always operated with the philosophy that DP can use unlimited tracks, so why worry about track count? Some DAWs charged an enormous fee for more tracks, and you were always limited to your last purchase. Not DP. I'm always adding and deleting tracks as I need them or am finished with them. With track folders, it's no problem to collapse an entire set of tracks when you aren't working in them, and some back to them later. Keeps clutter down.

The argument that V-Racks do not support automation is a bit of a red herring. Don't place much stock in that. If it were a big deal, MOTU would have made work differently. First of all, your real MIDI rack does not support automation of the type to which the naysayers refer when they say that little lie about V-Racks. Thus, V-Racks work just like your external MIDI gear.

"But..." I hear you say, "I can automate my MIDI rack with continuous controllers!" Of course you can. And you can do the same with V-Racks. Many VI's incorporate MIDI Learn, so that you just click a control, play a MIDI event, and they are locked together. Then any move you make on your Kurzweil faders bank will be faithfully executed by your VI in the V-Rack. What's not to like about that? What's not to like is that the output audio isn't automatically incorporated into the mix, with automation. That's a Logic thing, where instrument output is merged with a built-in audio track, with automation available. Other DAWs have adopted it to some extent. But I prefer keeping my tracks separate from the instruments. Especially multi-track instrument libraries like Kontakt, Wallander, Garritan, Mach5, and so forth. So, I prefer to have an actual audio track (or AUX track) for each instrument return. We already discussed that above.

Really, you only need a V-Racks track for each instrument, and an audio track to pull it into your mix. If you don't need automation, and if you don't care about keeping instruments separate once they leave Kontact, then you don't even need an audio track. You can just use the V-Rack's output. But most of us want some control over that final audio, so we bring it into an Audio track. That's really one track per instrument if you don't count the V-Rack.

Here's why you don't need the AUX track: in the old days, to hear audio coming through an audio track, you had to record-enable it. If you were tracking, you record enabled your MIDI tracks, but you didn't want to record the audio; just the MIDI. So, you disabled recording on the audio track, but... now you could not monitor your audio through that track! Thus, we used AUX tracks which can monitor audio output of instruments without recording that output when we record the MIDI.

With the new audio monitor button, we no longer need the AUX track. Leave the audio track record-disabled, but turn on the audio monitor, and ... Voila!... built-in AUX track! You can monitor all your VI's without recording them each time you record MIDI.

We making sense here?

This is getting long, and I may be leaving out a lot, but this is one post. Ask questions and I (and others) will be happy to go into more detail about your concerns.

arthurputy wrote:3. MIDI Note Editing

I haven't been able to find a way to "fold" MIDI when editing notes. What I mean is show only the piano roll for notes which have data. I think the Drum editor does this, can the MIDI editor as well? (In Ableton its called "Fold")

TIA!
I'm unclear on your definitions there. "Show only the piano roll for notes which have data," doesn't exactly make sense to me. I'll guess a little. MIDI Graphic Editor preferences allow you to have one window per track, or one window / all tracks. I asked MOTU for this for six years, and they finally gave it to me in January, 2001 (DP3.0). Color coded tracks, all appearing superimposed in one window. Of course, you can choose which and how many tracks appear in that MIDI Graphic Edit Window. The one with the little pencil beside it is the "active" track, for which you'll see the CC and pitch data as well as the notes.

Is there an easy way to click on a note and have it go to that track, within the Graphic Edit Window? Not exactly. You can open it in the Events Editor, and it will do that. But you'll have to select the active track within the Graphic Editor window manually. (I'm still campaigning for the ability to click on a note while holding a modifier key, and make that note's track the active one. Join me, if you want to expedite this feature's appearance someday, by writing MOTU and clearly describing what you want and how you hope it is implemented)

Have I answered your question? Since I don't completely understand the question, I can't tell, but we can do it again if I missed the ball.

There's so much more. The learning curve never flattens completely, and I've been doing it for 28 years in Performer/Digital Performer. But it at least gets manageable after a few months. The more you work and experiment, the more you learn.

Shooshie
|l| OS X 10.12.6 |l| DP 10.0 |l| 2.4 GHz 12-Core MacPro Mid-2012 |l| 40GB RAM |l| Mach5.3 |l| Waves 9.x |l| Altiverb |l| Ivory 2 New York Steinway |l| Wallander WIVI 2.30 Winds, Brass, Saxes |l| Garritan Aria |l| VSL 5.3.1 and VSL Pro 2.3.1 |l| Yamaha WX-5 MIDI Wind Controller |l| Roland FC-300 |l|
frankf
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Re: Best Practices?

Post by frankf »

arthurputy wrote:Hi all,

DP newb here. Looking for some best practice suggestions on a few things I'm struggling with in my first week with DP.

1. Automation

Working in the MIDI editor one of the biggest challenges I am finding is with how DP is showing me multiple CC's at the same time (superimposed). I know there is the quick filter but I'm finding it difficult to use. Example: I have drawn some automation using CC16, CC17, CC18, CC20. All are being showed superimposed over each other. I want to view only 16 but I can't tell which one is 16 to select it for filtering! Is the best/only way to do this using colors? I wish that I could configure it so that it just automatically filters based on what I select in the insert menu (can it be?) Do you guys typically do automation in the MIDI editor or the Sequence editor? Would be cool if there was an automation selector like the track selector where you could just select which automation you want to see. Also, I can't figure out how to see different automation lanes (separate lanes vs. superimposed)
TIA!
Check out the Command "Show active layer only". It's a close relative to the Quick Filter. Set a key or key combination to toggle. I find it indispensable. BTW I use the SE for MIDI editing for the most part and Quick Filter is not available there so this command is essential for SE. . Also try the View Filter for clearing screen clutter. With a macro program and careful programming ( I use Keyboard Maestro), you can open the View Filter and say hide all note velocities or all controllers with a keystroke or text string. HTH
Frank Ferrucci
http://www.ferruccimusic.com
Mac Pro 6,1 64gb RAM DP9.52 OSX 10.12.6 MIO 2882d & ULN2d Firewire Audio Interfaces, MOTU MTP-AV USB
arthurputy
Posts: 31
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2014 4:46 am
Primary DAW OS: MacOS

Re: Best Practices?

Post by arthurputy »

Wow. Shooshie all I can say is thanks so much for taking the time to write such a comprehensive response. I learned so much just from that alone. A couple of follow ups for clarification:

For question 2 (the aux tracks). It sounds like creating the VI, moving it to a v-rack and then creating a corresponding aux track outside of the v-rack to which the VI is routed is the way to go for total flexibility. (assuming i didn't completely miss the point you were making).

For the 3rd question what I mean is when editing MIDI notes in a piano role view...being able to only view the lanes which actually have note data show. To conserve space. So for example I'm editing in piano role view and If my MIDI data was only comprised of the notes d a g then I could fold the piano roll so only the d a g lanes are shown. I'll post a screenshot if I get a chance. I don't think I'm explaining it well.

Again thought really appreciate your taking the time to share the hard earned knowledge.
arthurputy
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Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2014 4:46 am
Primary DAW OS: MacOS

Re: Best Practices?

Post by arthurputy »

frankf thanks! I think that may be exactly what I need. Much appreciated.
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Shooshie
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Re: Best Practices?

Post by Shooshie »

arthurputy wrote:Wow. Shooshie all I can say is thanks so much for taking the time to write such a comprehensive response. I learned so much just from that alone. A couple of follow ups for clarification:

For question 2 (the aux tracks). It sounds like creating the VI, moving it to a v-rack and then creating a corresponding aux track outside of the v-rack to which the VI is routed is the way to go for total flexibility. (assuming i didn't completely miss the point you were making).
You can do that, or you can go straight to audio track now that we have the Input Monitor button available. Maybe now that you understand what's going on, my original post might make a little more sense.
For the 3rd question what I mean is when editing MIDI notes in a piano role view...being able to only view the lanes which actually have note data show. To conserve space. So for example I'm editing in piano role view and If my MIDI data was only comprised of the notes d a g then I could fold the piano roll so only the d a g lanes are shown. I'll post a screenshot if I get a chance. I don't think I'm explaining it well.
No, there's no way to fold down the MIDI graphic display to show only the notes you're using. But you CAN adjust the size of the display, so that the entire range can occupy a small space. Harder to read, but workable.

Shoosh
|l| OS X 10.12.6 |l| DP 10.0 |l| 2.4 GHz 12-Core MacPro Mid-2012 |l| 40GB RAM |l| Mach5.3 |l| Waves 9.x |l| Altiverb |l| Ivory 2 New York Steinway |l| Wallander WIVI 2.30 Winds, Brass, Saxes |l| Garritan Aria |l| VSL 5.3.1 and VSL Pro 2.3.1 |l| Yamaha WX-5 MIDI Wind Controller |l| Roland FC-300 |l|
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