Click pattern quarter/quarter/dotted quarter in 7/8

[massimosammi]

Hello there,

I would need to create a click pattern for the 7/8 meter that has a quarter/quarter/dotted quarter accent.

The tempo is quite fast (q=150) so using the eighth notes in the click will sound really obnoxious.

Right now I use the "beat click" with the quarter note subdivision and the click subdivides the meter in quarter/quarter/quarter/eighth.

To be a little clearer:

- currently the 7/8 is subdivided in 12/12/12/1 and the click plays the 1 of each subdivision.
- I would need to subdivide 7/8 in 12/12/123 playing the 1 of each subdivision - so the difference is that the last eight note will be silent.

Is there a way I can achieve that?

Thanks in advance!

[RodneySauer]

OK. I may not be the best person to answer this, because I never use click tracks. But could you manually create a MIDI click track, with the three beats you want in each measure, with the audio sent to the headphones bus, and then just copy it a bunch of times?

[stubbsonic]

When you put in a meter in the Conductor track, you have the option of clicking on the "Click/NoteValue" thing and choosing Pattern Click.

You can look in the manual for the Pattern Click section. There's one that fully explains the code for getting the click pattern you want. Though it seems a little cryptic, once you've done a few, it's not that bad. Save your pattern for later use if you do lots of 7/8.

You could try 2 2 3/8 (that's quarter, quarter, dotted quarter) I think.

If you do a MIDI click, you can just select the bar and have it loop. That's quick, too. You'd have a little more choice about sound & feel.

[massimosammi]

Thanks!
I put 2 2 3 without any slash and it worked great.

[stubbsonic]

The /8 at the end is there to "define the basis" (8th notes, in this case). But as you noticed, DP seems to assume a default (perhaps based on the time signature?)

Glad you got it sorted. Also glad you are writing in 7/8. It's fun! Oom-pah-Oom-pah-Oom-pah-pah.

[Shooshie]

You may not want the inner subdivisions, but I often do. The way I would write 2 2 3 in 7/8, with inner subdivisions, would be:

• 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 / 8

• Space between numbers prevent 1 1 from becoming 11 (eleven), for more about that, see my next post.
• To turn any beat into an accent, select it and type COMMAND-B, as if you were "bold-facing" the type... which essentially is what you will be doing.
• The /8 tells it that the preceding beats are 8th notes.
• Apply click patterns in the time signature within the Conductor Track. (I guess you already figured out where to create and apply click patterns) Seems like you can do it from timelines in any edit window, but I may be wrong about that. Things change.
• Give your click patterns a name so that next time it's just a matter of pulling down the pattern menu.
• After that, one just may forget that to actually get a sound, you have to click the little metronome icon in the Control Panel, or hit the "CLEAR" button on the numeric keypad. (it used to be called "number lock" on old keyboards)
• To make the countoff click work a little easier, you can set it for "Follow Conductor." Then you don't have to set it up for each place you want to start.

The click pattern, its creation, application, click defaults, countoff clicks, etc. have become unwieldy in DP. You end up going to several windows to accomplish the setup of all this, and then you do the actual work in what amounts to a dialog when you click a time-change icon. I've watched all this evolve for years, and I realize that several pieces of the puzzle evolved separately, but now you have to make them all work together. It would be nice if MOTU could figure out a way to retain all current functionality, but accomplish it in one window, one set of actions.

Shooshie

[frankf]

Glad you got it sorted. Also glad you are writing in 7/8. It's fun! Oom-pah-Oom-pah-Oom-pah-pah.

"Blue Rondo ala Turk", 1959, Dave Brubeck Quartet's "Time Out" immediately comes to mind with the way you perfectly wrote that 7/8! Fun indeed!


Frank Ferrucci

[Shooshie]

A post on writing the beat patterns in DP.

DP Tips Sheet: using Beat Patterns and Clicks

The interesting part for me is the many ways you can write the same click pattern. Read the post to find out how.

Shooshie

[SMS]

"Blue Rondo ala Turk", 1959, Dave Brubeck Quartet's "Time Out" immediately comes to mind with the way you perfectly wrote that 7/8! Fun indeed!


Frank Ferrucci

Isn't "Blue Rondo..." in 9/8? In "Ooom-pahs": Oom-pah, Oom-pah, Oom-pah, Oom-pah-pah....

[stubbsonic]

Yup! And the 2 2 2 3 of the main section then smoothly rolls into 3 3 3 3 in the blues.

[frankf]

Yes! I can't count my Oom pahs ( or I can't read)