Share your favorite DP tip!

[toodamnhip]

OK..
I'm finally gonna chime in and add something. I've been stealing ideas from this thread for a week..LOL.

Tip=Using alt MIDI takes to make bouncing VI's to audio faster and safer.

OK..when bouncing VI's etc. I developed this trick yesterday.

1) Bounce the VI using freeze or whatever way you like

2) Un-route the VI from the main out to stop eating power.

2) Take the MIDI track that went to the VI and do the following-
2A- put an asterisk next to the take # you used-(this let's you know it was the take you used in the future for recall)
2B- (here's the new dicovery-) Create a new take in the MIDI track and name it "B"..or..like I do, "Bncd". This stands for BOUNCED.
You could also name it FRZ for FREEZE.

So what's so cool about this?

Well..it allows you to not worry about shutting off all the MIDI atuomation or having MIDI data playing a double of the audio that you have bounced if it accidentally gets play enabled again. It allows you to not have to mees with muting the MIDI track or, like I used to do, automating in a mute for the MIDI track. But it allows you to keep the routings for future reference if needed.
How about when we all accidentally option click a play button and all the old MIDI turns on? That really sucks.
This new take being named "Bncd" allows everything to stay routed without fear of things playing back when you don't want them to!

Dave

<small>[ July 27, 2005, 05:28 AM: Message edited by: toodamnhip ]</small>

[bdr]

Maybe I've missed this, but how can I quickly get numbers into the punch in and punch out areas. I know about counter to auto record, memory to , remember times etc, what I want is to hit auto record, then hit a key command to highlight the punch in point (and/or the punch out point) and just write it in all from the keyboard. Possible??

Brett

[Tim]

The stock key commands for Counter to Auto Rec in and out are F3 and F4.
One way to do what you mention is: Hit (.) on the number pad, enter the bar/beat/ticks you want for Auto Rec in, then hit F3......repeat with F4 for Auto Rec out.
Or mouse up and click in the punch in/out fields to enter values (click on the first then (TAB) to the rest).

I don't think there's any other way to manually enter the values.

[bdr]

Thx Tim, thats basically how I do it now, just hoping there was a keycommand I could hit that would then highlight the punch in bar #, then I could just tab thru the rest.

[toodamnhip]

don't let this thread die..come on guys...tips---tips---tips!

[BKK-OZ]

didn't someone offer to consolidate all these tips into an easily readable list?

Maybe we could make a community effort of some kind

-many hands make light work, etc.

[polabran]

i use dp4 live on a laptop and we have about 70 or 80 songs that were loaded as separate sequences in the chunks window. i assigned letters of the alphabet in commands to call up specific songs on the fly and/or to get in the general area of the songlist so i dont have to scroll all the way through.

[PDGood]

If you've sliced up an audio track in order to edit it and then want to select everything on that track, it's a pain to select all those slices by dragging.

To select everything on a track in the Tracks Overview window:
Command A (this highlights all the tracks)
Then click on the desired track

This will cause everything on that track to be selected.

[Sylver]

Originally posted by BKK-OZ:
didn't someone offer to consolidate all these tips into an easily readable list?

Maybe we could make a community effort of some kind

-many hands make light work, etc.

Yep, Shooshie posted this on page 6. Here it is again:

Originally posted by Shooshie:
If nobody objects to my editing, I'm planning to post these tips here in a few days in a different form. Here is an example of what I've been doing. You'll see that I've rewritten most of them to make them either more complete or more concise, depending on what is needed. I'm crediting the original tipsters in each case, but sorting them by categories. I've done about half this thread so far, and will continue as time permits.

Sample (not the final order or format):

It started with a post by Sylver: in the Digital Performer forum at Unicornation
Topic: Share your favorite DP tip! Or, things you wish someone had told you about without having to learn the hard way. [/i]

The result is a thread that is still snaking through the forum, as I compile this condensed version from the original. Here, I'm going to try to group the tips a little better, for easier reference, and I'm going to mention the name of the tipster only in italics at the end of each tip. It's important that people get recognized for their work, but the most important thing here is that the tips are easy to find and easy to use.

Tips that I've added here that do not appear in the original forum thread are credited to [Editor]. That would be myself: Shooshie, also known as Mark Roberts, of Studio HushiHomma.

So, here goes:

Category 1: MIXING

Automation when Mixing
Turn off the automation prefs under the setup window called 'effects parameter' before every mix and/or turn off the automation "write" button. When you are mixing in a DAW, it can be too easy to automate nearly everything. EQ's, mutes, pans, volumes, sends and everything else are subsequently automated if the write buttons are left on accidently when you are previewing any settings during playback. If you are panning or muting tracks just to hear how things sound, you can leave behind a trail of automation that can be ridiculously hard to clean up later. So, turn off the red automation record (write) button on all tracks, and only turn on the ones you actually want to write to. Be sure to set up your automation prefs so that you don't record automation you don't want.
_________________________
Timeline
Gary Brandt
Producer-Engineer
www.earthislandrecords.com

----------------------------

Category 1: MIXING
Automation
Snapshot Automation finishes out track settings
Snapshots can set effects settings automation to the desired position all the way to the end of a track. Look up Snapshot, Automation in index of manual. Current at time of this writing (July, 2005), page 703.
________________
TheHopiWay

----------------------------

Category 1: MIXING
Snapshot Automation for copying effects settings to another location
Page 706 in manual. Follow instructions carefully and you can copy effects settings from one place to another by
1) position playback wiper where you want to copy automation settings,
2) globally disable automation
3) move to new location
4) globally enable automation
5) Be Careful: DO NOT MOVE wiper or budge Transport Counter at this point
6) take automation snapshot
7) snapshot will copy settings as they were in the original location, and apply them at the point where you took the snapshot (new location)
______
[Editor]

----------------------------

Category 1: MIXING
Category 2: Playback
Category 3: Setup
Category 4: Editing

Grouping Tracks
Changing attributes such as Color
Categories: Mixing, Recording, Playback, Editing, Setup
Works: all windows with multiple tracks

Temporary Grouping of All Visible Tracks
Double tap "w" for a group. Tap once to un-group. This works in Tracks, Sequence, Mix, and other windows. It works for all visible tracks. If you want to change the magnification of the audio soundbites in the Sequence Window, this grouping will affect all tracks with the action you perform on a single track. Play enable, record enable, volume sliders, pan pots, mutes, etc., all will be grouped by tapping "w w", and any action will affect all tracks until ungrouped with a single tap on "w". Warning: it also works on color. Changing one track's color will change ALL tracks to the same color when grouped with the "w w". That's not undoable.

This does not work on sends, input/output assignments, takes, and voice assignments. Experiment to be certain.
________________
Kind Of Loud

----------------------------

Changing Colors of Selected Tracks
Select any tracks you want (Shift-Click). Hold down the letter "t" while picking a color. All of the tracks you selected will change to that color.
________
666

----------------------------

Temporary Group from Selection
Works: in any track with multiple tracks or track controls

Holding "T", or hitting it twice makes a temporary group of the selected tracks (not just for colors, but mix/edit too). Hit T once to cancel the temp group. Similar to "w w" but operates only on selected tracks.
_______________
Tim

----------------------------

[Sylver]

Originally posted by toodamnhip:

2) Un-route the VI from the main out to stop eating power.

I thought that I read that just muting the VI track would basically cause the VI (or effects if that is the case) to not load the CPU.

Is this NOT correct? Do we need to completely unload the plug?

[Rush909]

only if you have that setting enabled in automation settings...

r.

[Sylver]

Ahhh, I see. And then mute track automation doesn't work. Makes sense. Thanks.

[toodamnhip]

Originally posted by Sylver:

Originally posted by toodamnhip:

2) Un-route the VI from the main out to stop eating power.

I thought that I read that just muting the VI track would basically cause the VI (or effects if that is the case) to not load the CPU.

Is this NOT correct? Do we need to completely unload the plug?

I think you may have mis-understood me. I meant exactly waht I wrote...UN ROUTE>>>>
That mean, set the output of the VI to NONE>..
this unreoutes and free's system resources.

[colinmansfield]

Originally posted by FM:
Shooshie,

that is MIGHTY cool of you.

don't get me wrong, i like DP's manual but i have found it to be a bit difficult to navigate at times.

i can't remember any concrete examples right now but my main beef would be when i'm looking for something, then i find it in the index, go to that page and it's only like a little blurb that usually sends me to another page.

maybe it's just a matter of style, i mean, in the way it's put together.

FM

FM contemplates this on the tree of woe.

I gave up on the 3.5 or 4.0 manual when I wanted to look up "Consolidate" for soundbites. Not under "C", not under "Soundbites". Paging through the index I finally found it under "H". For Hard Drive...


<small>[ July 31, 2005, 09:35 PM: Message edited by: Colin Mansfield ]</small>

[Shooshie]

Originally posted by BKK-OZ:
didn't someone offer to consolidate all these tips into an easily readable list?

Maybe we could make a community effort of some kind

-many hands make light work, etc.

Sorry about that... I've gotten really busy lately, and haven't gotten back to finish the job. I wanted a particular format, consistent throughout, weeding out all irrelevant comments and questions. It just takes a little time to go through it. I'll get back to it in probably a week or so. Sounds like a lot of promises we hear from MOTU, OSX Audio, and so forth, doesn't it? Well, seriously, I'd like to finish it for my own use, so that's reason enough to believe I'll get the job done. I've got everything copied, and about the first 4 pages done.

Shooshie