Time-signature workflow could be improved...

[FMiguelez]

Hi.
I discovered something I really think could be improved in how we deal with multiple time signature changes and how the metronome clicks:

The problem: There's no global way to change metronome click patterns.
Once you set the click pattern, like getting a click every quarter note, the only way to change it is to go back to the time sig and change it to what you want, which is fine when you have 1 or 2 TS changes... but if your piece has TS changes almost every measure, and is a long piece, then you have to essentially retweak every single change manually, and it's such a fantastic waste of time...


Shouldn't there be an option to be able to do these elementary changes globally ONCE??
I'd love to be able to tell DP:
"DP, keep all my TS changes but set the click to 8th notes from measures 10 to 75"

Bam! Done with one click! MOTU could improve this by adding a couple of extra options in the TS dialog box.

Case in point:
Suppose you're working with a piece like I mentioned. Then you feel that one of the sections feels a bit stiff tempo-wise, and you want to add some rubato, so you use Tap Tempo... but wait. It works best when you tap small units, so you need to tell DP that your taps are eight notes... but then you need to essentially go back and redo ALL the TS changes and set the way you want the click individually... A 20-30-minute unnecessary waste of time. And then, if you want to go back to hearing quarter-note clicks, you'd have to do it all over again for the 3rd time...

My workaround has been to create a clipping that only includes the original TS changes and click, then nuke them all by setting them to an arbitrary 1/4 measures clicking 8th notes, do the Tap Tempo, and bring them back with the clipping... but is an involved workaround which becomes silly to keep doing.

Have you ever run into this? Would you mind seeing this functionality added?

[bayswater]

Seems like a worthwhile feature, but I wonder whether, when you have a complicated metronome pattern that needs frequent editing, it might be better to have an explicit MIDI click track playing a metronome sample. With that you could use the search and edit functions, a la Shooshie, and make changes of this sort. Or perhaps have several click tracks and turn them on and off as needed.

[mikehalloran]

If DP supported MusicXML Import, this could be laid out in any notation app beforehand—the way I like to do it—and then import. As it is, you can still lay it out in notation and then export MIDI instead.

[FMiguelez]

Seems like a worthwhile feature, but I wonder whether, when you have a complicated metronome pattern that needs frequent editing, it might be better to have an explicit MIDI click track playing a metronome sample. With that you could use the search and edit functions, a la Shooshie, and make changes of this sort. Or perhaps have several click tracks and turn them on and off as needed.

If DP supported MusicXML Import, this could be laid out in any notation app beforehand—the way I like to do it—and then import. As it is, you can still lay it out in notation and then export MIDI instead.

It's not so much the complexity of the click track.

What I really want is a way to set the click values without messing up the already-entered time signatures.
This could be solved if they could be set independently. All is needed are a couple of extra options in the existing Time Signatures dialog box.

So at one stage I might want to hear clicks every quarter note; then later I want to use eight notes (for tap tempo).

Ideally, the switch could be done with one quick command so as to not interrupt the creative workflow with workarounds.