Digital Performer Tips, Edited

[Shooshie]

Excellent tip, Alex, and one I've been using in some way, shape, or form for many years. There are variations on it... might be able to parlay this into several tips, or a small mini-section. Thanks!

Shooshie

[Shooshie]

Originally posted by Joel Kanning:
I would be willing to donate my time/resources to put together the final PDF.

....

Anyhoo, check it out and let me know...

Joel Kanning

Joel, That looks fantastic! Are you actually grouping these? I saw a line under one entry that I took to mean that you had repeated a tip in another section, making it available under different Catagories. I think that's a great idea, too.

Altough I added a couple of tips to the beginning of the document, I'll be sure to add the remaining ones, as they come in, to the end of it, so that you can find them easily if you want to continue doing this. What a great looking resource!

Thanks much for your efforts,

Shooshie

[joelkanning]

Thanks for all your positive comments on the PDF. I'm a graphic designer by day, so I thought it would be nice to put those skills to work for something worthwhile!

Shooshie,

Yeah, I thought that if a tip was applicable in multiple categories that we could just repeat it in those categories. Makes sense to me - if anybody thinks this would be counter-productive let me know.

Joel Kanning

[dix]

Temporary Grouping of All Visible Tracks: Double tap "w" for a group. Tap once to un-group.

Any idea why this doesn't work on my setup? I've confirmed that "w" is not being used as a key command on anything else. Double tapping "t" works for selected tracks. What am I doing wrong? thanks

[Shooshie]

Originally posted by dix:

Temporary Grouping of All Visible Tracks: Double tap "w" for a group. Tap once to un-group.

Any idea why this doesn't work on my setup? I've confirmed that "w" is not being used as a key command on anything else. Double tapping "t" works for selected tracks. What am I doing wrong? thanks

Try using W in the mixing board. Hit it twice, then move a fader and see if they all move. If not, you may have "Suspend Groups" selected under the... let's see... I think it's the Project menu. It's a submenu, I think.

Shooshie

[waxman]

Man you constantly blow me away...

I did it and it is working great....

Only one thing. why do my ADAT outs come up 15-22 ???

Ok two questions...

do I need to keep the MOTU 896hd listed since I changed it to aggregate (and called it something sweet) ???

Is that why I get the higher ADAT #s

[BKK-OZ]

Waxman,

Could I suggest you start a new thread on your question - if there are others out there who can help (or benefit from the solution) they will never find it buried here.

Justa suggestion & sorry I can't help you with your problem.

[dix]

Originally posted by Shooshie:

Originally posted by dix:

Temporary Grouping of All Visible Tracks: Double tap "w" for a group. Tap once to un-group.

Any idea why this doesn't work on my setup? I've confirmed that "w" is not being used as a key command on anything else. Double tapping "t" works for selected tracks. What am I doing wrong? thanks

Try using W in the mixing board. Hit it twice, then move a fader and see if they all move. If not, you may have "Suspend Groups" selected under the... let's see... I think it's the Project menu. It's a submenu, I think.

Thanks, but I didn't realize it was a key-command that had had inadvertently been deleted (d'oh!) - thanks again

[Shooshie]

Originally posted by waxman:
Man you constantly blow me away...

I did it and it is working great....

Only one thing. why do my ADAT outs come up 15-22 ???

Ok two questions...

do I need to keep the MOTU 896hd listed since I changed it to aggregate (and called it something sweet) ???

Is that why I get the higher ADAT #s

Waxman, the ADATs come out as 15-22, because everything is renumbered sequentially. If you can't guess the identities of the ports, you may need to select them and play something through them, then see which meter lights up. Rename the channels in Audio Bundles to keep it straight. Then you won't be guessing in the I/O drop-down lists.

You don't need the original 896 ports in your list anymore; they won't work unless the 896 is selected. If you select only the Aggregate, only its ports are operating.

Shooshie

[Shooshie]

Musicarteca:

Alex, I added your mix-copying tip to the document. I also added a few variations on it. You might want to take a look. I'm pasting it in here for convenience:

THEME WITH VARIATIONS: [Editor's Note: The Following tips must be kept together in PDFs or Databases. They are interdependent, and don't make sense when separated.]
Category: Mixing
Category: Setup
THEME:
••••••••••••Duplicating Mix From Song to Song••••••••••••
Involves: Mixing Board, LOAD Menu, Chunks Window, Sequence Editor
Lets say you are mixing an album that has all the songs with similar instrumentation, you want to mix the first song and use this mix as a starting point for the rest of the songs. We shall explore some variations on this idea.

•••••• VARIATION 1:
Loading Chunk to new DP Project
We will assume that there is one song per project. Here is the procedure:
[Editor's Note: throughout this tip, "Song" refers to a song in the traditional sense (as in a new DP project file), NOT DP's "Song Window" from the Chunks Mini-Menu.]
••• 1- Mix song #1
••• 2- Open song #2, and from the File menu Load song #1. Make sure not to load soundbites. A new empty chunk is created with the mix from song #1, including all levels and plug-ins.
••• 3- Compare the track layout from this new chunk to the previous chunk (original song #2 chunk). Add, delete or arrange tracks on the new chunk to fit the previous one.
••• 4- Go to the original song #2 chunk, select everything and copy.
••• 5- Go to the new chunk, and paste. Now you have song #2 with a reference mix from song #1, ready to start retouching the mix.

- Here is a little tricky part: the levels that are loaded are the "initial" values from the mix, which might not be what you want as a reference value. Lets say that mix #1 starts with a fade in on several tracks, their loaded (initial) value will be zero. To overcome this, here is what you do "before" loading the reference mix:

••• 6- Go to song #1 who is already mixed, and shift the sequence 2 measures late (now the sequence starts at measure 3 instead of measure 1 for example).
••• 7- Place the wiper in a place of the mix where the levels suit your preferred reference levels.
••• 8- Disable automation
••• 9- Go to measure 1 and take a snapshot "from counter to next change (flat)".
••• 10- Enable automation.
••• 11- Now you have a mix that has the initial reference values on measure 1 and start the automation levels for this particular song on measure 3.
••• 12- you are ready to load the reference mix on the next song.
_________________
musicarteca
--------------------
--------------------

Variations on a theme by musicarteca:
•••••• VARIATION 2:
Duplicating Mix In Multiple Chunks, Same DP Project
If you are mixing multiple songs in the same DP file (using multiple chunks), use Variation 1 with the following alterations:
••• Step #2
••â€

[Shooshie]

August 7, 2005: I edited the Aggregate Device tip today with this disclaimer:

August 7, 2005: Further developments in the application of this tip have left me suspicious that it causes a terrible bug in which DP loses its real-time addressing of files such as plugins, AUs, Virtual Instruments, and even gets mixing board windows confused with different chunks. This is a developing story. I am leaving the tip here for information purposes, but I advise NOBODY to use it until this is resolved. The problem is serious, and reinstallation of DP does not fix it. I suspect it's going to require a full re-install of Tiger on a clean disk. So, here's the tip, but you are advised not to use it until this message is gone, and the all-clear is given.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

If anyone has made a copy of this tip sheet for further distribution, it is very important that you add that, or copy the whole sheet again.

Thanks,

Shooshie

<small>[ August 07, 2005, 10:01 AM: Message edited by: Shooshie ]</small>

[pigital derformer]

Here's a few things I do when chopping up soundbites by hand in the sequence editor, say, for export to a sampler.

The quickest way to make both grid conforming and non-grid conforming chops of audio in the sequence editor is to turn grid on at desired resolution, select the I-beam tool and then click on track name to hightlight it in the left hand column. This way you can use the I-Beam cursor which will snap to the grid and press option-y to chop audio there OR use command-y to chop exactly where the wiper is (not snapping to grid).

(Clicking the track name stops you having to double click the soundbite's bar to select it (yellow border) every time you want to use the wiper chop command).

For chopping using the wiper it is useful to first set zoom settings 1,2 and 3 in mini menu for quick zoom jumps - and then for extra zoom control click and drag wiper up or down. With practice you can get from a whole song view down to sample level at a specific point in a couple of seconds.

They are quite a boring tip I know but it speeds things up when you're chopping up lots of audio by hand.

[Shooshie]

Originally posted by jazzmistress:
Here's a few things I do when chopping up soundbites by hand in the sequence editor, say, for export to a sampler.

The quickest way to make both grid conforming and non-grid conforming chops of audio in the sequence editor is to turn grid on at desired resolution, select the I-beam tool and then click on track name to hightlight it in the left hand column. This way you can use the I-Beam cursor which will snap to the grid and press option-y to chop audio there OR use command-y to chop exactly where the wiper is (not snapping to grid).

(Clicking the track name stops you having to double click the soundbite's bar to select it (yellow border) every time you want to use the wiper chop command).

For chopping using the wiper it is useful to first set zoom settings 1,2 and 3 in mini menu for quick zoom jumps - and then for extra zoom control click and drag wiper up or down. With practice you can get from a whole song view down to sample level at a specific point in a couple of seconds.

They are quite a boring tip I know but it speeds things up when you're chopping up lots of audio by hand.

Not boring at all. It's in the list now. Thanks!

Shooshie

[musicarteca]

A/B-ying tracks:

To quickly compare two tracks that have similar information (A/B Comparison), solo and mute track A, and leave track B untouched. Now clicking on the solo button, or pressing its keyboard shortcut, will toggle listening between tracks A and B. I personaly use the letter "S" for solo shortcut, since I never use the scrub tool.

<small>[ August 07, 2005, 07:34 PM: Message edited by: musicarteca ]</small>

[musicarteca]

Originally posted by Shooshie:
Musicarteca:

Alex, I added your mix-copying tip to the document. I also added a few variations on it. You might want to take a look. I'm pasting it in here for convenience:

Looks fine Shooshie, keep up the good work!