How to make clippings

[grouse]

Thanks Terry, for the response.
Would you be able to try something simple just to see how it works on Windows/ DP10?

- With a brand new DP project, create a new audio track.
- Select this track including one bar in the sequence (this can be empty of any soundbites/ data as per the previous responses in this thread).
- Go to edit menu and add the audio track to a DP clippings folder.
- Close this project.
- Open a brand new DP project from a different template and drag the audio track clipping just created into Tracks Overview.

Are the input and output italicized for you?

If anyone else fancies doing this and reporting back, that would be wonderful too

[JSmith1234567]

Bundles is a whole other subject. When importing a new one I had exported earlier, I always make certain to select all and delete the present bundles first, then the import doesn't try to "merge" with the present ones. (Import does not "write over" existing entries with the same names.)

I've been making clippings all evening of empty track layouts from the Tracks view. One thing I've learned is to get my instruments into a folder, then the MIDI pointing to those instruments into another folder. I then cmd/ctrl click each FOLDER so they are both selected, go to the edit menu and add what I've selected to a clipping window. It then copies the MIDI tracks correctly routed to their instrument tracks, so that enabling the instrument de-italicizes the target in the MIDI track.

BTW - making a folder of MIDI tracks that point to a V-rack will apparently "know" the V-rack is there if you've added the V-rack instrument already.

Creating and adding folders of tracks (MIDI, Aux, Instrument, & Audio) is the ultimate way to go with clippings, I've found. Just remember if you have routing set up to copy both folders (source and destination) into the clipping together by selecting both folders.

It works similarly with sub-busses which have SENDS or output routing to an FX containing a plugin-hosting AUX or (better for pregen) audio track. Select the submix bus first, then the destination FX track so both are selected, then add both to the clipping window together, and they will remember their sends and/or output destinations.

Terry

Wow Terry thanks for that!

I need to read this a few times and unpack it, and then try to do this.

This has been one thing I always wanted to be able to do, but never figured out right.

Thanks again!

[terrybritton]

Thanks Terry, for the response.
Would you be able to try something simple just to see how it works on Windows/ DP10?

- With a brand new DP project, create a new audio track.
- Select this track including one bar in the sequence (this can be empty of any soundbites/ data as per the previous responses in this thread).
- Go to edit menu and add the audio track to a DP clippings folder.
- Close this project.
- Open a brand new DP project from a different template and drag the audio track clipping just created into Tracks Overview.

Are the input and output italicized for you?

If anyone else fancies doing this and reporting back, that would be wonderful too

Indeed, I made a new project from scratch and all of the clippings I had created from folders using the Edit menu choice have now lost their "quarter-note" icon and have a white "file" icon instead, and none of those work being dragged into the new project. Let me try this from a different approach. I do have two that remained as quarter-note icons and those do work in the new project, though the routing is messed up (italicized). This beast has a bite!

I'll write back shortly.

Terry

[terrybritton]

...

[terrybritton]

I think I should include this caveat (this is updated after the fact of the "AHAH! Moment" posts following this one):

This procedure works best with several copies of a project that exist sharing the same project folder. Trying to use this technique with new projects in a different project folder causes the routing to break, so you have to re-do all those.

I added a bit to the portion on bundles also, which is still a beast I am determined to learn to tame.

I'll figure this out eventually...

Terry

[terrybritton]

I found out why my clippings were suddenly not working and their icon had changed from being a quarter-note to being a white file icon instead.

I had alt-clicked the name and changed it. Doing so lopped off the file extension. Perhaps a Mac operating system has the extension or filetype embedded in the file header, but on a Windows system you need to have that there. Funny that I missed seeing that the file extension .dptrackclip was missing from all the problematic ones! (I do go blind at such pressing times...)

So, now they work. Let's see if I can drag them with their routing intact.

..............

They work(!) IF I place the clippings inside a PROJECT clipping window, which is a folder that resides inside a folder named Clippings in the project folder. Then, it adapts to the bundles and routing set up in that project.

I still do not understand how bundles work (at least their commonly spoken of feature, which is supposed to permit you to move to a different hardware setup yet still have the routing intact within your project). But this is a major breakthrough.

Clippings can reside in three locations, and it appears they behave according to the kind of clipping you've defined them as.

The Global Kind:
The Digital Performer Global clippings work for DP global settings. (Not entirely certain what all of our options are there.) So, those might be MIDI files that you want available anywhere for any project (like MIDI reset clips to place into a track). In Windows, the global clippings live in the folder at:
C:\Users\[yourusername]\AppData\Local\MOTU\Clippings

The Local Project kind - two types:
Project Clippings:
These sit inside a named folder inside a Clippings folder in your project folder. You can have several copies of a project sitting in that folder, and all of them will be able to use the clippings stored in there.

Startup Clippings:
These also live in the project folder. Here is what the manual says:

Startup clipping windows are project-specific, so you can launch documents that pertain specifically to the project in which you create them.
Startup clipping windows are useful for opening
CueMix files, Reason sessions or other documents
that are related to your Digital Performer project. (Chapter 55 page 681)

So, I was mistakenly using Global clippings when I needed to be placing them in the project folder's Clippings folder. This was no biggie - I copied and pasted my clippings (with their file extensions intact) from the AppData folder to the Project Clippings folder and they all worked instantly.

I hope that helps. I'll start a bundles thread so perhaps we can sort out the mysteries of those things.

So, so far we've discovered that this procedure works very well with several copies of a "source" project that exist sharing the same project folder using the clippings to build out their sequences' tracks, or for new sequence chunks inside the same project to build the tracks out (or both), at least if your goal is to keep the routing intact with your busses and input/output assignments. Trying to use this technique with new projects in a different project folder causes the routing to break, so you have to re-do all those. If there is a file sitting in the project folder that defines these routings in some way that bundles do not fulfill, I'd love to know what the file is so I can copy it to a new template/project folder!

Terry

[grouse]

So, I was mistakenly using Global clippings when I needed to be placing them in the project folder's Clippings folder. This was no biggie - I copied and pasted my clippings (with their file extensions intact) from the AppData folder to the Project Clippings folder and they all worked instantly.

I hope that helps. I'll start a bundles thread so perhaps we can sort out the mysteries of those things.

So, so far we've discovered that this procedure works very well with several copies of a "source" project that exist sharing the same project folder using the clippings to build out their sequences' tracks, or for new sequence chunks inside the same project to build the tracks out (or both), at least if your goal is to keep the routing intact with your busses and input/output assignments. Trying to use this technique with new projects in a different project folder causes the routing to break, so you have to re-do all those. If there is a file sitting in the project folder that defines these routings in some way that bundles do not fulfill, I'd love to know what the file is so I can copy it to a new template/project folder!

Terry

That's great Terry, thank you for the extensive posts and for trying out the steps I suggested earlier.

I had come to think of it as a bug in, either, my system or some quirk in DP7 that was later ironed out.
Obviously not the case, since you are getting the same results as me!

I was hoping to be able use clippings a lot more for aux tracks especially and also VIs, with fx or no fx included as a drag and drop between projects and templates.

I realise now this will not work for the reasons you outlined above.
For example, if I use a 'project clipping' to set it up, this clipping folder will not be available to me in brand new project.

However...I've been thinking about this over the last 24 hours and I think this is how I will proceed:

I plan to move away from multiple different templates and use clippings more.
So, I'll have one main basic template that I will use 95% of the time.
From this template, I will set up many clippings folders with Aux tracks, VIs, FX etc.
Then, as I am mainly using this template for each new project, grabbing a clipping will be quicker and easier than regularly creating tracks, adding inputs, outputs and even more complex routing should be in one place ie that clipping.

As all clippings were created from that same template, it should work smoothly

I'm going to mess around with this today and see if it works. I'll report back here.
If if doesn't work, I'll go back to my old way, using all sorts of templates for different applications.

[grouse]

So, this works......really well
If I operate from a single template, the inputs and outputs from a clipping do not become italicized.

I'm keeping (nearly) all my old templates but from now I'm basically going to use just the one.
It's got one mono track, one stereo, 2 MIDI and an Aux.
I generally prefer to build up from scratch, rather than delete.

I'm going to use clippings to add pre-routed aux tracks, aux tracks with FX in them, all my VIs with 1 or several MIDI tracks.
I have clippings with a 4 to the floor kick drum which snaps to the tempo, meter change clippings for the Conductor track and much more.
A lot of these I had from before but got out of the habit of using.

Setting up a sidechain compressor used to take several steps, now I can drag a few clippings and it's there instantly.

This is the great thing about DP, if something doesn't work as you expect it to, there's always a different way of thinking and implementing it.

Now if I could figure out why sometimes my VIs become italicized when I switch sequences, I'd be set!
I previously thought the issues in this thread might be related to that but it looks like an entirely separate thing.

[terrybritton]

So, this works......really well
If I operate from a single template, the inputs and outputs from a clipping do not become italicized.

Yikes! This is huge! I was just about to try this same approach. I've been testing using Cmd/CTRL dragging project files in the same folder to make copies (I suppose "Save As" would work similarly) and then clippings all were available that way, but I prefer your template approach, as I also prefer the "build-up" approach over deletion.

I am very excited that making clippings containing the instrument and their MIDI tracks together retains the connectin between the MIDI track and the instrument. I'll use that with sets of instruments I use together often - especially for orchestral libraries.

Let me know what else you find out!

Terry

[terrybritton]

A very interesting addition by Michael Canavan: Using clippings to store "Drum Maps" that have NAMED key switches. Check that thread out!

Terry

[grouse]

A very interesting addition by Michael Canavan: Using clippings to store "Drum Maps" that have NAMED key switches. Check that thread out!

Terry

Nice! I posted over there my findings on the italics issue. Seems like he was having the same problem.

[terrybritton]

I have gleaned a little more information concerning the differences between Global Clippings and Project Clippings. But first a housekeeping note: if you are doing a lot of track and folder moving/creating/copying, then switch off all your V-Rack instruments and any other instruments you have in your project. If you have a large template, having those powered up slows down the Tracks window a lot. VEP Server instruments may be the most important ones to power down temporarily while working on this.

Global Clippings:

If you make a folder of instruments with their MIDI tracks alongside each, you can first click in the tracks area (even if empty) then select all the instrument and MIDI tracks together and make a clipping the Global Clippings that will transfer to other projects flawlessly. This is likely successful due to the fact that all the routing (MIDI to instrument, at least) is all contained therein and would never change their relationship. So, the MIDI tracks solidly point to the instrument they were intended for.

The audio output might not if you do not have the same output tracks or busses in the new project. If, however, you select the instrument tracks, the MIDI tracks AND the output track, then the routing will stay put. You'll only need to change the output track's routing at worst. But if you did not include the output track and its bus, you can use Option/Alt-A to bring up the Studio/Track Assignments tool and that will do it very quickly.

If the MIDI track depends upon an instrument EXTERNAL from the tracks window (a V-Rack or VEP Server location, for instance) then nothing will save your MIDI routing bringing a clipping from a Global clipping into a different project, and you'll need to use the Studio/Track Assignments tool to reassign. Use the "consecutive MIDI ports" feature to perform this task very fast.

Project Clippings:

HOWEVER, if you are working in the same project and are making lots of sequence chunks and are using Clippings to copy sets of tracks (including those pointing to V-racks and VEP instruments) between sequence chunks, then all the routing is retained. Just save them to a Project Clipping folder to keep them separate from your Global ones. You need to create that folder first.

In your project folder, create a folder named "Clippings" and then place your new "Project Clippings" folder inside of that, and when you reopen your project it will appear at the bottom of your Edit/Copy to Clipping Window item. (You can copy files out of your Global Clippings folder into this if you were forced to work without having made that Project Clippings folder yet.) You call up the Project Clippings window to view it from the bottom of the Projects menu.

So, my advice is to make a fantastic template and start a new project with that, (then optionally make duplicates of the project files - the various Project clippings will now transfer between those projects as long as they still live in the same folder - great for transferring additions and updates done to one project version over to another).

Of course, if you change things for the better, make a new template to start from next time.

I hope this helps and was not too long-winded!

Terry

[bayswater]

Thanks for the effort and postings on this topic. I might try this with Kontakt instruments. I try to avoid using Kontakt, but sometimes you have to go there, and this could make it less annoying.

[tunefool]

Thank you, Terry Britton, for such a great explanation. I must admit, I'm embarrassingly late at discovering the value of clippings. But I can see now it's doing what I've always wanted to do in DP: have a modular approach to loading instruments, that is -- loading them in sets, according to what I need. Do you know if a clipping can include the articulation map information for a track?

I was disappointed that the routing (MIDI output) info isn't preserved when working with VE Pro, but that's easily solved by the option-A command. Wonderful.

FWIW: I cannot drag and drop track info into a clipping window; I always have to use the Edit / Copy to Clipping Window method. Also, DP does seem touchy when working with clippings. I've had a few crashes (I'm on DP 11.21).