Setting up a little space before the beginning of a cue

[davidmkgrossman]

Here's the scenario:
I want to begin a cue at a specific place in the movie, with a new tempo, right on the first beat of the measure. So I start a new sequence (chunk). But I want some non-tempo stuff to come before.

Can I set a new chunk right at the cue minus (for example) 8 measures? The only way I figured I could do it was to figure out how many frames 8 measure is, and subtract this from time code of the spot where I want the cue to begin, but this didn't work very well for me (bad calculating?). I couldn't quite get the in-tempo part of the sequence to begin exactly where I wanted. It was close enough, but I was wondering if anyone knows how to do this easily.
Thanks!
David

[MIDI Life Crisis]

You might try doing the lead in separate from the score in different chunks and popping them into song mode (as I discovered today) and then merging the song to a new sequence, or just do the music as a separate chunk and merge them when you're done.

Yeah, SMPTE calculations can get confusing sometimes, especially when you want to go to something before the actual movie start time.

[frankf]

Use Modify Conductor Track>Insert Measures to Insert the 8 measures before bar 1 AFTER setting the sequence start time and tempo. For time code calculations use Hiro's Timecode Calculator widget.
Frank

[davidmkgrossman]

Inserting measures seemed like it would be a great, simple solution, but that doesn't work, because now the new blank measures have pushed the rest of the stuff forward, but I wanted that stuff to start at the exact point I specified. If I could say "insert 8 new measures starting at measure number negative-8" then I'd be golden.

The widget looks interesting. Thanks.

dg

[frankf]

Inserting measures seemed like it would be a great, simple solution, but that doesn't work, because now the new blank measures have pushed the rest of the stuff forward, but I wanted that stuff to start at the exact point I specified. If I could say "insert 8 new measures starting at measure number negative-8" then I'd be golden.

The widget looks interesting. Thanks.

dg

what do you mean by "pushing the stuff forward"? Insert measures before bar 1 will add specified number of measures and will adjust the Chunk (sequence) start time accordingly so bar 1, beat 1 remains at the same frame location it was prior to using the Insert command. Am I missing something?
Frank

[davidmkgrossman]

By forward, I mean later on in the timeline, further to the right on the screen.

For example: I have a cue, which is at 40 minutes into the movie. Now I want to put some atmospheric stuff before it hits that cue. (it's important that the first beat of the measure lands right at the 40 min mark). If I insert 8 measures, the problem is, I haven't backed up 8 measures worth in the movie.

I suspect MIDI-life-crisis' solution may be the best.

It could be that I don't understand the "set chunk start" dialog box?

[frankf]

What I said, but let me make sure we are talking about the same thing.
Since you didn't provide start times or tempos, let's assume the following:
The Movie starts at 1:00:00:00. The cue and Sequence start at 1;40;00;00 at bar 1. The tempo of the cue is 60bpm, tempo is set to Conductor track and the meter is 4/4.
-using the Insert Measures command, insert 8 measures (=32 beats, =32seconds at 60bpm) before bar 1. The chunk/seq will now start at bar -7 and the chunk/seq start time will change to 1;39;28;00 ie, 8x4=32 seconds earlier. Bar 1, beat 1 will remain at 1;40;00;00, and the relation to the Movie will not change. You will see 32seconds more of it at the top and can record in those 8 inserted bars.
Read the sections in the manual on the Conductor Track and Movie Window for more info.
Frank

[davidmkgrossman]

I tried again - and you were right. I was missing one crucial step: I had to check the "Maintain all times following the insertion point" box. Just couldn't figure out what that meant.

Thanks for the help!!!

David

[frankf]

I forgot to mention that, so give yourself a lot of the credit !
Frank