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I've found that, in DP8, one can no longer hear the dialogue in the movie during countoff. Hearing the dialogue during countoff was very useful to me because sometimes the cue start times given to me by the editor needed tweaking to get the cue start between sentences, etc. I could more easily gage the entrance flow of the cue by listening to it with a long countoff.

Has anyone else found this limiting? Has anyone found a way to change the settings to allow dialogue to be heard during countoff?

Not an issue for me... yet... but you might start the sequence earlier. Not ideal, but unless others have a workaround or a bona fide procedure, that would be my initial suggestion. I'm sure you've already thought of that wonky workaround. Sorry I don't have another.

Ah the joys of scoring silent films...

Behavior has changed in DP8. The previous count-off use to just play the video early. But with the rewrite of the new video engine…which is actually NOT using QuickTime to play your video…but MOTU's video engine…the new count-off feature is not playing the video early by the amount you are counting off. It is simply counting off before starting the sequence.

In order to do what you want…just "insert measures" and select say...4 measures before measure 1. Make sure it is checked to keep all times the same so it will simply shift the timeline ti the right and keep all time codes in sync. You will add negative measures to your timeline before Measure 1. Then just play the video from there and you will have your "count-off" measures before measure 1 start…and some space on the font of your sequence to have any pre-MIDI automation CC data, etc…This is how I have been doing it forever. the count-off feature really came out of a time where you needed pre-roll to get all the DA-88 tapes in sync before you came to the punch-in point. But…now with digital video and no digital tape decks…it is just better to build that time into the timeline with negative measures. In my opinion.

Belated (very belated!) thanks to all replies. Indeed, when meeting with some MOTU folks at AFI in LA, I was told the re-write of the audio/film engine would not allow movie audio during count-off. So, yes, as suggested, I am now inserting negative measure number prior to my cue start. As you stated, this has the advantage of setting controllers, of course.