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Greetings,

I am totally new to DP. I just got version 8. Im running into a few issues and Im hoping you can help me, Im a former Sonar user, and I just need to adjust to the workflow, its such a deep and powerful program!

1. Am I limited to only 2 bars as a count in? Im aware of the 2bar button, but Im hoping there is an adjustment.

2. In Quickscribe, Im confused on how to create a Grand Staff for my Piano tracks, they default with just one staff per line. In addition, if I stop recording MIDI, and then start again, Quickscribe wont show my new take....?

3. When I set my Markers, I want to hear the playback from a Marker, but for some reason the first note never plays....?

4. I want to move a line of my MIDI sequence, or delete all or part of it. I cant find a way to highlight the whole line, only 1 bar at a time. ?

5. Finally, when Im done with a DP file, with both Audio and MIDI, I would like to send it to a friend for Mastering, what is the best format that wont comprimise audio?

Thanks so much in advance for any tips, Im ready to pull the trigger on DP8 training videos, Im just not sure which are the best.
Ed

1.

1. In preferences, or (more directly) you can double-click on the count-off button and it will open that preference for you. You can set the count-off to be on, off, or for record only, set the number of bars, etc. There are a host of other controls for the click sound as well.

2. There are a couple ways to get a grand staff for piano. My preferred way is to create two separate tracks, one for RH and one for LH. This allows me to control which notes go to which clef/staff of the grand staff. You can then select both the RH and LH tracks and open the QS window. The only hitch with this is that you can't switch clefs on a single MIDI track (If you want to switch from treble/bass to treble/treble, you have to do some other steps).

In any case, to change the clef or choose the grand staff of each MIDI track, find the QS mini menu (a tiny circled triangle in the upper right of the QS window) find Options/Track Options...

At the top it says "Track" and has a pop menu. There you can choose "Default" which will change the default settings for all tracks. Or you can choose a specific track and change the settings for that track alone. If you choose a specific track, you can pick the clef or grand staff. So if your MIDI track is all in one track pick grand staff and DP will automatically assign notes to either the Treble or bass clef based on its own rules. I don't know if there is a way to move notes to the opposite staff, but perhaps someone will mention it.

3. If your marker is at 8|1|000 and your first note is 7|4|474, you won't hear that first note. You might be able to mitigate this by turning on note chasing in the chasing settings. This will tell DP to look backward in time for some things you might not like to miss when starting in the middle of a sequence. (sustain pedal?, note starts? pitch bend?, etc.)

4. If by "line" you are referring to a MIDI track, you would want to be in the TRACKS OVERVIEW window where you can see all the tracks and measures in a sort of grid. You can select there. My trick for selecting an entire track is to first do a "select-all" then click on the track name to limit the selection to a single track.

5. As for audio, it would be useful to know what will be your final format? CD? Compressed as MP3, loss-less? etc.? As for the MIDI, you would probably want to go ahead and "print" your MIDI tracks to audio tracks. That way the person who is mixing and mastering will hear what you intend for them to hear. You can send the MIDI tracks as well, as they may have better VI's that what you have.

Hopefully, you will be able to find more helpful info in the manuals. Nothing I've described here is hard to find in the manual. There are also a couple really nice books on using DP.

http://www.amazon.com/Power-Digital-Per ... 1476815143

http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Performer ... 145840224X

Most of us have been where you are. Trying to figure things out and not knowing where to look in the manual.

drjazz930 wrote:Im ready to pull the trigger on DP8 training videos, Im just not sure which are the best.

IMHO the Groove3 videos are excellent. There are also several good videos on the MOTU TV channel on YouTube.

http://www.groove3.com/str/motu-training/

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL ... vC-CjtB6vf

Hello,

Thanks so much for your prompt replies, Im going to check all this great info out later today!

Edward

Another little note about "chasing".

If you are cueing up sections using Markers, and you have note chasing on, any notes that are currently sustaining (and started prior to) at the playback location will start when you hit play (i.e., late). This might cause looped groove things to be shifted late. Might not matter much for some things, but just to be aware that your actually-correct playback will occur when you start playback either at the beginning, or between sustained notes.