MOTUnation.com

After years of using performer and many false starts with chunks I finally forced myself to actually take the time and figure it out. usually I would decide to score something and try to start with chunks but would always panic, because I wasn't understanding the concept, and would revert to the old linear approach or the multiple projects/sequence approach. The part that took a while to get was the, how does a chunk relate to the same quicktime movie, part? Then after farting around, and getting it wrong a few times, I got it.

The tricky part for me is that I always start my sequences on measure 3 so that I have plenty of time for patch changes and tempo changes and I can still start on an oddd measure. This part I'm still adjusting as I like the 2 bars for free thing. I just choose a smpte TC that's a bit earlier and leave myself enough room for patch / volume changes if needed.

V racks has also been a reason that I finally took the plunge. An instrument that is always available. Just like a hardware module. GREAT!!!

So the other thing that I finally got was using SMPTE code as my starting point after spotting and making my chunks based on that. Then using that code and calling it measure 1 while the picture just floats and forgets about what's before that SMPTE location. The only thing that I haven't figured out is how do I make the movie audio track, that I usually print to an audio track, float like the movie track? Since it is an actual audio track it moves...... I prefer a physical track that I can mute and not the audio fader on the QT movie window. Any Ideas?


Anyway, after about 20 years of using Performer I feel like I'm finally using it like I should have for all of these years.

ron AKA homebilly

You can extract the Movie audio from the movie window mini menu. It will automatically create an audio track with the movie audio; you should then lower the audio fader at the movie window.

I like to have extra measures at the top too - you can enter 0 or even -1 so that you have the extra measure & your sequence still starts on bar 1

The audio question you have confuses me too, it seems like it doesn't stay put.

the problem with that is that if i create the audio track on the first sequence then every duplicated sequence (chunk) will have the same audio track EXCEPT that the audio will remain at bar 1.00.00.00 even though i change the sequence start point to 1.04.15.12 for example. the audio track doesn't adjust itself and trim itself to the new SMPTE start. so i am forced to use the movie attached to the QT movie since it is ALWAYS glued to picture and does adjust.

Does that make sense? But I am stuck raising and lowering the volume fader on the QT movie track as a result. I'm not complaining as I am very happy to finally get it. I just would like to know if I am missing something????

If you change the start time, you can always delete the old audio track and extract it again to the new position.

that's the problem. it keeps creating new audio files and that adds to the already long list.

i'll keep experimenting but as of now i'll just use the fader in the window.

________


i just called MOTU tech support and they confirmed the (if you want the audio from the movie on a track in sync, then you have to re-do it for each chunk) approach. Also the V-Rack thing that is driving me crazy. Each V-Rack has its own mix window along with the main mix window and there is only the (v) icon to see the last V-Rack and not a drop down list to choose from. You have to go back to the chunks window to get to your other V-Racks.

The Tech dude suggesting BTD but as I use VSL on another Mac and loop it into DP the bounce to disk option is out for me and switching outputs on V-Racks and AUX faders gets a bit monotonous.

homebilly wrote:I prefer a physical track that I can mute and not the audio fader on the QT movie window. Any Ideas?

If you are using the audio directly from the QT movie window, you can option-click on the Volume icon to mute/unmute the audio. This way you can find a volume and leave it there, and then toggle it between completely off and your chosen volume.

that'll work for me. thanks

For each new chunk, highlight the movie soundbite in the tracks window, then select Move To Original/User Time Stamp from the Audio menu.

It seems that when you make the audio track from the QT movie there is no Time stamp. I get a message saying that "None of the selected sound bites have time stamps"

This would have worked great. I'll keep trying and all help is welcomed. In the mean time i'm loving using said chunks.

What surprises will I discover when I go to make the song out of the chunks??????

Time will tell.

Thanks again
Ron

homebilly wrote:
What surprises will I discover when I go to make the song out of the chunks??????

I don't know about video surprises, as I've not done much video in DP. But the main things you have to be wary of when going back to a big single file are track duplication (you choose whether to duplicate tracks or merge them), and copying the Conductor Track. Nothing big in either case, just something to consider.


Shooshie

There is something else that you can do: instead of having the movie float around for each chunk, leave it untouched and change the sequence start time measure.

Lets say for example that you want to start writing music for a chunk at 1.04.15.12, and that would roughly correspond to measure 40, then change the sequence start time to measure -39, so now 1.04.15.12 will be measure 1. Place a marker right there and forget what you had before. Now the movie and its reference track will always stay locked for every chunk.

If you are working with a long video with several cues, you can always edit the video in iMovie or QT pro, and load different movie segments to each chunk.

it's a good idea but it's still a bit of a chore to start with the TC location and make the reverse calculation to make it become measure one.

although instead of -49 (measure) maybe -1.04.29.12 (TC) to make measure 1.

let me check it out. It's still a work around but I'll give it a whirl.

I'm trying to see if I can remap the QT movie fader/slider to a slider on my radius 61.

Any programmers out there.........?

Thanks

So far so good with the chunks. it sure makes changes much more flexible. If it were not for V-racks I don't see how using VIs in multiple chunks would be easy on the Mac.

At this point I can live with the volume slider on the QT movie.

Thanks to all.
ron

homebilly wrote:So far so good with the chunks. it sure makes changes much more flexible. If it were not for V-racks I don't see how using VIs in multiple chunks would be easy on the Mac.

At this point I can live with the volume slider on the QT movie.

Thanks to all.
ron

I don't think that it was really possible to use multiple chunks with VIs before V-Racks. I wasn't using VIs even 6 months ago, and when I would describe my method of working in chunks (with my hardware-based racks), I would get a lot of consternation and criticism. At first I didn't understand why people refused to see the value in what i was describing. Then when I tried it myself with a VI, I saw what they meant. Because each chunk was creating a separate instance of that VI, even though they were not playing simultaneously, one would quickly run out of CPU bandwidth. Now that V-Racks make it possible to use the same VI throughout, the Chunks method is once again a viable way to work.

DP's flexibility is back!

By the way, a tip for setup is to output all VIs through bus pairs. Then use the bus pairs as inputs into Aux tracks. This way, it is possible to highlight a MIDI track and an Aux track, and freeze that VI's track. Running the VIs in V-Racks directly through an audio channel, monitored through an Aux track, does not allow for freezing the track.

Shooshie