MUSC 1331 Lab 1 (Sunday Class) Basic Operations and Editing in Performer. Quantization in Performer

Transcription

1 MUSC 1331 Lab 1 (Sunday Class) Basic Operations and Editing in Performer Objectives: Quantization in Performer; Cut, Copy, and Paste editing in Performer; Transposing parts in Performer; Repeating tracks in Performer Summary Procedure Quantization in Performer NOTE: Quantization is a feature available in most sequencers that enables you to correct timing errors or move notes to a specific clock pulse value. In this section of the lab, we will work with a file that has three percussion tracks. Two of the tracks are played in time, but the "Triangle" is out of time. We will use quantization to fix the timing errors in the sequence. Launch Performer Open the MID Labs File 1. Launch Digital Performer from the Dock. 2. Copy the file "MIDI1_Lab1" from the Learning Web or directly from the instructor onto your USB drive. Unzip the file and place it on one of the drives of the computer you are working on (Note: do not unzip the file on a PC. This will corrupt the file.) Bypass any error messages on the screen if they pop up. Once the file opens, you should see this file: (Note: some of the individual items in the pictures may vary slightly due to differences in DP versions and computers.) In order for the file to properly play, you will need to change the Output for each track. Change the first three tracks to JunoD-10. Change the Bass track to JunoD-2, and the Piano to JunoD-3. It should look similar to this: MUSC 1331 Lab 1 1 Fall 2013

2 Also change the Patch. Choose appropriate patches given the track name. Note that The first three tracks will all be on the same patch. Save the Sequence in your Labs Folder 3. Save the sequence as "Last Name Lab 1" in the Documents folder. You will transfer this to your master disk at the end of the lab. 4. There are 5 tracks in this sequence. Notice the "PLAY/CH" column. Only the drum tracks are play enabled. The bass track and the piano track are muted which means that they will not play back MIDI data. Leave those tracks alone for now so that we can just listen to the percussion. Press "Play" on the transport bar. Listen very carefully to the sequence and pay close attention to the triangle part. Stop and rewind the sequence when if finishes playing. About the Triangle Part Quantize the Triangle Part 5. The triangle part is not in time with the rest of the tracks. It may be more evident by listening to the Hi hat track and the triangle part by themselves. Mute the "Kick/Snare" track by clicking the play enable button of the "Kick/Snare" track and pressing play on the transport bar. Stop and rewind the sequence when it finishes playing. These subtle timing errors may seem insignificant, but each track becomes harder and harder to record in time with the others if there are errors on all of the tracks. 6. We will now "Quantize" the triangle track to correct the timing errors. With the "Kick/Snare" track still muted, click and hold the mouse button down on the first measure of the triangle track and drag to the right to select all 12 measures on only the Triangle part. A highlighted part is sometimes referred to as a region. We will now tell Performer what we wish to do with this region. MUSC 1331 Lab 1 2 Fall 2013

3 The Quantization Window 7. From the "Region" menu, select "Quantize". You should see this box. Typically Quantize to the Fastest Note in the Passage Audition your Changes Use the Undo command Re-Quantize The Passage 8. By showing you this dialog box, Performer is asking you to choose what note value that you wish to move the notes of the triangle track to. In order to make the right decision about the note value, you must know what were the fastest notes that were played in that region (typically). The fastest notes in this region are 8th notes, but just for practice, choose something else. From the "Grid" section of the quantize box, choose quarter notes by clicking the mouse on the sixth note from the left side of the box (the quarter note), then press "OK" to confirm your choice. Make sure that Tuplet is not selected. 9. Press play on the transport bar to hear the result. When the sequence reaches the end, press stop and rewind the sequence. Quantizing the region to quarter notes moves all of the note data to the nearest quarter note so all of the extra notes seem to disappear. In reality they are still there but are happening simultaneously directly on the beat only. Before executing any other commands, we must first "UNDO" the quantization. Do that now by choosing "Undo Quantize" from the "Edit" menu. The original performance is restored. Now we can try a different value. 10. While the region is still selected, choose quantize from the "Region" menu once again. This time choose the eighth note value from the box by clicking the mouse on the 5th note from the left side of the box (the eighth note). Press "OK" to confirm your choice. MUSC 1331 Lab 1 3 Fall 2013

4 11. Play the sequence back now. Stop and rewind the sequence when it finishes. The track should sound completely in time. 12. Play enable the "Kick/Snare" track by clicking on the play enable icon on the 1st track, and play the sequence with all three tracks. Rewind the sequence when it finishes. The beat is very simple, but it will serve as a very good metronome so that we can record more tracks. If we decide to change the drums we can always come back and add more or replace the existing tracks to make the drums sound more realistic. Cut, Copy, and Paste editing in Performer NOTE: Sometimes in a performance, sections of songs repeat themselves. When sequencing, it is often a time saver to copy the performance to another section of the sequence rather than play the performance over again. In this section of the lab, we will learn how to cut, copy, and paste sections of a sequence. Enable All Tracks Select Measures 9 through Now that the triangle track has been quantized, play enable all of the tracks including the bass and piano tracks by clicking the play enable icon for both tracks. Press the rewind icon on the transport bar to effect the default patch changes for both tracks, then press play on the transport bar and listen to the whole sequence. Rewind the sequence when finished. The song basically consists of an 8 bar intro with a 4 bar verse. We need to change this by using the "Copy, Paste" editing method. We will change the song by copying measures 9-12 and pasting them at the end so that the song will be 24 measures long. 2. By utilizing the technique of highlighting a section of music that we learned in the last section of the lab, select measures 9-12 by clicking and holding (click and drag) the mouse in measure 9 of the "Kick/Snare" track and dragging the pointer to measure 12 of the "Piano" track. Remember, if you do something you didn't mean to do, or something you didn't like, choose "Undo" from the "Edit" menu before you do anything else. Undo" will only undo the very last command that you performed. If you properly selected the region, you should end up with something like this: 4. Now the information we need is in the "Buffer" and we can tell Performer what to do with that section of the sequence. We want measure 9-12 to repeat two times. Click the mouse one time at bar 13 of the "Kick/Snare" track (see below) MUSC 1331 Lab 1 4 Fall 2013

5 3. You have again defined a region. This time we will need to perform an operation from the "Edit" menu. Copy this region into the Mac's memory banks by selecting "Copy" from the "Edit" menu. Nothing appears to happen, but you have just told the Mac to make a duplicate of the information that you have highlighted. NOTE: By clicking the mouse at bar 13 on the "Kick/Snare" track, you are telling Performer where you would like to "Paste" the upper left corner of the region you selected. MUSC 1331 Lab 1 5 Fall 2013

6 Paste the Selection at Measure Now that you have selected the place in the sequence that you would like to paste the information, select "Paste" from the "Edit" menu. The copied data appears from measures If all goes well, you should see this: Audition Your Changes Paste Again Paste Again 6. Play the sequence back now to see how the change has affected the song. Stop and rewind the sequence when it finishes playing. The verse is now 16 bars long. 7. Let's say that we would like the verse to be 20 bars long. The region that we already selected remains in the buffer until we copy something else into it. Click the mouse in bar 17 of the "Kick/Snare" track and select "Paste" once again from the "Edit" menu. The sequence should be 20 bars long now. Play the sequence back to audition your changes. Stop and rewind the sequence when it finishes playing. 8. Once again place the cursor at measure 21 and select paste from the Edit menu. Now the phrase should be 24 measures in length. MUSC 1331 Lab 1 6 Fall 2013

7 Transposing in Performer NOTE: MIDI sequencers make transposing music very simple. There is no need to record measures again if it is the same material but in a different key. We must simply select those measures and choose to transpose them from one key to another. In this section of the lab, we will learn to transpose tracks in Performer. It is very important when transposing not to transpose the rhythm parts. Transposing the rhythm parts will not change the pitch of the instruments, but change the instruments all together. This is because each instrument is assigned a different MIDI note number. Since transposing parts involves changing the MIDI note assignments for a specific region, the notes of the rhythm tracks would play different instruments. Select a Region on the Bass and Piano Tracks Only 1. By using the click and drag method that you utilized earlier in the lab, highlight (select) measures on the "Bass" and "Piano" tracks only (see below). Call up the Transpose Dialog Box 2. Once again you have selected a region. Tell Performer what to do with that region by selecting "Transpose" from the "Region" menu. You should see this dialog box: Type in the Values that You Would Like to Enter 3. This dialog box allows you to transpose the pitches of the selected region from one pitch to another. The default value for both is "C3" which is middle "C". We will move the key of the selected region from "E1" to "A1". Double click the mouse in the from box and type "E" then "1", then double MUSC 1331 Lab 1 7 Fall 2013

8 click in the "to:" box and type "A" then "1". Press "OK" to confirm your changes after entering the appropriate note values. This operation tells performer to move all of the note assignments up a "Perfect 4th". Press Apply to Make the Change Audition Your File Again 4. Press Apply to perform the change. 5. Press play on the transport bar to listen to audition your changes. Stop and rewind the sequence when it finishes playing. 6. Press play on the transport bar to audition your changes. Stop and rewind the sequence when it finishes playing. Remember that if you are not satisfied that you have completed a command successfully or if you execute a command that you did not mean to, you may undo your last command by selecting "Undo" from the "Edit" menu. Save and Backup your sequence! You will turn in your USB Disk. The instructor will copy ALL information to a folder, and return the disk to you. MUSC 1331 Lab 1 8 Fall 2013