jkoseattle

Why is it that the Tempo functionality has remained pretty much unchanged in all these years? It's simply awful. I could start a list of things I hate about dealing with Tempos in CbB but it would be a long list, and I don't have any time left because I've spent the last half hour trying to get my tempos right. I just needed to vent.

Yes, this is in Console View. I'm talking about Track View.

Funny, I also keep track folder names in all caps. I also put a bunch of spaces before the name so that track folder names are indented. But no more, since they're gone now. OK, so Bob, you've given me a great compromise idea here. I'm going to keep the track colors for sections, which is handy, but I'm going to put every track I haven't used yet into a big empty Tracks folder. Then when I decide I want to use a certain instruments, I'll just take it out. So.... this is what I have now in my "Jim Anything" template: DUMMY folder - a couple piano tracks, a couple organ tracks, for instrumental and vocal line scratch pads. These instruments are the quick loading TruePianos and DimensionLE. all other instruments are unloaded, so that should an idea strike I can open a new project quickly (important!). VOCAL folder - contains a dozen or so audio tracks for leads, BGV, etc., with the buses and everything already set up. I usually don't record vocals until later on down the line, so this is ok UNUSED folder - contains about 40 tracks, colored by section, all ready to go except their instruments are unloaded. When I want to bring an instrument into the fray, I will drag it out of the UNUSED track folder. It son't be in a folder at all in fact. DRUM OUTPUT folder - contains all the audio outputs for my drums, only used at mixdown time. In fact, I should just hide this folder. This is gonna be great!

Thanks for the detailed explanation. Muchof this stuff i'm already aware of, but not all, so I picked up a few tips! We are actually doing things very similarly. I have one track folder for all my vocals, which I'm keeping. I also have a track folder called "Dummy" that has half a dozen scratch tracks. Everything else is instrument tracks, of which there about about 40. Used to be that sections each had their own folder. Now sections are distinguished by track colors (which reflect the output bus). Where I used to have track folders for "Band", "Strings", "Percussion", "Brass" etc., now I'm relying on the colors. The big problem I have with track folders, which your post doesn't address, is that it shows clips representing the aggregate of all the clips in that folder's tracks. I don't want this. Say for example I have a piece with a violin, bass gtr, flute and xylophone. In my previous setup each of these instruments resided in a different track folder, so in addition to the clips for the four instruments, there are these useless "folder clips" as well, so my TV screen looks like there are eight tracks with data in them, only that four of them are fake news as they are these track folder aggregate things. Once things start to get thick, and different instruments come in and out over the course of the piece, and you can see how this would get unnecessarily cluttered. I do use the H shortcut all the time, but what I was hoping for would be another button in the Track Manager labeled "Empty" that would allow me to toggle empty tracks.

Simple question: Is there any way to hide empty tracks? I'm trying to reduce clutter in TV so I've done away with track folders completely because I can't remove those "ghost clips" which look exactly like real clips but serve little purpose, and now I'd like to be able to quickly hide empty tracks so I'm just looking at the piece I'm working on and not a bunch of instruments I'm not using.

I have been trying to use the ProChannel EQ on my latest projects because I like the UI and I like how it's bundled in and easy to see in Console. However, it's kind of inconvenient to use. In TV or PRV for example it seems I only have access to that unusable tiny rendition of the plug-in, in he strip on the left, and it I want to open it up for more detailed editing I need to go to Console and then I need to click those obscure little buttons to get it to open up. Am I missing something? I'm tending to go back to Sonitus EQ just for this reason.

Oh, ok, I'm talking about doing this in PRV

Interesting. That works. I have channel input set to None all the time anyway, but Event Inspector will work. I'm used to using keyswitches most of the time, but in this case the patches I'm using cross multiple instruments. Also, I think I wasn't clear on my other need. I know about holding down shift to move notes in time, but what I would want (in a situation where I'm displaying multiple tracks in PRV) is to select some notes in one track, then simply move them to another track without changing their place in time. The only way I know of to accomplish this is to ensure the Now time is set to the beginning of your selection, which can be tricky. Maybe there is a shortcut for moving the Now time to the start of the selection? IOW the start of the green bar?

Ah ok, I was afraid of that. EastWest Play has a lot of real estate devoted to adding in multiple instruments on different channels, it seems disappointing that CbB can't take a little more advantage of that. I often edit multiple tracks in PRV and can see how that method could work, but what would make it much more usable would be two things, which I've mentioned in previous posts as potentially great features: 1) A Randomize color feature. Usually I don't care what color my tracks are. What I care about is that the colors are different enough that I can tell them apart in PRV. I want to be able to tell CbB "make the colors of all the tracks I'm looking at in PRV different enough that I can tell them apart" 2) The ability to select notes and move them to a different track right in place. Currently I have to cut and paste, which would even be ok except for the fact that the Now time has to be exaaactly at the start of the selection or else CbB pastes it to wherever the now time is. So annoying.

Thanks for all the ideas. The XLN thing looks pretty nice, I'll see what I can get from the comments here though. also installed Izotope Vinyl, which I think might have come with an old version of Sonar because it looks familiar. It's a little too basic I think, but will certainly be helpful.

This is a piece I wrote a few years back, at a time I was into Fats Waller. If you're looking for "real" music that's like this, Waller would be a good place to start. Plus, he's terrific fun to listen to anyway. I remember I was also listening to Art Tatum at the time as well, and I probably absorbed notions from him too. For years I'd thought about how the Beatles song was the most well-known piece of avant-garde music in the world, and that there were actually numerous bits in it that were actual music that maybe people would recognize if heard in another context. I don't know how much of anyone could pick out, so I also put together a recording showing the original bits side by side with the piano bits that match it so I'd have a record of it: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8j7nholzze7c4ak/Revolution at 9.1 Comparisons.mp3?dl=0

I would like to create a multi-channel EastWest instrument that consists of a bunch of different brass articulation patches, one on each channel. Then I would like to have that instrument represented in a single "Brass" track in CbB. I want to write my brass part all on the single track, and then select certain notes to go to the channel containing the articulation I want. For example, say my instrument has a legato patch in channel 1 and a staccato patch in channel 2. My brass line contains both legato and staccato notes in it, so some notes need to route to channel 1 and some to channel 2. Making these changes needs to be relatively fast because I'd like to be able to switch back and forth a lot to experiment with different sounds. I'm also hoping I can somehow distinguish notes by channel via different colors or something, so I can quickly see which channel and therefore which articulation, is being played by a given note in PRV. How is this accomplished?

I love the old recordings from the 50's, usually in mono, for movie soundtracks and musicals. Modern versions of that kind of music just don't work for me, and I know it's because the recording techniques and equipment are different. The bass is too detailed, the stereo is too pronounced, the balance is too perfect, etc.. Musically, I have no trouble handling the old orchestrations, harmonies, phrasings, all that. It's just the audio quality that's wrong. I'd like to be able to emulate that old sound in some of my upcoming work. I've tried things like mono, rolling off bass and treble, compression, but I've never come that close. The sound is so clean and "safe", yet exciting because it evokes that era. What am I doing wrong? Is there maybe an effects plug-in I can use? I am limiting myself to EastWest ComposerCloud, so not interested as much in instrument patches. Any help is appreciated! For examples, try the soundtracks to Gigi or An American in Paris. Or really any soundtracks from that era.

That's it!!

OK, I thought there was a way to have multiple controller pans on above the other. So I now have the controllers overlaid and see what you mean, but I don't like it, so I want to go back to how it was, and now I can't seem to get the controller NOT overlaid again...

In the PRV controller pane, I'm having trouble setting the wheel to zero. Seems I have to click exaaaactly on the zero line in the controller pane, and if I miss by even a pixel, CbB sets the wheel to that spot, making the instrument just slightly out of tune. There are a few ways I've tried this, but all of them seem to require having to get ridiculously precise with the mouse. There must be some easy way...?

I swear there used to be a way to show more than one controller pane at the bottom of the PRV, but for the life of me I can't figure it out. I can switch between them with those buttons, but I'd often way rather just have them both visible. How do I do this?

I like to have PRV grid resolution set to follow snap settings. This usually works, but not always. Right now, and intermittently in the past, the grid resolution gets stuck and won't change, no matter what I choose. I've learned that the resolution setting in the upper right corner needs to be disabled for this to work, but now it is, and my grid resolution won't change.

Is there any way to remove those "ghost clips" from the track folders in TV? Or at least make them non-selectable? I find them so distracting, and the ratio of presence on the page to actual usefulness is way low. For example, I can't drag to select a bunch of clips that span multiple folders without CbB thinking I'm selecting entire folders, so to do that I am forced to painstakingly select each track individually so that I don't inadvertently select one of those track folder clips and thereby select everything in the folder. It's enough to make me want to stop using folders altogether and rely on track colors, except that that comes with its own inconveniences.

Thanks, this is pretty cool. It still doesn't list patches for tracks, but it's going to be useful anyway.

Is there any way to print out a "manifest" of a project? I'm thinking a text document that lists every instrument, every plug in, every effect in a piece. I want to use the same guitar patch I used in project X and I don't remember which patch that was, so I have to open project X (in safe mode) and dig in to see it. When I've finished a piece, I'd love to be able to print out something that lists everything I used for future reference. I don't even know what such a thing would be called to look it up. Is there such a thing?

Looks like Shift-Esc doesn't work in PRV.

@Chuck E Baby At some point I probably changed it. what you're saying is Clear Selection. I don't have any keyy associated with that. Good idea to add one though for this very reason.

Talk about a feature I never knew I needed.... I'm so amped about the Show Note Names feature in the latest update. Didn't even occur to me that I would need this. OMG, that's going to be soooo helpful! THANK YOU BANDLAB!!