Comping MIDI Takes

[Mark Bastable]

I have different drums of a midi kit on several take lanes, and I want to get them all on the track, as it were.

The manual says right-click the desired take and hit 'Flatten Comp'. But I can't see that command. Maybe this is because you only get that for audio takes.

So, how do I get all my midi drums on one midi track? Or do I not need to? Or should I have not recorded them in separate take lanes in the first place? And if not, how should I have done it? 

Standard disclaimer: Newbie, learning curve, slightly embarrassed to have to ask.

[David Baay]

Select all clips (or just select the track number), then right-click a clip and Bounce to Clips.

But having different drum parts on different lanes of a track can be very useful, and I recommend just leaving it that way.

[Mark Bastable]

Ah, I thought it might be useful, though I haven't found out why yet. Sending to different outputs?

So, what I have to understand is the difference between Bounce to Clip, which I thought meant 'flatten all the little takes in this lane into a single clip' and 'Bounce to Track' which I've definitely seen somewhere or other.

If Bounce to Clip means, 'Shift it all up into the parent track', what do you use to 'flatten all these short clips  into one clip but don't necessarily promote it to the parent'?

Ah, maybe you'll say, "How come you have lots of little clips in a lane if you've been creating separate lanes for each take?"

And the answer to that, I'm afraid, is "Damned if I know."

Also, is it right that I don't see the 'Flatten Comp' command?

Edited August 30, 2021 by Mark Bastable

[David Baay]

Bounce to tracks and Flatten Comp are applicable only to Audio. Bounce to clips is applicable to both Audio and MIDI, and will combine all selected clips. I generally only use bounce to clips with material in the same lane, so not sure offhand where the combined clip will end up when they come from different lanes - I'm guessing the first lane.

When entering notes in the PRV, if a new note is more than 2 beats later than the previous note, Cakewalk will start a new clip rather than extending the existing clip to encompass the new note. There really should be a setting to control this, but I don't believe there is -  another reason to learn to use controller to record parts in real time, rather than drawing with a mouse.

The advantages of having drum parts in separate lanes are primarily related to editing/arranging in the track view - being able to easily select and cut/copy/paste pieces of individual parts to different places or apply clip FX or changes with the Event Inspector selectively. It also facilitates soloing/muting parts and or trying out different patterns by making changes to a copy in a new lane.

Edited August 30, 2021 by David Baay

[Mark Bastable]

Triffic reply. Thank you very much for your time, and clarity.