How do I set the time ruler so that 1 is where the actual beats start?

[El Diablo]

Understand that the beginning of the song does not have any beats.  So, I need to set 1 on the ruler where the music has beats starting.

How do I do this?

[Andres Medina]

I'm guessing you want to make the ruler start at a negative value, so that the 1 starts later, and you can have a visual aid of your measures in the ruler?

If so, it's Interesting... I never thought of that.

I'm not aware of a way to create an offset to the time ruler. But it's an interesting addition to CW.

May be someone else have a solution.

I know you can create a SMPTE offset so that your timecode display reflects it. But this is different that what you are asking.

[John Vere]

This has been requested since the beginning of time.  We all have just gotten used to starting at either 1 or 2. I often put the count in on measure 1 and song starts at 2. 
The reason is you can’t have midi notes at zero or they might not trigger properly.  
A negative measure option has been asked for many times and everyone agreed it’s a great idea but it has yet to be seen. 
It especially bugs people who rely on the notation view. 

[mettelus]

^^ Yeah, this has been requested for a long time (song pre-roll). Since the beginning of a song can possibly be jam packed with events, it often manifests itself by dropping the first note(s) in the song. I have also defaulted to starting all projects on bar 2 or 3 just to be sure. That habit is so ingrained now that I do it in every DAW.

[John Vere]

A lot of download midi files start the count at zero and if you use the metronome you don’t notice the missing or quiet first click until you export it. I’m using them as backing tracks so I need that first click.  
So Ripple edit and Select All and drag the project 1 measure.  Or I fix it in Wave Lab. 

[El Diablo]

12 hours ago, JohnnyV said:

A lot of download midi files start the count at zero and if you use the metronome you don’t notice the missing or quiet first click until you export it. I’m using them as backing tracks so I need that first click.  
So Ripple edit and Select All and drag the project 1 measure.  Or I fix it in Wave Lab. 

They only issue about that, would the already created tempo map follow this measure move?

[John Vere]

11 hours ago, El Diablo said:

They only issue about that, would the already created tempo map follow this measure move?

This is why I said turn on Ripple Edit. Then everything in the project will move including the tempo track. Remember to turn it off when done.  

[JnTuneTech]

On 10/2/2023 at 4:56 PM, JohnnyV said:

This has been requested since the beginning of time.  We all have just gotten used to starting at either 1 or 2. I often put the count in on measure 1 and song starts at 2. 
The reason is you can’t have midi notes at zero or they might not trigger properly.  
A negative measure option has been asked for many times and everyone agreed it’s a great idea but it has yet to be seen. 
It especially bugs people who rely on the notation view. 

Yes, it definitely is a digital - MIDI representation factor that dictates that for any application that uses MIDI as a basis for programming.  -As far as whether or not it matches other standards in musical notation, I can't really recall if starting things from 0 or 1 is a thing, I will admit. But it brings to mind the differences between cultures, like how some places ground floor of a building is called the 1st floor, and some places the 1st floor is the one starting above the ground floor...

Whether those points help the OP or not, is not immediately clear, but I also happen to use a lead-in on almost all my projects, and as in another post, agree a good method of moving that point if needed is by using the ripple-edit method (and as mentioned, turn it off after using it!). Set your first beat wherever you feel it works best, but the time ruler numbering is set and dictated by MIDI programming rules, and changing/offsetting that visually could become rather confusing, I would think.