Setting Now Time to Zero

[James See]

I know I am missing something simple but I can not figure out how to set the Now Time to zero.  I have read the documentation several times but Cakewalk just won't due what the instructions indicate.  Does anybody have a clearer explanation.  If it matters, I am using the latest version of Cakewalk with Windows 10.

Thanks

 

[lapasoa]

Zero means 1, the first bar of your project.  Click W on your keyboard.

[Colin Nicholls]

Or Ctrl-Home

This puts the Now time at Bar 1, Beat 1, which is Time =  00:00:00:00

[Robert Bone]

1 minute ago, lapasoa said:

Zero means 1, the first bar of your project.  Click W on your keyboard.

There are also 2 little arrows in the Transport Module (this has the Play button, Record button, Now Time display, etc...).  The two little arrows are underneath the Transport buttons, to the right and left of the Now Slider.

The arrow pointing to the left, performs the Go To Start function, and the arrow pointing to the right, performs the Go To End function.  Those two functions can also be performed by hitting CTRL+Home or CTRL+End

[Robert Bone]

4 minutes ago, Colin Nicholls said:

Or Ctrl-Home

This puts the Now time at Bar 1, Beat 1, which is Time =  00:00:00:00

Ctrl+Home yes, quite correct - is the Go To Start function.   

Whether the Time displays as 00:00:00:00 or displays as 1:01:000 depends on which Now Time display format is chosen.  The default display for Now Time will be in Measure: Beat: Tick, which would show as 1:01:000

[Colin Nicholls]

42 minutes ago, Robert Bone said:

Whether the Time displays as 00:00:00:00 or displays as 1:01:000 depends on which Now Time display format is chosen.  The default display for Now Time will be in Measure: Beat: Tick, which would show as 1:01:000

I chose to distinguish between "Song/Score position" (Measure/Beat/Tick) and "Time" (h:m:s) for clarity, but we're both right ?

[Blogospherianman]

To Set Now Time At Zero:

Go to Project tab, then choose Set Timecode At Now.

You’ll have to hit Play for it to update the Now time. 
After that, Timecode will show Zero Wherever you set it in the previous step.

Measure’s and Beats will still be in the same spot, just the timecode will read different.

[James See]

Thanks so much to all of you for your kind responses.I am very sorry but I don't think I explained my situation very well.  What I am trying to do is set the now time to zero in a different place than the first bar.  For example I want bar 3 to show 01:01:000  on the counter instead of 03:01:000.  In other words, I want bar 3 to be the beginning of my project. I hope that's a better explanation.  Thanks

Edited August 28, 2020 by James See

[Base 57]

4 hours ago, James See said:

Thanks so much to all of you for your kind responses.I am very sorry but I don't think I explained my situation very well.  What I am trying to do is set the now time to zero in a different place than the first bar.  For example I want bar 3 to show 01:01:000  on the counter instead of 03:01:000.  In other words, I want bar 3 to be the beginning of my project. I hope that's a better explanation.  Thanks

Oh okay. You can't.

 

That is a long-standing feature request.

[Robert Bone]

On 8/28/2020 at 11:47 AM, Colin Nicholls said:

I chose to distinguish between "Song/Score position" (Measure/Beat/Tick) and "Time" (h:m:s) for clarity, but we're both right ?

Sure - I just wanted to explain it from the default perspective.  

[Robert Bone]

 

On 8/28/2020 at 4:25 PM, James See said:

Thanks so much to all of you for your kind responses.I am very sorry but I don't think I explained my situation very well.  What I am trying to do is set the now time to zero in a different place than the first bar.  For example I want bar 3 to show 01:01:000  on the counter instead of 03:01:000.  In other words, I want bar 3 to be the beginning of my project. I hope that's a better explanation.  Thanks

Hi - just curious, why are you wishing to do this?  For whatever the worth, I always add a Marker at measure 3 (I usually have 2 measures of count in using drum stick hits).  I also made it easy to move left or right through my projects, by binding the Left and Right arrow keys on my computer keyboard, to the functions: Previous Marker, and Next Marker, so if I rewind to the beginning of the song, I don't even need to use the mouse to move to measure 3 - I just hit the Right arrow, and it puts me right there instantly.

So, anyways, if there is some other reason for wanting to have measure 3 be shown as 1:01:000, please explain.  Thanks

Here is a screen shot of the two shortcut key bindings I set up for moving to Previous Marker and Next Marker in my projects - I find it quite helpful.  Also, if you want to do this, you can quickly get to where you need to in the bindings, by first hitting the Locate Key button, then hitting the Left arrow, whic will automatically highlight the Left key.  Then - in the Search text box, under Global Bindings, start typing the word 'Marker' and it will take you to where you can see both Previous Marker and Next Marker in the listed functions.  Then, highlight the Previous Marker function, and click on the Bind button, to create that binding (for the Left arrow).  Since you are already right above the Right key, click on that to highlight it, then also highlight the Next Marker function, then click on the Bind button to create that binding :

[Starship Krupa]

The first use case I have is where the first 2 or 3 measures are only intro or count-in. If you work zoomed in and need to make the journey back to the start of the song often, or even just want to start the "song" part of your song where it starts, the only way to make the trip instantly is RTZ (no longer bound to W but Ctrl HOME, or on my system, just HOME).

When this is 2 measures before the start of the song, it becomes tedious to either wait through it or move your cursor manually up to where you wanted to be every dang time.

It's a feature request, for sure, and the way I'd like to see it implemented is with a special "Start" marker that we could set wherever we want this point to be. Then any commands or settings that referred to it could be "Return to Start" when playback stops, or an RTS command is invoked with a keystroke, or whatever.

Thank you Robert for the idea to use key bindings for the Prev/Next Marker commands. At least I can set up a marker at "Start" so that when I RTZ it's just another keystroke to bump to the next marker.

The other use case isn't so much about navigation so much as it is about counting. One project might use a 1 measure count-in, the next I might use 2. But in musical terms I think of measure 3 as measure 3 no matter what the ruler says, so it would be nice to be able to bump that zero over a couple of bars. On the left side of the Start/Zero marker, everything would just read as negative.