How do I start all tracks at bar zero?

[Anders Madsen]

Sometimes I need all tracks in a project to start at bar zero. Even if nothings happen in the first bars. 
I saw this done once in another DAW, and the operation was named "Consolidate" or smth..
I can do this by starting a short, empty recording from beginning, and bounce.
Is there another way that I've missed?

Edited March 9, 2022 by Anders Madsen

[martsave martin s]

do you mean the audio or just the clips?

[Anders Madsen]

I just need all the clips to start at the same time.

 

[David Baay]

I'm not really clear on what the situation or goal is. Cakewalk does not yet provide any kind of 'pre-roll' capability. If you need to have anything happen before the first downbeat, you'll have to slide everything out to start at 2:01:000. But your post also suggests you're having to insert some dummy audio to get the transport to run in an empty project which you can avoided by disabling 'Stop at Project End' at the bottom of the Options menu in the Track View.

EDIT: On re-reading I think I understand that you just want all the clips to start at 1:01:000 (i.e. 'Time Zero' = Bar 1). In that case you can just drag the start boundary of the first clip in every track back to 'zero', select everything, right-click and choose 'Bounce to Clip(s)'.

Edited March 9, 2022 by David Baay

[Chryso Rocha]

HEY ! I CAN'T BELIEVE THE MIXING MODULE DOES NOT APPEAR ON THE FIRST PAGE IN THE CONTROL BAR. IT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT MODULE, OF FREQUENT USE. CAN YOU HELP ME LEAVE IT THERE, DEFINITELY? EVERY TIME I OPEN A PROJECT IT IS NOT THERE. I HAVE TO PUT IT ON IT EVERY TIME. HOWEVER THE CUSTOM MODULE WHICH IS RARELY USED TAKES A HUGE SPACE ON THE BAR. PLEASE FIX THIS. OR TELL ME THE WAY TO LEAVE IT THERE. IT MAKES NO SENSE NOT TO APPEAR IMMEDIATELY. HOPE IT HAS HELPED IMPROVE CAKEWALK. I HAVE USED IT FOR 20 YEARS AS MY FAVORITE DAW.

 

Edited March 9, 2022 by Chryso Rocha

[scook]

CHANGE YOUR WORKSPACE SETTING

and next time please do not append unrelated posts to threads.

[John Vere]

There's a lot of reasons why it's a bad idea to start playback at zero. It's been a request for years that Cakewalk has a negative measure for pre roll. Starting at measure 2 is wrong for people using sheet music who are used to a pick up measure or what ever it's called.  

I always start at 3 with measure 2 being where my count in is placed. Midi events on zero will often be ignored. The first not has to be at least 1 tick past zero. 

[David Baay]

33 minutes ago, John Vere said:

There's a lot of reasons why it's a bad idea to start playback at zero.

FWIW I consider this to be somewhat of  a myth.  I start pretty much all my projects at 1:01:000 without issues unless:

1. There are pick-up notes before the downbeat.

2. An external hardware synth needs time to respond to a patch change or other controllers or SysX.

But I don' t think this was the OP's concern in any case. He just wanted to include the "dead air" in the pre-roll he has already built into his project.

[Will.]

50 minutes ago, John Vere said:

It's been a request for years that Cakewalk has a negative measure for pre roll. 

This has been in Cakewalk since I started with Cakewalk X1 LE back in 2009

[Will.]

3 hours ago, Anders Madsen said:

I just need all the clips to start at the same time.

 

Shift everything to start at measure 2 and drag the first clips out to "Zero." 

[Anders Madsen]

1 hour ago, John Vere said:

There's a lot of reasons why it's a bad idea to start playback at zero. It's been a request for years that Cakewalk has a negative measure for pre roll. Starting at measure 2 is wrong for people using sheet music who are used to a pick up measure or what ever it's called.  

I always start at 3 with measure 2 being where my count in is placed. Midi events on zero will often be ignored. The first not has to be at least 1 tick past zero. 

I am NOT starting playback or downbeats at zero. Never did. I just want the clips to start at zero, so I can export them, and then the recipient won't have to worry about sync.

Edited March 9, 2022 by Anders Madsen

[scook]

1 minute ago, Anders Madsen said:

I am NOT starting playback or downbeats at zero. Never did. I just want the clips to start at zero, so I can export them, and then the recipient won't have to worry about sync.

Export tracks/buses starting at 0

or export broadcast wave files assuming the recipient is using a product that imports BWF files based on their timestamp. 

[Will.]

12 hours ago, Anders Madsen said:

Sometimes I need all tracks in a project to start at bar zero. 

If you really want the "Zero" start. Its basically just a 'Time Ruler Format" feature. 

We can maybe just put in a request for it to display a little bigger? 

[Anders Madsen]

7 minutes ago, scook said:

Export tracks/buses starting at 0

or export broadcast wave files assuming the recipient is using a product that imports BWF files based on their timestamp. 

Is the "Export tracks/buses starting at 0" a choice I can tick at export? (Because, If I start recording at the chorus, the recipient has do do some manual/visual sync)
I intend to export the tracks, and send them to others who are not using Cakewalk. But they want to import the wavefiles for each track..
It is not complicated. I have done this by recording a tiny amount at the start, and "bounce to track"  It did the trick..

Edited March 9, 2022 by Anders Madsen

[scook]

4 minutes ago, Anders Madsen said:

Is the "Export tracks/buses starting at 0" a choice I can tick at export? (Because, If I start recording at the chorus, the recipient has do do some manual/visual sync)
I intend to export the tracks, and send them to others who are not using Cakewalk. But they want to import the wavefiles for each track..

When exporting tracks and buses they default to starting at 0 regardless of where the first clip is located but it is possible to make a time-based selection either before opening the export dialog and/or in the export dialog itself too.

[Anders Madsen]

This could be an example. I want tracks 2, 3, 5 and six to start at the same time as track one for when I export them. So that the recipient can drag them into his DAW with no regard of sync. Just put them in there..   I will export the separate tracks as wave files, and send them to somebody.
I consider Scook's latest answer to be the the one I was looking for:
"When exporting tracks and buses they default to starting at 0 regardless of where the first clip is located but it is possible to make a time-based selection either before opening the export dialog and/or in the export dialog itself too."
Because: I didn't know that.   

[John Vere]

I do this a lot because I'm converting my projects from 44.1 to 48. I export all audio tracks as "Tracks no effects or automation." They will all be exported starting at zero.  FYI, Zero shows as 1:01:00 in M:B:T which is what the export dialogue uses. 

This video explains the procedure you can ignore the conversion part but it shows the correct settings in export to achieve stems that are continuous tracks so ready to import to any project in any DAW ( as long as the tempo is the same.)  

 

Edited March 9, 2022 by John Vere