Setting Up the Metronome |
The Composer metronome produces a sound at major and minor beats in measures as you play or record music. You can define the specific metronome sounds, typically various types of percussion notes, for the major and minor beats. When you first record into an empty section of a song, you will almost always want Composer to play the metronome, so that you can synchronize your performance with barlines and beats within measures. You can specify how many measures and beats of pickup the Composer will play on the metronome before beginning the song that you are recording. When you play back a song, you might want to turn off the metronome. The metronome appropriately stays in synchronization with anytempo changes in the song. To turn off or on the metronome:
-- OR --
To specify whether the metronome should be on or off by default:
-- OR -- While holding down the CTRL key, click the button in the toolbar. Composer will display the Metronome Setup dialog box , as illustrated in the next procedure.
To select the sounds used by the metronome for the major and minor beats:
-- OR -- While holding down the CTRL key, click the button in the toolbar. Composer will display the following Metronome Sound dialog box:
In general, you should avoid the computer beep sound option unless you have a good reason, because that option gives you very little control over the volume level and type of sound that is used. Also, the computer beep sound is not very pleasant to hear.
The down beat is the beat at the beginning of each measure. The primary beat is a major beat within the measure. The second beat is a minor beat between major beats in the measure. For example, in a 4:4 meter, there is a down beat at the beginning of the measure; a primary beat at the middle of the measure; and a secondary beat at the second and fourth quarter note beats of the measure. In a 9:8 meter, there is a down beat at the beginning of the measure; primary beats at the second and third dotted quarter note beats; and secondary beats at each eighth note beat between the dotted quarter note beats. For almost all sound cards, if you specify MIDI channel 10, then the percussion sounds will be those indicated in the lists. If you do not specify MIDI channel 10, then the sounds will be actual pitches on some instrument such as a piano-- which is probably not what you want. So, be sure to choose MIDI channel 10 unless you have a good reason not to. For the loudness value, specify a number between 1 and 127. (This is the MIDI velocity value.)
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