Recording probs involving metronome

[jpbaker67]

I am new to the forum! I enjoy using Notation, but have had some problems that I wonder if any of you can address.

1. When I go to record a song, I use the metronome. When I use Notation's metronome sound, there is a delay between my hitting the notes on my keyboard and the appearance of those notes on the score. I also hear an echo.

2. When I use my keyboard's MIDI for the metronome sound, the beat is sporadic rather than steady. This makes for some frustration, especially when trying to record on multiple staves.

3. How can you establish the smallest note value that you prefer for a recording? For example, how can I ensure that no note smaller than an eighth note will appear on the score?

Hope some of you can help. Thanks!

[Sherry C]

Hi,

Originally Posted by jpbaker67

1. When I go to record a song, I use the metronome. When I use Notation's metronome sound, there is a delay between my hitting the notes on my keyboard and the appearance of those notes on the score. I also hear an echo.

That's probably a device delay (latency) issue going on. I found out not too long ago that the GS Wavetable can actually affect some other MIDI device's latency, because it interferes with ASIO. If you're planning to only use your keyboard sounds, then here are a couple of things to try:

First, disable the GS Wavetable:
1. Open Composer, and click on "Setup/MIDI Device Configuration"
2. Right click on the "Port" part of "GS Wavetable".
3. Uncheck the "Open for MIDI Output" box.
4. Click "Ok."

Second, check the "Echo MIDI Input to Output" setting for your keyboard by looking in the Users Guide (Help/Users Guide) and using the Index to look up "echo". The explanation there is quite good, and shows the dialog box and options.

2. When I use my keyboard's MIDI for the metronome sound, the beat is sporadic rather than steady. This makes for some frustration, especially when trying to record on multiple staves.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "sporadic", but I'll make a guess that you only hear perhaps the first beat, or not all the beats. It may be that your keyboard uses a different drum patch map than Composer's "General MIDI default". You can test different drum sounds for each beat or sub-beat, and use the "audition" button to see how they sound from your keyboard.

If the above doesn't describe or help the problem, please let me know a bit more detail.

3. How can you establish the smallest note value that you prefer for a recording? For example, how can I ensure that no note smaller than an eighth note will appear on the score?

Actually there are a few things you can do to "clean up" a score after you've recorded in.

Using the Region menu, you can

1. Select all - this will select the entire score. Then....

2. Remove silent notes - you can choose notes that are quite short (eg. 32nd notes) or of very low loudness (perhaps you accidentally brushed a key you didn't intend to). This command is very helpful for getting rid of "oops!" notes.

3. Remove rests smaller than - you can remove small rests, for cases where perhaps your timing wasn't "spot on", or to give a cleaner piece of sheet music.

I hope the above is helpful - let us know if it's not, or if you have further questions.

ttfn,
Sherry

[jpbaker67]

Thank you, Sherry. By "sporadic," I mean that the metronome clicks on all four beats, but in a random fashion as opposed to in a steady beat. I will try the things you suggest, but if you can think of anything else that might help that particular issue, I would appreciate your further input.

[Sherry C]

Hi,

It sounds like perhaps you have different drum instruments set for different beats. For example, for my own setup (Perform/Metronome setup), I have the following:

Down beat: (76) Hi Wood Block
Primary beat: (37) Side stick
Secondary beat: (44) Pedal Hi Hat

Having the different sounds lets me hear where I'm at within the measure. Is this the sporadic sound that you're hearing - different sounds at different beats within the measure? If so, and that's not what you want, you can change which instruments play for the different beats, or set them all the same. Just use the drop list for each one (click the downward pointing triangle) and select which drum instrument you want to use for the particular beat.

ttfn,
Sherry

[jpbaker67]

I get different sounds for different beats. It just speeds up and slows down at random. Instead of "tick-tick-tick-tick," I get "tick... t-ticktick...tic..k..." Hope that makes sense.

[Sherry C]

Hi,

Are you perchance recording into an existing song, or is this a new song? I'm just wondering if perhaps it's an existing song that might have tempo changes already in it.

ttfn,
Sherry

[jpbaker67]

It's a new song.

[Sherry C]

Hi,

That's odd, that the tempo would vary for a new song. The most likely culprit is that there are other programs running simultaneously that are competing for your system's resources. Try making sure that all other programs are closed when you record, and that if you have any "background" applications (virus scanners, etc.) on that you turn them off when you're trying to record.

ttfn,
Sherry

[jpbaker67]

I did that, and it helped! Whew! Thank you!