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Assignment 1: MIDI sequencing
What we're trying to do...
- Create a multi-track sequence (at least 4 tracks) using Digital Performer
and the Korg. This can be your own music or a creative arrangement of
someone else's music. It should last at least 1 minute, but no more
than 3 minutes.
- Learn how to set up for recording, specify Korg sounds, use the
metronome, correct mistakes, quantize notes, edit velocities,
create loops, and set initial tempo, volume and panning.
What to turn in...
The basic process...
A multi-track sequence contains two or more tracks, each of which plays
notes using a sound you've chosen on a synthesizer. You record tracks one
after the other. You can record as many takes, or versions, of a track
as you want, and you can correct mistakes you make while recording. So don't
feel like you have to play perfectly!
It's important to use the sequencer's metronome while recording. It's
best for the sequencer program — Digital Performer in our case — to
have the same idea about the measures and beats in your music as you do. For
example, when you play straight eighth notes, you want those to appear in the
sequencer windows as eighth notes, not as dotted sixteenth notes. Not only
would the latter make it harder for you to find places in the music that you'd
like to edit, but certain sequencer commands, such as Quantize, will work only
if the beats projected by your music align with those shown in the sequencer.
For this reason, we record at least some of the tracks (typically the more
rhythmic ones, like drums) using the metronome.
After recording, you should edit and mix your sequence. There
is a wide range of editing features available once you've recorded notes. For
this assignment, we'll focus on Quantize and Change Velocity,
as well as editing notes with the mouse. Mixing means that you adjust
the volume and panning (position in the stereo field, from left
speaker to right speaker) so that your tracks stand out well.
The assignment has a number of requirements that you must satisfy to get a
good grade. The requirements are summarized in the Assignment 1 checklist. Anywhere you see "DO
THIS" in the instructions given below, a requirement follows.
Digital Performer pep talk...
Digital Performer is a huge, complicated program. You can't hope to learn it
thoroughly during one introductory semester. Don't be intimidated by Digital
Performer. There are many aspects of the program I still haven't learned after
years of teaching it. We'll focus just on the things we need to start making
music.
Like most of you, I don't really enjoy reading manuals, though they are
sometimes essential. If you find you need a Digital Performer manual, there
are several of them on Open Reserve on the first floor of the Music Library (in
the stacks next to the circulation desk). The Getting Started manual
has tutorials and a helpful set of annotated pictures of the Digital Performer
user interface.
How to go about it...
Here are the steps you should take to do the assignment.
- Launch Digital Performer by choosing it from the Music pop-up menu
in the Dock at the lower right corner of your screen.
- Make a new project by choosing New > New from the
File menu and saving the project on the Desktop, where
you'll be able to find it easily. (Use the Where pop-up menu to
choose the Desktop.)
IMPORTANT: File Management Tips
- Save your work to disk every five minutes, or after important
changes, using File > Save (not Save
As). If Digital Performer crashes, you lose any changes you
haven't saved!
- It's smart to retain older versions of your project as you
progress. That way, if something should happen to corrupt your
sequence file, you can go back to a previous version. Please
read about a procedure you can
follow to keep old versions of files, or come up with your own
procedure.
- Make sure you copy the sequence file to your folder on the
Music Server when you're done
working. You should also make a second backup on a USB flash
drive or remote computer, such as your Oncourse portfolio. When
you come in next time to work, copy the file back to the Desktop
from the server, and then open it.
NOTE: If you want to back up your work
on another computer that is not a Mac, then you first need to
create an archive of your file or folder. Right-click on
the file or folder, and choose Create Archive from the
pop-up menu. Copy the resulting .zip file to the other computer.
This preserves Mac-specific file information, which is otherwise
invisible to web browsers and non-Mac computers. If you need to
use the .zip file on a Mac again, copy it back to the Mac, and
double-click the .zip file to un-zip it.
- Record some music into Digital Performer. It's best to
follow the instructions until you get the
hang of it. The instructions describe crucial Korg settings.
Once you're more comfortable with the process, you might still want to
glance at the recording quick reference
card.
Even if you can't play keyboard well, you should still try recording
some tracks in "real time," using the instructions above. But there
are other ways to get notes into the sequencer...
- Graphic Editor — draw notes into a "piano roll" view.
- Drum Editor — paint notes
onto a grid in a way that's closer to working with a drum machine.
- Step Record — play notes on the keyboard, but control
the timing of the notes by clicking on buttons, not by playing the
notes in real time.
- Notation window — enter notes into this window to
make a lifeless rendition of a printed score.
If you can't figure out how these work, take a look at the manual.
I will explain the Graphic Editor and Drum Editor in class.
DO THIS:
Record (or otherwise enter) at least four tracks. Use a different
patch for each track (set in the DEFAULT PATCH column).
- Name your tracks, and delete any tracks you're not using. Once your
sequences get complicated, you and I both will appreciate the clarity.
To name a track, option-click (hold down the option, or alt, key
while clicking the mouse button) the track name, which appears in the
NAME column.
To delete a track, select its name and choose Delete Track from
the Project menu.
DO THIS:
Name your tracks, and delete unused tracks.
- If you're like me, you'll need to correct some mistakes you made while
recording. Digital Performer's Graphic Editor and Event List windows
let you make very precise changes to the pitch, attack time, duration
and velocity of existing notes.
Open the Event List for a track by selecting the track's
name in the Tracks window and then choosing Event List
from the Project menu. (There are other ways to open these
windows.) The Event List presents your notes in a list, with each row
giving a textual representation of a single note. (There are other
kinds of data shown also, but we'll worry about these later.)
If you want to delete a note, you select its row by clicking once on
it, and then hit the delete key. You double-click on a row to edit
the various pieces of data it comprises, such as the note name, the
note-on velocity, duration, etc. Timing information typically is
given in measure | beat | tick format, with 480 ticks per
quarter note by default. (So a tick is a very short unit of time.)
You may not feel like using the Event List now, but spend a minute
looking at it so that you'll know where to find it.
Open the Graphic Editor for a track by selecting the track's
name in the Tracks window and then choosing Graphic Editor
from the Project menu. The Graphic Editor window displays
your notes in "piano-roll" notation: each note is a horizontal bar,
placed on a pitch/time graph.
You can drag the note around to correct its pitch and start time, and
you can change a note's duration by dragging the right-most part of
the note bar. Notice that your dragging is normally constrained to
the note value set at the upper right part of the window, unless you
first un-check the Edit Resolution box, which is to the left of
"Unit" in the graphic below.
- One common way to change the timing of a track is to use
quantization. The idea is that you specify a grid of note values
— steady quarter notes, say — and then the Quantize
command moves the start times of notes that you've selected to the
nearest point on the note-value grid.
Let's pretend you recorded five notes into the sequencer; they look
something like this in "piano-roll" notation.
You then set a quantization grid of quarter notes. Notice that none
of your recorded notes falls exactly "on the beat."
Issuing the quantize command causes all the notes to snap to the
nearest quarter note grid point. Some move to the left (that is,
earlier in time), others to the right.
In Digital Performer, you first select notes you want to quantize
— by clicking on them or dragging across them in any of the
editing windows. Then you open the Quantize window
(Region > Quantize), configure the settings, and
press the Apply button.
While you have the Quantize window open, choose Quantize Window
Help from the Help menu, and read about all the options.
The Preview button is especially helpful, since it lets you
hear the result of quantizing before you actually commit the changes
to the selected notes.
Remember, if the beats in your music don't align with the beats shown
in the editing windows, quantizing your rhythms is bound to fail.
- You can make your performance more exciting by editing the velocities
you used when recording. Select some notes in one of the editing
windows, and choose Region > Set Velocity.
This window gives you several ways to alter the velocities for the
selected notes.
Try using the Smooth panel to create a crescendo.
- Many of you will want to loop some material — a bass line
or drum part, for example. When you loop some notes, they play
repeatedly for as many times as you want. There are two ways to do this.
One is to use the Region > Set Loop command.
However, I do not recommend this way of working.
Instead, open the Graphic Editor for a track and find the notes that you
would like to repeat. Drag in the time ruler (not in the area
where the notes are) to select exactly the time range of the notes to
repeat. In the picture below, we're selecting one measure's worth.
Then issue the Edit > Repeat command, and specify
the number of times you'd like to paste the repeated section. By
default, this will replace any notes that are already in the spot
where the repeated notes will go.
-
The Mixing Board window (Project > Mixing Board)
lets you set the volume and panning for each track.
While you play your sequence, slide the volume sliders up and down until
you get a good balance between tracks. Adjust the pan knob for each
track so that the instruments speak clearly — it usually sounds
muddy if all the instruments are panned to the center. When turning
the pan knob, click on it and drag horizontally; don't try to trace a
circle with the mouse.
DO THIS:
Make initial volume and pan settings for each track, using the Mixing
Board.
- When you're done with the assignment...
- Check that you've satisfied all the requirements.
- Make sure the name of your file includes the assignment number
(for example, "assign1").
- Open the Music Server disk, and drag
your file into your own folder on the server.
©2003, John Gibson