Home Studio Ignite!

Home Studio

™

Ignite! Eric Grebler

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For Ethan and Kara

Acknowledgments Putting together a project like this is truly a team effort, and I would like to

thank everyone who was involved for all their hard work. I’d particularly like to point out the efforts of Mark Abdelnour, Cathleen Snyder, Jenny Davidson, and Todd Jensen, for their dedication and commitment to this project. Thanks must also be extended to my wife, Kara, and my son, Ethan, for allowing me the time to dedicate to this book. I’d also like to thank my parents, Ricky and Victor, and the rest of my family and friends for their love and support.

About the Author Eric Grebler is an IT professional, author, and certified trainer who has demystified the world of computers for thousands of people. Eric has written a variety of books, developed curricula, and created resource materials on a wide range of technical topics, including desktop publishing, digital audio sequencing, graphics, XML, and operating systems. When he’s not writing books, Eric can be found changing diapers, mixing formula, and financing photo shoots. His hobbies include trying to get eight hours of sleep a night, making mortgage payments, and cleaning the house before the cleaning lady arrives.

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Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv

Chapter 1

Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Installing Home Studio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Running Home Studio for the First Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 The Quick Start Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Opening a Project with the Quick Start Window . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Opening a Recent Project with the Quick Start Window. . . . . 14 Creating a New Project with the Quick Start Window. . . . . . . 14 Other Options in the Quick Start Window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Configuring Home Studio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Configuring MIDI Devices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Configuring Audio Devices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Chapter 2

Finding Your Way around Home Studio. . . . . . . . . . . 21 Using the Menu Bar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Working with Toolbars. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Opening and Closing Toolbars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Repositioning Toolbars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Using the Clips Pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Adjusting the Clips Pane. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Navigating in the Clips Pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Exploring the Tracks Pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Using Loop Explorer View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Opening Loop Explorer View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Navigating Loop Explorer View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

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Accessing Other Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Working with Panes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Docking the Loop Explorer Pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Understanding Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Saving Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Loading Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Deleting Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Navigating Your Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Using the Position Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Navigating with the Time Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Working with Markers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Searching. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Chapter 3

Home Studio Fundamentals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Creating a New Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Saving Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Opening Projects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Entering Project Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Playing Clips with Transport Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Soloing Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Muting Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Controlling Playback for All Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Opening the Playback State Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Deselecting Muted or Soloed Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Muting or Soloing All Tracks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Changing Project Tempo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Adjusting Global Tempo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Adjusting Tempo for a Specific Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Playing Multiple Files with a Play List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Creating a Play List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Saving a Play List. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Opening and Playing a Play List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Looping Playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

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Chapter 4

Basic Recording . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Recording Vocals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Setting Up a Microphone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Recording from the Microphone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 Recording from an Internal CD Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Recording from a Turntable, Electric Guitar, Tape Deck, or another Audio Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Recording MIDI Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Preparing MIDI Devices for Recording. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Recording MIDI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Chapter 5

Advanced Recording . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Punch Recording . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Step Recording . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Recording Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 Loop Recording . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Importing Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 Importing Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 Importing MIDI Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Importing Audio with the Loop Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Naming and Coloring Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 Using the Metronome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Opening the Metronome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Activating the Metronome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Counting In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 Changing the Metronome Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Chapter 6

Managing Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Naming Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 Moving Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Selecting Track Contents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 Deleting Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 Track Wiping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

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Cloning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 Showing and Hiding Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Hiding Tracks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Showing Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 The Track Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 Sorting Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 Archiving Tracks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 Viewing Track Properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Chapter 7

General Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 Making Selections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 Selecting Individual Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 Selecting Multiple Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 Selecting a Portion of a Clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Deselecting Multiple Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 Time Range Selections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 Moving Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Snap to Grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Copying, Cutting, and Pasting Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 Copying Selections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 Cutting Selections. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 Pasting Selections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 Splitting Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 Splitting a Clip in Two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 Splitting a Clip into Multiple Pieces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 Joining Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Quantizing Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 Sliding Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Transposing Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 Lengthening and Shortening Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 Adjusting Track Volume. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 Adjusting the Pan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

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Chapter 8

Audio Editing and Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 Audio Editing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 Reversing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 Graphic Equalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 Parametric EQ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 Normalize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 3dB Louder and Quieter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 Audio Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Chorus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Compressor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 Distortion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 Echo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 Flanger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 Gargle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 I3DL2Reverb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184 WavesReverb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 Cakewalk and Other Plug-In Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 Saving and Loading Presets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Chapter 9

MIDI Editing and Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 MIDI Editing with the Staff View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 Navigating in the Staff View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 Moving Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 Selecting Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 Changing Note Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 Visually Adjusting Note Properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 Scrubbing Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 Editing with the Event Inspector Toolbar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 Changing MIDI Clip Length. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 Slip Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 Editing with the Piano Roll View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210 Navigating Piano Roll View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 Adding Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

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Deleting Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 Moving Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216 Editing Start Time, Pitch, and Duration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 MIDI Envelopes with the Piano Roll View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 MIDI Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223 Arpeggiator Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224 Chord Analyzer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226 Echo Delay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 MIDI Event Filter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229 Quantize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229 Session Drummer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230 Tranpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 Velocity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

Chapter 10 Mixing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 Mixing with the Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 Navigating the Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 Adjusting Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238 Adjusting Pan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 Using the Snap To Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 Groups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241 Applying Mix Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247 Adjusting Track Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249 Mix Automation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252 Mixing with StudioWare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

Chapter 11 Looping and Groove Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265 Creating Loops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266 Looping Playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266 Adjusting Loop Playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268 Looping Audio Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270 MIDI Looping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274

CONTENTS

Working with Groove Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277 Creating and Editing Groove Clips in the Loop Construction View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277 Creating and Editing Groove Clips in the Clip Properties Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279 Changing the Project Tempo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281 Changing the Project Pitch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

Chapter 12 Outputting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285 Converting MIDI to Audio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286 Outputting to MP3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290 Preparing for CD Burning (Exporting to Wave) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294 Working with Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297 Importing Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297 Viewing Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299 Adjusting Video Timing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301 Adding Audio to Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

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Introduction T

his Ignite! book from Muska & Lipman will help you understand, use, and explore the world of Home Studio Version 2. Home Studio Version 2 is an easy-to-use audio- and MIDI-editing tool designed to allow you to record, mix, and edit a variety of musical projects. Cakewalk, the company that created Home Studio, proudly claims that it is the world’s top-selling music and sound software. Home Studio comes in two main flavors: Home Studio Version 2 and Home Studio Version 2 XL. The XL version is the same as the regular version except that it includes some additional plug-ins, a DXI sampler, and some additional audio samples. And, although this book concentrates on the features of Home Studio Version 2, you will find the step-by-step instructions of this book applicable to many of the features that exist in the previous version. Obviously, no book can teach you everything there is to know about one topic. The goal of this book is to give you a solid introduction to the world of Home Studio and to teach you how to use many of the different tools it has to offer. Along the way, you’ll learn a variety of tips for creating your work faster, and some creative tricks to make your music stand out.

Who Should Read This Book? If you are ready to explore the world of desktop music sequencing, then this book is for you. Whether you are a seasoned veteran to Home Studio or you are just getting started, there are benefits in the book for you. New users can take advantage of the step-by-step illustrated instructions of common tasks, while veteran users can use the book as a reference for new tools and old ones they might have forgotten.

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INTRODUCTION

Some Helpful Hints In addition to the step-by-step instructions, you’ll notice that there are two other elements designed to help you.

TIP Tips provide you with quick methods or shortcuts for performing certain tasks.

NOTE Notes provide you with additional information or background on a particular topic.

1

Getting Started

So you want to be a big-time music producer? Whether the boatload of cash, the adoring fans, the mansions, the vacations, or the yachts is the big appeal for you, one thing is certain: You won’t be able to achieve any of these things unless you first get Home Studio installed and configured. In this chapter you’ll learn how to: Install Home Studio Use the Quick Start window Configure Home Studio

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Installing Home Studio Get your mouse finger warmed up, because you’ll be doing a lot of clicking while you install Home Studio. It’s actually a very easy process; a wizard will guide you step by step through the installation. For most people, accepting the defaults presented to you during the installation is ideal because that way all of the tools are available to you for future use. When you first insert the Home Studio CD, it should start to play automatically, and a splash screen should appear. If this is the case on your system, you can skip Steps 1 through 3 and jump right to Step 4.

1. Click on Start. The Start menu will appear.

2. Click on Run. The Run dialog box will open.

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3

3. Type E:\autorun.exe. In this case, E: is the CD-ROM drive for my computer. You might have to change this letter to match the CD drive for your computer.

4. Click on the Program Installation icon. The screen will change to offer a variety of installation options.

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5. Click on the Install Home Studio icon. The Installation Wizard will launch.

6. Click on Next on the opening screen. This screen recommends that you close all other programs before continuing. The Software License Agreement screen will appear.

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5

7. Click on the I accept the terms in the License Agreement radio button after you’ve reviewed the licensing agreement.

8. Click on Next. The Get Registration Information screen will appear.

9. Type your name in the Name field as you want it to appear in the registration information.

10. Type the serial number that came with the software in the Serial Number field. Typically the serial number can be found on the back of the jewel case that contains the CDs. 11. Click on Next. The Select Components screen will appear. This screen allows you to select which components of the suite you want to install.

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12. Click on Next to accept all of the components. It’s a good idea to install all of these components because they don’t take up too much drive space, and you never know when you might need them. The Choose Destination Location screen will appear.

13. Click on Next to accept the default location for the installation of the program files. The Shared Plugin Folder Destination screen will appear. This screen reviews where the shared program files will be stored.

NOTE If you want to select a different location for the program files, click on the Browse button on the Choose Destination Location screen. This will bring up a dialog box that allows you to select a destination folder for the program files.

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7

14. Click on Next. The Shared Program Manager Group screen will appear.

15. Click on Next unless you want to specify a different program group for your files. It’s a good idea to just accept the default. The Start Installation screen will appear.

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16. Click on Next. The installation process will begin, and the Choose Destination Location screen will appear.

17. Click on Next to accept the default destination folder for DYAD DXi. The Insert New Disk message box will appear, prompting you to insert Disc 2.

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9

18. Click on OK after you’ve inserted Disc 2. The Associate Files With the Application screen will appear.

19. Click on the check boxes beside the file types you want to associate with Home Studio. This means that whenever you double-click on a file with one of these selected extensions, Home Studio will launch.

20. Click on Next to continue the installation process. The Register VST Plugins screen will appear.

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21. Click on the No, I do not wish to Register VST Plug-ins at this time radio button to skip the registration process for the VST Plugins. You can always register later.

22. Click on Next. The Installation Complete screen will appear.

23. Click on the check boxes beside the actions that you want to take place once the installation is complete. The options will be selected.

24. Click on Finish. If you selected to launch Home Studio, it will open.

RUNNING HOME STUDIO FOR THE FIRST TIME

11

Running Home Studio for the First Time The first time you launch Home Studio, you might notice several dialog boxes opening, and certain tests might need to be performed to properly configure Home Studio to your computer.

1. Click on OK if a dialog box comes up after WDM audio devices have been detected. 2. Click on Yes to begin the Wave Profiler, which will analyze the sound card information on your computer. The analysis of your sound card will begin.

3. Click on OK in the Wave Profiler message box when the analysis is complete. Home Studio will launch. NOTE At this point, a registration dialog box might appear. If it does, you can choose the desired option for registering, and then click on OK.

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4. Click to deselect the Show Tips on Startup check box if you want to turn this feature off.

5. Click on Close. The dialog box will close, and the No MIDI Outputs Selected dialog box will open.

6. Click on Continue With No MIDI Output. You will learn how to set up your MIDI devices later in this chapter, in the “Configuring MIDI Devices” section.

THE QUICK START WINDOW

13

The Quick Start Window Whenever you launch Home Studio, the Quick Start window will appear and will provide you with a variety of options for getting started. If you don’t want the Quick Start window to show up whenever you start a project, you can disable this feature.

Opening a Project with the Quick Start Window If you have a previously saved project, you can navigate to the folder that contains it and then open it using the Quick Start window.

1. Click on the Open a Project button. The Open dialog box will open, and you can select a project.

2. Use the Look in drop-down menu to navigate to the folder that contains the file you want to open.

3. Click on the file you want to open. The file will be highlighted.

4. Click on Open. The file you selected will open in Home Studio.

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Opening a Recent Project with the Quick Start Window The Quick Start window also provides you with a convenient way of opening projects on which you were recently working.

1. Click on the Open a Recent Project down arrow. A list of your recently opened projects will appear.

2. Click on the desired project. The project will be selected.

3. Click on the Open a Recent Project button. The file you selected in Step 2 will open.

Creating a New Project with the Quick Start Window When it comes time to create a new project from scratch, you can select from a variety of different templates. The Quick Start window provides you with instant access to these templates.

1. Click on the Create a New Project button. The New Project File dialog box will open.

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2. Click on any of the templates. A template loads a variety of different settings that are appropriate for the style of project you are creating. Settings such as tempo, track information, and other data are stored in templates. Alternatively, you can click on normal if you don’t want to load any templates.

3. Click on OK. The template you selected will open, and a new empty project will appear.

Other Options in the Quick Start Window You also can use the Quick Start window to gain access to Home Studio’s help files. And, if you decide you don’t want the Quick Start window to open every time you launch Home Studio, you have the option of turning it off.

1. Click on the Show this at Startup check box to toggle between displaying and not displaying the Quick Start window at startup.

2a. Click on Close if you just want to start a new project based on the normal template. The Quick Start window will close, and the normal template will open.

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OR

2b. Click on the Getting Started button. The Home Studio Help window will appear, offering a variety of tutorials to help you get to know the application.

3. Click on the links to follow a particular tutorial. The tutorials will walk you through performing particular tasks.

4. Click on the Close button to exit the Home Studio Help window and return to Home Studio.

CONFIGURING HOME STUDIO

17

Configuring Home Studio More than likely, when you first attempt to play or record something in Home Studio, you won’t hear anything or you won’t be able to record. The likely culprit is that Home Studio might not be configured properly.

Configuring MIDI devices The first thing to do before you configure your media devices is make sure that you properly install and connect your devices to your computer. Typically, there are two ways that a MIDI device can be connected to your computer—via a MIDI-to-USB cable or a MIDI-to-serial cable. Regardless of which method you use, it is essential that you install the software that came with the connection device or your MIDI device so that the proper drivers are available for your computer to recognize the device.

1. Click on Options. The Options menu will appear.

2. Click on MIDI Devices. The MIDI Devices dialog box will open.

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3. Click on the desired device in the Inputs area. This is the device from which you want to record. The device will be highlighted.

4. Click on Move Selected Devices to Top. You can now use this device to record musical data into Home Studio.

5. Click on the desired device in the Outputs area. This is the device you want to use to hear your MIDI playback. The device will be highlighted.

6. Click on Move Selected Devices to Top. You can now use this device to hear musical data in Home Studio.

7. Click on OK. The dialog box will close, and your MIDI devices will be set up for playback and recording.

Configuring Audio Devices During the installation process, the Wave Profiler runs to automatically configure your audio devices. Whenever you add new hardware or you have issues hearing audio, you can re-run the Wave Profiler.

1. Click on Options. The Options menu will appear.

2. Click on Audio. The Audio Options dialog box will open.

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3. Click on the Wave Profiler button on the General tab. The Wave Profiler message box will appear.

4. Click on Yes. The Wave Profiler will begin to analyze your audio cards. A message box will appear when the Wave Profiler has finished.

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5. Click on OK. The message box will close, and you will be returned to the Audio Options dialog box.

6. Click on OK. The dialog box will close, and your audio devices will be properly configured.

2

Finding Your Way around Home Studio

The first time you open Home Studio, you might think to yourself, “Wow, there’s a lot of stuff here,” and you’d be right. In addition to the standard menu bar, there are at least nine toolbars open and a variety of different screens. All that confusion is compounded when you start to add MIDI and audio to your projects. Don’t worry, though—Home Studio not only gives you the ability to control what appears on your screen, it also gives you a variety of tools to move around your projects. In this chapter you’ll learn how to: Use the menu bar Work with toolbars Access views Work with panes Navigate through your project

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CHAPTER 2: FINDING YOUR WAY AROUND HOME STUDIO

Using the Menu Bar If you are familiar with any Windows applications, you probably know all about what a menu bar can do and how to use one. If so, here’s a quick refresher; if not, you’re about to take a tour into the fascinating world of menu bars.

1. Click on a menu item. A list of commands that fall under the category you selected will appear. Beside some of the menu items you might find additional information, such as: • An ellipsis. Three dots after a menu item indicate that a dialog box will open when this command is executed. • Shortcut. A series of letters, numbers, or characters beside a menu name indicates a keyboard shortcut that will initiate the command. • An arrow. An arrow indicates that a submenu will appear when you click on or hover your mouse pointer over that command.

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• A check mark. A check mark beside a menu item indicates that the option or project is selected.

Working with Toolbars Toolbars contain commands in the form of buttons that can be clicked. They provide a faster method for executing common commands because they simply require a click of the mouse button. Home Studio provides an array of different toolbars that can be opened, closed, or repositioned.

Opening and Closing Toolbars Home Studio provides you with 15 different toolbars. Depending on the types of projects you are working on, you will use some of these toolbars all of the time, but you will use others rarely, if at all. Opening and closing toolbars is a breeze in Home Studio.

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1. Right-click anywhere on any toolbar. A list of different toolbars will appear. Those with a check mark beside them are currently open.

2. Click on the toolbar that you want to open or close. If you select a toolbar with a check mark beside it, the toolbar will close; otherwise, it will open.

Repositioning Toolbars Some people thrive in clutter, while others need a neat, organized environment. Whichever type of person you are, you can reposition toolbars on your screen to meet your working needs.

1. Position your mouse pointer over the two light-gray vertical lines that appear in the far left side of every toolbar.

2. Click and drag the toolbar to the desired location. As you drag, an outline previewing the new location of the toolbar will appear.

USING THE CLIPS PANE

25

3. Release the mouse button. The toolbar will be repositioned. You can always drag the toolbar back to its original location.

Using the Clips Pane The projects that you create in Home Studio are comprised of pieces of audio called clips, which are placed, viewed, and manipulated within the Clips Pane. The Clips Pane gives you a variety of different options for viewing the different clips within your project. It is actually part of a group of panes that make up the Tracks Pane. Different views will be discussed later in the chapter, but for now it’s important to note that the Clips Pane makes up part of the Tracks Pane.

Adjusting the Clips Pane Depending on the number of clips you are working on, you might want to adjust the size of the Clips Pane. You can do so simply by clicking and dragging.

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1. Position the mouse pointer over the left edge of the Clips Pane. The mouse pointer will change to a double-sided arrow.

2. Click and drag the mouse pointer to the left or right to adjust the size of the pane. As you drag, the pane will be resized.

TIP By default, the Tracks Pane is dynamically linked to the Clips Pane so increasing the size of one decreases the size of the other. You can unlink the two so that they act as individual windows by double-clicking on the two gray bars on the left side of the Clips Pane.

3. Release the mouse button. The pane will be resized.

4. Position the mouse pointer over the horizontal pane divider. The mouse pointer will turn into a double-sided arrow.

5. Click and drag the mouse pointer up or down. As you drag, the vertical size of the Clips Pane will change. You should also notice that the Bus Pane will come into view. I will discuss the Bus Pane later in the chapter.

USING THE CLIPS PANE

27

6. Release the mouse button. The pane will be resized.

Navigating in the Clips Pane Depending on the number of clips you have in your project, viewing one, some, or all of your clips becomes of vital importance. Sometimes you will only want to see an individual clip for detailed viewing, other times you’ll want to see all of the clips in your project, and most of the time you’ll be somewhere in between. Home Studio provides you with an abundance of options for zooming in and out of your clips.

Using Zoom Faders Perhaps the fastest way to zoom in and out of your clips is to use the Zoom Faders. The Zoom Faders provide you with a slider bar that you can use to change your zoom level.

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1. Click and hold the Vertical Zoom Fader button. It is in between the two icons that look like magnifying glasses. A slider will appear. Do not release your mouse button until you reach Step 3.

2. Drag the slider up or down. As you drag, the vertical zoom level of the clips in your project will change. Dragging up will zoom out, while dragging down will zoom in.

3. Release the mouse button. The Zoom Fader will close.

4. Repeat Steps 1 through 3 for the Horizontal Zoom Fader button.

Using Zoom Buttons Another option for zooming in and out of your clips is to use the Zoom buttons. These buttons allow you to zoom in on your clips horizontally or vertically in increments every time a Zoom button is clicked.

1. Click once on the Zoom Out Vertically button. The height of the clips will be reduced in the pane.

USING THE CLIPS PANE

29

2. Click once on the Zoom In Vertically button. The height of the clips will be increased in the pane.

TIP Pressing Ctrl+F will fit all of your clips within the Clips Pane.

3. Click once on the Zoom In Horizontally button. The width of the clips will be increased in the pane. 4. Click once on the Zoom Out Horizontally button. The width of the clips will be reduced in the pane.

Using Scrollbars Using the scrollbars you can quickly navigate to different areas of the Clips Pane.

1. Click and drag the vertical scroll box up or down. As you drag, the Clips Pane will move in the opposite direction.

2. Repeat Step 1 for the horizontal scroll box.

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CHAPTER 2: FINDING YOUR WAY AROUND HOME STUDIO

Exploring the Tracks Pane Clips that you place in the Clips Pane are actually positioned in individual tracks. Tracks are used to organize your audio clips into logical categories, normally by type of instrument or vocal. Think of tracks as similar to swimming lanes that divide a pool into different sections. The Tracks Pane helps you organize your tracks. Tracks in general will be covered in great detail in Chapter 6, “Managing Tracks.”

Using Loop Explorer View The Loop Explorer View allows you to access files on your computer quickly and preview them before they are inserted into your projects. Navigating the Loop Explorer View is no different than navigating for any files on your computer.

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31

Opening Loop Explorer View Opening the Loop Explorer View is just a matter of a couple mouse clicks.

1. Click on View. The View menu will appear. 2. Click on Loop Explorer. The Loop Explorer View will open, giving you access to the audio files on your computer.

Navigating Loop Explorer View The Loop Explorer View allows you to navigate through the different audio and MIDI files on your computer so they can quickly be added to your project.

1. Click on a plus sign to expand a folder. Any subfolders will be displayed, and the plus sign will change to a minus sign. 2. Click on a folder. The contents of the folder will be displayed in the right side of the window.

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3. Click on the Move Up button to move up a folder.

4. Click on a category heading. The category will be sorted alphabetically or numerically.

5. Click on the same category heading that you clicked in Step 4. The category will be sorted in the opposite direction. 6. Click on any audio file. It will be highlighted.

7. Click on the Play button to preview the file.

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8. Click on the Stop button to end the preview.

9. Click on the Auto-Preview button to automatically preview files when they are selected. The button will appear pressed to indicate that it is selected. 10. Repeat Step 9 to turn off the Auto-Preview feature.

Accessing Other Views The three panes that open by default when you first start Home Studio only scratch the surface when it comes to the tools available to you. Other views will be covered throughout this book, but you can access them at any time.

1. Click on View. The View menu will appear. 2. Click on the desired view. The view you selected will open.

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Working with Panes The panes might seem like they are linked together, especially in the default view, so that if you adjust one, the others are adjusted as well. The truth is that panes are individual windows that can be organized, resized, and moved throughout the interface. This is especially useful when you have more than one file or many panes open at a time.

1. Click on Window. The Window menu will appear.

2a. Click on Tile in Rows. The panes will appear as individual windows arranged in rows.

OR

2b. Click on Tile in Columns. The panes will appear as individual windows arranged in columns.

WORKING WITH PANES

35

3. Position your mouse pointer over the three diagonal lines in the bottom-right corner of any of the panes. The mouse pointer will change into a diagonal two-sided arrow.

4. Click and drag the mouse pointer inward or outward. As you drag, the pane will be resized.

5. Release the mouse button. The pane will be resized.

6. Position your mouse pointer over the blue title area of a pane.

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7. Click and drag the pane to a new location. As you drag, the pane will move.

8. Release the mouse button. The pane will be moved.

DOCKING THE LOOP EXPLORER PANE

37

9. Click on one of the window options for the pane. The options include: • Minimize. This will temporarily close the window. You can open it again by clicking on the icon at the bottom of the screen that represents the window. • Maximize. This will enlarge the pane to its greatest possible size. • Close. This will close the pane.

Docking the Loop Explorer Pane The Loop Explorer Pane works a little differently from other panes. It cannot be minimized or maximized; it can only be repositioned or closed. The unique feature of the Loop Explorer Pane is that it can be docked to different parts of the screen.

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1. Position the mouse pointer over the two light-gray bars that appear on the pane.

2. Double-click anywhere on the two light-gray bars. The Loop Explorer Pane will float.

NOTE If you double-click on the title bar of the Loop Explorer Pane (the blue bar that runs across the top of the pane) when it is undocked, it will redock to its last position.

3. Position the mouse pointer over the title bar of the Loop Explorer Pane.

4. Click and drag the mouse pointer until it is at any edge of the screen.

UNDERSTANDING LAYOUTS

39

5. Release the mouse button. The Loop Explorer Pane will be docked to the side of the screen where you released the mouse.

Understanding Layouts Because the user interface is so pliable, you might want to have different layouts set up for different tasks. Also, if different people are accessing the same computer, each user might have a preference as to how he or she likes the screen set up. Rather than having to reposition, open, and close certain panes and toolbars every time you have a new task, Home Studio gives you the ability to save different layouts and reapply them at any time. You can access all the functions for layouts from the Window Layouts dialog box.

1. Click on View. The View menu will appear. 2. Click on Layouts. The Windows Layouts dialog box will open.

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Saving Layouts Once you have the user interface arranged the way you like it, with all the desired panes opened and positioned, you can save the layout and give it a name.

1. Click on Add. The New Global Layout dialog box will open.

2. Type a name for your layout. It’s a good idea to give it a descriptive name.

3. Click on OK. The name will be added to the list of layouts.

UNDERSTANDING LAYOUTS

41

4. If you want to associate projects with their layouts, click on the When Opening a File, Load its Layout check box if it is not already selected.

5. Click on the Close button. The dialog box will close and your layout will be saved.

Loading Layouts Once you have a layout saved, loading it is simply a matter of selecting it from a list.

1. Click once on the layout that you would like to open. It will be highlighted. 2. Click on Load. The dialog box will close and the layout that you selected will be applied.

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Deleting Layouts If you no longer require a layout, you can easily remove it from the list.

1. Click on the layout that you would like to remove. It will be highlighted. 2. Click on the Delete button. A dialog box will open to confirm that you would like to delete the layout.

3. Click on OK. The layout that you selected will be deleted.

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4. Click on the Close button to close the dialog box.

Navigating Your Project Depending on the length of your project and the number of audio clips, finding your way around could prove to be quite difficult if it weren’t for the navigation tools available to you. Not only can you move through your project using these tools, but you can also search for and jump to specific points in your project. You’ve already learned how to scroll through the Clips Pane, but there are many other options for moving around your project. Your project is laid out across a timeline. The current point in your project is called the Now Time. Home Studio gives you a variety of ways to change the Now Time in your project.

Using the Position Toolbar The Position toolbar allows you to jump to specific points in your project. You can jump to certain points by entering a value for the measures or by entering a specific point in time.

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1. Right-click on any toolbar to open a list of toolbars.

2. Click on Position if there is not already a check mark beside it. (A check mark indicates that the toolbar is already open.) The Position toolbar will appear.

3a. Click once in the Now (Measure:Beat:Tick) field. The contents will be highlighted so you can enter a value. OR

3b. Click in the Now (Hour:Minute:Second:Frame) field if you would prefer to jump to a specific time, rather than a measure.

4. Type a value for the point in the project to which you would like to move. Separate the individual components of measures, beats, and ticks or hours, minutes, seconds, and frames with a colon, a decimal point, or a space.

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5. Press Enter. The Now Time will change to the point that you entered, and the playback cursor (a vertical line) will appear at that point in the Clips Pane.

TIP You can set the Now Time quickly by clicking on any point in the Clips Pane.

Navigating with the Time Command The Time command provides you with another method for jumping to a specific point in your project.

1. Click on Go. The Go menu will appear. 2. Click on Time. The Time dialog box will open so you can enter a time to jump to in your project.

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3. Type a value for the point to which you want to move. NOTE The Go dialog box only allows you to enter a position in measures, beats, and ticks. A time displayed as 2:05:050 would be the second beat, fifth measure, fiftieth tick.

4. Click on OK. The Now Time will change to the time you specified.

TIP Pressing F5 on your keyboard will automatically bring up the Go dialog box.

Working with Markers Markers can be used for much more than simply jumping to certain points in your project. Think of a marker as a bookmark on steroids. Not only can it specify a certain location in your project, it can be used to name parts of your project and to convey instructions to people with whom you are sharing your files. The easiest way to use markers is to access the Markers toolbar.

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1. Right-click on any toolbar. A menu will appear.

2. Click on Markers if there is not already a check mark beside it. (A check mark indicates that the toolbar is already open.) The Markers toolbar will appear.

Creating Markers Creating a marker is simply a matter of navigating to the location where you want the marker created and then naming the marker.

1. Navigate to the point where you want to create a marker using one of the navigation methods discussed earlier in the chapter. In other words, change your Now Time to the point where you would like to insert the marker. 2. Click on the Insert Marker button. The Marker dialog box will open, allowing you to name the marker.

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3. Type a name for the marker. It’s a good idea to give it a descriptive name.

4. Double-click in the Time field if you want to adjust the position of the marker. The contents will be highlighted.

5. Type a new location for the marker, if desired.

6. Click on OK. The dialog box will close and the marker you have created will be inserted.

TIP Pressing F11 will instantly create a marker at the current Now Time.

Adjusting Markers Markers appear in the Time Ruler as little colored triangles with their names attached to them. You can adjust the position of markers simply by clicking and dragging.

1. Position your mouse pointer over the marker that you would like to move.

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2. Click and drag the marker to the desired location. As you drag, the mouse pointer will turn into a little white arrow indicating the new location of the marker.

3. Release the mouse button. The marker will be repositioned.

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Deleting Markers You can easily remove any of the markers you have created if you no longer need them.

1. Click and hold the mouse button over the marker you would like to delete. Keep holding the mouse button down until you have completed Step 2. A white arrow will appear over the marker.

2. Press the Delete key on your keyboard. The marker will be removed.

Navigating with Markers Once you have your markers created, you can use them as bookmarks to quickly move to different parts of your project.

1. Click on the Current Marker down arrow in the Markers toolbar. A list of all the markers in your project will appear.

2. Click on the desired marker. You will automatically jump to the point designated by that marker in your project.

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3. Click on the Previous Marker or Next Marker button to navigate to the previous or next marker in your project.

Using Markers View The Markers View is a central location for managing the markers in your project. It provides you with a one-stop shop for viewing, editing, and deleting your markers.

1. Click on the Markers View button. The Markers View will open, listing all of the markers in your project.

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2. Click on the marker you would like to manipulate. It will be highlighted.

3. Click on the desired option for your marker. These options include: • Insert Marker. This will bring up the Marker dialog box and allow you to create a new marker.

• Delete Marker. This will delete the selected marker. • Change Marker Properties. This will open the Marker dialog box and allow you to change the properties of the selected marker. • Lock or Unlock Marker. This will lock or unlock the selected marker.

4. Click on the Close button to close Markers View when you are finished.

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Searching The search feature in Home Studio allows you to enter a variety of different criteria and then conduct a search for items matching those criteria.

Entering Search Criteria You can enter the criteria for your search in the Search dialog box. This dialog box provides you with dozens of clickable options for your search. Once you have selected the criteria for your search, you can save those criteria so you can use them again for future searches.

1. Click on Go. The Go menu will appear.

2. Click on Search. The Search dialog box will open. 3. Click on the desired search criteria. A check mark will appear beside the selected items.

4. Type a name for the search so that it can be saved. 5. Click on the Save button. The search will be saved under that name so you can access it in the future.

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6. Click on the down arrow to access any previously saved searches.

7. Click on the desired search to load a previously saved search.

8. Click on OK. The search criteria will be loaded so you can conduct the search.

Conducting a Search Once you have loaded your search criteria, you are ready to conduct your search.

1. Click on Go. The Go menu will appear.

2. Click on Search Next. You will move to the next point that meets the criteria of your search.

3. Repeat Step 2 until you’ve reached the desired location.

TIP Pressing F3 will search for the next point that meets your search criteria.

3

Home Studio Fundamentals

I believe that any good relationship should be built on trust and honesty. So I’ll be very honest with you: If you have spent any time with computers, you should merely glance over the first part of this chapter, which deals with Home Studio fundamentals that are similar to most other software programs, such as opening and saving files. The latter part of the chapter dives in a little deeper and covers some more advanced topics. In this chapter you’ll learn how to: Manage files Control playback Adjust global controls

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Creating a New Project The files that you create in Home Studio are called projects. Everything that you record, import, adjust, and mix is stored in a project. When you create a project, you have the option of selecting from a variety of templates. If you select a template, certain settings will be adjusted to match the type of project you have selected.

1. Click on File. The File menu will appear.

2. Click on New. The New Project File dialog box will open.

3. Click on normal. The option will be highlighted. Alternatively, you can select the pre-configured template that most closely matches the type of project you are trying to create.

4. Click on OK. The project will be created and the settings will be adjusted based on the template you have selected.

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Saving Projects The first time you save a project, you must use the Save As command. This command allows you to specify a name and location to save your project. On subsequent saves, you can use the Save command.

1. Click on File. The File menu will appear.

2. Click on Save As. The Save As dialog box will open. 3. Navigate to the folder where you want to save your file. 4. Type a name for your project. It’s a good idea to give it a descriptive name.

5. Click on Save. The file will be named and saved in the location you specified.

TIP The first time you save a file, a dialog box might open describing the file types to which you can save. Click on the check box beside Don’t display this dialog box again to prevent it from opening again.

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TIP Once you have initially saved a file, you can save any changes by pressing Ctrl+S.

Opening Projects Nobody expects you to work day and night on your audio files. You obviously need to take bathroom and food breaks. After you save a file, you can open it at any time.

1. Click on File. The File menu will appear. 2. Click on Open. The Open dialog box will open, allowing you to select a file.

3. Navigate to the folder that contains the file you want to open.

4. Click on the desired file. It will be highlighted.

5. Click on Open. The project, including all the clips within it, will open.

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NOTE Home Studio allows you to open files with the extensions .cwp, .cwb, .wrk, .mid, .bun, .cwt, .tpl, and .set. Any other types of audio files will have to be imported into an existing project.

Entering Project Information If you have opened any of the projects that are installed with Home Studio, you might have noticed a File Info window that appears when the project first opens. This dialog box allows you to enter information about your project. It’s terrific for conveying information or instructions to anyone with whom you will be sharing your projects because it has a notes section where you can add any comments. The File Info window also allows you to view statistics on your project.

1. Click on File. The File menu will appear. 2. Click on Info. The File Info window will appear, allowing you to enter information about your file.

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3. Click in any of the fields. Your cursor will flash in the field. 4. Type the desired information in the field. 5. Repeat Steps 3 and 4 for any other fields in which you would like to enter information.

6. Click on the File Stats button. Statistics on your project will appear in the File Stats message box.

7. Click on OK when you have finished reviewing the statistics. The File Stats message box will close.

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8. Click on the Close button in the top-right corner of the File Info window to save your changes and close the window.

Playing Clips with Transport Controls Transport controls are used to control the playback of the audio and MIDI in your projects. At their basic level, transport controls work just like controls on a CD player.

1. Right-click on any toolbar. A list of toolbar names will appear.

2. Click on Transport if it does not already have a check mark beside it. A check mark indicates that the Transport toolbar is already open.

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TIP Alternatively, you can select the Transport (Large) toolbar, which will open a separate floating dialog box that can be used for transport controls.

3. To set the Now Time, click once in a blank area of the Clips Pane at the point where you would like the playback to begin. Alternatively, you can set the Now Time using one of the other methods you learned in Chapter 2. 4. Click on Play. Your project will begin to play from the point you selected in Step 3.

TIP Pressing the spacebar will automatically start the playback or pause it if it is in progress.

5. Click on the Play button again. The playback will pause.

6. Click on Stop. The playback will stop.

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7. Click on the Go to End button. The playback cursor will jump to the end of your project, and the Now Time will change accordingly.

8. Click on the Rewind button. The playback cursor will jump to the beginning of your project, and the Now Time will change accordingly.

Soloing Tracks Clips in your project are organized into separate tracks. Each track typically contains similar clips—for example, all clips coming from a particular instrument. By default, when you click on the Play button in the transport controls, the clips in every track play. If you want to hear the clips in one track only, you can solo that track.

1. Click on the S button for the track you want to solo. The S button will turn bright green to indicate that the track is soloed.

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2. Click on the Play button. Only clips in the track that you have soloed will play.

3. Click on the Stop button. The playback will end.

4. Repeat Step 1 to stop the track from being soloed.

Muting Tracks Home Studio gives you the ability to mute certain tracks during playback. This is a middle ground between soloing and playing all tracks. When you mute a track, that track will not be heard on playback.

1. Click on the M button for the track you want to mute. The button will turn bright yellow to indicate that it is selected.

2. Repeat Step 1 for any other tracks you want to mute. 3. Click on the Play button. You will be able to hear all clips except for those that are muted.

4. Click on the Stop button. The playback will end.

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5. Repeat Steps 1 and 2 to un-mute the tracks. TIP If you were the type of kid who liked to burn mosquitoes with a magnifying glass and get into all sorts of trouble, you might be wondering what would happen if you clicked on both the solo and mute buttons for a track. If you’re really wondering, just try it. But I won’t keep you in suspense—mute wins every time.

Controlling Playback for All Tracks The Playback State toolbar is handy for quickly making universal changes to your tracks. It certainly can save you dozens of clicks when it comes to muting and soloing tracks. It also can help you quickly deselect tracks with the click of a mouse button.

Opening the Playback State Toolbar You can open the Playback State toolbar as you would any other toolbar in Home Studio.

1. Right-click on any toolbar. A list of toolbars will appear.

2. Click on Playback State if there is not a check mark beside the name already. The Playback State toolbar will appear.

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Deselecting Muted or Soloed Tracks The Playback State toolbar will allow you to instantly remove the solo or muted state for selected tracks.

1. Click on the M buttons for several tracks. The M will appear bright yellow on those tracks to indicate that they are selected. Alternatively, you can do this with the S button to solo tracks. 2. Click on the M button on the Playback State toolbar. All the tracks that were muted will no longer be muted. If you had soloed several tracks, clicking on the S button on the toolbar would deselect soloing for all of them.

Muting or Soloing All Tracks Using the Playback State toolbar, you can mute and solo all tracks at the touch of a button.

1. Ensure that none of the tracks are soloed or muted. If they are, click on them to deselect them, or click on the S or M button on the Playback State toolbar to quickly deselect them all.

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2. Click on the S button on the Playback State toolbar to solo every track. The S button that represents soloing will appear bright green on every track.

3. Click on the M button on the Playback State toolbar to mute every track. The M button that represents muting will appear bright yellow on every track.

4. Repeat Step 2 and/or 3 to deselect soloing or muting for every track.

Changing Project Tempo The tempo is the speed at which your audio is played, and it can be adjusted using the Tempo toolbar. You can adjust the tempo for your entire project or for specific sections.

1. Right-click on any toolbar. A list of different toolbars will appear.

2. Click on Tempo if there is not already a check mark beside it. The Tempo toolbar will appear.

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Adjusting Global Tempo To adjust the tempo for your entire project, you simply have to enter a value in the Tempo box. Type a value for the tempo. This value (represented in beats per minute) will be applied to the entire project.

TIP You can adjust the tempo during playback to instantly hear its effect on your project.

Adjusting Tempo for a Specific Region If you want to adjust the tempo for only a portion of a project, you can use the Insert Tempo button. This will allow you to adjust the tempo from a specific point forward.

1. Click on the Insert Tempo button. The Tempo dialog box will open, allowing you to set a new tempo.

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2. Type a value for the tempo in the Tempo field. 3. Click on the Insert a New Tempo radio button. The option will be selected.

4. Type a value in the Starting at Time field for the location in your project where you want this tempo change to begin.

5. Click on OK. The tempo will change to the value you set from the point you selected forward. 6. Repeat Steps 1 through 5 to change the tempo in other locations.

Playing Multiple Files with a Play List I’m not one to tell you how to go about creating your project, but many people prefer to have only one composition per project. This helps keep your file system simple and organized, but it limits what you can play at any one time. The Play List solves this problem by allowing you to load multiple files, and then select which ones you want to play.

Creating a Play List Before you can play multiple files, you must first create your Play List and select which files to add to the list.

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1. Click on File. The File menu will appear.

2. Click on New. The New Project File dialog box will open.

3. Scroll to the top of the list by clicking repeatedly on the up arrow.

4. Click on Play List set. The option will be highlighted.

5. Click on OK. The Play List window will open.

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6. Click on the Add Song button. The Add Song to Play List dialog box will open. In this dialog box, you can select a song to add to the Play List.

7. Navigate to the folder that contains the song you want to add.

8. Click once on a song you want to add. The song will be highlighted.

9. Click on Open. The song will be added to the Play List, and the dialog box will close.

10. Repeat Steps 6 through 9 for any other songs you want to add to your Play List.

Saving a Play List After you have created your Play List, you can save it as a separate file that you can access at any time.

1. Click on File. The File menu will appear. 2. Click on Save As. The Save As dialog box will open.

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3. Navigate to the folder in which you want to save your Play List.

4. Type a name for your Play List. It’s a good idea to give it a descriptive name.

5. Click on Save. The Play List will be saved to the specified folder with the name you have given it.

Opening and Playing a Play List Once you have a Play List open, you can select individual songs to play, or you can have the songs play in order and even loop back to the beginning of the list after the last song is finished.

1. Click on File. The File menu will appear.

2. Click on Open. The Open dialog box will open, allowing you to select your Play List.

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3. Navigate to the folder that contains the Play List you want to open.

4. Click on the desired Play List. The Play List will be highlighted.

5. Click on Open. The Play List will open.

6. Click on the Enable Play List button if it is not already activated. The option will be selected.

7. Double-click on the song in the Play List that you want to start. The file will open in the background.

8. Click on Play. The first file that you selected will begin to play. When the song is over, the next song in the Play List will play.

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9. Click on the Repeat List button if you want the songs in the list to continue playing from the start once the end of the list is reached.

10. Click on the Next Song button at any time to move to the next song.

11. Click on any song you want to remove from the list. The song will be highlighted.

12. Click on the Remove Song button. The song will be removed from the list.

13. Click on any song for which you want to delay the playback. The song will be highlighted.

14. Click on the Delay button. The Delay dialog box will open.

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15. Click on the radio button for the desired delay option. The option will be selected.

16. Click on OK. The delay option will be selected, and the dialog box will close.

17. Click on File. The File menu will appear. 18. Click on Close. The Play List will close, and you will return to the last view you had showing.

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Looping Playback If you’re old enough to remember playing vinyl records, and how they used to skip and play a portion of audio over and over, then you should be familiar with the concept of looping playback. This allows you to repeat the playback of a portion of your project (or all of it). Looping is controlled by the Loop toolbar.

1. Right-click on any toolbar. A menu of different toolbars will appear.

2. Click on Loop if there is not already a check mark beside it. The Loop toolbar will appear.

3. Click on the Loop On/Off button. The button will appear pressed in to indicate that it is on. 4. Type a value in the Loop Start box. This is the point in your project where you want the loop to begin.

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5. Type a value in the Loop End box. This is the point in your project where you want the loop to end.

6. Click and drag the yellow markers that appear (which represent the start and end of your loop) if you want to manually adjust the loop.

7. Click on Play. The playback will loop in the area you specified.

8. Click on Stop. The playback will end.

9. Click on the Loop On/Off button. The looping option will be turned off.

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4

Basic Recording

Before you can start editing and mixing your compilations, you need some music clips to work with. There are two ways you can get music clips into Home Studio—by recording new clips or importing existing recordings. Once you have the appropriate hardware set up and configured, Home Studio makes it easy to record your music in editable form. This chapter covers recording both audio and MIDI files. In this chapter you’ll learn how to: Record vocals Record from a CD Record other audio Record MIDI

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Recording Vocals All those years of karaoke at the local bar are finally going to pay off. You can now sing directly into Cakewalk Home Studio, and the software will record your voice and digitize it so that it can be edited. Before you start belting out the tunes, though, you’ll need to adjust your hardware and make sure that the settings on your computer are correct.

NOTE Before you can record audio or MIDI, you need to set up your devices properly. Setting up audio devices was covered in Chapter 1, and configuring your MIDI devices will be covered later in this chapter, in the “Preparing MIDI Devices for Recording” section.

Setting Up a Microphone Once you have your microphone plugged into your computer’s sound card, you will need to adjust the settings to get it working properly. By default, the microphone is automatically muted on most computers, so you will have to activate it and adjust the volume settings so you can hear yourself as you sing.

1. Click on Start. The Start menu will appear.

2. Click on Programs or All Programs. Depending on the operating system you are using, this option will differ.

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3. Click on Accessories. The Accessories submenu will appear.

4. Click on Entertainment. A list of options will appear.

5. Click on Volume Control. The Volume Control (or Master Control or Play Control) dialog box will open. The name of the dialog box will differ depending on your operating system.

6. Click on Options. The Options menu will appear.

7. Click on Properties. The Properties dialog box will open so you can select the properties for certain audio devices. NOTE Depending on your operating system and sound card, the Volume Control dialog box might appear slightly different than in the images you see here. Some sound cards do not provide the mute option, so disregard these steps if that applies to you.

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8. Click on the Recording radio button. The volume for recording will be adjusted.

9. Click on the down scroll button until you see the Mic or Microphone option. Depending on your screen size and resolution, the scroll boxes may or may not appear.

10. Click on the Mic or Microphone check box if it is not already selected. (The name of this option will vary depending on the operating system you are using.) The microphone controls will be activated.

11. Click on OK. The Properties dialog box will close and the Microphone volume controls will appear.

12. Click on the Mute check box to deselect it. If there is no check mark in the Mute box to begin with, you can disregard this step. Deselecting the mute option will allow you to hear yourself through the computer speakers when you speak into the microphone.

13. Speak into the microphone to test the volume levels. You should hear your voice through the computer speakers.

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14. Click and drag the volume slider for the microphone until it is at the desired level.

15. Click on Options. The Options menu will appear. 16. Click on Properties. The Properties dialog box will open so you can select the properties for certain audio devices.

17. Click on the Playback radio button. The options for playback will appear. 18. Click in the Wave check box if it’s not already checked. The Wave controls will be activated. 19. Click on OK. The Properties dialog box will close and the Wave volume controls will appear.

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20. Click on the Mute check box to deselect it. If there is no check mark in the Mute box to begin with, you can disregard this step.

21. Click on the Close button in the top-right corner to accept the changes and close the dialog box.

Recording from the Microphone When you record from the microphone, you will be creating an audio clip that will appear in the track you select. First, you must create the track if one does not already exist, then choose the input device, and then select whether the audio will be mono (one channel) or stereo (two channels). After that, you simply arm the track for recording and you’re ready to go.

1. Click on Insert. The Insert menu will appear.

2. Click on Audio Track. A new audio track will be created. Alternatively, you could select an existing audio track on which to record.

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TIP You can quickly tell the difference between an audio track and a MIDI track by observing the icons beside the track name. Audio tracks have icons with two little waves, whereas MIDI tracks have icons that show a MIDI plug.

3. Click on the Maximize button to view all of the options for the track. The track will expand, and a variety of settings for the track will appear. 4. Click on the down arrow at the end of the In field. A list of input devices will appear.

5. Hover the mouse pointer over the sound card to which the microphone is attached. A list of three options will appear. 6. Click on the desired option. You can choose Left or Right, which will produce mono files, or Stereo, which will produce both left and right channels.

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7. Click on the R button for the track. The track will be armed for recording.

8. Adjust the Now Time to the point in your track where you want the clip to begin.

9. Click on the Record button. The recording process will begin.

10. Sing into the microphone to your heart’s content. As you sing, the audio will be recorded. Your levels will appear in the Tracks Pane.

11. Click on the Stop button when you have finished. An audio clip will be created.

12. Observe the clip. Because it is an audio clip, it will appear as a waveform.

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Recording from an Internal CD Player You can record audio directly from the CD player on your computer. You simply have to configure the hardware on your computer, pop in a CD, and then record away. Basically, this analog method of recording works because your computer plays the CD and Home Studio records what it hears.

1. Click on Start. The Start menu will appear. 2. Click on Programs or All Programs. Depending on the operating system you are using, this option will differ. 3. Click on Accessories. The Accessories submenu will appear.

4. Click on Entertainment. A list of options will appear.

5. Click on Volume Control. The Volume Control (or Master Out or Play Control) dialog box will open. The name will differ depending on your operating system.

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6. Click on Options. The Options menu will appear.

7. Click on Properties. The Properties dialog box will open, allowing you to adjust your audio properties.

8. Click on the Recording radio button if it is not already selected. This will adjust settings for the volume when you are recording.

9. Click on the scroll button until you come to CD or CD Audio. Depending on the resolution of your screen, there may not be a scroll box.

10. Click on the CD or CD Audio check box if there is not already a check mark in the box. The option will be selected.

11. Click on OK. The Properties dialog box will close.

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12. Adjust the volume controls for CD Audio to the desired levels by clicking and dragging on the slider.

13. Click on the Close button in the top-right corner to close the dialog box.

14. Click on Insert. The Insert menu will appear. 15. Click on Audio Track. A new audio track will be created. Alternatively, you could select an existing audio track on which to record.

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16. Click on the Maximize button to view all of the options for the track. The track will expand, and a variety of settings for the track will appear.

17. Click on the down arrow at the end of the In field. A list of input devices will appear.

18. Hover the mouse pointer over the internal sound card. A list of three options will appear.

19. Click on the desired option. You can choose Left or Right, which will produce mono files, or Stereo, which will produce both left and right channels.

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20. Click on the R button on the track. The track will be armed for recording.

21. Adjust the Now Time to the point in your track where you want the clip to begin.

22. Insert a CD into your CD-ROM drive. Depending on the configuration of your computer, a CD player program might automatically launch. If this is the case, skip to Step 28.

23. Click on Start. The Start menu will appear. 24. Click on Programs or All Programs, depending on which version of Windows you are running. 25. Click on Accessories. The Accessories submenu will appear.

26. Click on Entertainment. The Entertainment submenu will appear. 27. Click on CD Player, or Windows Media Player, or any other software that will play a CD. 28. Click on the Home Studio icon on the Windows Taskbar to switch back to Cakewalk Home Studio.

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29. Click on the Record button. Home Studio will begin recording. You will now have to switch back to the CD player program and begin playing the desired track you want to record.

30. Click on the Windows Media Player or CD Player icon on the Windows Taskbar to switch to the CD player.

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31. Click on the desired track in the list. The track will be selected.

32. Click on the Play button. The track will begin to play. As it plays, it will be recorded in Home Studio.

33. Click on the Home Studio icon on the Windows Taskbar to switch back to Cakewalk Home Studio. The track will be recording.

34. Click on Stop once the track is finished playing. The CD track will now be recorded and will show up as a wave clip in your track.

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Recording from a Turntable, Electric Guitar, Tape Deck, or another Audio Device Go the basement, dust off your old turntable, and find your old vinyl records, because you can turn those oldies into digitally remastered works of art. You can connect a wide variety of audio devices directly to your computer so the audio can be captured by Home Studio. Most devices will need to be connected to a receiver that is in turn connected to your computer. The Line In jack on your computer is 1/8", and your receiver outlets are RCA. There is an RCA-to-miniplug adapter that you can purchase at retailers such as Radio Shack that will allow you to plug your receiver directly into your computer through the Line In jack. Once it is connected and powered on, you must adjust some settings in Cakewalk Home Studio to enable recording. Other devices will allow you to connect directly to the Line In jack of your computer.

1. Click on Start. The Start menu will appear. 2. Click on Programs or All Programs. Depending on the operating system you are using, this option will differ.

3. Click on Accessories. The Accessories submenu will appear.

4. Click on Entertainment. The Entertainment submenu will appear.

5. Click on Volume Control. The Volume Control (or Master Out) dialog box will open.

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6. Click on Options. The Options menu will appear.

7. Click on Properties. The Properties dialog box will open.

8. Click on the Recording radio button if it is not already selected. The option will be selected.

9. Click on the scroll buttons until you see the Line In option. Depending on the size and resolution of your screen, there may not be a scroll box. 10. Click on the Line In check box to display the volume settings for Line In.

11. Click on OK. The Properties dialog box will close.

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12. Click and drag the volume setting for Line In. It should be at about three-quarters or higher.

13. Click on the Mute check box to deselect the mute option, if required.

14. Click on the Close button in the top-right corner of the dialog box to close it.

15. Click on Insert. The Insert menu will appear.

16. Click on Audio Track. A new audio track will be created. Alternatively, you could select an existing audio track on which to record.

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17. Click on the Maximize button to view all of the options for the track. The track will expand, and a variety of settings for it will appear.

18. Click on the down arrow at the end of the In field. A list of input devices will appear.

19. Hover the mouse pointer over the internal sound card. A list of three options will appear.

20. Click on the desired option. You can choose Left or Right, which will produce mono files, or Stereo, which will produce both left and right channels.

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21. Click on the R button for the track. The track will be armed for recording.

22. Adjust the Now Time to the point in your track where you want the clip to begin.

23. Click on the Record button. The recording process will begin.

24. Drop the needle on the record and begin spinning the vinyl. Or start playing your electric guitar, press Play on the tape deck, or simply run any of the devices that are hooked up to the Line In jack of your computer. 25. Click on the Stop button. The audio will now be recorded, and the waveform will appear in the clip.

Recording MIDI Files MIDI files are distinctly different than audio files. Whereas audio files are actual sound waves that have been digitized, MIDI files are simply digital instructions. MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) files are actually just text files that give instructions to a computer or musical instrument about what to play. There are a variety of different MIDI devices, including keyboards, synthesizers, and drum machines. In Home Studio, you can not only record from your MIDI devices, you can also send information to be played through them.

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Preparing MIDI Devices for Recording To connect your MIDI device to your computer, you must not only have the proper physical connection, but you also have to make sure that you have the proper drivers installed. At most music stores you can find a MIDI-to-USB device that will allow you to connect your MIDI device to your computer so it can both send and receive signals. You should then run the software that comes with the device to make sure it can properly communicate with your computer. Once the device is hooked up, you can configure it in Home Studio.

1. Click on Options. The Options menu will appear.

2. Click on MIDI Devices. The MIDI Devices dialog box will open. 3. Click on the MIDI device from which you want to record. The device will be highlighted. 4. Click on Move Selected Devices to Top until the device you have selected is at the top of the list.

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5. Click on OK. The dialog box will close, and you will be ready to record.

6. Play a few notes on your MIDI device to test it. As you play, lights should flash on the MIDI Input/Output Activity icon in the system tray.

Recording MIDI Once you have your device set up, actual recording is a breeze. You simply have to select a track to record to, and you’re off to the races.

1. Click on Insert. The Insert menu will appear.

2. Click on MIDI Track. A new MIDI track will appear.

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3. Click on the Maximize button to view all of the options for the track. The track will expand, and a variety of settings for it will appear.

4. Click on the down arrow at the end of the In field. A list of input devices will appear.

5. Click on the desired option for your MIDI. The option will be selected.

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6. Click on the R button in the track. The track will be armed for recording.

7. Adjust the Now Time to the point in your track where you want the clip to begin.

8. Click on the Record button. It will turn bright red to indicate that it is recording. 9. Start playing your MIDI device. Everything you play will be recorded. 10. Click on the Stop button. A MIDI clip will appear in the track.

5

Advanced Recording

There’s more to recording in Home Studio than simply clicking on the Record button and playing your instrument. You can set when your recording will occur and how it is stored, and you can change how recordings interact with existing clips. Recording is only one method for getting clips into your projects. Home Studio also allows you to import a variety of audio and MIDI files. In this chapter you’ll learn how to: Punch record Step record Adjust recording modes Import audio Use the metronome

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Punch Recording The pressure to play the perfect piece while recording can be too much for many people to handle. Rather than having to worry about getting your performance just right, you can relax and make all the mistakes you want. Using punch recording, you can activate the recording process for a specific region of an existing clip and record over any mistakes you might have made.

1. Right-click on any toolbar. A menu of different toolbars will appear.

2. Click on the Record option if it does not already have a check mark beside it. The Record toolbar will appear.

3. Click once on the track where you would like the punch-in recording to occur. See Chapter 3 for a review of the steps to create a track if you want to record to a new track. 4. Position your mouse pointer over the ruler at the point where you would like the recording to begin.

5. Click and drag across the ruler to the point where you would like the recording to end.

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6. Release the mouse button. The selected area will be highlighted on the ruler.

7. Click on the Set Punch to Selection button. Pink markers will appear on the ruler to indicate the punch-in and punch-out locations.

8. Click and drag the punch-in and punch-out markers to further adjust them if necessary.

9. Click on the R button on the track. The track will be armed for recording. 10. Set the Now Time at any point where you want the playback to begin.

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11. Click on the Record button. The sequence will begin to play, but actual recording will only take place when the Now Time is between the two pink punch markers.

12. Play your MIDI instrument or record from your audio source. As you play, only material that is played when the Now Time is between the two punch markers will be recorded.

13. Click on the Stop button to end the playback and recording. Existing material in the clip that was between the two punch markers will be recorded over with the new material.

Step Recording Imagine if you were a goalie in the NHL, and every time somebody took a shot, you could slow down time to put yourself in position to make the perfect save. To make the perfect recording, you can slow down time by decreasing the tempo, but another method is to record one note at a time, which will ensure that you don’t make any mistakes (hopefully!). This is a particularly useful feature when you are recording pieces that are very difficult to play.

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1. Right-click on any toolbar. A menu of different toolbars will appear.

2. Click on the Record option if it does not already have a check mark beside it. The Record toolbar will appear.

3. Click on Insert. The Insert menu will appear.

4. Click on MIDI Track if you don’t already have a MIDI track open where you would like the recording to appear.

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5. Set the Now Time to the position in the Tracks Pane where you want the recording to begin. The easiest way to do this is to simply click once at the point where you want the recording to begin.

6. Click once on a MIDI track to select it. The recording will appear in that track.

7. Click on the Maximize button to view all of the options for the track. The track will expand, and a variety of settings for it will appear.

8. Click on the down arrow at the end of the In field. A list of input devices will appear.

9. Click on the desired option. The option will be selected.

TIP You do not have to arm a track for recording when you are using the Step Record feature.

10. Click on the Step Record button on the Record toolbar. The Step Record dialog box will open.

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11. Click on the Auto Advance check box if it is not already selected. The auto advance option will automatically move you to the next step when you record a note.

12. Click on the desired Step Size radio button. This is the amount of space that will be inserted between the notes you play while you are step recording.

13. Click on the desired Duration radio button for the note that you are playing. The option will be selected.

14. Play a note on your MIDI device. The note will be recorded, and you will automatically advance to the next step. 15. Repeat Steps 12 through 14 at any time to record additional notes, one step at a time.

16. Click on Delete at any time to erase the last step you recorded.

17. Click on the Advance button at any point to skip a step and add a rest.

18. Click on the scroll buttons to navigate through the different steps. 19. Click on Keep to save and stop the recording.

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20. Click on Close to close the dialog box and return to your sequence.

Recording Modes You can change the way new recordings react to existing information in your tracks. Basically, you have two options. New recordings can either replace or be merged with existing data.

1. Right-click on any toolbar. A menu of different toolbars will appear.

2. Click on the Record option if it does not already have a check mark beside it. The Record toolbar will appear.

3. Click on the Record Options down arrow. A list of choices will appear.

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4. Click on the desired option. Your options include: • Sound On Sound. Select this option to keep existing clips and create a new clip for the recordings on a separate track. • Overwrite. Select this mode to overwrite existing clips. • Auto Punch. Select this mode to make the recording replace anything between the punchin and punch-out points.

Loop Recording If you’ve ever watched a movie being made, you know that it’s a very rare occasion when the actors get everything right on the first take. If highly paid actors don’t have to be perfect, then why should you? We’re all human, we make mistakes, and that is just what loop recording is for. In loop recording, you set a start point and an end point for the recording. When you record, each time you reach the end point of your loop, the recording process will start again at the beginning point, and a new clip will be recorded for every full pass of the loop. This allows you to record multiple takes without having to adjust any settings. You then can choose one, some, or all of the takes to use.

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1. Right-click on any toolbar. A menu of different toolbars will appear.

2. Click on the Record option if it does not already have a check mark beside it. The Record toolbar will appear.

3. Right-click on any toolbar. A menu of different toolbars will appear.

4. Click on Loop if it does not already have a check mark beside it. The Loop toolbar will appear.

5. Click on the Record options button on the Record toolbar. The Record Options dialog box will open.

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6. Click on the desired Recording Mode radio button. You can either have your takes stored in a single track or in multiple tracks.

7. Click on OK. The dialog box will close, and you can now set your loop recording length.

8. Double-click in the Loop Start field. The numbers in the field will be highlighted, and little plus and minus signs will appear.

9. Type a value for the starting point of your loop recording.

10. Repeat Steps 8 and 9 for the Loop End field. This will mark the end point for the loop. 11. Click on the Loop On/Off button to turn on the looping feature. Little yellow markers will appear on the ruler to indicate the start and end positions for the loop. You can click on and drag these markers to adjust the loop period.

12. Click on the R button. The track will be armed for recording.

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13. Click on the Record button. Recording will begin within the loop points that you have entered.

14. Play your MIDI device or record your audio. Once you reach the end point that you have set, Home Studio will loop back to the start point and record another take.

15. Click on the Stop button. The different takes that have been recorded will be saved as clips and stored based on the criteria you set in Step 6.

Importing Clips Recording is only one way to get audio into Home Studio. If you already have a collection of audio, you can import certain clips directly into your tracks. Because MIDI and audio files are distinctly different, the methods for importing these two types of files differ.

Importing Audio There are a variety of different types of audio files that you can import directly into your tracks, including popular formats such as .mp3, .wav, .aif, and several others.

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1. Click on Insert. The Insert menu will appear.

2. Click on Audio Track. A new audio track will be inserted. You can skip this step if an audio track already exists where you want to import the file.

3. Click once at the point in the Tracks Pane where you want to insert the audio file to set the Now Time to that point.

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4. Click on File. The File menu will appear.

5. Hover your mouse pointer over Import. The Import submenu will appear.

6. Click on Audio. The Import Audio dialog box will open.

7. Navigate to the folder that contains the audio file you want to import. A list of files in that folder will appear.

8. Click on the audio file you want to import. The file will be highlighted.

9. Click on Play. You will hear a preview of the audio that you are considering importing.

10. Click on Open. The file you selected will be imported as an audio clip at the point you selected in Step 3.

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Importing MIDI Files You can’t actually import MIDI files directly into tracks in Home Studio. There is, however, a workaround that will allow you to get existing MIDI data into the tracks of your projects. First, you have to open the MIDI file as a separate project, and then you can bring clips into your current project.

1. Click on Insert. The Insert menu will appear.

2. Click on MIDI Track. A new MIDI track will be inserted. You can skip this step if a MIDI track already exists where you want to import clips.

3. Click on File. The File menu will appear. 4. Click on Open. The Open dialog box will open.

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5. Navigate to the folder that contains the MIDI file you want to open. A list of files in that folder will appear.

6. Click on the MIDI file you want to open. The file will be highlighted.

7. Click on Open. All of the tracks and clips within the MIDI file will open.

8. Hold down the Shift key. Keep it held down until the end of Step 9.

9. Click on any clips you want to import into your project. As you click on them, the clips will be highlighted to indicate that they are selected.

10. Click on Edit. The Edit menu will appear.

11. Click on Copy. The Copy dialog box will open.

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12. Click on OK to accept the settings in the Copy dialog box. The dialog box will close.

13. Click on Window. The Window menu will appear. 14. Click on the name of the open project into which you want to insert the MIDI clips. The window will change to display that project.

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15. Click on the MIDI track into which you want to insert the MIDI clips. The track will be selected.

16. Click once in the MIDI track to specify the point at which you want to insert the copied MIDI tracks.

17. Click on Edit. The Edit menu will appear. 18. Click on Paste. The Paste dialog box will open, allowing you to specify options for the paste.

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19. Click on OK. The clips you copied will be pasted at the point you selected in Step 16.

NOTE If you copied clips from more than one track, the clips will be placed on separate tracks when you paste them.

Importing Audio with the Loop Explorer A quick way of importing audio into your tracks is with the Loop Explorer. The Loop Explorer allows you to simply click and drag files into your sessions.

1. Click on View. The View menu will appear.

2. Click on Loop Explorer. The Loop Explorer View will open at the bottom of the window. 3. Navigate to the folder that contains the audio clips you want to import. You can navigate by clicking on the plus signs to expand folders and the minus signs to close folders.

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4. Click and drag the desired audio clip from the Loop Explorer to the track where you want the audio to be imported. As you drag, the cursor will have a little plus sign beside it.

5. Release the mouse button. The audio clip will be imported into the audio track where you released the mouse button.

Naming and Coloring Clips Unless you have an incredible memory, working with a variety of clips in your session will become increasingly difficult if you do not name your clips. You can give your clips any names you see fit, and you can apply colors to them to keep them organized.

1. Right-click on any clip that you want to edit. A menu will appear.

2. Click on Clip Properties. The Clip Properties dialog box will open.

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3. Type a name for your clip in the Name text box. You can give it any name you choose.

4. Click on the Choose Color button. The Color dialog box will open, allowing you to select a color.

5. Click on the desired color for your clip. You can click anywhere in the window to pick a color.

6. Click on OK. The dialog box will close, and you will return to the Clip Properties dialog box.

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7. Click on OK. The settings that you adjusted will take effect.

Using the Metronome Within Home Studio there is a virtual metronome that you can use to count off beats when you are recording and/or during playback. The sound of the metronome can be played through any of the MIDI devices attached to your computer or directly through the computer speakers.

Opening the Metronome The Metronome toolbar allows you to adjust a variety of options for your metronome, including its tempo, the sound it plays, and when it plays.

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1. Right-click on any toolbar. A list of toolbars will appear.

2. Click on Metronome. The Metronome toolbar will appear, allowing you to adjust the metronome options.

Activating the Metronome You really have three options when it comes to activating the metronome. You can activate it for recording, for playback, or for both.

1. Click on the Metronome during Playback button. The button will appear pressed in to indicate that it is activated. 2. Repeat Step 1 to turn off the metronome during playback feature.

3. Click on the Metronome during Record button. The button will appear pressed in to indicate that it is activated.

4. Repeat Step 3 to turn off the metronome during recording feature.

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5. Click on the Use PC Speaker button if you want to hear the metronome through the computer’s speakers, not just your MIDI device.

6. Click on the Play button or arm a track and click on the Record button. You will hear the metronome ticking.

Counting In The coolest of rock stars always do a countdown before they start performing. Usually it goes something like 2…3…4, and then the show begins. You can use the metronome to give yourself a little countdown before you start recording. This gives you time to get set and get into the rhythm of the beat.

1a. Click on the Count-in Measures button to set a number of beats for the count-in. OR

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1b. Click on the Count-in Beats button to set a number of measures for the count-in.

2. Click on the plus or minus to increase or decrease the number of beats or measures that are counted off before the recording process begins.

3. Click once in the Count-in box. A small plus and minus sign will appear.

4. Click on the R button to arm a track for recording. The button will turn bright red.

5. Click on the Record button. You will hear the metronome counting down. Recording won’t begin until the number of beats or measures that you selected is counted off. 6. Observe the status bar. You can see a visual representation of the count-in.

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Changing the Metronome Sound The default sound for the metronome played through your MIDI device is a hi-hat cymbal. However, you can change this to any sound your MIDI device can produce. This change can be made through the Project Options dialog box.

1. Click on the Metronome Settings button. The Project Options dialog box will open. 2. Click on the Metronome tab if it is not already selected. A variety of metronome options will appear.

3. Double-click in the First Beat Key field. The key in the field will be highlighted. This will allow you to change the key of the first beat of the metronome.

4. Play a note on your MIDI device. The note that you play will replace the existing key.

5. Double-click in the Other Beats Key field. The key in the field will be highlighted.

6. Play a note on your MIDI device. The note that you play will replace the existing key.

7. Click on OK. The dialog box will close and the settings that you have adjusted will take effect.

6

Managing Tracks

Think of tracks as the filing cabinets of Home Studio. Tracks allow you to organize the clips that reside in your project. Tracks appear as individual lanes and typically store clips from individual instruments or audio sources. In previous chapters, you learned how to create tracks and use them in the recording and playback processes. In this chapter, you’ll learn how to manage the tracks. Specifically, in this chapter you’ll learn how to: Name and move tracks Delete and wipe tracks Clone tracks Archive tracks

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Naming Tracks Whenever you create a track, it is assigned a number and given a generic name based on that number. It’s a good idea to rename your tracks so you can quickly know what types of clips are included in that track. Typically, the name of the track is the instrument or source of audio for that track.

1. Double-click on the existing track name. A white box will appear where the track name was, and a cursor will flash in the box.

2. Type a new name for the track. Typically, this is the name of the instrument or the source of audio for the track.

3. Click anywhere outside the track. The name will be applied.

NOTE If you don’t give a track a name, its name will be “Track” plus the track number. The problem with this is that if you move a track that isn’t named, both the track number and the name will change.

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Moving Tracks Changing the location of a track is simply a matter of clicking and dragging.

1. Position your mouse pointer over the area to the left of the letter M in the track that you want to move. 2. Click and drag the track to the new location. As you drag, a black outline will appear, previewing the new location of the track.

3. Release the mouse button. The track will be moved to the new location. NOTE The track number only indicates the position of a track in relation to the other tracks. In other words, if you move a track, its track number will change to indicate its new position in relation to other tracks.

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Selecting Track Contents In the next chapter, you’ll learn all about selecting clips and editing them. You can select all of the contents of a track with a single click of the mouse button.

1. Click on the track number. The track number will turn an aqua color, and all of the contents of that track will be selected.

2. Hold down the Ctrl key and click on any track numbers. Those tracks also will be selected.

TIP Double-click on any track number to select all the contents of every track in the project.

Deleting Tracks If you no longer require a track, you can delete it quickly. When you delete a track, you not only delete the track, but also all of the clips within that track.

1. Click once on the track number of the track you want to delete. The track number will turn an aqua color.

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2. Right-click on the same track. A menu will appear.

3. Click on Delete Track. The track and all of its contents will be deleted. CAUTION There is no warning provided when you delete a track, so make sure you want to delete it before you go through the deletion process.

Track Wiping When you delete a track, both the contents and the track itself are deleted. When you wipe a track, its contents are deleted, but the track itself and all of its settings remain.

1. Click once on the track number of the track you want to wipe. The track number will turn an aqua color.

2. Click on Track. The Track menu will appear. 3. Click on Wipe. The contents of the track will be removed, but the track will remain intact.

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Cloning The word “cloning” conjures up images of sci-fi movies, lambs, and freaky cults. Not to worry, though—cloning in Home Studio is much less frightening than any of those scenarios. Cloning in Home Studio is actually just copying a track and pasting its contents to a new, blank track. When you clone a track, its clone is placed in the next available blank track, which is typically at the end of your track list.

1. Click once on the track number of the track you want to clone. The track number will turn an aqua color.

2. Click on Track. The Track menu will appear.

3. Click on Clone. The Track Clone dialog box will open.

4. Click in the check boxes to indicate the options you want to include in the cloned track. The options will be selected.

5. Click on OK. The dialog box will close, and a new track will be created with the same contents as the track you cloned.

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6. Observe the new track. It will have the same name as the track you cloned it from, so it’s a good idea to rename it.

Showing and Hiding Tracks Depending on the size of your projects, it might be easier to get work done without so many tracks to deal with. You can temporarily hide tracks that you aren’t working on so you can concentrate on those tracks that you want to edit.

Hiding Tracks Hiding tracks is simply a matter of selecting which tracks you want to hide, and then executing the Hide command.

1. Hold down the Ctrl key and click on the track numbers of the tracks you want to hide. The track number area for each selected track will turn an aqua color to indicate that the track is selected.

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2. Click on Track. The Track menu will appear.

3. Click on Hide. The tracks you selected will be hidden.

TIP The keyboard shortcut for hiding tracks is Shift+H.

Showing Tracks To bring back all the tracks that have been hidden, you can use the View Options menu.

1. Click on the View Options button. A menu will appear, providing you with a variety of options.

2. Click on Show All Tracks. All the tracks that were hidden will now appear.

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The Track Manager The Track Manager provides you with a quick way to hide and show tracks.

1. Click on the View Options button. A menu will appear, providing you with a variety of options.

2. Click on Track Manager. The Track Manager will open.

3. Click in the check boxes beside the tracks you want to show. An unchecked box indicates that the track will be hidden. 4. Click on any of the Toggle buttons to select all of the tracks that fit within that category.

5. Press the spacebar to select or deselect all of the highlighted tracks.

6. Click on OK to close the Track Manager and return to your project.

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Sorting Tracks By default, tracks will appear in the order in which they are created. The tracks can be sorted based on a variety of different criteria.

1. Click on Track. The Track menu will appear.

2. Click on Sort. The Sort Tracks dialog box will open.

3. Click on the desired Sort by radio button. The option will be selected.

4. Click on the desired Order radio button. The option will be selected.

5. Click on OK. The tracks will be sorted based on the criteria you have set.

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Archiving Tracks In a previous chapter you learned how to mute a track. Archiving is similar to muting with one major exception. When a track is muted, its information is still processed, so that the track can be unmuted at any time during playback. The problem with this is that if you mute a variety of different tracks, it can put a heavy strain on your computer and affect performance. Archiving tracks mutes them, but the information isn’t processed by the computer, so the tracks cannot be unmuted during playback. In other words, archiving a track is like temporarily removing it from your project.

1. Hold down the Ctrl key and click on the track numbers of any tracks you want to archive. The track number area for each selected track will turn an aqua color to indicate that the track is selected. 2. Click on Track. The Track menu will appear.

3. Click on Archive. The track(s) you selected will be archived.

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4. Observe the Archive buttons in the Tracks Pane. These buttons have replaced the Mute buttons.

5. Click on Track. The Track menu will appear. 6. Click on Archive. The track(s) will be de-archived.

Viewing Track Properties Each track has a variety of different properties associated with it. All of these properties can be viewed from directly within the Tracks Pane.

1. Click on the Maximize button for a track. All of the track’s properties will be shown.

7

General Editing

What’s the difference between a professional-sounding masterpiece and an amateur recording that sounds like you recorded it with your tape deck in the downstairs bathroom? It’s all in the editing. Editing allows you to rearrange your audio and MIDI files and, more importantly, change the way they sound. In this chapter you’ll learn how to: Create selections Move clips Copy, cut, and paste clips Apply processes

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Making Selections Before you can apply any effect or perform editing in any other way, you have to tell Home Studio what you want to edit. To do this, you create a selection. There are many different selection methods from which to choose.

Selecting Individual Clips The fastest way to make a selection is to simply click on the clip that you want to select.

1. Click once on the clip you want to select. The clip will appear highlighted in black to indicate that it is selected.

2. Click in any blank area of the Tracks Pane. The clip will be deselected.

Selecting Multiple Clips You can save time by applying edits and effects to more than one clip at a time. Home Studio offers you several ways to select multiple clips.

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Keyboard Selections By using the keyboard in conjunction with the mouse, you can select more than one clip at a time.

1. Click once on a clip you want to select. It will appear highlighted to indicate that it is selected. 2. Hold down the Ctrl key. Keep it held down until you reach the end of Step 3.

3. Click on any other clips you want to select. All these clips will be selected as well.

4. Click in any blank area of the Tracks Pane. The clips will be deselected.

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Marquee Selections A quick method for creating selections of multiple clips is to drag a marquee. When you click and drag your mouse in the Clips Pane, a dotted marquee will appear. You can use this marquee to select multiple clips.

1. Position your mouse pointer in a blank area to the top left of the clips that you want to select. 2. Click and drag a marquee that surrounds the clips you want to select. As you drag, a marquee will appear.

NOTE The marquee must completely encompass the clips in order for them to be selected.

3. Release the mouse button. The clips that were completely encompassed will be selected.

4. Hold down the Ctrl key. Keep it held down until you reach the end of Step 5.

5. Repeat Steps 1 through 3 for any other clips that you want to add to the selection.

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Selecting a Portion of a Clip When you are editing your clips, often you will want to edit only a portion of the clip, rather than the entire piece. To do this, you can create a selection that only highlights part of the clip.

1. Hold down the Alt key. Keep it held down until you reach the end of Step 3.

2. Click and drag your mouse across the portion of a clip that you want to select. The area will appear highlighted as you drag.

3. Release the mouse button. The portion of the clip that you highlighted will now appear dark gray to indicate that it is selected.

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Deselecting Multiple Clips Suppose you’ve taken the time to select a bunch of different clips, but you inadvertently selected one by accident. Rather than having to deselect the clips and start again from scratch, you can simply deselect the unwanted clip.

1. Hold down the Ctrl key. Keep it held down until you reach the end of Step 2. 2. Click on any selected clip. The clip will be deselected.

Time Range Selections One problem with selecting portions of clips with the mouse is that it can be difficult to make accurate selections. To mitigate this problem, Home Studio allows you to enter a specific time range for your selections.

1. Click on Edit. The Edit menu will appear.

2. Click on Select. A submenu of selection options will appear.

3. Click on By Time. The Select by Time dialog box will open, allowing you to specify a time range for your selection.

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4. Type a time for the beginning point of your selection in the From field.

5. Type a time for the desired end point for your selection in the Thru field. 6. Click on OK. The dialog box will close, and the time range you selected will appear highlighted in the rule. At this point no actual clips or portions of clips have been selected; only a region has been specified in the ruler.

7. Click on the number beside the track where you want the selection to occur. The portion of the track whose contents fall within the region you selected in Steps 4 through 6 will be selected.

Moving Clips You can move clips or portions of clips to a new location simply by clicking and dragging. Home Studio allows you to control how existing material in the destination track will react to the clip you are moving.

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1. Create a selection using one of the selection methods. You can move all or part of a clip.

2. Position the mouse pointer over the selection you want to move.

3. Click and drag the selection to the desired new location. As you drag, an outline representing the new location of the selection will appear.

4. Release the mouse button. The Drag and Drop Options dialog box might open, displaying options for how the clip will react to existing data in the track.

5. Click on the radio button for the desired option for handling existing information in the track. The option will be selected.

6. Click on OK. The clip will be moved.

TIP Holding down the Ctrl key while moving a selection will place a copy of the selection at the point where you release the mouse button, rather than moving the existing clip.

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Snap to Grid One problem with moving clips is that you are relying purely on your eyesight, which could result in inaccurate placement. Using the Snap to Grid feature, you can have your clips automatically snap to a specific location once they get close to that location on the grid. Think of Snap to Grid like a magnet that will attract your clip to a grid once the clip reaches a specific point. You can specify this point to be a variety of units of measurement.

1. Click on the Snap to Grid Options button. It is a little black down arrow next to an icon that looks like a grid. The Snap to Grid dialog box will open, allowing you to select from a variety of options.

2. Click on the radio button for the desired Snap to Grid option. If you choose the Musical Time option, you will have to specify a time unit.

3. Click on OK. The Snap to Grid feature will be activated based on the selection you made.

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4. Click and drag a clip to a new location. You should notice that as you drag, the clip will snap to the grid at specific locations.

5. Click on the Snap to Grid button to deactivate the Snap to Grid feature.

Copying, Cutting, and Pasting Clips The most common form of editing is copying or cutting selections, and then pasting them. When you cut or copy, the selection is placed on a virtual clipboard until it is pasted.

Copying Selections Copying will place a copy of the selection on the virtual clipboard. When you copy a selection, it is not removed from its original location; a copy is merely placed on the clipboard.

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1. Create a selection using one of the selection methods.

2. Click on Edit. The Edit menu will appear.

3. Click on Copy. The Copy dialog box will open, allowing you to choose which elements of the clip you want to copy to the clipboard. 4. Click on the check boxes next to the components you want to copy. 5. Click on OK. The contents will be copied to the clipboard, and the dialog box will close. The data is now ready to be pasted.

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Cutting Selections Cutting works almost the same as copying, with some exceptions. Cutting actually removes the clip and places it on the clipboard to be pasted elsewhere. As with copying, you can choose which components of the clip will be cut, but you also have one additional option. There is an option called Delete Hole in the Cut dialog box, which allows you to not only remove the clip when cutting, but also to remove the space it occupied. In other words, everything that followed the clip will be shifted left to fill the void left by the cut clip.

1. Create a selection using one of the selection methods.

2. Click on Edit. The Edit menu will appear.

3. Click on Cut. The Cut dialog box will open, allowing you to choose which elements of the clip you want to remove and place on the clipboard.

4. Click on the check boxes beside the components you want to cut.

5. Click on OK. The contents will be placed on the clipboard, and the dialog box will close. The data is now ready to be pasted.

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Pasting Selections Once you have information on the clipboard, you simply have to specify where and how it will be pasted.

1. Click on Edit. The Edit menu will appear. 2. Click on Paste. The Paste dialog box will open, allowing you to select where and how your data will be pasted.

3. Click on the Advanced button to expand the dialog box so you can see all of the pasting options available to you. 4. Click on the plus and minus signs next to the Starting at Time field to adjust the point in time where you want to insert the contents of the clipboard.

5. Click on the plus and minus signs next to the Repetitions field to adjust the number of times you want the selection to repeat if necessary.

6. Click on the Starting Track down arrow. A list of tracks where you can insert the clipboard contents will appear.

7. Click on the desired track. It will be selected.

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8. Click on any of the check boxes to select options for pasting. The option(s) will be selected.

9. Click on OK. The contents of the clipboard will be pasted in the location you specified.

Splitting Clips Before the world of digital audio, editing was done by physically cutting audio tape and taping or gluing it together. Think of splitting as using a digital pair of scissors that lets you cut up your clips. You can cut clips to remove unwanted sections or to create new clips.

Splitting a Clip in Two The fastest way to split a clip is to cut it into two parts. You can do this simply by selecting the clip and pressing a keyboard command.

1. Click once on a clip you want to split. The clip will be selected.

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2. Set the Now Time to the position where you want the clip to be split. The fastest way to do this is to simply click once on the clip at the point where you want the split to occur.

3. Press the S key on the keyboard. The clip will split into two distinct clips at the Now Time.

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Splitting a Clip into Multiple Pieces Home Studio allows you to split your clips into multiple clips using a variety of different criteria. You can split a clip based on a certain increment or wherever a marker appears, or you can choose to split a clip wherever there is silence in it.

1. Click once on the clip you want to split. The clip will be selected.

2. Click on Edit. The Edit menu will appear.

3. Click on Split. The Split Clips dialog box will open.

4. Click on the radio button for the type of split you want to create. Your choices include: • Split Repeatedly. If you select this method of splitting, you will have to specify at which clip you want the split to start, and you’ll have to enter the increment for each subsequent split in measures. • Split At Each Marker. If you select this method, the clip will be split at the location of every marker.

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• Split When Silent For At Least. If you select this option, you must enter a unit for the amount of time (in measures) for which Home Studio should search. When Home Studio finds silence that meets that criterion you specified, the clip will be split.

5. Click on OK. The dialog box will close, and the splits will occur based on the criteria you have set.

Joining Clips The opposite of splitting clips is joining them. In Home Studio, the Bounce to Clip(s) option will combine multiple clips into one.

1. Hold down the Ctrl key and click on the clips within a track that you want to join.

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2. Click on Edit. The Edit menu will appear.

3. Click on Bounce to Clip(s). The selected clips will be joined in a single clip.

Quantizing Clips To perfect the timing of your clips, you can use the Quantize command. This command will shift a clip to an increment in an evenly spaced timing grid.

1. Create a selection that you want to quantize using one of the selection methods.

2. Click on Process. The Process menu will appear.

3. Click on Quantize. The Quantize dialog box will open.

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4. Click on the Resolution down arrow. A list of resolutions will appear.

5. Click on the desired note resolution. The precision of the quantize will be affected by the type of note you select; the smaller the note value, the more precise it will be.

6. Click on the Change check boxes to select or deselect the options for what will be changed when the quantize is executed.

7. Click on the plus and minus signs next to the various fields in the Options area to adjust the option settings. Your choices include: • Strength. The Strength setting determines how close the clip will be moved toward the note resolution. • Swing. The Swing setting allows you to distort the timing between paired notes to give them a swing feel. • Window. The Window setting allows you to set a limit for the notes that are adjusted. Notes that fall within the window will be adjusted, while those outside the window will not be affected.

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• Offset. The Offset feature allows you to adjust the grid from its default setting. By default, the grid is lined up with measures and beats, but using this option, you can offset the grid by the number of ticks.

8. Click on the Audition button to preview how the clip sounds with the settings that you have adjusted.

9. Repeat Steps 4 through 8 until the clips sounds exactly as you want.

10. Type a name for the settings you have adjusted if you want to save them. This will allow you to apply these settings to other clips without having to remember everything you entered.

11. Click on the Save button. The options you selected will be saved so you can reapply them to other clips.

12. Click on OK. The settings you have applied will take effect.

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Sliding Clips Earlier you learned that to move clips, you can simply click on and drag them. Another method of moving clips is to use the Slide command. Not only can you change the location of clips, you can also move events and markers within the clip.

1. Select a clip or clips you want to slide. 2. Click on Process. The Process menu will appear.

3. Click on Slide. The Slide dialog box will open.

4. Click on the Slide check boxes to select or deselect the components that you want shifted. 5. Click on the plus or minus sign for the By field to adjust the number of units that the events and/or markers will slide.

6. Click on the radio button for the unit of measurement you want to use for the slide. 7. Click on OK. The selection will be moved based on the settings you have adjusted.

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Transposing Clips The Transpose feature allows you to change the pitch of notes within a selection.

1. Select a clip or clips using one of the selections methods.

2. Click on Process. The Process menu will appear.

3. Click on Transpose. The Transpose dialog box will open.

4. Click on the plus or minus sign for the Amount field to increase or decrease the amount that the notes will be transposed. Each unit you enter is a half-step up or down.

5. Click on the Diatonic Math check box if desired, if you are working with a MIDI clip. This will shift the data up and down but ensure that it stays within the current key signature.

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6. Click on the Transpose Audio check box if your selection is an audio clip. The option will be selected.

7. Click on OK. The dialog box will close, and your clip will be transposed. NOTE Audio clips can only be transposed by one octave. In other words, for audio clips you can only enter values from –12 to +12 in the Transpose dialog box.

Lengthening and Shortening Clips You can quickly change the length of a clip by clicking and dragging. This is a great feature if you want to create instant loops.

1. Position the mouse pointer at the far left or right edge of a clip. The mouse pointer will change into a rectangle with a small arrow attached to it.

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2. Click and drag the mouse to the left or right to lengthen or shorten a clip. When you lengthen a clip, you are simply having it repeat.

3. Release the mouse button. The clip will be lengthened or shortened, depending on which direction you dragged.

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Adjusting Track Volume You can change the volume level of individual tracks to have them sound louder or softer than others in your sequence.

1. Click once on the track number for the track whose volume you want to adjust. The track will be selected. 2. Click on Track. The Track menu will appear.

3. Click on Property. The Property submenu will appear. 4. Click on Volume. The Track Volume dialog box will open.

5. Type a number for the volume in the Volume field. You can enter a number between 0 and 127, 0 being silent and 127 being the loudest. 6. Click on OK. The dialog box will close, and the volume for that track will be set.

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Adjusting the Pan The Pan feature allows you to adjust the volume level for the channels of stereo tracks. In other words, you can make the volume softer or louder for the right or left channel.

1. Click once on the track number for the track whose pan you want to adjust. The track will be selected.

2. Click on Track. The Track menu will appear.

3. Click on Property. The Property submenu will appear.

4. Click on Pan. The Track Pan dialog box will open.

5. Type a number for the pan in the Pan field. You can enter a number between 0 and 127, 0 being hard left and 127 being hard right.

6. Click on OK. The dialog box will close, and the pan for that track will be set.

8

Audio Editing and Effects

Who among us can record the perfect audio clip? The truth is, getting from the point of recording to the perfect audio clip takes some poking and prodding. Because audio and MIDI clips are distinctly different, the tools for editing each are also quite different. Home Studio not only provides you with tools to tweak your audio clips, it also comes with myriad effects that can add that little something extra to get your clips ready for that platinum-selling CD you’re about to produce. In this chapter you'll learn how to: Apply various effects to your audio clips Apply plug-in effects to your clips Save and apply presets

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Audio Editing Home Studio provides you with a handful of tools that will allow you to manipulate your audio clips.

Reversing If you were around several decades ago and you remember vinyl records, you might recall that there were claims that if you played a record backwards, you’d hear secret Satanic messages. Whether or not you want to hear cryptic messages, you can reverse an audio clip so, in essence, it will play backwards.

1. Create a selection of an audio clip using one of the selection methods.

2. Click on Process. The Process menu will appear. 3. Click on Audio. The Audio submenu will appear.

4. Click on Reverse. The selection will be reversed.

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Graphic Equalization Typically, when you adjust volume levels, the volume of all parts of your selection will increase or decrease. But with equalization, you can adjust the volume of different parts of a clip. For example, if you want to increase only the volume of the bass in your clip, you can use the Graphic Equalization feature. This feature provides you with 10 frequency bands you can adjust simply by clicking and dragging.

1. Create a selection of an audio clip using one of the selection methods.

2. Click on Process. The Process menu will appear. 3. Click on Audio. The Audio submenu will appear. 4. Click on Graphic EQ. The Graphic EQ dialog box will open.

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5. Click and drag any of the sliders to adjust the equalization levels for any of the frequency bands.

6. Click on the Audition button. You will hear a preview of how the clip will sound with the settings you adjusted. 7. Repeat Steps 5 and 6 until the clip sounds exactly as you want.

8. Click on OK. The settings you have applied will take effect.

Parametric EQ The Parametric Equalization feature allows you to adjust frequencies that fall within a specific range.

1. Create a selection of an audio clip using one of the selection methods.

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2. Click on Process. The Process menu will appear.

3. Click on Audio. The Audio submenu will appear. 4. Click on Parametric EQ. The Parametric EQ dialog box will open.

5. Click on the desired Filter Type radio button. The choices include: • High-pass. Only frequencies above the cutoff point will be filtered. • Low-pass. Only frequencies below the cutoff point will be filtered. • Band-pass (Peak). Frequencies between two cutoff points that you enter will be boosted. • Band-stop (Notch). Frequencies between two cutoff points that you enter will be cut.

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6. Click on the plus and minus signs in the Filter Parameters section. The settings will be adjusted accordingly.

7. Click on the Audition button. You will hear a preview of how the clip will sound with the settings you adjusted.

8. Repeat Steps 5 through 7 until the clip sounds exactly as you want.

9. Click on OK. The settings you have applied will take effect.

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Normalize The Normalize effect will increase the dB (decibel) level of a selection or an entire clip to its maximum—the maximum level that can be set before clipping will occur.

1. Create a selection of an audio clip using one of the selection methods.

2. Click on Process. The Process menu will appear. 3. Click on Audio. The Audio submenu will appear. 4. Click on Normalize. The volume of the selection will be increased to the maximum level.

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3dB Louder and Quieter As you probably figured out by the name of these features, they will either boost or reduce your signals by three decibels.

1. Create a selection of an audio clip using one of the selection methods.

2. Click on Process. The Process menu will appear. 3. Click on Audio. The Audio submenu will appear.

4. Click on 3dB Louder or 3dB Quieter. The selection will be boosted or reduced accordingly.

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CAUTION If you boost a clip that is already quite high by 3 dB, the audio might go beyond the maximum level, and then clipping will occur.

Audio Effects The real fun of Home Studio is in experimenting with different effects. Out of the box, you are provided with 17 effects you can use on your audio clips.

Chorus The Chorus effect creates the illusion of several voices coming from your selection. You can adjust the delay, depth, and wet and dry pan, as well as the mix.

1. Create a selection of an audio clip using one of the selection methods.

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2. Click on Process. The Process menu will appear. 3. Click on Audio Effects. The Audio Effects submenu will appear.

4. Click on Chorus. The Chorus dialog box will open.

5. Click and drag any of the sliders to adjust the settings. 6. Click on the Audition button. You will hear a preview of how the changes you made will sound.

7. Repeat Steps 5 and 6 until you are satisfied with the way the audio sounds.

8. Click on OK. The effect will be applied to your selection.

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Compressor The Compressor effect amplifies the input signal in an inverse way. In other words, if you have a loud signal, it will be amplified less, while a soft signal will be amplified more.

1. Create a selection of an audio clip using one of the selection methods.

2. Click on Process. The Process menu will appear.

3. Click on Audio Effects. The Audio Effects submenu will appear. 4. Click on Compressor. The Compressor dialog box will open.

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5. Click and drag any of the sliders to adjust the settings. 6. Click on the Audition button. You will hear a preview of how the changes you made will sound.

7. Repeat Steps 5 and 6 until you are satisfied with the way the audio sounds.

8. Click on OK. The effect will be applied to your selection.

Distortion Imagine being so full of anger and rage that you kick a speaker while it’s playing your favorite song. The speaker will somehow still play sound, but it won’t sound quite right. The Distortion effect mimics that type of audio.

1. Create a selection of an audio clip using one of the selection methods.

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2. Click on Process. The Process menu will appear.

3. Click on Audio Effects. The Audio Effects submenu will appear. 4. Click on Distortion. The Distortion dialog box will open.

5. Click and drag any of the sliders to adjust the settings. 6. Click on the Audition button. You will hear a preview of how the changes you made will sound.

7. Repeat Steps 5 and 6 until you are satisfied with the way the audio sounds.

8. Click on OK. The effect will be applied to your selection.

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Echo You don’t need the Grand Canyon to create the illusion of an echo in your audio. You can control the amount of echo that is mixed with the original audio (using the Wet Dry Mix setting), you can control the amount of feedback, and you can adjust the delay for each channel.

1. Create a selection of an audio clip using one of the selection methods.

2. Click on Process. The Process menu will appear. 3. Click on Audio Effects. The Audio Effects submenu will appear.

4. Click on Echo. The Echo dialog box will open.

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5. Click and drag any of the sliders to adjust the settings. 6. Click on the Audition button. You will hear a preview of how the changes you made will sound.

7. Repeat Steps 5 and 6 until you are satisfied with the way the audio sounds.

8. Click on OK. The effect will be applied to your selection.

Flanger The Flanger effect, which is a type of delay effect, creates a slightly distorted sound that seems as if you’re talking into a fan. Typically, you would use the Flanger effect on a guitar clip.

1. Create a selection of an audio clip using one of the selection methods.

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2. Click on Process. The Process menu will appear.

3. Click on Audio Effects. The Audio Effects submenu will appear.

4. Click on Flanger. The Flanger dialog box will open.

5. Click and drag any of the sliders to adjust the settings. 6. Click on the Audition button. You will hear a preview of how the changes you made will sound.

7. Repeat Steps 5 and 6 until you are satisfied with the way the audio sounds.

8. Click on OK. The effect will be applied to your selection.

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Gargle Gargle is an effect that modulates the amplitude of a signal. Using the Gargle effect, you can modulate the amplitude from 1 to 1000 Hz. Depending on the level of modulation, the sound produced varies, from a tremolo (a shaking sound) to a distortion.

1. Create a selection of an audio clip using one of the selection methods.

2. Click on Process. The Process menu will appear.

3. Click on Audio Effects. The Audio Effects submenu will appear. 4. Click on Gargle. The Gargle dialog box will open.

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5. Click and drag the Rate (Hz) slider to adjust the amount of modulation.

6. Click on the Audition button. You will hear a preview of how the changes you made will sound.

7. Repeat Steps 5 and 6 until you are satisfied with the way the audio sounds.

8. Click on OK. The effect will be applied to your selection.

I3DL2Reverb Reverberation refers to the effect obtained when sound waves bounce off the walls of a room. Sound in a small room with glass walls will sound much different than sound in an auditorium with wood walls, due to reverberation. The I3DL2Reverb effect provides you with a multitude of settings you can use to adjust the level of reverb for your audio.

1. Create a selection of an audio clip using one of the selection methods.

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2. Click on Process. The Process menu will appear.

3. Click on Audio Effects. The Audio Effects submenu will appear. 4. Click on I3DL2Reverb. The I3DL2Reverb dialog box will open.

5. Click and drag the sliders to adjust the different reverb options. 6. Click on the Audition button. You will hear a preview of how the changes you made will sound.

7. Repeat Steps 5 and 6 until you are satisfied with the way the audio sounds.

8. Click on OK. The effect will be applied to your selection.

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WavesReverb The WavesReverb effect is another type of reverb effect you can apply to your audio. This one was developed by a third party, Waves Ltd., but it works like most other effects in Home Studio.

1. Create a selection of an audio clip using one of the selection methods.

2. Click on Process. The Process menu will appear.

3. Click on Audio Effects. The Audio Effects submenu will appear.

4. Click on WavesReverb. The WavesReverb dialog box will open.

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5. Click and drag any of the sliders to adjust the settings.

6. Click on the Audition button. You will hear a preview of how the changes you made will sound. 7. Repeat Steps 5 and 6 until you are satisfied with the way the audio sounds.

8. Click on OK. The effect will be applied to your selection.

Cakewalk and Other Plug-In Effects A plug-in is a third-party program that works with (or plugs into) an existing application. There are myriad third-party audio effects available on the market that do some weird, wacky, and wonderful things to your audio. Cakewalk itself produces plug-in effects, some of which are included in Home Studio. Whether you’re accessing Cakewalk plug-ins or other plug-ins, they all work the same way—you select them from a menu, adjust the parameters, and then apply the effect.

1. Create a selection of an audio clip using one of the selection methods.

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2. Click on Process. The Process menu will appear. 3. Click on Audio Effects. The Audio Effects submenu will appear.

4. Click on the category of plug-in. Plug-in categories appear at the bottom of the Audio Effects submenu and are separated from the other effects by a thin gray line. A list of effects that fall under the selected category will appear.

5. Click on the desired effect. A dialog box will open with options for that effect.

6. Adjust the options for the effect. Depending on the effect you selected, you might have to enter values, click and drag sliders and knobs, or click on arrows to adjust the settings.

7. Click on OK. The effect you applied will take effect.

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Saving and Loading Presets Suppose you’ve gone through the trouble of adjusting an effect so it sounds perfect. You now want to apply the same effect with the same settings to other clips. Rather than having to memorize the settings you’ve adjusted, you can save them as a preset to be applied to other selections at any time.

Saving Presets To save your effect settings as a preset, you simply adjust the effect settings to the desired levels, and then name the preset.

1. Create a selection of an audio clip using one of the selection methods.

2. Click on Process. The Process menu will appear. 3. Click on Audio Effects. The Audio Effects submenu will appear.

4. Click on Chorus. (For this example I’ll use the Chorus effect, but you can select any effect.) The Chorus dialog box will open.

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5. Click and drag any of the sliders to adjust the settings. 6. Click on the Audition button. You will hear a preview of how the changes you made will sound.

7. Repeat Steps 5 and 6 until you are satisfied with the way the audio sounds.

8. Type a name for the settings you adjusted. It’s a good idea to give the settings a descriptive name.

9. Click on the Save button. The settings you adjusted will be saved so you can apply them to other clips.

10. Click on OK. The effect will be applied to your selection, and the dialog box will close.

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Applying Presets Once you have saved a preset, you can apply it to any clip.

1. Create a selection of an audio clip using one of the selection methods.

2. Click on Process. The Process menu will appear. 3. Click on Audio Effects. The Audio Effects submenu will appear. 4. Click on Chorus. (For this example I’ll use the Chorus effect, but you can select any effect.) The Chorus dialog box will open.

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5. Click on the Preset down arrow to see a list of presets. 6. Click on the desired preset. It will be selected, and the settings will be loaded.

7. Click on OK. The effect will be applied to your selection, and the dialog box will close.

9

MIDI Editing and Effects

MIDI files are electronic instructions that tell a MIDI device (such as a keyboard) what to play and how it should sound. Think of MIDI as a computer program that you can reprogram, using a variety of different tools that Home Studio provides. In this chapter you’ll learn how to: Edit MIDI with the Staff View Use the Note Inspector Edit MIDI with the Piano Roll View Apply MIDI effects

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MIDI Editing with the Staff View I remember when I first got into music; I would search all over the Internet looking for sheet music. If only I’d known about the Staff View, I could have downloaded any one of the thousands of free MIDI files and then opened it in the Staff View to have instant sheet music. You can use the Staff View to instantly convert any MIDI clip into sheet music.

1. Create a selection of the MIDI clip you want to edit using one of the many selection methods.

2. Click on View. The View menu will appear.

3. Click on Staff. The Staff View will open, and you can begin editing your MIDI clip.

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4. Click on the Close button when you are finished using the Staff View. You will be returned to the Tracks Pane.

Navigating in the Staff View The Staff View gives you a variety of options for moving around your staff. You can zoom in or out of areas, select which tracks to show, and select which properties of the staff you want to see.

Changing the Zoom Level You can quickly zoom in and out of the notes in the Staff View to get a better look at the track. The fastest method is to use the Zoom Faders.

1. Click and hold the little button between the Zoom In and Zoom Out buttons. A bar that indicates the current zoom level will appear. Keep the mouse button pressed until you get to the end of Step 2.

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2. Click and drag the bar upward or downward to zoom out or in, respectively.

3. Release the mouse button. The desired zoom level will be set.

Moving Tracks Because the Staff View displays only one track at a time, you’ll have to switch tracks to continue editing multiple tracks. The fastest way to accomplish this is to simply move one track at a time. Alternatively, you can select a specific track.

1. Click on the arrow beside the Pick Tracks button. Two options will appear, allowing you to move to the next or the previous track.

2. Click on the desired option. You will either move forward or back one track, depending on the option you chose.

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3. Now click on the Pick Tracks button. The Pick Tracks dialog box will open, allowing you to pick the track you want to display in the Staff View.

4. Click on the desired track. The track will be highlighted.

5. Click on OK. The selected track will be displayed.

Changing Staff Properties You can define what will be displayed in the Staff View by adjusting its properties.

1. Click on the Layout button. The Staff View Layout dialog box will open.

2. Click on the Clef down arrow. A list of options will appear.

3. Click on the desired clef type you want to display. The clef type will be selected.

4. Click on the check boxes for any of the other options you want to display. The options will be selected.

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5. Click on Close. The properties you have adjusted will take effect.

Selecting Notes To save yourself a lot of time when editing notes, you might want to take advantage of the ability to select multiple notes in Home Studio. This way, you can make changes to a variety of notes at one time, rather than making changes individually.

1. Click on the Select tool if it is not already selected. 2. Click on any note. The note will appear blue to indicate that it is selected.

3. Hold down the Ctrl key or the Shift key and keep it held down until the end of Step 4.

4. Click on any other notes you want to select. They too will be selected.

5. Click in any blank area to deselect the notes. The notes will all turn black again to indicate that they are no longer selected.

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6. Position the mouse pointer to the top left of the notes you want to select.

7. Click and drag the mouse diagonally to the bottom right. A marquee line will appear as you drag.

8. Release the mouse button. All of the notes that were within the marquee will be selected and will turn blue to indicate this.

9. Click in any blank area to deselect the notes. The notes will all turn black again to indicate that they are no longer selected.

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10. Position the mouse pointer over any blank area in the ruler. The mouse pointer will change into a small down arrow.

11. Click the mouse button once. All of the notes will be selected.

12. Click in any blank area. The notes will be deselected.

Changing Note Properties Each note in your MIDI clip has a number of properties associated with it. These properties include its position in the sequence, its pitch, and its velocity, among others. From the Staff View, you can quickly open a dialog box that will allow you to change the properties of individual notes.

1. Right-click on the note whose properties you want to view or edit. The Note Properties dialog box will open, containing a variety of properties for the note on which you clicked.

2. Double-click in the field for the property you want to adjust. The contents of the box will be highlighted.

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3. Type a new value for the property.

4. Repeat Steps 2 and 3 for any other properties you want to adjust. 5. Click on OK. The dialog box will close, and the changes you have made will take effect.

Visually Adjusting Note Properties Although the Properties dialog box allows you to adjust many of a note’s properties by entering values into various fields, a faster alternative is to use your mouse to visually add or adjust the properties of notes.

Adding Notes The toolbar in the Staff View is lined with a variety of different note values you can select and add anywhere on the staff.

1. Click on the Draw button if it is not already selected. The mouse pointer will turn into a little pencil.

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2. Click on the value of the note you want to add. The note value will be selected.

3. Position the mouse pointer at the location where you want to add a note.

4. Click the mouse button once. A note of the value you selected will be added to the staff.

5. Repeat Steps 2 to 4 to add notes to other locations on the staff.

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Deleting Notes Removing a note from the staff is as easy as one click of the mouse button.

1. Click on the Erase tool on the toolbar. The tool will be selected. 2. Click on a note you want to erase. It will be removed from the staff. 3. Repeat Step 2 for any other notes you want to delete. 4. Click on either the Select or Draw buttons to exit Erase mode.

Moving Notes You can easily change the location of a note by selecting it and then dragging it to a new place on the staff.

1. Create a selection using one of the many selection methods.

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2. Click on the Select tool if it is not already selected.

3. Click and drag the selected notes to the desired new location. As you drag, a black outline of a box will appear, indicating the new location of the note(s).

4. Release the mouse button. The Drag and Drop Options dialog box will open.

5. Select the options for how you want to handle the moved notes.

6. Click on OK.

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The dialog box will close, and the notes you moved will appear in their new location.

Scrubbing Notes Scrubbing is the ability to play the notes in your staff simply by clicking and dragging across them. This is a great feature for auditioning the changes that you have made to your notes without having to play the entire clip.

1. Click on the Scrub button. Your mouse pointer will have a little speaker icon attached to it to indicate that you are in Scrub mode. 2. Click and drag across the notes you want to audition. As you drag over notes, they will appear red to indicate that they are being played, and you will be able to hear the notes. 3. Click on the Select button when you want to exit Scrub mode.

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Editing with the Event Inspector Toolbar The Event Inspector toolbar provides you with instant information about a particular note. Not only does it display note information, but it also allows you to edit the location, duration, pitch, velocity, and channel of a particular note.

1. Right-click in a blank area on any toolbar. A menu will appear.

2. Click on Event Inspector if there is not already a check mark beside it. The Event Inspector toolbar will appear.

3. Click on the Select tool. The tool will be selected.

4. Click on the note whose properties you want to view or change. The properties of the note will appear in the Event Inspector toolbar.

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5. Double-click in any field you want to adjust. The field will be highlighted.

6. Type a new value for the note property that you want to adjust. Alternatively, you can use the plus and minus buttons beside the field to adjust the values.

7. Repeat Steps 5 and 6 for any other properties you want to adjust.

Changing MIDI Clip Length Home Studio allows you to easily change the length of a clip by stretching or shrinking it. You can do this in the Length dialog box. Not only can you change the length of entire clips, but you also can change the start times for notes within the clip.

1. Select a clip or clips whose length you want to change using one of the selections methods.

2. Click on Process. The Process menu will appear.

3. Click on Length. The Length dialog box will open.

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4. Click on the check boxes to activate or deactivate any of the length options. Your options include: • Start Times. Selecting this option will only change the start times of the notes within the selection. The notes will be shifted based on the percentage of their distance from the beginning of the selection. • Durations. Selecting this option will increase or decrease the duration of the note based on the selection you enter in the By field.

• Stretch Audio. If you select the Durations option, you can choose to stretch the audio, which will also stretch the duration of any selected audio clips.

5. Click on the plus or minus key in the By field to increase or decrease the length of the clip by a percentage of its current size.

NOTE The maximum value for lengthening a clip is 400 percent of its original size, and the shortest you can make a clip is 25 percent of its original size.

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6. Click on OK. The dialog box will close, and the clip will be lengthened or shortened based on the settings you entered.

Slip Editing The Slip Editing feature allows you to perform what is called non-destructive editing. By clicking and dragging the borders of a clip, you can display or hide its contents. Those parts that are hidden will not be played, but they will still exist in the clip. When you expand the clip again, those parts that were formerly hidden will again be available.

1. Position the mouse pointer over the border of a clip that you want to slip edit. The mouse pointer will change into a square with a little arrow. 2. Click and drag the border inward to hide part of the clip. The part that is hidden will not be played, but it will still exist.

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3. Click and drag the border outward. The hidden part of the clip will be exposed again, and will remain intact.

Editing with the Piano Roll View If you’ve ever seen an old-fashioned player piano, you should be familiar with the look of the Piano Roll View. The Piano Roll View gives you a visual representation of the notes in your track and allows you to apply a variety of changes simply by clicking and dragging with your mouse.

1. Click on the number beside the track you want to view in Piano Roll View. You can hold down the Ctrl key and click on multiple tracks if you want to bring more than one into the Piano Roll View.

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2. Click on View. The View menu will appear.

3. Click on Piano Roll. The track you selected in Step 1 will appear in Piano Roll View. The notes within the track will be represented by little rectangles. TIP Double-clicking on a MIDI clip in the Clips Pane will open the clip in Piano Roll View.

4. Click on the Close button to exit Piano Roll View when you are finished.

Navigating Piano Roll View As with most of the views in Home Studio, there are a variety of tools provided to help you navigate through your project in Piano Roll View. These tools include a grid, zoom options, and track controls.

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Using the Grid One of the benefits of Piano Roll View is that it allows you to click and drag on notes to change their timing, velocity, or pitch. However, because this is all done by clicking and dragging, rather than by entering values in a dialog box, there is a chance that the edits you make won’t be precise. For this reason, there is a grid to help guide you while you are making your edits. You can easily adjust the grid to display different units of measurement.

1. Click on the down arrow beside the Show/Hide Grid button. A list of different values for how the grid can be displayed will appear.

2. Click on the desired value. The grid will be adjusted based on the choice you make.

3. Click on the Show/Hide Grid button to toggle the grid on or off.

Zooming Zooming in the Piano Roll View works much like it does in other components of Home Studio. There are a series of horizontal and vertical zoom tools that allow you to enlarge or reduce the amount of data that fits on the screen.

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1. Click and hold the button between the Zoom In and Zoom Out buttons for either the vertical or horizontal zoom. A bar that indicates the current zoom level will appear. Keep the mouse button pressed until you get to Step 3.

2. Click and drag the bar upward or downward for the vertical zoom or left or right for the horizontal zoom to zoom in or out. 3. Release the mouse button. The desired zoom level will be set.

Working with Tracks Within the Piano Roll View there is a Tracks Pane that allows you to control the notes from each track that contains MIDI clips, and how they are viewed and edited. Using the Tracks Pane, you can protect notes from editing; show and hide tracks; and mute, solo, or arm a track for recording.

1. Click on the Show/Hide Tracks Pane button if the Tracks Pane is not already open. The Tracks Pane will open on the right side of the screen. All of the current tracks that are open in the Piano Roll View will be displayed.

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2. Click on the first colored box to toggle between showing the track and hiding it. If the box is colored, then the track is currently being shown; otherwise, it is hidden. When the track is hidden, the notes of the track disappear from view.

3. Click on the second box to toggle it if you want to protect the contents of the track from editing. The box will appear colored to indicate that the notes within it cannot be edited. 4. Click on the M, S, or R button. The track will be muted, soloed, or armed for recording, respectively.

Adding Notes The toolbar in the Piano Roll View is lined with a variety of different note values that you can select and add anywhere on the staff.

1. Click on the Draw button if it is not already selected. Your mouse pointer will turn into a little pencil.

2. Click on the value of the note you want to add. The note value will be selected.

3. Position the mouse pointer at the location where you want to add a note.

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4. Click the mouse button once. A note of the value you selected will be added.

5. Repeat Steps 2 through 4 to add notes to other locations.

Deleting Notes Removing a note is as easy as one click of the mouse button.

1. Click on the Erase tool in the toolbar. The tool will be selected. 2. Click on any note you want to erase. It will be removed instantly. 3. Repeat Step 2 for any other notes you want to delete. They will be removed as well. 4. Click on either the Select or Draw button to exit Erase mode.

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Moving Notes You can easily change the location of a note by selecting it and then dragging it to a new place on the staff.

1. Create a selection using one of the selection methods. You can select individual notes by simply clicking on them with the Select tool, or you can select multiple notes by dragging a marquee around them.

2. Click on the Select tool if it is not already selected. 3. Click and drag the selected notes to the desired new location. As you drag, a black outline of a box will appear, indicating the new location of the note(s).

4. Release the mouse button. The Drag and Drop Options dialog box will appear, asking you how you want to handle the moved notes.

5. Click on the desired options for moving the notes.

6. Click on OK. The notes you moved will be placed in their new location with the settings you chose in the Drag and Drop Options dialog box.

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Editing Start Time, Pitch, and Duration You can use the Piano Roll View to quickly change start time, pitch, and duration by simply clicking and dragging.

1. Click on the Draw tool in the toolbar. The mouse pointer will change to a little pencil. 2. Position the mouse pointer over the left edge of the note whose start time you want to adjust. The pointer will change to a double-headed arrow. 3. Click and drag the mouse to the left to make the start time earlier in the sequence, or to the right to make the start time later in the sequence. As you drag, the entire note will move. 4. Release the mouse button. The entire note will be placed in the new location. 5. Position the mouse pointer over the right edge of the note whose duration you want to adjust. The pointer will change to a double-headed arrow. 6. Click and drag the mouse to the left to make the duration of the note shorter, or to the right to make it longer.

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7. Release the mouse button. The duration of the note will be changed.

8. Position the mouse pointer over the middle of the note whose pitch you want to adjust. The pointer will change to a vertical double-headed arrow.

9. Click and drag the mouse upward to increase the pitch or downward to decrease the pitch.

10. Release the mouse button. The pitch will be adjusted.

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MIDI Envelopes with the Piano Roll View Imagine if you were able to paint with music. Although it sounds a little farfetched, it’s actually possible by using envelopes, which allow you to paint musical effects by clicking and dragging with your mouse. For example, if you wanted to paint volume controls, you could draw a wavy line; the high points would be the loudest volume levels, and the low points would be the quietest. There are a variety of different effects that you can “paint on” using envelopes. In the Piano Roll View, envelopes are created and modified through the Controller Pane.

1. Click on the Show/Hide Controller Pane button to open the pane if it is not already visible.

2. Click on the down arrow to choose from a list of different events. 3. Click on the desired event. A graph of that event will appear in the Controller Pane.

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4. Click on the Draw tool. The tool will be selected. Using the Draw tool allows you to recreate the graph by drawing freehand.

5. Click and drag the mouse pointer across the graph. As you drag, a preview of the new envelope will appear.

6. Release the mouse button. A new graph will be created based on the drawing you made in Step 5.

7. Click on the Draw Line button. The tool will be selected. This will allow you to create a straight line for the graph or edit individual events.

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TIP When editing individual events, it’s a good idea to zoom in to a level at which you can see the individual lines.

8. Click and drag the mouse to draw a line across the graph. As you drag, a preview line will appear.

9. Release the mouse button. The graph will now have a line where you dragged in Step 8.

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10. Position the mouse pointer at the bottom of an individual event you want to edit.

11. Click and drag the mouse upward to create a new line. As you drag, a preview of the line will appear.

12. Release the mouse button. A new line will be created.

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MIDI Effects Home Studio comes with a variety of different plug-in effects that allow you to apply some powerful alterations to your MIDI selections. Because they are plug-ins, each one has its own interesting user interface you can use to apply the effect. Regardless of which effect you choose, you can access any of them using the same method.

1. Create a selection of the MIDI clip to which you want to apply the effect using any of the selection methods. 2. Click on Process. The Process menu will appear.

3. Click on MIDI Effects. The MIDI Effects submenu, containing different plug-in effects, will appear. 4. Click on Cakewalk FX. A list of different Cakewalk plug-ins will appear.

5. Click on the desired effect. A dialog box will open, allowing you to adjust the parameters for the effect.

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Arpeggiator Effect Arpeggio is a technique in music where you play consecutively notes that were originally meant to be played simultaneously. The Arpeggiator effect allows you to apply this technique to your MIDI selections.

1. Click on the plus or minus sign below the Swing field to adjust the swing. The timing grid will be shifted based on the number you select.

2. Click on the plus or minus sign below the Rate field to adjust the rate (the amount of delay between the notes). The rate will be adjusted based on your selection. In the next two steps, you can adjust the type of units in which the rate is measured.

3. Click on the Units down arrow. A list of units will appear.

4. Click on the desired unit. It will be selected.

5. Click on the plus or minus sign below the Legato field to adjust the legato, which controls the rate at which a note is released before the next one is played. The lower the number, the quicker the note will be released. The Legato value will be adjusted based on your selection.

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6. Click on the Path down arrow. A list of directions will appear.

7. Click on the desired path. The direction of the arpeggio will be set.

8. Click on the Specify output range check box if you want to set a range over which the arpeggio plays. 9. Click on the plus or minus signs below the Lowest note and Span (Notes) fields to adjust the values. The Lowest note value indicates the MIDI number of the lowest note of the arpeggio, and the Span indicates the number of half steps in the range.

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10. Click on Audition. You will hear a preview of how the effect will sound on your selection.

TIP When you click on the Audition button, the preview will last for three seconds. This time can be increased up to 25 seconds by clicking on Options on the menu bar, and then selecting Global.

11. Click on OK. The effect will be applied and the dialog box will close.

Chord Analyzer I’ll give you three guesses what the Chord Analyzer does. If you guessed that it analyzes chords, then give yourself a big gold star because you’re absolutely right.

1. Click on the plus or minus sign below the Examine every field to adjust the range of MIDI ticks that the Chord Analyzer will examine.

2. Click on Audition. Any chords within your selection will be analyzed.

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The chord will be identified in the Chords recognized window.

TIP You can play notes on your MIDI device while you are in the Chord Analyzer, and recognized chords will appear in the dialog box.

3. Click on Stop. The analyzing process will end.

4. Click on OK. The dialog box will close, and you will return to your project.

Echo Delay Typically, delay effects work by playing the original audio, then creating a copy of that audio that is changed in some respect, and then playing it along with or after the original audio. Using delay effects, you can create different types of echoes and reverbs that result in some interesting effects.

1. Click on the plus or minus signs to adjust any of the parameters. Your options include: • Decay. This option determines the amount each subsequent echo will fade out.

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• Echoes. This sets the number of times the sound will repeat. • Swing. This option allows you to shift the timing grid. • Delay. This sets the amount of time between each echo. • Transpose. The transpose number sets the steps to transpose each echo note from the last.

2. Click on Audition. You will hear a preview of how the echo delay will sound on the selected audio.

3. Click on OK. The effect will be applied, and the dialog box will close.

TIP Most MIDI effects can also be applied in real time. To accomplish this, open the dialog box for any effect, play the track, and then adjust the effect as the track plays. You will be able to hear the results of the effect in real time.

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MIDI Event Filter MIDI data includes many different events. The MIDI Event Filter allows you to choose certain events or bypass others.

1. Click on the check boxes beside the events you want to include. The events will be selected. 2. Click on the plus or minus signs to adjust the parameters for the events you have selected.

3. Click on Audition. You will hear a preview of how the selection will sound with the events you have decided to include or exclude.

4. Click on OK. The effect will be applied, and the dialog box will close.

Quantize Imagine your MIDI events all positioned on a grid. The Quantize effect allows you to move events on the grid and also change the size of the grid itself.

1. Click on the check box beside what you want to quantize. You can select Start Times, Note Durations, or both.

2. Click on the Resolution down arrow. A list of different values will appear.

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3. Click on the desired resolution. The resolution determines the spacing of the grid.

4. Click on the plus and minus signs to adjust the settings for the Quantize effect.

5. Click on the Audition button. You will hear a preview of how the effect will sound when it is applied to your selection.

6. Click on OK. The effect will be applied, and the dialog box will close.

Session Drummer You can add a MIDI drum pattern in a song without having to practice for years to perfect your drumming skills. The Session Drummer allows you to select from a variety of different drum patterns, and then play one within your project.

1. Click on a desired style. Patterns associated with that style will be loaded.

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2. Double-click on the desired pattern. It will be added to the list.

3. Repeat Steps 1 and 2 until you’ve created the desired song list.

4. Click on Audition. You will hear a preview of how your drum session will sound.

5. Click on a pattern that you want to move in the Song list. The pattern will be highlighted.

6. Click on the Move Up or Move Down button to change the order.

7. Click on the X button. The highlighted song will be removed.

8. Click on the Settings button. The Settings dialog box will open, listing the settings for your drum map.

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9. Click on OK. The Settings dialog box will close. 10. Click on OK. The settings you made in this section will be applied, and the dialog box will close. Your drum session will appear as a click in the track that was selected.

Tranpose Transposing notes simply means that you are mapping them from one value to another. For example, if you wanted all the Cs in your selection to sound like C#s, you would perform a transposition.

1. Click on a Transposition Method radio button for the desired method of transposition. The option will be selected.

2. Click on the Transposition Map radio button for the type of transposition map you want to see. You can choose to see either the note values or numbers.

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3. Click on the plus or minus sign below the Offset field to choose the number of steps that the notes will be transposed. By looking at the map, you can see the results of the transposition.

4. Click on OK. The dialog box will close, and the transposition will take effect in your selection.

Velocity The Velocity effect simply allows you to adjust the velocities of the MIDI notes within your selection. The Velocity dialog box allows you to choose from many different methods for changing the velocity.

1. Click on the radio button for the method of velocity change you want to apply. The option will be selected.

2. Click on the plus or minus signs to adjust the parameters of the velocity method you selected.

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3. Click on Audition. You will hear a preview of the adjustments you made.

4. Click on OK. The dialog box will close, and the settings will be applied.

10

Mixing

If you’ve ever been to a rock concert, you might have noticed an area in general admission blocked off, with a couple of roadies (technically, they’re called sound engineers) working a seemingly endless landscape of dials, buttons, and faders on a huge mixing board. Your dreams of becoming a roadie can finally come true with Home Studio because it has built-in mixing capabilities. In a nutshell, the controls allow you to adjust different settings for each track, such as volume, pan, and effects. In this chapter you’ll learn how to: Use the Console View Adjust volume and pan Automate mixes Create groups

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Mixing with the Console In Chapter 7, you learned how to conduct simple mixing by adjusting the volume and pan. In this chapter, you’ll learn to adjust those and other settings using the Console View. The Console View is a digital representation of a mixing board. It presents each track as a module whose settings can be adjusted.

1. Click on View. The View menu will appear.

2. Click on Console. The Console View will open so you can begin mixing.

TIP You can also open the Console by pressing Alt+3.

3. Click on the Close button when you are finished using the Console.

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Navigating the Console Each track of a sequence can be represented in the Console, so the more tracks you have, the larger the mixing board can become. Home Studio offers you a variety of ways to help you manage the views of your modules.

1. Right-click in a blank area of any module. A menu will appear. 2. Click on Hide Module. The module will be removed from view.

3. Click on the Track Manager button. The Track Manager dialog box will open, allowing you to control which tracks to show in the Console.

4. Click on the check boxes to show or hide any of the tracks in the Console. Those with a check mark will be shown, while others will be hidden. Alternatively, you can select one of the Toggle buttons in the dialog box to select all the tracks of a certain kind.

5. Click on OK. The Track Manager will close, and the changes you made will appear in the Console.

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Adjusting Volume Just like an actual mixing board, the mixing board in Home Studio provides you with a graphical representation of a fader you can adjust to set the volume and pan for particular tracks.

1. Click on Play. The sequence will begin to play.

2. Position the mouse pointer over a fader on the track whose volume you would like to adjust.

3. Click and drag the mouse up or down to adjust the volume. As you drag, the fader will move and the volume will be adjusted.

4. Click on Stop. The sequence will stop playing.

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Adjusting Pan On each strip of the mixing board, you will find a pan adjustment slider that will allow you to control how the sound is proportioned between left and right.

1. Click on Play. The sequence will begin to play.

2. Position the mouse pointer over the pan slider for the track you want to adjust. 3. Click and drag the mouse to the right or left to adjust the setting. The setting can be anywhere between 0 for hard left and 127 for hard right.

4. Click on Stop. The sequence will stop playing.

Using the Snap To Feature The ease with which you can change volume and pan settings in the Console can actually prove to be a problem. If you inadvertently move a fader or knob, or if you make changes and then realize the original settings were better, you’ll have a hard time remembering your last settings. The Snap To feature in Home Studio solves this problem. It allows you to specify settings for each fader, so that whenever you doubleclick on a fader or knob, it will always revert back to the Snap To settings.

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1. Click and drag a fader to the position you want it to remember, regardless of the changes you make.

2. Right-click anywhere on the fader. A menu will appear.

3. Click on Set Snap-To = Current. The Snap To level will be set.

4. Click and drag the fader to a new setting. The fader will move as you drag.

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5. Double-click on the fader. It will snap to the location you set in Step 1.

Groups In case you want to apply the same changes to pan knobs or faders for a variety of tracks, Home Studio allows you to group those tracks together so that any changes you make to one knob or fader in the group will be made to all of them.

Creating a Group When you create a group, you assign it a color so it is easily identifiable. Home Studio allows you to create up to 24 different groups.

1. Right-click on the first volume fader, pan slider, or knob that you want to be a part of the group. A menu will appear.

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2. Click on Group. A list from A to X will appear, each option with a color associated with it.

3. Click on the group of which you want this fader, slider, or knob to be a part. The fader, slider, or knob will become the color of the group you selected to make it easier to identify which group it is part of.

4. Repeat Steps 1 through 3 to assign any other fader, slider, or knob to the same group.

NOTE A slider, fader, or knob can only be part of one group at a time.

5. Click and drag a fader from one member of the group. All of the sliders, faders, and knobs that belong to that group will also move.

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Removing Group Members If one of the faders acted inappropriately at the last group party, you can remove it from the group with just a couple of clicks of the mouse button.

1. Right-click on any item you want to remove from a group. A menu will appear.

2. Click on Ungroup. The fader will lose the color assigned to it and will no longer be a part of the group.

Changing Group Properties You can change the way in which items that are part of the group react to one another by adjusting the group properties.

1. Right-click on any member of a group. A menu will appear. 2. Click on Group Properties. The Group Properties dialog box will open, allowing you to change the properties of the group.

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3. Click on the radio button for the desired group type. Your options include: • Absolute. When you select this option, all of the controls will move in the same direction. • Relative. When you select this option, all of the controls will move at the same time, but at different speeds relative to one another. • Custom. When you select this option, you can create the relationship between controls.

4. Click on OK. The dialog box will close, and you will be returned to the Console.

Creating Custom Groups Custom groups give you the freedom to customize how you want the controls of the group to react to one another. Using custom groups, you can create controls that act the opposite of one another, move at different rates, and control the range of motion for certain controls. You do all this by adjusting their start and end values.

1. Right-click on any member of a group. A menu will appear.

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2. Click on Group Properties. The Group Properties dialog box will open, allowing you to change the properties of the group.

3. Click on the Custom radio button. A list of all of the controls that are part of the group will appear in the dialog box.

4. Click on the listing for the individual control you want to adjust. The control will be highlighted. 5. Click on the plus or minus signs for the Start Value and End Value fields. The values will be adjusted. 6. Click on the Swap button if you want to switch the start and end values for a particular control. 7. Repeat Steps 4 through 6 for any other controls you want to adjust.

8. Click on OK to close the dialog box. Your settings will take effect.

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9. Click and drag any control that is part of the group. You will be able to see how it reacts with the others based on the changes you made.

10. Click and drag a control that is part of a group if you want to adjust the control’s start or end value.

11. Right-click on the same control. A menu will appear.

12. Click on Set Start = Current or Set End = Current if you want to change the start or end value to the current level.

Overriding a Group Home Studio allows you to use an override to adjust a member of a group without affecting the other members.

1. Hold down the Ctrl key. Keep it held down until the end of Step 2.

2. Click and drag a control that is part of a group. The control will move, but the others will stay in place.

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Applying Mix Effects You can apply a wide number of audio and MIDI effects to the tracks in your sequences using the Console. Many of these effects are offered as plug-ins and were covered in detail in the previous two chapters. The Console simply provides you with another method of applying effects to a track. Applying effects in the Console is a non-destructive approach, meaning effects are applied in real time, on the fly, and the data of the music itself remains unchanged.

1. Right-click in the black square of the track module to which you want to apply an effect. A menu will appear. 2. Click on MIDI Effects or Audio Effects (the choice that appears will depend on whether you’ve selected an audio or a MIDI track). A submenu will appear.

3. Click on a category of effects to apply. A list of effects that fall under that category will appear.

4. Click on the desired effect. A dialog box corresponding to that effect will appear.

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5. Click on and adjust the desired settings for the effect you selected. The options available to you will depend on the effect you have selected.

6. Click on the Close button. The dialog box will close.

7. Click on Play. You will hear your sequence with the effects applied. 8. Repeat Steps 1 to 5 if you want to adjust an effect and listen to the changes while your sequence is playing. 9. Right-click on any effect you want to remove. A menu will appear.

10. Click on Delete. The effect will be removed.

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Adjusting Track Properties The Console allows you to adjust most of the properties for your tracks that you could otherwise manipulate in the Tracks Pane. This is convenient if you want to make adjustments without having to switch back and forth between views. Because of their different nature, audio modules give you different options than MIDI modules.

Adjusting Audio Modules Within the Console you can adjust the inputs and outputs for your audio tracks, rename tracks, and select from a variety of other options.

1. Click and drag across the track name. The name will be highlighted.

2. Type a new name for the track. 3. Click on the Phase button to toggle the phase on or off. When it is on, the Phase button will appear blue, and the track will be inverted.

4. Click on the Mono button to toggle the track between mono and stereo.

5. Click on the M, S, or R button. The track will be muted, soloed, or armed for recording.

6. Click on the input button at the bottom of the module if you want to change the input device. A list of choices will appear.

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7. Click on the desired input device. The device will be selected.

8. Click on the output device button at the bottom of the A or B channel. A list of output devices on your computer will appear.

9. Click on the desired device. The device will be selected.

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Adjusting MIDI Modules Just as you can adjust the audio modules, you can also change the settings in the MIDI modules.

1. Click and drag the Reverb or Chorus slider to adjust the reverb or chorus on a particular track. 2. Click on the input button at the bottom of the module if you want to select a different input device. A list of options will appear.

3. Click on the desired device. The device will be selected.

4. Click on the top button of the MIDI module if you want to select a different output device. A list of devices will appear. 5. Click on the desired device. The device will be selected.

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Mix Automation Home Studio allows you to automate the mixing process so that changes to the mix will be made as the track plays. As you are playing a sequence, you can adjust individual faders and knobs, and those adjustments will be recorded. You can then view those changes on playback.

Standard Automation Recording To record automation, you simply have to arm the fader, knob, or slider you want to automate, and then make adjustments as you record.

1. Right-click on any toolbar. A list of different toolbars will appear.

2. Click on Transport if it is not already selected. You can tell that a toolbar is already open if its name has a check mark beside it in the list.

3. Right-click on any control you want to automate. A menu will appear.

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4. Click on Arm for Automation. The control you selected will be armed, and a red box that says Armed will appear at the bottom of the screen.

5. Click on the Rewind button to ensure that playback starts from the beginning of your sequence.

6. Click on the Record Automation button. Your sequence will begin to play.

7. Click and drag the control you automated to the desired levels during the playback. Every move that you make with that control will be recorded. 8. Click on the Stop button. The automation will be recorded. 9. Repeat Steps 3 through 8 to automate any other controls.

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Punch Automation Recording Rather then recording automation throughout your entire sequence, you can choose to have recorded automation punch in and out at specific points. You can do this using the Automation toolbar.

1. Right-click on any toolbar. A list of different toolbars will appear.

2. Click on Automation if it is not already selected. You can tell that a toolbar is already open if its name has a check mark beside it in the list.

3. Click in the Punch In time field. This will allow you to set the time in the sequence at which you want the automation recording to begin.

4. Type a new value for the punch-in time.

TIP Instead of typing a new value for the punch-in time, you can adjust the value by using plus and minus buttons that appear when you click in the Punch In time field.

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5. Repeat Steps 3 and 4 for the Punch Out time field. 6. Right-click on any fader you want to automate. A menu will appear.

7. Click on Arm for Automation. The control you selected will be armed, and a red box that says Armed will appear at the bottom of the screen.

8. Click on the Rewind button to ensure that playback starts from the beginning of your sequence.

9. Click on the Record Automation button. Your sequence will begin to play.

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10. Click and drag the control you automated to the desired levels during the playback. The mixing actions will only be recorded when the Now Time is between the punch-in and punch-out times you created in Steps 3 through 5.

11. Click on the Stop button. The automation will be recorded.

Playing Your Automation After you’ve recorded the automation on the controls of your tracks, you can play your sequence back and watch as the controls move automatically. The Automation toolbar helps control the playback of your automations.

1. Right-click on any toolbar. A list of different toolbars will appear.

2. Click on Automation if it is not already selected. You can tell that a toolbar is already open if its name has a check mark beside it in the list.

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3. Click on the Enable/Disable Automation Playback button if it is not already selected. This option must be enabled for you to view the playback.

4. Click on the Rewind button. Your sequence will be rewound to the beginning.

5. Click on Play. As the sequence plays, observe the controls you automated. They will move according to the changes you made when the automation was recorded.

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Snapshots It’s happened to all of us at one time or another. You are working on the computer, the power goes out or your cat accidentally unplugs the cord, and you lose all your unsaved data. It would be a shame if you created the perfect mix and weren’t able to save the settings. Using the Snapshot feature in Home Studio is like taking a picture of the mixing board once all your settings are perfect, so you can always remember what they were. The snapshot records the settings at the current Now Time, so whenever that point is reached, the settings will be the same.

1. Set the Now Time to the point at which you want the settings to be remembered.

2. Adjust the settings in the Console to the desired levels.

3. Click on the Snapshot button. No matter what changes are made, whenever this Now Time is reached during playback, all the current settings will be remembered.

4. Click on Play. When the Now Time at which you took the snapshot is reached, all your saved settings will appear.

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Mixing with StudioWare The StudioWare View provides you with a more simplistic method of mixing your sequences on the fly. Not only can you perform minor mixing functionality, you also can automate those changes.

1. Hold down the Ctrl key until you reach the end of Step 2. 2. Click on the numbers beside the tracks you want to work with in the StudioWare View. The track numbers will be highlighted to indicate they are selected.

3. Click on View. The View menu will appear. 4. Click on StudioWare. The StudioWare View will open, and each track you selected will be represented by a console strip. MIDI and audio strips will look slightly different and will have different options.

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5. Click and drag the volume slider to adjust the volume settings for the particular track.

6. Click and drag any of the dials to the left or the right to adjust their settings.

7. Click on any of the buttons you want to activate. You can arm for recording or mute audio strips, but MIDI strips only have a mute button.

Automating in StudioWare Much like automation in the Console View, you can automate adjustments that you have made in the StudioWare View.

1. Click on the Update button to ensure that it is selected. This button must be selected for the automation to take effect.

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2. Click on the Rewind button to ensure that playback starts from the beginning of your sequence.

3. Click on the Record Automation button. Your sequence will begin to play. 4. Click and drag the control that you automated to the desired levels during the playback. Every move you make with that control will be recorded.

5. Click on the Stop button. The automation will be recorded.

6. Repeat Steps 3 through 5 to automate any other controls.

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7. Click on Rewind. The sequence will rewind to the beginning.

8. Click on the Play button. As the sequence plays, observe the controls you automated. They will move according to the changes you made when the automation was recorded.

Taking Snapshots in StudioWare The snapshot records the settings at the current Now Time, so whenever that point is reached during playback, the settings will remain the same.

1. Set the Now Time to the point at which you want the settings to be remembered.

2. Adjust the settings in the Console to the desired levels.

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3. Click on the Snapshot button. No matter what changes are made, all of the current settings will be remembered whenever this Now Time is reached during playback.

4. Click on Play. When the Now Time at which you took the snapshot is reached, all your saved settings will appear.

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11

Looping and Groove Clips

It used to be that a composer would sit down at a piano or other instrument and painstakingly scribe music to create his masterpiece. Modern-day music is a little different. If you find a few three-second clips of audio and play them over and over, you’ll have a hit on your hands in no time. In truth it may not be that simple, but looping audio is a fundamental part of audio editing. Groove clips, often used when looping, are clips that understand their own pitch and tempo and can adjust themselves automatically to pitch and tempo changes. In this chapter you’ll learn how to: Create loops Edit loops Create groove clips Adjust groove clip properties

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Creating Loops Nothing drives my mom crazier than music that repeats itself over and over. That’s why she probably wouldn’t be the first person to suggest that you use loops. I, on the other hand, realize that repeating clips of music can not only enhance the sound of your composition, but can also make the process of editing your project much faster.

Looping Playback Before you even begin to create loops, you can use the Loop Playback feature to preview what a section of audio will sound like looped. This feature allows you to select a portion of your project to play over and over.

1. Right-click in a blank area of any toolbar. A list of different toolbars will appear.

2. Click on Loop. The Loop toolbar will appear.

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3. Click on the Loop button to toggle looping on or off. When the button is selected, playback looping is on.

4. Click and drag across the Loop From time field. The number will be highlighted. 5. Type a value for the time at which you want playback looping to begin.

6. Repeat Steps 4 and 5 in the Loop To time field to set a time for the looping to end. 7. Click and drag the yellow markers to adjust the looping times.

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8. Click on Play. Once the playback reaches the end of the loop period, it will begin again at the loop start point.

9. Click on Stop to end the playback. The looping sequence will stop. 10. Click on the Loop button. The button will be deselected, and looping will stop.

Adjusting Loop Playback Home Studio offers you several methods for adjusting the playback of your loop. You can adjust the markers, set the loop in the Automation toolbar, or use the Loop/Auto Shuttle dialog box to adjust the properties.

1. Click on Transport. The Transport menu will appear.

2. Click on Loop and Auto Shuttle. The Loop/Auto Shuttle dialog box will open.

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3. Type in new values for the Loop Start and Loop End fields if you want to adjust the times.

4. Click on the check boxes beside the options you want to activate or deactivate.

5. Click on OK. The settings you have entered will take effect, and the dialog box will close.

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Looping Audio Clips Home Studio offers you a variety of ways to loop an audio clip. It’s a two-step process that can be done manually or visually. Once a clip is activated for looping, you can loop it by clicking and dragging or by entering values in the Loop Construction View.

Looping Visually Once an audio clip has been activated for looping, the fastest way to create the actual loop is to simply click and drag.

1. Right-click on any clip you want to loop. A menu will appear.

2. Click on Clip Properties. The Clip Properties dialog box will open.

3. Click on the Groove-Clips tab. The tab will move to the front, and you will be presented with options for looping.

4. Click on the Enable Looping check box. The option will be selected.

5. Click on OK. The dialog box will close, and the clip will be loop-enabled.

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NOTE If a clip has its corners cut off, it indicates that the clip is loop-enabled.

6. Position your mouse pointer at the right edge of the clip you want to loop. The mouse pointer will change into a rectangle with a little arrow. 7. Click and drag the mouse to the right. As you drag, the clip will begin looping over and over.

8. Release the mouse button when you reach the desired number of loops.

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Looping in Loop Construction View The Loop Construction View provides you with an entire interface for creating your audio loops. It is primarily used for groove clips (see the “Working with Groove Clips” section later in this chapter), but you also can use it to create general loops.

1. Select the clip you want to loop using one of the selection methods.

2. Click on View. The View menu will appear.

3. Click on Loop Construction. The Loop Construction View will appear with the selected clip loaded.

TIP Double-clicking on any audio clip will open that clip in Loop Construction View.

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4. Click on the Enable Looping button. The clip will be loopenabled.

5. Click on the Close button. The Loop Construction View will close.

6. Position your mouse pointer at the right edge of the clip you want to loop. The mouse pointer will change into a rectangle with a little arrow.

7. Click and drag to the right. As you drag, the clip will begin looping over and over.

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8. Release the mouse button when you reach the desired number of loops.

MIDI Looping Because of the nature of the file type, looping MIDI tracks is a little more difficult than looping audio files. The easiest way to loop a MIDI file is to cut and paste.

1. Select the MIDI clip you want to loop using one of the selection methods.

2. Click on Edit. The Edit menu will appear.

3. Click on Copy. The MIDI clip will be copied. The Copy dialog box will open.

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4. Click on OK to accept the default settings. The dialog box will close.

5. Click on Edit. The Edit menu will appear.

6. Click on Paste. The Paste dialog box will open. In this dialog box, you can control the looping of your clip.

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7. Click on the plus or minus sign in the Starting at Time field to adjust the time at which you want the loop to begin.

8. Click on the plus or minus sign in the Repetitions field to adjust the number of repetitions for your looped clip. 9. Click on the Starting Track down arrow. A list of tracks will appear. This will allow you to select where you want the clip pasted.

10. Click on the number of the track where the clip you selected resides. The track will be selected.

11. Click on OK. The dialog box will close, and the clip will be looped the number of times you specified.

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Working with Groove Clips Think of a groove clip as the chameleon of clips. They’re much smarter than regular clips because they not only know certain information about themselves, such as beat, tempo, and pitch, but they also can adapt themselves to the beat, tempo, and pitch of your project. Usually, you edit groove clips in the Loop Construction View, but you can also adjust their properties in the Clip Properties dialog box.

Creating and Editing Groove Clips in the Loop Construction View The Loop Construction View is a one-stop shop for your groove clips. You can create and edit them in one convenient location.

1. Double-click on any audio clip. The Loop Construction View will open with the selected audio clip loaded.

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2. Click on the Enable Stretching button to allow Home Studio to stretch or squash your clip to match the tempo of the project.

3. Click on the plus or minus sign for the Beats In Clip field to adjust the number of beats in the clips. Home Studio actually makes this calculation for you, but if you want to manually adjust it, you can use this feature.

4. Click on the Follow Project Pitch button. This will ensure that the pitch of the clip will adjust to match your projects.

5. Click on the Save button if you want to save the groove clip you just created. The Save As dialog box will open.

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6. Navigate to the location where you want to save your groove clip.

7. Type a name for the clip in the File name field. It’s a good idea to give the clip a descriptive name. 8. Click on Save. The groove clip will be saved in the location you specified.

9. Click on the Close button. You will be returned to the Tracks Pane, and your groove clip will follow the pitch of your project.

Creating and Editing Groove Clips in the Clip Properties Dialog Box A very quick method for creating groove clips is to use the Clip Properties dialog box. In this dialog box, you can quickly create, edit, and apply the groove clips to any of your audio clips.

1. Right-click on the audio clip you want to turn into a groove clip. A menu will appear.

2. Click on Clip Properties. The Clip Properties dialog box will open.

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3. Click on the Groove-Clips tab. The tab will move to the front, and you will be presented with options for looping.

4. Click in the Enable Looping check box to deselect the option. Make sure there is no check mark in this box.

5. Click in the Stretch to Project Tempo check box if there is not already a check mark in it. This will allow Home Studio to stretch out or squeeze the tempo of the clip to match the entire sequence.

6. Click in the Follow Project Pitch check box if there is not already a check mark in it. The option will be selected.

7. Click on the Reference Note down arrow. A list of note values will appear. This will allow you to set a value to transpose the clip. When matching the project pitch, the clip will be additionally transposed by the value you set here.

8. Click on the desired reference note. The value for transposition will be set.

9. Click on OK. The clip you selected will become a groove clip, and the dialog box will close.

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Changing the Project Tempo Now that you know that a groove clip will adjust itself to match the tempo of a project, you need to know how to change the tempo of the project. You can change the tempo globally, or you can insert different tempo changes at any point. The tempo is simply the speed at which your music is played. The fastest way to change the tempo is by using the Tempo toolbar.

1. Right-click on any toolbar. A list of different toolbars will appear.

2. Click on Tempo if there is not already a check mark beside it. The Tempo toolbar will appear.

3. Click on the Insert Tempo button. The Tempo dialog box will open. 4. Click on the plus or minus sign for the Tempo field to adjust the value for the tempo. You can enter a value anywhere between 8 and 250. 5. Click on the radio button for the desired option. You can choose to insert a new tempo or to change the value of the most recent tempo.

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6. Click on OK. The tempo change you have entered will take effect.

Changing the Project Pitch Just as with tempo, a groove clip that has the Follow Project Pitch option enabled will adjust itself to changes in pitch in a sequence. To adjust the pitch, you can enter pitch markers.

1. Right-click on any toolbar. A list of all the available toolbars will appear.

2. Click on Markers if there is not already a check mark beside it. The Markers toolbar will appear.

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3. Click on the down arrow to choose from a list of pitch values for your project. A list of different values will appear.

4. Click on the desired value to act as your project’s default pitch. The value will be selected.

5. Right-click on the ruler. A menu will appear.

6. Click on Insert Marker. The Marker dialog box will open.

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7. Click on the plus or minus sign for the Time field to adjust the time at which you want to insert the pitch change.

8. Click on the Groove-Clip Pitch down arrow. A list of values you can set for the pitch will appear.

9. Click on the desired pitch value. The value will be selected.

10. Click on OK. The dialog box will close, and the pitch change will take effect at the position you indicated. During playback, the pitch of the groove clip will change to match the pitch you entered at that point.

12

Outputting

Your blood, sweat, and tears have paid off, and you finally have the perfect mix. Now what? Once you have completed your project, you have several options for what to do with your music. The most popular option by far is to burn it to CD so that you can distribute it to others. And with the popularity of MP3s as a distribution vehicle for music, you can choose to save your audio as an MP3 and e-mail it to others or place it on a file share. Home Studio also allows you to save your work as part of a score for a video. In this chapter you’ll learn how to: Convert MIDI to audio Create MP3s Output to waves Work with video

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Converting MIDI to Audio You will need to create an audio track from your MIDI clips to take advantage of many of the exporting features in Home Studio. This is also true if you want to burn your music to CDs or create MP3s. The process of creating audio from MIDI is fairly simple. In a nutshell, you start by creating an audio track, and then play your MIDI clips. The audio track will listen to and record your MIDI clips as they play.

1. Click on Start. The Start menu will appear.

2. Click on Programs or All Programs. A list of all the programs on your computer will appear.

3. Click on Accessories and then click on Entertainment. A list of different programs will appear.

4. Click on Volume Control. The Volume Control dialog box will open. Depending on your operating system and sound card, the Volume Control dialog box may be named differently.

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5. Click on Options. The Options menu will appear.

6. Click on Properties. The Properties dialog box will open, allowing you to select the properties for your devices.

7. Click on the Recording radio button. This will ensure that all the devices for recording will appear.

8. Click on the scroll buttons (if there are scroll buttons) until you get the Wave Out Mix, Synth, MIDI, What You Hear, or Mixed Input option in the Show the following volume controls box. 9. Click on the check box beside the option you found in Step 8 if the control is not already selected. 10. Click on OK. The Properties dialog box will close.

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11. Click on the Select check box if it is not already checked for the option you found in Step 8. For some sound cards, the option might say Mute. If this is the case, deselect the check box to un-mute the device.

12. Click on the Close button. The dialog box will close, and you will return to Home Studio. (This is assuming that you already have Home Studio open; if you don’t, launch Home Studio now.)

13. Click on Insert. The Insert menu will appear.

14. Click on Audio Track. A new track will be created. You can use this new track to record your MIDI clips and convert them to audio files.

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15. Click on the R button in the audio track. The track will be armed for recording.

16. Click on the M button to mute any tracks that you do not want to be converted to audio. This is particularly true for any other audio tracks you have in your sequence.

17. Click on Record. The MIDI tracks will play and will be recorded into the audio track you created.

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18. Click on Stop. An audio clip of all the non-muted MIDI clips will be created.

Outputting to MP3 MP3 is now the most popular form of digital music because it provides a convenient way for people to share music with one another. Getting your sequence into MP3 format simply requires a few clicks of your mouse button.

1. Click on File. The File menu will appear.

2. Click on Export. The Export submenu will appear.

3. Click on Audio. The Export Audio dialog box will open.

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4. Navigate to the folder where you want to save your MP3 file.

5. Type a name for the MP3. It’s a good idea to give it a descriptive name.

6. Click on the Files of type down arrow. A list of options will appear.

7. Click on MP3. The file type will be selected.

8. Click on the Format down arrow. A list of options will appear. 9. Click on the desired option. Your options include: • Export to Stereo File(s). When you select this option, everything is mixed down to a single stereo file. • Export to Separate Left and Right Files. When you select this option, everything is mixed down to two separate mono files, left and right. • Export to Mono File(s). When you select this option, everything is mixed down to a single mono file.

10. Click on the check boxes to select or deselect the items you want to include.

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11. Click on the desired source bus or buses. They will be highlighted.

12. Click on Export. The trial version of the MP3 Encoder will open.

13. Click on Continue. The Cakewalk MP3 Encoder dialog box will open.

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14. Click on the Set ID3 Info button. This will allow you to associate information about your sequence with your MP3. A dialog box will open.

15. Type the desired information into the fields. You can include information about the title, album, artist, date, and genre.

16. Click on OK. The dialog box will close, and you will return to the MP3 Encoder dialog box.

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17. Click on any of the drop-down menus to adjust the settings.

18. Click on Encode. The MP3 will be created in the destination you specified.

Preparing for CD Burning (Exporting to Wave) If you want to burn a CD from the clips you’ve created in Home Studio, you’re out of luck, to put it simply. Home Studio does not come with any built-in burning software. That being said, there are a myriad of tools you can purchase or download that will enable you to burn audio files to CD. But regardless of which program you use, you will need to get your audio into a form that can be used by those programs, and that is the wave file format. If your sequence contains MIDI files, you will need to convert those to audio (refer back to the “Converting MIDI to Audio” section). After that, you simply need to export your files to the wave format.

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1. Click on File. The File menu will appear.

2. Click on Export. The Export submenu will appear. 3. Click on Audio. The Export Audio dialog box will open.

4. Navigate to the folder where you want to save your wave file.

5. Type a name for the wave. It’s a good idea to give it a descriptive name because this will be the name of the track on your CD.

6. Click on the Files of type down arrow. A list of options will appear.

7. Click on Broadcast Wave. The file type will be selected.

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8. Click on the Format down arrow. A list of options will appear.

9. Click on the desired option. Your options include: • Export to Stereo File(s). When you choose this option, everything is mixed down to a single stereo file. • Export to Separate Left and Right Files. When you choose this option, everything is mixed down to two separate mono files, left and right. • Export to Mono File(s). When you choose this option, everything is mixed down to a single mono file.

10. Click on the check boxes to select or deselect the items you want to include.

11. Click on the desired source bus or buses. They will be highlighted.

12. Click on Export. The wave file will be saved to the destination folder.

NOTE Home Studio allows you to export your audio to a variety of other file formats, including Real Audio, Windows Streaming, and MP3.

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Working with Video You can actually bring video into Home Studio so you can create a score for a movie, a music video, or home recordings. If the video has audio associated with it, you can choose whether or not you want to import the audio along with the video. Once the video is in Home Studio, you can edit the audio and then resave it along with the video.

Importing Video Home Studio allows you to select from a variety of different video file formats when you are importing. You can choose whether to include the audio and determine how the audio will be treated.

1. Click on File. The File menu will appear. 2. Click on Import. The Import submenu will appear with two choices. 3. Click on Video File. The Video File dialog box will open, allowing you to select the video file you want to import.

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4. Navigate to the folder that contains the video you want to import.

5. Click on the Files of type down arrow. A list of different supported file types will appear.

6. Click on the desired file type. All the files in the selected folder that match the file type you selected will appear in the dialog box.

7. Click on the desired file. The file will be highlighted. 8. Click on the Import Audio Stream check box. When this option is selected, the existing audio associated with the video will be placed in an audio track when the video is imported.

9. Click on the Stereo Split check box if you want the audio that is currently associated with the video to be split into two channels when it is imported.

10. Click on Open. The video will be imported and, if you chose to import the audio, it will appear in an audio track. The video will open in a special Video window.

WORKING WITH VIDEO

299

Viewing Video Home Studio has a special viewing window that allows you to preview your video, along with any music in your sequence. The Video view not only displays the Now Time so you can sync the audio to your video, but it also offers you a variety of viewing options. When you first imported your video, the window with your video appeared, so you only need to follow Steps 1 and 2 if you’ve closed the window.

1. Click on View. The View menu will appear. 2. Click on Video. A window will open with your video and a large representation of the Now Time. When you first imported your video, the window with your video appeared, so you only need to follow this step if you’ve closed the window.

3. Click on the Play button. Your sequence and the video will play.

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4. Right-click anywhere on the video display. A menu will appear.

5. Click on any of the options. A menu will appear with different sub-options for the display. These include options for the time display, how the video fits in the window, and the background color. 6. Click on the desired option. It will be applied to the video.

7. Repeat Steps 4 through 6 for any other options you want to adjust.

8. Right-click on the Video window again. A menu will appear.

9. Click on Animate. This will toggle the Animation feature on or off. When there is a check mark beside Animate, the video will play along with your sequence; otherwise, it will not.

WORKING WITH VIDEO

301

Adjusting Video Timing There’s a good chance that when you first import your video, it might not be perfectly synced with the audio you have created for it. Home Studio not only allows you to adjust when in your sequence your video will start, but it also allows you to edit the start and end times of the video.

1. Right-click anywhere on the video. A menu will appear. 2. Click on Video Properties. The Video Properties dialog box will open.

3. Click on the Video Settings tab if it is not already selected. The tab will move to the front. 4. Click on the plus or minus sign for the Start Time field to adjust the start time. This will allow you to change when in the audio sequence the video will begin to play.

5. Click on the plus or minus sign for the Trim-in Time field to adjust the trim-in time. This will allow the video to play before the music of your sequence begins playing.

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6. Click on the plus or minus sign for the Trim-out Time field to adjust the trim-out time. This will allow you to set a time when you want the video to stop playing.

7. Click on OK. The settings will take effect.

Adding Audio to Video Once you have imported a video file, you can add audio to your session and then resave the video with the new audio attached to it. Using this method, you can create scores for videos, narrate movies, or add sound effects to your videos.

1. Add any audio tracks to your session that you want to be a part of your video.

WORKING WITH VIDEO

303

NOTE You must convert your MIDI files to audio if you want them to be included in your video.

2. Click on File. The File menu will appear. 3. Click on Export and then click on Video to AVI. The Video to AVI dialog box will open, allowing you to adjust the settings for your video.

4. Navigate to the folder where you want to save your video.

5. Type a name for your video in the File name field. It’s a good idea to give the video a descriptive name. 6. Adjust any of the settings for the video.

7. Click on Save. The dialog box will close, and the video will be saved to the location you specified with the audio now attached.

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Index Numerics 3dB Louder or Quieter feature, 174

A Add button (Window Layouts dialog box), 40 Add Song button (Play List), 71 All Programs command (Start menu), 80, 87, 94, 286 Animate option (Video menu), 300 archiving tracks, 139–140 Arpeggiator effect, 224–226 arrows, menu bar, 22 audio adding to video, 302–303 audio clips 3dB Louder or Quieter feature, 174 equalization, graphic, 169 equalization, parametric, 170–172 importing, 114–116, 121–122 looping, 270–271, 273–274 Normalize effect, 173 reversing, 168 converting MIDI to, 286–289, 292 devices, Home Studio configuration, 18–20

effects Cakewalk plug-ins, 187–188 Chorus, 175–176 Compressor, 177–178 Distortion, 178–179 Echo, 180–181 Flanger, 181–182 Gargle, 183–184 I3DL2Reverb, 184–185 presets, applying, 191–192 presets, saving, 189–190 WavesReverb, 186–187 Audio Options dialog box, 18, 20 Audio Tracks command (Insert menu), 84, 115, 288 auto punch recording option, 111

B band-pass frequencies, parametric equalization, 171 band-stop frequencies, parametric equalization, 171 bookmarks, markers as, 50–51 Bounce to Clip(s) command (Edit menu), 158 Broadcast Wave option (Export Audio dialog box), 295 burning CDs, 294–296

306

INDEX

buttons Add Song (Play List), 71 Add (Window Layouts dialog box), 40 Create a New Project (Quick Start window), 14–15 Delay (Play List), 74–75 Delete (Window Layouts dialog box), 42 Enable Play List (Play List), 73 File Status (File Info window), 60 Getting Started (Quick Start window), 16 Horizontal Zoom Fader, 28 Insert a New Tempo (Tempo dialog box), 68 Insert Marker (Markers toolbar), 47 Insert Tempo (Tempo toolbar), 68 Load (Window Layouts dialog box), 41 Loop On/Off, 76–77 New Song (Play List), 74 Open a Project (Quick Start window), 13 Open a Recent Project (Quick Start window), 14 Play (Loop Explorer View), 32 Remove Song (Play List), 74 Set ID3 Info (Cakewalk MP3 Encoder dialog box), 293 Vertical Zoom Fader, 28 Wave Profiler (Audio Options dialog box), 18 Zoom In Horizontally, 29 Zoom In Vertically, 29 Zoom Out Vertically, 28

C Cakewalk Cakewalk MP3 Encoder dialog box, 292–294 plug-ins audio effects, 187–188 MIDI effects, 223 CD player, internal, recording from, 87–93 CDs, burning, 294–296

check marks, in menu items, 23 Choose Destination Location screen, Home Studio installation, 8 Chord Analyzer effect, 226–227 Chorus effect, 175–176 Clip Properties dialog box, groove clips, creating and editing, 279–280 clips 3dB Louder or Quieter feature, 174 Clips Pane navigating in, 29 size of, adjusting, 25–26 Zoom Faders, 27–28 coloring, 123 equalization graphic, 169 parametric, 170–172 groove creating and editing, in Clip Properties dialog box, 279–280 creating and editing, in Loop Construction View, 277–279 naming, 279 pitch, changing, 282–284 importing audio clips, 114–116, 121–122 MIDI files, 117–121 joining, 157–158 length of, changing, 207–209 lengthening, 163–164 looping, 270–271, 273–274 moving, 147–150 naming, 123 Normalize effect, 173 playing, 61–63 quantizing, 158–160 reversing, 168 selections copying, 150–151 cutting, 152 individual clips, 142

INDEX

keyboard, 143 marquee, 144 multiple clips, 142 multiple clips, deselecting, 146 pasting, 153–154 portion of clips, 145 time range, 146–147 shortening, 163–164 sliding, 161 splitting into multiple pieces, 156–157 in two, 154–155 transposing, 162–163 zooming in/out, 27–29 cloning tracks, 134–135 Close command (File menu), 75 closing File Info window, 61 panes, 37 toolbars, 23–24 coloring clips, 123 commands Edit menu Bounce to Clip(s), 158 Copy, 118, 151, 274 Cut, 152 Paste, 120, 153, 275 Split, 156 File menu Close, 75 Export, 290, 295, 302–303 Import, 297 Info, 59 New, 56, 70 Open, 58, 72, 117 Save As, 57, 71 Go menu Search, 53 Search Next, 54 Time, 46

307

Insert menu Audio Track, 84, 115, 288 MIDI Track, 100, 107, 117 Options menus Audio, 18 MIDI Devices, 17, 99 Process menu Length, 207 Quantize, 158 Slide, 161 Transpose, 162 Start menu All Programs, 80, 87, 94, 286 Programs, 80, 87, 94, 286 View menu Layouts, 39 Loop Construction, 272 Loop Explorer, 31, 121 Piano Roll, 211 Video, 299 Window menu Tile in Columns, 34 Tile in Rows, 34 component options, Home Studio installation, 5–6 Compressor effect, 177–178 configuring Home Studio audio devices, 18–20 MIDI devices, 17–18 Console View effects, applying, 247–249 groups creating, 241–242 custom, creating, 244–246 members, removing, 243 overriding, 246 properties, changing, 243–244 Hide Module option, 237

308

INDEX

Console View (continued) mix automation punch automation recording, 254–256 standard automation recording, 252–254 opening, 236 pan adjustment slider, 239 Snap To feature, 239–241 snapshots, 258 volume level, adjusting, 238 Construction View, looping in, 272–274 Continue With No MIDI Output option (No MIDI Outputs Selection dialog box), 12 Copy command (Edit menu), 118, 151, 274 copying clips, 150–151 countdown, metronome, 126–127 Create a New Project button (Quick Start window), 14–15 creating markers, 47–48, 52 Play List, 69–71 projects with Quick Start window, 14–15 template options, 56 cutting clips, 152

D Delay button (Play List), 74–75 delay effects, 227–228 Delete button (Window Layouts dialog box), 42 deleting group members, 243 layouts, 41–42 markers, 50, 52 notes, 203, 215 tracks, 132–133 deselecting clips, 146 destination location, Home Studio installation, 6

dialog boxes Audio Options, 18, 20 Cakewalk MP3 Encoder, 292–294 Export Audio, 290–291, 295–296 Import Audio, 116 Loop/Auto Shuttle, 268–269 Marker, 47–48 MIDI Devices, 17–18 New Global Layout, 40 New Project, 56 New Project File, 70 No MIDI Outputs Selection, 12 Open, 58, 72, 117 Pick Tracks, 197 Run, 2 Save As, 57, 71 Search, 53–54 Step Record, 108 Tempo, 68 Time, 46–47 Video File, 297–298 Video to AVI, 303 Volume Control, 286 Window Layouts, 39 Add button, 40 Delete button, 42 Load button, 41 When Opening a File, Load its Layout check box, 41 disc insertion, Home Studio installation, 8–9 Distortion effect, 178–179 docking Loop Explorer Pane, 37–38 drag and drop options moving clips, 147–148 moving notes, 203–205 drumming effects, 230–232 duration changing, using Piano Roll View, 217–218 duration option, clip length, 208

INDEX

E echo delay effects, 227–228 Echo effect, 180–181 Edit menu commands Bounce to Clip(s), 158 Copy, 118, 151, 274 Cut, 152 Paste, 120, 153, 275 Split, 156 editing audio 3dB Louder or Quieter feature, 174 graphic equalization, 169 Normalize effect, 173 parametric equalization, 170–172 reversing, 168 groove clips in Clip Properties dialog box, 279–280 in Loop Construction View, 277–279 marker properties, 52 Slip Editing feature, 209–210 tempo for entire project, 68 for specific regions, 68–69 effects audio Cakewalk plug-ins, 187–188 Chorus, 175–176 Compressor, 177–178 Distortion, 178–179 Echo, 180–181 Flanger, 181–182 Gargle, 183–184 I3DL2Reverb, 184–185 Normalize, 173 presets, applying, 191–192 presets, saving, 189–190 WavesReverb, 186–187

309

MIDI Arpeggiator, 224–226 Cakewalk FX plug-ins, 223 Chord Analyzer, 226–227 delay, 227–228 echo delay, 227–228 event filters, 229 Quantize, 229–230 Session Drummer, 230–232 transposition, 232–233 Velocity, 233–234 mixing, 247–249 electric guitars, recording from, 94–98 ellipses, menu bar, 22 Enable Play List button (Play List), 73 encoders, Cakewalk MP3 Encoder dialog box, 292–294 end and start times, video timing, 301–302 envelopes, MIDI, 219–222 equalization graphic, 169 parametric, 170–172 event filters, MIDI effects, 229 Event Inspector toolbar, 206–207 Export Audio dialog box, 290–291, 295–296 Export command (File menu), 290 Export to Mono File(s) option (Export Audio dialog box), 291, 296 Export to Separate Left and Right Files option (Export Audio dialog box), 291, 296 Export to Stereo File(s) option (Export Audio dialog box), 291, 296

F File Info window closing, 61 File Stats message box, 60 File Status button, 60 opening, 59

310

INDEX

File menu commands Close, 75 Export, 290, 295, 302–303 Import, 297 Info, 59 New, 56, 70 Open, 58, 72, 117 Save As, 57, 71 File Status button (File Info window), 60 file type options, Home Studio installation, 9 files. See projects Flanger effect, 181–182 folder contents, Loop Explorer View, 31–32

G Gargle effect, 183–184 Getting Started button (Quick Start window), 16 Go menu commands Search, 53 Search Next, 54 Time, 46 graphic equalization, 169 grid tool (Piano Roll View), 212 groove clips creating and editing in Clip Properties dialog box, 279–280 in Loop Construction View, 277–279 naming, 279 pitch, changing, 282–284 tempo, changing, 281–282 groups, mixing creating, 241–242 custom groups, creating, 244–246 overriding, 246 removing, 243

H Hide Module option (Console View), 237

hiding grid, 212 tracks, 135–137 high-pass frequencies, parametric equalization, 171 Home Studio configuring audio devices, 18–20 MIDI devices, 17–18 installing Choose Destination Location screen, 8 component options, 5–6 destination location, 6 disc insertion, 8–9 file type options, 9 Install Home Studio icon, 4 Installation complete screen, 10 installation options, 3 license agreement, 4–5 name field, 5 plug-in registration process, 9–10 registration options, 5 Run dialog box, 2 serial number field, 5 shared program file locations, 6–7 Start Installation screen, 7 launching, 11–12 Horizontal Zoom Fader button, 28

I I3DL2Reverb effect, 184–185 Import Audio dialog box, 116 Import Audio Stream check box (Video File dialog box), 298 Import command (File menu), 297 importing clips audio clips, 114–116, 121–122 MIDI files, 117–121 video, 297–298

INDEX

Info command (File menu), 59 Inputs area (MIDI Devices dialog box), 18 Insert a New Tempo button (Tempo dialog box), 68 Insert Marker button (Markers toolbar), 47 Insert menu commands Audio Track, 84, 115, 288 MIDI Track, 100, 107, 117 Insert Tempo button (Tempo toolbar), 68 installing Home Studio Choose Destination Location screen, 8 component options, 5–6 destination location, 6 disc insertion, 8–9 file type options, 9 Install Home Studio icon, 4 Installation complete screen, 10 installation options, 3 license agreement, 4–5 name field, 5 plug-in registration process, 9–10 registration options, 5 Run dialog box, 2 serial number field, 5 shared program file locations, 6–7 Start Installation screen, 7 internal CD players, recording from, 87–93

J joining clips, 157–158

K keyboard selections, 143

L launching. See opening layouts associating projects with, 41 deleting, 41–42 loading, 41

311

naming, 40 saving, 40–41 length of clips, changing, 207–209 lengthening clips, 163–164 license agreement, Home Studio installation, 4–5 Load button (Window Layouts dialog box), 41 loading layouts, 41 locking markers, 52 Loop Explorer Pane audio clips, importing, 121–122 docking, 37–38 folder contents, 31–32 navigating through, 31–33 opening, 31 overview, 30 Play button, 32 Loop On/Off button, 76–77 loop recording, 111–114 Loop toolbar, 76–77 looping audio clips, 270–271, 273–274 groove clips, creating and editing, 277–279 MIDI files, 274–276 playback, 76–77 loops Loop/Auto Shuttle dialog box, 268–269 playback, 266–269 low-pass frequencies, parametric equalization, 171

M Marker dialog box, 47–48 markers as bookmarks, 50–51 creating, 47–48, 52 deleting, 50, 52 locking/unlocking, 52 moving, 48–51 naming, 48

312

INDEX

markers (continued) positioning, adjusting, 48–49 properties, changing, 52 uses for, 46 marquee selections, 144 maximizing panes, 37 menu bar arrows, 22 check marks, 23 ellipses, 22 metronome activating, 125–126 countdown, 126–127 opening, 124–125 sound, changing, 128 microphones recording from, 84–86 setting up, 80–84 sound cards, 85 testing, 82 volume control, 81–82 wave controls, 83 MIDI Devices dialog box, 18 MIDI files converting to audio, 286–289, 292 devices, Home Studio configuration, 17–18 effects Arpeggiator, 224–226 Cakewalk FX plug-ins, 223 Chord Analyzer, 226–227 delay, 227–228 echo delay, 227–228 event filters, 229 Quantize, 229–230 Session Drummer, 230–232 transposition, 232–233 Velocity, 233–234 envelopes, 219–222 importing, 117–121 looping, 274–276 recording, 98–102

MIDI Track command (Insert menu), 100, 107, 117 minimizing panes, 37 mixing Console View effects, applying, 247–249 groups, changing properties, 243–244 groups, creating, 241–242 groups, members, removing, 243 groups, overriding, 246 opening, 236 pan adjustment slider, 239 punch automation recording, 254–256 Snap To feature, 239–241 snapshots, 258 standard automation recording, 252–254 volume level, adjusting, 238 in StudioWare, 259–263 modes, recording, 110–111 Move Selected Devices to Top option (MIDI Devices dialog box), 18 moving clips, 147–150 markers, 48–49 notes in Piano Roll View, 216 in Staff View, 203–205 panes, 35–36 within projects, 43–45 toolbars, 24–25 tracks, 131, 196–197 MP3 format, 290–294 muting tracks, 64–67

N name field, Home Studio installation, 5 naming clips, 123 groove clips, 279

INDEX

layouts, 40 markers, 48 Play List, 72 projects, 57 tracks, 130 New command (File menu), 56, 70 New Global Layout dialog box, 40 New Project File dialog box, 56, 70 Next Song button (Play List), 74 No MIDI Outputs Selected dialog box, 12 Normalize effect, 173 notes in Piano Roll View adding, 214–215 deleting, 215 moving, 216 in Staff View adding, 201–202 deleting, 203 moving, 203–205 properties, changing, 200–201 scrubbing, 205 selecting, 198–200 zoom level, changing, 195–196 Now field, Position toolbar, 44 Now Time option, 43–45

O Open a Project button (Quick Start window), 13 Open a Recent Project button (Quick Start window), 14 Open command (File menu), 58, 72, 117 Open dialog box, 58, 72, 117 opening Console View, 236 File Info window, 59 Home Studio, 11–12 Loop Explorer View, 31

313

metronome, 124–125 Piano Roll View, 210 Play List, 72 Playback State toolbar, 65 Position toolbar, 44 projects, 13–14, 58 Staff View, 194 StudioWare view, 259 toolbars, 23–24 views, 33 Options menu commands Audio, 18 MIDI Devices, 17, 99 output CDs, burning, 294–296 MIDI, converting to audio, 286–289, 292 to MP3 format, 290–294 wave format, 294–296 overwrite recording option, 111

P panes closing, 37 displaying in rows/columns, 34 maximizing, 37 minimizing, 37 moving, 35–36 size of, adjusting, 35 panning pan adjustment slider, Console View, 239 Pan feature, 166 parametric equalization, 170–172 Paste command (Edit menu), 120, 153, 275 pasting clips, 153–154 Piano Roll View duration, changing, 217–218 grid tool, 212 MIDI envelope options, 219–222

314

INDEX

Piano Roll View (continued) notes in adding, 214–215 deleting, 215 moving, 216 opening, 210 pitch options, 217–218 track options, 213–214 zoom tools, 212–213 Pick Tracks dialog box, 197 pitch options changing, using Piano Roll View, 217–218 groove clips, 282–284 Play button (Loop Explorer View), 32 Play List Add Song button, 71 creating, 69–71 Delay button, 74–75 Enable Play List button, 73 naming, 72 Next Song button, 74 opening, 72 Remove Song button, 74 saving, 71–72 songs, playing, 73–74 playback looping, 76–77, 266–269 Playback State toolbar opening, 65 tracks, muted and soloed, 66 playing clips, 61–63 songs delayed play, 74–75 in Play List, 73–74 video, 299–300 plug-ins Cakewalk audio effects, 187–188 MIDI effects, 223

plug-in registration process, Home Studio installation, 9–10 Position toolbar, 43–44 positioning markers, 48–49 presets applying, 191–192 saving, 189–190 Process menu commands Length, 207 Quantize, 158 Slide, 161 Transpose, 162 Program Installation icon, 3 Programs command (Start menu), 80, 87, 94, 286 projects associating with layouts, 41 creating with Quick Start window, 14–15 template options, 56 information, entering, 51, 59–60 moving within, 43–45 naming, 57 Now Time, 43–45 opening, 13–14, 58 saving, 57 tempo, adjusting, 67–69 Time command, 45–46 properties markers, changing, 52 mixing, Console View, 243–244 notes, changing, 200–201 Staff View, changing, 197–198 tracks, viewing, 140 punch recording mix automation, 254–256 overview, 104–106

Q Quantize effect, 229–230

INDEX

quantizing clips, 158–160 Quick Start window creating projects with, 14–15 Getting Started button, 16 opening projects with, 13–14 turning off, 15 tutorials, 16

R recording audio clips, importing, 114–116 auto punch option, 111 from electric guitars, 94–98 from internal CD player, 87–93 loop, 111–114 metronome activating, 125–126 countdown, 126–127 opening, 124–125 sound of, changing, 128 MIDI files basic recording, 98–102 importing, 117–121 mix automation punch automation recording, 254–256 standard automation recording, 252–254 modes, 110–111 overwrite option, 111 punch, 104–106 sound on sound option, 111 step, 106–110 from tape decks, 94–98 from turntables, 94–98 vocals microphones, recording from, 84–86 microphones, setting up, 80–84 registration options, Home Studio installation, 5 Remove Song button (Play List), 74

315

removing. See deleting repositioning toolbars, 24–25 reveberation effects, 184–187 Run dialog box, 2

S Save As command (File menu), 57, 71 Save As dialog box, 57, 71 saving layouts, 40–41 Play List, 71–72 presets, 189–190 projects, 57 scrollbars, navigation, 29 scrubbing notes, 205 Search Next command (Go menu), 54 searches, 53–54 selections copying, 150–151 cutting, 152 individual clips, 142 keyboard, 143 marquee, 144 multiple clips, 142 multiple clips, deselecting, 146 pasting, 153–154 portion of clips, 145 time range, 146–147 serial number field, Home Studio installation, 5 Session Drummer effect, 230–232 Set ID3 Info button (Cakewalk MP3 Encoder dialog box), 293 shared program file locations, Home Studio installation, 6–7 shortening clips, 163–164 showing grid, 212 tracks, 136–137

316

INDEX

size of Clips Pane, adjusting, 25–26 of panes, adjusting, 35 sliding clips, 161 Slip Editing feature, 209–210 Snap To feature, mixing, Console View, 239–241 Snap to Grid feature, moving clips, 149–150 snapshots Console View, 258 StudioWare, 262–263 soloing tracks, 63–67 songs adding to Play List, 71 playing delayed play, 74–75 in Play List, 73–74 sorting tracks, 138 sound metronome sound, changing, 128 sound cards, microphones, 85 sound on sound recording option, 111 splitting clips into multiple pieces, 156–157 in two, 154–155 Staff View notes in adding, 201–202 deleting, 203 moving, 203–205 properties, changing, 200–201 scrubbing, 205 selecting, 198–200 zoom level, changing, 195–196 opening, 194 properties, changing, 197–198 tracks, moving, 196–197 start and end times, video timing, 301–302 Start Installation screen, Home Studio installation, 7

Start menu commands All Programs, 80, 87, 94, 286 Programs, 80, 87, 94, 286 start times option, clip length, 208 starting. See opening step recording, 106–110 Stereo Split check box (Video File dialog box), 298 stretch audio options, clip length, 208 StudioWare View mixing in, 259–263 opening, 259 snapshot records, 262–263

T tape decks, recording from, 94–98 template options, project creation, 56 tempo adjustments, 67–69 Tempo dialog box, 68 Tempo toolbar, 67–69 testing microphones, 82 Tile in Columns command (Window menu), 34 Tile in Rows command (Window menu), 34 Time command (Go menu), 46 Time dialog box, 46–47 time range selections, 146–147 toolbars closing, 23–24 Event Inspector, 206–207 Loop, 76–77 Markers, 47 moving, 24–25 opening, 23–24 Playback State opening, 65 tracks, muting and soloing, 66–67 Position discussed, 43 Now field, 44 opening, 44

INDEX

Tempo, 67–69 Transport, 61–63 tracks archiving, 139–140 cloning, 134–135 contents, selecting, 132 deleting, 132–133 hiding, 135–137 moving, 131, 196–197 muted, deselecting, 66 muting, 64–67 naming, 130 numbers, selecting, 132 pan, adjusting, 166 Piano Roll View options, 213–214 properties, viewing, 140 showing, 136–137 soloed, deselecting, 66 soloing, 63–64, 66–67 sorting, 138 Track Manager, 138 volume, adjusting, 165 wiping, 133 Transport toolbar, 61–63 transposing clips, 162–163 transposition effects, 232–233 turning off Quick Start window, 15 turntables, recording from, 94–98 tutorials, Quick Start window, 16

U unlocking markers, 52

V Velocity effect, 233–234 Vertical Zoom Fader button, 28

317

video audio, adding, 302–303 importing, 297–298 start and end times, 301–302 timing adjustments, 301–302 viewing, 299–300 Video File dialog box, 297–298 Video to AVI dialog box, 303 View menu commands Layouts, 39 Loop Construction, 272 Loop Explorer, 31, 121 Piano Roll, 211 Staff View, 194 Video, 299 views, opening, 33 vocals, recording, 80–86 volume control in Console View, 238 microphone setup, 81–82 track volume, adjusting, 165 Volume Control dialog box, 286

W wave controls, microphone setup, 83 wave format, output, 294–296 Wave Profiler button (Audio Options dialog box), 18 WavesReverb effect, 186–187 When Opening a File, Load its Layout check box (Window Layouts dialog box), 41 Window Layouts dialog box, 39 Add button, 40 Delete button, 42 Load button, 41 When Opening a File, Load its Layout check box, 41 Window menu commands, 34 wiping tracks, 133

318

INDEX

Z zooming clips, 27–29 notes, 195–196 Zoom Faders, 28 Zoom In Horizontally button, 29 Zoom In Vertically button, 29 Zoom Out Horizontally button, 29 Zoom Out Vertically button, 28 zoom tools (Piano Roll View), 212–213

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