Sequencer techniques for splitting notes to separate tracks?

[Nick Batzdorf]

I\'m curious what procedure people are using to move specific notes from one track to another in Logic and Performer. In other words, you decide that one note needs to be played by a different articulation (that isn\'t set up for keyswitching).

In Logic, I\'ve been using a screenset with an editor window (Matrix usually) on one monitor and an Arrange on the other; I cut the note out of one track in the editor, click on the destination track in the Arrange window to switch the editor to that track, and then use shift/V Paste at Original Position. (You have to have the little chain link icon highlighted, of course.)

The other way I\'ve done it is to zoom way in on the Arrange window (using one of the preset zoom settings), separate the region with the note into a new sequence, and slide it over to the right track.

Both of these are a little cumbersome, so I was just curious if other people have found an easier way to do it that I\'m not thinking about.

Again, I\'m interested Performer and Logic.

[JonFairhurst]

Isn\'t it simpler (and more flexible) to put a patch change event into your original track? If there\'s no need to change the MIDI channel, just change the instrument and, optionally, the bank number. Of course, you have to undo the change after the note or passage is played.

I don\'t own a Mac sequencer, so I can\'t help with the details.

In Sibelius it\'s easy. I can attach technique text to a note. For instance I will add \"pizz~P21\", and pizz will show on the score. The tilde and everything after is hidden.

What\'s especially cool is that if you set your instruments to be on different banks with consistent mapping, then the above \"pizz~P21\" can work on violins, viola, cello and bass. In Silelius I can add that to a dictionary, and don\'t even need to type it or memorize which patch is pizzicato.

In Cakewalk I would add the event to the event window. There\'s got to be a similar solution in Logic or DP.

[Bill]

I totally agree with John. Splitting notes like that is from a previous era of sequencing.

[greatzed]

Well, in Sonar, I just use bank/patch change.

[Nick Batzdorf]

Patch changes on Giga? That hadn\'t occured to me, but I don\'t think it\'s the best way to do it if you\'re just switching the odd note. Plus it\'s usually several notes you\'re changing, and the idea of inserting patch changes in front of and behind each one isn\'t appealing.

Channel changes might be a solution, but that doesn\'t work well in Logic unless you make sure to record on the right channel and assign the track output to all channels - which really is something from an old era of sequencing.

I don\'t like to fool around with my keyboard anyway - it\'s much easier just to point at the track you want to record on, for one. And for another, I like having multiple controllers (weighted and unweighted, an EWI, KAT pads...) merged into the computer so you can just move from one to another without playing with channel changes. That\'s how I\'ve worked for years.

What you can do is select a bunch of discontiguous notes and change them en masse to the same channel, then use the channels->tracks command in Logic to extract them. That was the kind of answer I was expecting to get!

I\'ll have to give patch changes some thought, but at first blush that doesn\'t seem to be the way to go AT ALL. Most people I know have dozens of tracks pre-assigned in their sequencers, although in Logic you can set up your patches by using regular instruments (as opposed to Multi-instruments) in your Environment; then when you want that instrument, you just command/click to assign it to the currently selected track in the Arrange window.

[Eric G]

I use patch changes if there are a few notes or measures or more that employ a different articulation.

I use adjacent tracks for things like stacc brass vs. non stacc brass and drag notes between tracks in the Sonar piano roll view.

--Eric

[JonFairhurst]

\"Plus it\'s usually several notes you\'re changing, and the idea of inserting patch changes in front of and behind each one isn\'t appealing.\"

Nick, if it\'s several notes to be changed, just patch the first one and the rest will follow.

Personally I like the idea of being able to \"read\" the melody in one line. If I move every other note to another track, things would get hazy. The main place where multiple tracks would make sense is layering, where you want different articulations combined.

Of course it depends on the tool. I can add an articulation change in Sibelius with one keystroke (ctrl-t) and one mouse operation (rt-click, articulation, release). If adding a patch change in Logic or DP is a pain in the butt, then it\'s probably not the way that you want to work. (Then again, if a simple patch change is a pain in the butt, then the sequencer UI kinda sucks doesn\'t it? :-) I have a hard time imagining that if I wanted ten articulations for one instrument that I\'d need to run ten tracks - or staves for Sibelius. That isn\'t exactly UI heaven either, is it?

[Craig_L]

Nik, I\'m not familiar with Logic or Performer, but in a program like Overture III you can just select a bunch of discontinuous notes by clicking and holding the CTRL key and then assign them a different voice eg 2-8. Then you assign the individual voices to a different Giga port - 2,3 or 4. Or you can assign different midi channels if you want more flexibility. As I layer the samples, I link the first three Giga ports which leaves port 4 for different patches like staccato, swells etc for each of the 16 channels.
Craig

[Nick Batzdorf]

Nick, if it\'s several notes to be changed, just patch the first one and the rest will follow.
<font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">But if they\'re discontiguous, how will it know to leave out the notes in between? images/icons/grin.gif

Sharmy, in which windows do you do that? Two piano roll editors?

[mattzen]

I Cubase SX I Just play the whole part on one track, then ALT drag (copy) the region to the track that has the alternate articulation(s) I want, open the tracks in the Key editor, and mute the opposite notes in each track with the mute selected notes key command. Takes only a few short seconds after a little practice. I used to do the same thing when I used Logic.

[Nick Batzdorf]

Thanks for both of those suggestions.

[Nick Batzdorf]

And thanks Craig L. You can assign different voices to different channels in Logic\'s notation editor, so that would work (and in fact that\'s how I usually dovetail chords I\'ve played in).

But in all honesty, I only use the notation screen for editing about 2% of the time (although I do use it quite often as a quick and dirty transcription tool for replaying parts). Piano roll editors show you much more information about the performance make it easier and quicker to tweak it.

[Gabe S.]

Hi.

In Digital Performer, in the piano roll editor page, you can show mulitple midi channels on one piano roll window. If I have four articulations on four midi channels, I make sure they\'re all different colors; that way, when I enable all four channels in the piano roll editor, I can tell which note is on which articulation. If I need to switch one or more notes, I click on them in the piano roll window, but I drag them in the Tracks overview. (You could cut and paste pretty easily too.)

Cheers.
-gabe

[Nick Batzdorf]

I found my anwer in Logic.

You simply cut the notes out of the matrix editor, highlight the destination track in the arrange window you have open on your second monitor, and shift/V paste the notes at their original positions.

No need to create a new sequence to paste them into! This is after about 8 years doing it the longer way!

[thesoundsmith]

In Performer, you can split notes by pitch, duration, I think even velocity, and copy to a separate track, or separate tracks for each pitch, in one step. Very cool for extricating drum parts, but I don\'t know how useful for articulations (I don\'t typically want all my C3s played staccatto and all my Eb3s marcato...)

But you can also drag to the track, cut/merge, or several other methods.

Dasher