thcilnnahojTrack tags will work on return tracks in the mixer only when the tracks are not docked (View menu -> Customize Region -> Mixer: disable bus return docking). They’ll thus not always be in view anymore, and appear in the tracklist as you’ve arranged them.
The reason the busses tag doesn’t work for you is because you’re probably still using a Podium setup file that has been carried over from a much older version. The default setup no longer has return tracks docked since track tags were implemented – maybe you’d want to take a look at what else might’ve changed. 😉
Anyway, in this case, it seems you’re pretty much routing each track separately to this analysis track by using sends? Then perhaps a better way would be to place the analysis effects on a group track that contains all your normal tracks, like so:
Master:
- Bus Track (might or might not be part of analysis group)
- Analysis Group Track:
- Track 1
- Track 2
- Track 3
...You could then create a tag for this group track (without child tracks), and only show it when needed. Saves you a few send level sliders, I think!
thcilnnahojAs long as it supports standard MIDI program change, sure!
Go to the Param tab in the inspector, click the menu button, and select New MIDI Parameter -> Program Change. You can find it in the MIDI Parameters folder just below. Once enabled, you can draw automation points as usual (best use only bars in this case).
If the plug-in only has internal preset management (and they don’t show up in the inspector’s Preset tab), or if you want to change presets across patch banks, you’ll probably have to create a special FXB file in which you collect all the patches used in your song.
Hope this helps! 🙂
thcilnnahojHi Mike!
Those are very nice tutorials – good work all around! 🙂
Now if you don’t mind, here’re a few little corrections you might find helpful:
As you can probably guess, assigning a MIDI output device is needed to send MIDI data to an external sound source (i.e., hardware synthesizer or drum machine).
You should disable MIDI output to your keyboard (in the “MIDI/Audio Interfaces” options dialog) if it doesn’t generate sound on its own.
You don’t have to rescan all plug-ins every time you change something in your plug-in folder! Just use the “Update and load plugin database” option instead of “Rebuild…” – this will and only scan plug-ins that are new.
A marquee selection is actually when you click-drag with the mouse to draw a shape (usually a rectangle) over items in order to select them. In Podium, you can either use the select tool for this, or with the pencil tool, hold the Shift key before clicking and drawing the rectangle. If you use Ctrl instead of Shift, the new selection will be added to the current one instead of deselecting the previously selected items.
You can configure what happens when you click on the piano keyboard in the “Notes Region Properties” dialog (MIDI editor View menu -> Customize Region -> Notes). If you wanted, this way you could prevent notes being added when you preview sound by clicking keys with the pencil tool. Personally, I find it useful to make clicking on a key select all notes that are on that particular key, so you can select, e.g., all bass drum hits quickly!
thcilnnahoj@Zynewave wrote:
@LiquidProj3ct wrote:
Making the groove templates assignable to sequence events rather than tracks, makes it possible to assign different grooves along the timeline.
Could be possible have a track groove overwritted in real time with by secuences groove?
I’ll consider that. If a groove template is assigned to a sequence event, it would override any groove template assigned to the track.
I suppose a groove assigned to a track should be inherited by child tracks, agreed? This means that any parameter tracks will also be affected by the groove template on the parent track. This may not always be desirable, if you for example are using level automation to gate the audio synced to other tracks. So, perhaps the groove selector on the track should include the options “None”, “Use groove from parent track”, followed by the list of defined groove template sequences.
This sounds like a very good plan to me! 8)
I think this solution would make it redundant, or at least reduce the need for a dedicated “destructive” input quantization. You would just assign a straight 16th note groove to a drum sequence you are recording, and your recorded notes will automatically play quantized on the next loop. Once you are done with the layering of drum notes, you could apply the quantize edit command, to tidy up the sequence.
Comments, suggestions?
Wouldn’t that mean that you have to create a sequence before recording, or pause inputting notes after the first loop to set up a groove template for the sequence to have it auto-quantized? I don’t know how you do it, but I personally don’t create any sequences by hand when recording.
I guess this wouldn’t be an issue if there was a track-wide groove template as well, as suggested above.
As for suggestions… how about a “G” icon or some other indicator on sequence events that use a groove template – otherwise you’ll have a hard time remembering which ones you, uh, made groovy!
thcilnnahojI set the output in sfz to 4. I can only guess that it needs to be set to 4 because “sfz+ Out 7 + 8” is the 4th output track.
SFZ+ has 8 stereo outputs for instruments, and Podium labels them as pairs of mono channels (SFZ output 1 = 1+2, SFZ output 2 = 3+4, and so on), so this is correct.
The ninth output pair (17+18 ) is apparantly used for the chorus/reverb you can apply to each instrument in SFZ+.
I edited the device mapping and set the Midi output configuration to channel 7 (which I assume has to match the channel I set in the sfz plugin)
Also correct.
I set the Audio configuration “Mixer input, First Channel” to 7. If I set it to 1 .. 5, I get silence (even though “sfz+ Out 1 + 2”, 3 + 4, 5 + 6 are in my arrangement and not muted).
Even if the output tracks are present in your arrangement, remember that you assigned the flute instrument to output channel 4 in SFZ! So the flute’s audio output is being sent to output pair 7+8.
If I set the first channel to 6 I get output from the right channel only. Setting it to 8 I get sound from the left channel only.
Since you’re dealing with stereo pairs here, you’re actually selecting channels 6+7 this way – and since the flute’s output is sent to channels 7+8, the device mapping you edited receives audio on channel 7 (which is its right channel), but nothing on 6! Likewise when you set the first channel to 8: output pair 8+9 receives audio on channel 8 (left channel) only.
If you really wanted a track in Podium to only receive one channel from an instrument, you’d have to set the “Mixer input (plugin output)” option to mono. I don’t think you’re ever going to need this, though.
Let me know if something’s still not clear! 🙂
thcilnnahojWell, not necessarily. As far as I know, the format was developed specifically for sound cards (remember Sound Blaster?). Most people probably use VST or other plug-in instruments to load soundfont files today.
I think the point of the question is whether you prefer to play soundfonts on hardware or inside a plug-in, no?
I don’t know of any sequencers that can directly access a sound card’s soundfont player, send MIDI to it and receive audio from it.
Personally, I never use soundfonts anymore…
thcilnnahojI guess it might be an intentional limitation, since the pan value is greyed-out when the fader is set on a bounce track, though I don’t know why either.
You can work around it by setting the fader position on an (empty or not) effect track placed after the bounce track.
thcilnnahojHi!
The answer to your question depends on whether you would like each MIDI input and the related audio output on the same one, or keep them separately…
Anyway, I’ll give it a quick shot:
1. If you decide to go for separate tracks, then it’s pretty straight-forward as you can just use the device mappings Podium created automatically.
The channel number in SFZ+ relates to the MIDI input device mapping, and the output setting to the audio output mapping:
You can of course assign multiple instruments in SFZ to the same output channels if you want to group drums, for example.
2. To get both input and output on one track, you’ll have to edit the device mappings by hand. The MIDI channel setting in the device mapping properties controls on which channel it sends out MIDI events, and the “Mixer input (plugin output)” setting controls on which channels it receives audio from the plug-in:
The input/output channel configuration in SFZ works the same as above.
You just might have to plan ahead which instruments you’re going to put on which outputs when using this method, so I recommend starting with the separate tracks method.
Just say if this is still too complicated. 😉
By the way… I don’t know if this is relevant for you, but keep in mind that the volume and pan faders in Podium control the audio output of your track. They cannot be set up to directly control MIDI volume (CC 7) or pan CC 10)!
thcilnnahojHi,
the message is saying that Podium can’t access your sound card because it’s either not turned on or already in use by another program.
Could you tell us which kind of sound card you’re using, and how you set it up in Podium’s MIDI/Audio Interfaces options dialog (Setup menu -> MIDI/Audio Interfaces…)?
thcilnnahojWhat did you say!? I didn’t hear you! :clown:
Wish you all a good year as well!
thcilnnahojHello and welcome!
The problem is most likely with the PeakCompressor plug-in you have on your master track, assuming it’s the same one available as free download here: http://www.sinusweb.de/download.html
This plug-in is meant for mono processing only. However, probably because of a programming oversight in the plug-in, Podium incorrectly imports it as mono- and stereo-capable. Since the plug-in only processes one channel, though, the second channel remains unused, resulting in the weird behaviour you’re experiencing!
You should either use the mono mapping Podium created for the plug-in to work normally, or use another compressor if you want stereo output. I briefly checked the shareware demo version of PeakCompressor, and it works correctly. If you’re actually getting the problem with the non-free version, please say so.
Hope this helps! 🙂
thcilnnahoj@Zynewave wrote:
It would be stored per track, but it would not work as a track-wide automatic quantization. It would be used for setting up the note editor grid (much like how note map setup is done) and MIDI input recording. If changing the setting would automatically quantize all events, then it would be total mayhem.
Now I’m confused again. So it isn’t relevant to the arrangement editor snap setting but the note editor…? Meaning every time you open a sequence on the drum track, the editor’s snap value could be set differently than when editing a sequence on the piano or bass tracks?
thcilnnahoj@Zynewave wrote:
@thcilnnahoj wrote:
For comparison, in Logic, there’s a check button to enable this option in the track inspector (as well as snap setting, etc.).
I think it’s pretty much a must to have it as easily accessible in Podium! 😉I’ve just browsed the Logic Pro 9 User Manual pdf: The track inspector quantize settings you mention are not track settings, but local settings for the currently selected region/clip. Furthermore, it seems the quantization is not applied as a playback-only MIDI filter, but rather is applied destructively to the actual events, with the possibility to revert to the original timing. Adjusting the region quantize settings will overwrite any local event quantization made in the note editor. In that way, it is very similar to Podiums “adjust timing” edit dialog, although new events added/recorded are probably automatically quantized according to the region quantize settings.
Yes, it is quite similar already. The Q option in Logic is indeed not per track (of course you can apply it to multiple sequences across different tracks, though), but the main point is that it’s very quickly accessible. At least, I think it’s faster than opening a track properties window or a submenu of the snap settings.
Do you think it’s better to have quantization applied destructively (but still reversible – I speaks gooder English in the morning :wink:) in order to have the notes drawn at the timeline position they’re actually played? I don’t know if a playback-only implementation would be confusing, but I do like the way the current MIDI transpose and randomize options work.
thcilnnahoj@Zynewave wrote:
It looks like it would best be combined with the normal (non-destructive) quantization options – wouldn’t this take care of the often-requested option for track-wide quantization?
Currently there are no non-destructive quantization options in Podium, or have I misunderstood you?
Mmm, wrong word, I guess. Let’s say “non-revertable”.
So I take it you suggest that there should be a set of non-destructive playback quantization options in the track properties. Would this remove the need for destructive MIDI input quantization options?
I think so, but I’m no expert. 😉
If there should be quantize playback options per track, it presents the same problem: How to easily copy/share q settings made on one track to other tracks in the arrangement. If you change the swing% on one track, you likely want it applied to other tracks as well. With the copy/paste commands you could quickly migrate all q settings to other tracks, rather than having to adjust each setting manually.
Another issue to consider with track-wide q settings, is that it does not handle situations where you would like to change the swing/q settings on the timeline. For those cases, the tempo event properties could be extended with q settings that would apply to all tracks in the timeline section that extends forward to the next tempo event that changes q settings. Just like how scale changes are applied. Though, perhaps that is feature overkill.
I guess the normal quantize settings could go in the track properties, and swing could be applied globally by use of tempo events… But what if you only want some tracks to have swing? Perhaps tracks could have just an on/off switch for swing, while the swing value is set by tempo events…
I still struggle quite often with the arrangement editor’s different snap values when you switch editor profiles… 😕
My suggestion with linking the snap/grid settings to track properties would solve the issue you have with switching editor profiles. In the case of arrangements, the grid settings would become hidden properties of the arrangement, as there is no source track to link it to.
Maybe I’m, getting it completely wrong, then – is this setting unrelated to the arrangement editor snap setting? I first thought you were suggesting the normal snap setting was to be used to also set the quantization value for each track, and stored per track – that would result in total mayhem! 😆
If I’m understanding it right now, it sounds like a good idea, though I’d still prefer if the Q options were more easily available (and visible) than only in a submenu.
thcilnnahojNice to see you tackling this!
Let me ask – this currently is for MIDI notes that are actually input from an external device only? Are the recorded events destructively quantized, then?
It looks like it would best be combined with the normal (non-destructive) quantization options – wouldn’t this take care of the often-requested option for track-wide quantization?
For comparison, in Logic, there’s a check button to enable this option in the track inspector (as well as snap setting, etc.).
I think it’s pretty much a must to have it as easily accessible in Podium! 😉
I’d prefer it as part of the track properties, and it would fit perfectly with the other MIDI-related options you can have in the track panel, with the difference that at least an on/off button should always be visible for this feature, in my opinion.
To be perfectly honest, the solution with separate snap settings plus copy/paste options for each track sounds very, very confusing to me. I still struggle quite often with the arrangement editor’s different snap values when you switch editor profiles… 😕