The DijonStock Digital Home Recording Support Forum

There was a good thread/sticky? on MIDI applications on the other site (which is rumored to be on its death bed) by Ricky Recordo I beleive.

Most of it seemed to be for things pertaining to MIDI control of mixing from PC software driven DAW's like Sonor etc.

I am more interested at the moment in the use of MIDI for syncing up the timing of external drum machines.

Lets say for example I have a Roland Dr-5 for a drum machine - designed for guitarists it is very portable and easy to program on but only has stereo outs (you can place intruments within the stereo field inside the unit).

If I wanted to layer some drum parts and add a seperate snare track to apply an effect to on an individual track on the G and blend back inot a stereo track on the G is there a way to record a MIDI time code so that on the second pass of the snare only track everything would play and record in sync?

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Refusing to make waves is not an indicator of a life well lived. Refusing to
make waves is the state that precedes drowning. - Paul Coughlin author

hi Scooter

I don't have the G with me at the moment but I use the MIDI from the G to sync my QY700. Basically, connect MIDI out on the G to the MIDI in on your drum machine. I can't remember off hand which screen you go to, but you can choose which MIDI channel the G transmits and receives on. You can also choose which sync type (MTC, MIDI clock etc.). Apologies I can't be more specific at the mo..... if you can wait 'til next weekend (!!??) I'll have my hands on the G again and be more precise. Having said that, there are far more experienced G-sters than me around... maybe they'll post before then.


Best

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I reserve the right to get very cross with inanimate objects.

Yeah next weekend will be fine I don't get anything done with it during the week anyway.

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Refusing to make waves is not an indicator of a life well lived. Refusing to
make waves is the state that precedes drowning. - Paul Coughlin author

Hi trecelyn,

I just got the G to sync to my QY700, which I also just got (used - well used). I'd be interested to hear (read) your experiences with this set-up. Any pitfalls? ANyything to watch out for? Does it do what you hoped?

I have just ended a 14 year love affair with Cubase. We had great times together, but in the end, she grew too expensive, too tempremental, too demanding...talk about high maintenance! SO the QY and the G may, I think, better suit my simple needs.

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Nik

Hi Nik

I use the QY700 mainly for triggering drums, bass and othe midi parts that I don't feel confident about playing 'live' (most keyboard parts!). As far as I use it, which is in synch with the G to record parts seperately, I've never had any problems. One area I haven't explored as yet is the triggering of scene changes and/or recording/playback of fader movements for mixdowm. I know it can be done and there are probably far better G-sters than me around who can give you the lowdown on this side of things.....

I do like the QY700 - it's fairly simple to operate and is rock steady.... and...and this is the BIG AND.... it doesn't crash!

Best

_________________
I reserve the right to get very cross with inanimate objects.

Smee again...........

Just found this - try looking at this link... it's in one of the Sticky's on the Newbie bit of the forum. It could give you some pointers on where the MIDI screen is:

http://www.aw16g.net/GSTuff/AW16G_INTRO.PDF


Best

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I reserve the right to get very cross with inanimate objects.

Thanks for the tips.
I've not tried syncing them yet as I have very limited time for music, which is mainly why the switch from Cubase. But the on-line documents have hel;ped me understand the signal flow and routing options in the G, and the QY is way deeper than I expected.

I used a QY100 a couple of years ago to prepare and play back the backing tracks for a heavy metal duo I played in. I found it very fast and easy to use, which is why the QY700 was an easy choise over Akai MPC stuff.

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Nik

Yes thanks Tracelyn,

I printed that one up but I have not had time to read it yet...I also have all the sticky's printed for quick reference.

_________________
Refusing to make waves is not an indicator of a life well lived. Refusing to
make waves is the state that precedes drowning. - Paul Coughlin author

As long as you record the track to the tempo you want (with the metronome) you can go back and add any drum part from a drum machine via MIDI
For instance- you have a brilliant idea...select random drum pattern...hook up the G and your machine with your machine as the slave...record your parts...go back later and frill up the drum parts/patterns/fills ll you want, becasue the machine always starts when the G does. You can even make and intricate set of patterns into a song-, then record each part individually into the G by muting or lowering the other parts..do as many passes as you have pARTS!

Currently I am looking at it this way:
Compose on the QY700 (sequencer with built in sounds); add better sounds from external modules (Wavestation SR, Ultraproteus, Morpheus, TX16W sampler); sync up the G to record guitars (my main instrument) and vocals; mix down recorded tracks and devices to stereo and master via the G.

We'll see how it pans out as I get to know these two new machines.

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Nik

Isn't it channel One? or is that the device number?

msg

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THE MUSIC IS DOWN IN HERE
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Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.

hi MSG

It may default to Channel 1 but you can change the Tx or Rx (transmit or recieve) channels. This is helpful if you're playing back sequences of, say, drums bass and strings, all recorded on channels 1 - 10, and you also want to record fader movements for the G on channel 16. You'd set Tx and Rx to channel 16 and record the fader movements on channel 16. These would also play back without affecting the other channels.

The MTC/MidiClock doesn't take up a "channel" - don't ask me how/where it knows how to synch up but the synch is seperate.



P.S. It's an effing nightmare working away during the week..... can't get my hands on the G until the weekend.... so I all this is from memory and as the techies here know... the older the machine, the more prone to memory leaks it becomes.


I hope this helps.

Best

_________________
I reserve the right to get very cross with inanimate objects.

Sounds good, Nik. It's what I do. The only thing that I found was that you have to think a little bit ahead if you're using time signatures other than 4/4/ or 3/4. If you sequence a 3/4 song on the QY700 at 140 BPM, then you can set the G to recored at 3/4 time at 140 BPM. This will make it easier if you want to use the scene automation when you come to mixing i.e. the bars will be in synch between the G and sequencer. Where I've come unstuck in the past is where the song is in 6/8.... the G doesn't "do" 6/8. In this case, record tracks as normal and change the BPM in the G to the maximum (250 BPM, I think). This gives increased "granularity" during the course of the track so you can be more specific about where the scene changes hit. Again, this is only applicable if you use the scene automation. I need to point out the bit about max-ing the BPM came from another G-ster on this site, so it's not all me own work. Alternatively, you could set your scenes in the G and change them using programme changes on the QY700.

Whichever you do, have fun!


Best

_________________
I reserve the right to get very cross with inanimate objects.

Thanks for the tip. I'm going to have to juggle time sgnatures a lot, since i do somtimes write in 6/8 and even 5/4 an 9/8! Ijust love Progressive Rock.

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Nik

This trick also works great with sequencers that use quantizing.
That's how I discovered your G bpm deal when I was sequencing keyboard tracks on my Es6 to sound "unmachine" like.

msg

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THE MUSIC IS DOWN IN HERE
____________________________________________________

Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.

That's German women for you I love using Cubase to mix my stuff Nik, but you know I never fly out and buy the latest upgrades (which are usually quite bug ridden).

I recently heard music from a guy using Cubasis ... it was outstanding. However, if you miss that Steinberg lady you can always have the odd night out together with her via tracks exported from the G via CD!

But I too wouldn't be without a standalone DAW ...

Cheers and happy recording ... and if you have any songs for our little Internet radio station please do send them my way at:

webmaster@radiog.net

Pete

Despite reading a great deal about MIDI I seem to remain MIDI impaired...

For a song I am currently working on I wanted to double track the drum machine (DR-5) through a couple different preamps/settings before hitting the G to A/B them for best results and possibly mix them together.

I think I used the click track to time the start (by pressing play on the down beat) and used the same tempo for both. I am prettt sure there is at least a milisecond delay or two from my brain to pressing the button to the drum machine responding.

Did I need to do something to actually use a MIDI start from the G to record the first track to make this possible?

I tried manually trying to time the start off the click for a second pass but of course they never lined up perfectely....I know there are time edting features on the G but that is more trouble than I want to mess with at this point.

Got two rhythm guitar parts layed down and I plan on adding bass guitar and possibly the lead guitar this weekend so I really don't want to start over on this song but this MIDI with the external drum machine could be handy on some other projects.

_________________
Refusing to make waves is not an indicator of a life well lived. Refusing to
make waves is the state that precedes drowning. - Paul Coughlin author

Youcan sync the drum machine to the G so that it starts automatically in the right place and follows the G perfectly every time. There is a section in the G manual about hooking it up to an external Workstation keyboard. Take a look. It seems to be working for me, although I've only just got it configured like this.

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Nik

Page 163....

Describes it better than I can.

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Nik

I can only echo what's been said there. I've used the G as 'Master' and things have synced rather well. A little experimentation and you'll be there


Pete