Copyright 2003 by Scott R. Garrigus. Reprinted with permission.
One of the nicest things about using a sequencer (like those available
from Cakewalk - Sonar, Home Studio, etc) is how easy it is to do editing
tasks on specific parts of your music while you listen to it. The best
way I've found to do this is to loop a section of a song over and over
while making changes. This is accomplished by doing the following:
1) Drag your mouse in the Time Ruler of one of the Views (such as the
Track or Piano Roll view) to select a certain section of your song.
2) Click the Set Loop To Selection button in the Loop toolbar. This will
automatically set your software to loop this section of your song.
3) Press the Spacebar on your computer keyboard to start playback.
4) Use the zoom tools to zoom in on the section of the selection you want
to edit.
5) Now you can do precise note editing with the Piano Roll view or audio
editing with the Track view, etc.
As you start to edit, however, you'll notice something annoying. If your
selection is more than a few measures long, the Cakewalk software will
scroll the screen as it plays through the loop. This makes it very difficult
to do any editing.
As your Cakewalk software plays through the looped selection, press the
Scroll Lock key on your computer keyboard when the section you want to
edit is displayed. The Cakewalk software will continue to play, but it
won't scroll the display. Now you can easily edit your data while your
looped selection continues to play. This allows you to instantly here
your changes. Isn't that great? To start the display scrolling again,
just press the Scroll Lock key a second time. Happy real-time editing
with Cakewalk!
Scott R. Garrigus is the author of Cakewalk Power!, Sound Forge Power!,
and SONAR Power! He is also the publisher of the DigiFreq music technology
newsletter. Learn about more cool music technology tips and techniques
and have the chance to win free music products by getting a FREE subscription
to DigiFreq... go to: http://www.digifreq.com/digifreq/
© 2003 Any unauthorized copying or reproduction of this article
or part of it without the permission of the author is prohibited.
