MIDI Recording whilst looping.

[Sydes]

Hello,

I'm a new Pro-Tools user, recently changing from PC to MAC & from Cubase to Pro-Tools. I'm having some teething problems when I'm recording MIDI loops. I take these steps before recording my loop:

* I ensure that the record button has the loop icon.
* I do the same for the playback button.
* I select my loop region, let's say for example 1 bar.
* I am in grid edit mode.

I press the record button, the sequencer plays the click plugin and loops around the selected region. If I press notes on my keyboard I can see them appearing on screen. The problem I have is that as soon as the play/record cursor loops around .... it deletes the recorded notes???!! I've searched all the menus and read all the documentation I can to get around this but I cannot find a solution. Obviously with me being new to Pro-Tools, I guess what I am doing wrong is something simple. In Cubase this was an option on the transport bar --- REPLACE or OVERDUB.

Can someone help?

Thanks,
Ian
http://www.asura.co.uk

[Stiff]

Hey,

Enable midi merge, it's the button on the transport with the two arrows joining together. If you can't see it you have to select "view midi controls" (or something like that).

[Sydes]

Hello, I've managed to add the control to my transport bar & you were right, I had to enable them from a menu selection. I've hovered my mouse over the control and the tooltips that appear verify that the button is "Midi Merge". However, I'm still having a problem as the button is permenantly greyed out. I've tried recording, playing back and fiddling around with various application states to see if the button gets free'd up but it doesn't seem to??!!

... I'm falling at the 2nd hurdle as well as the 1st!

Any more advice?

[filosofem]

Sydes, what you've done is merge two methods of achieving the same outcome. Stiff was correct. Look up 'Loop Recording with Merge Mode' and 'Loop Recording Multiple Takes' in your Pro Tools Reference Guide. Pick which method accommodates you best.

What version of Pro Tools are you running?








filosofem

[flommer]

What you are doing by having loop record enabled is creating a new region every time the loop cycles back to the start. If you watch you region list while recording you'll see what I mean... This is handy for, say, trying multiple guitar fills or solos over a selection without having to start and stop each time.

If you are just trying to progressively build up a MIDI drum part ( one sound at a time ) then just enable loop playback and MIDI merge but not loop record, and then your selection will loop without erasing or moving on to a new region..

Definately read the manual.. It's full of useful info

[Sydes]

Hi, thanks chaps I've managed to sort this out now.