User Manual

POLAR
290
If you don’t have any existing material to listen to,
but you want your POLAR material to match the
tempo of the sequence, you might want to set up
Digital Performer’s metronome click as a reference
for your first pass in POLAR. After you’ve recorded
the first pass, you can turn off the click.
Recording without a tempo reference
Of course, there’s no rule that says you have to
record at the sequence’s tempo. You can record into
POLAR with no tempo reference at all if you want
and then just build on your first pass — although
you might find it a bit difficult to anticipate the end
of the loop when doing this sort of “free-form”
recording. Therefore, for free-form recording like
this, you might find it easier to give yourself a loop
length that is 5 or 10 seconds longer than what you
intend to record so that you can give yourself some
blank time at the beginning and end of each pass.
OPENING THE POLAR WINDOW
Choose POLAR from the Studio menu.
MEMORY USED
POLAR records audio into RAM instead of writing
it to your hard disk. It uses memory in your
computer that it not being used by the system,
Digital Performer, MAS, or any other currently
running applications. The memory used display
shows you how much RAM is currently being used
by POLAR.
The maximum number of passes you can record in
POLAR is determined by how much RAM is
available in your computer and how long the loop
is that you are currently recording into.
WAYS TO FREE UP RAM FOR POLAR
RECORDING
You can give yourself more passes by freeing up as
much RAM as possible before using POLAR. Here
are a few ways to free up RAM:
■ Quit all other applications while you are running
Digital Performer.
■ Purchase more RAM for your computer. RAM is
affordable these days (compared to the cost of your
computer). The more you have, the more flexibility
you have when using POLAR (e.g. you will be able
to record longer passes, more passes, etc.)
SETTING THE LENGTH OF EACH PASS
POLAR is a loop recording environment.
Therefore, each pass has a fixed length, which it
continuously (and seamlessly) loops as you record
into the pass and then play it. The length of each
pass is determined by the current Memory Cycle
points (Figure 22-19 on page 198) at the moment
when the pass is first created. So before you create a
pass, set the Memory Cycle points as desired to
determine the length of the pass. After a pass is
created, its length cannot be changed. (But don’t
worry. The POLAR window is very flexible, and
there are other things you can do. For example, you
can collapse a pass with passes of other lengths.
More on this later.)
Each pass can be any length you want. Even within
the same POLAR session, you can create passes of
any length. For example, you might start with an 8-
measure pass, and then record a 2-measure pass.
The 2-measure pass simply loops continuously
over the 8-measure pass, which itself loops
continuously. You could then add a 1-measure pass
and even a 3- or 7-measure pass. Even though they
have odd lengths that don’t match, they all
continuously loop against each other.
Getting creative with passes of different
lengths
By using passes with odd lengths — especially ones
that don’t land on measure or beat boundaries —
you can create loop “collages” that sound
somewhat repetitive but also sound like they are
continuously evolving. For example, you might try
a pass that is 14 and half beats against one that is 5