User Manual

RECEIVE SYNC
957
Since manufacturers rarely explain this aspect in
their documentation, you may not know if your
device behaves this way. The best way to find out is
to experiment: set the metronome to the slowest
possible tempo, play both devices (with Digital
Performer as slave) and listen for discrepancies in
attacks and beat alignment. The difference of 1/
24th of a beat is very audible at a slow tempo. If
Digital Performer seems slightly behind the master
device, try checking this option.
Default beat clock settings
The default settings reflect the most commonly
used MIDI standards. It is best to set them this way
before choosing to alter them:
■ 24 clocks per quarter note
■ start on any clock: unchecked
■ first clock is time 1: unchecked
Using MIDI Beat Clocks mode
After you have made the MIDI Beat Clock settings
as needed, slave Digital Performer as explained in
“Tap Tempo” on page 957.
TAP TEMPO
Figure 86-8: Tap Tempo settings.
Tap Tempo is Digital Performer’s real-time tempo
control feature. Tap Tempo lets you slave Digital
Performer to a tap entered from any MIDI
controller before, during, or after the recording of
your sequence. You can ‘conduct’ an existing
sequence by tapping the tempo, complete with
accelerandos, ritards, and rubato passages; Digital
Performer will follow precisely. More importantly,
you can record your tap into the Conductor Track
for use in subsequent playback and recording.
Tap Tempo can be used during virtually any stage
in the creation of a sequence. For example, if you
have acoustic music on tape, two completed tracks
in Digital Performer, and three more Digital
Performer tracks to record, you can ‘teach’ the two
existing tracks to follow the prerecorded music.
Your remaining tracks will be recorded into a
sequence that has all of the temporal nuances of the
prerecorded music.
Preparing for Tap Tempo
The following are general points to consider when
preparing to use Tap Tempo sync.
Establish a meter
When slaving to Tap Tempo, Digital Performer
must know how many of your taps to group as one
measure. Before recording or playing back a
passage in Tap Tempo mode, make sure you’ve
entered the correct meter using the Change Meter
command (Project menu>Conductor
Track>Change Meter).
Establish a metronome click value
Your taps correspond to the current metronome
click value, specified using the Change Meter
command. For example, the tempo of a 4/4 passage
can be tapped and expressed in whole notes, one
tap per measure, or in sixteenth notes, sixteen taps
per measure. Each tap becomes a tempo change
event, so the smaller the click value, the higher the
resolution of the resulting tempo map.
Choose a tap source
You can use any standard MIDI event as your tap
source. Digital Performer will interpret this MIDI
event as a tap whenever it occurs on the specified
input channel. If you plan to record music while
slaved to Tap Tempo, choose a combination of