Real time recording (1)

Subjects covered:

• Real time recording
• The recorder and its options
• Start recording from the musical keyboard
• The Midi filter

Real time recording

The real time expression means that the exact time sequence of musical events is taken into account. Up to now, the methods explained to introduce notes on the staff let you work without time constraint. The time factor appears only when Pizzicato plays the score.

If you can play a score on the musical keyboard (even slowly), it is interesting to ask the computer to record your performance. This is called real time recording, because the computer memorizes the precise sequence of notes coming from the keyboard and it can reproduce them exactly as you played them. Pizzicato becomes a MIDI recorder.

A MIDI track is associated to each staff of a score. It is a memory used to accumulate time sequences of MIDI information. The real time recording is the method used to fill a track with notes you play on the keyboard and then to transform them into music notation on the corresponding staff (automatically or not).

You can thus record one track at a time and listen to the result of all tracks together. Pizzicato acts as a MIDI sequencer, i.e. as a multi-track MIDI recorder. With only that, you can already build a whole piece of music. By working in the sequencer view, the notes appear as small horizontal bars. You can copy, paste and erase measures. You can record a track or a part of a track several times, until it is finalized. In the score view, Pizzicato analyzes the keys which you played and converts them in notes with rhythmic values. The result of your performance appears on the staff and you can print your score.

A corrective step can be introduced just after the play, it is called quantization. This operation tries to smooth your performance so that it is more precise. Use it with moderation because it may affect the final result too much.

In this lesson and the next, we will see how to use these concepts in practice and with examples. Let us start by analyzing the recording window, also called the recorder.

The recorder and its options

The recording window lets you control the play and the MIDI recording.

• Start Pizzicato and open the Ex045.piz document of the Examples folder. In the Windows menu, select the Recorder item. The following window appears:

This is the recorder. You can move it but its size is fixed. The close box lets you close it. Its position is memorized and it opens back at the same location it was closed. The higher part contains 6 traditional pictures found on a tape recorder.

• Move the recorder so as to see the measures of the score. Click on the START key, represented by the following picture:

• The score starts playing. We had already used its shortcut which is the space bar. Click on the STOP key to stop the score:

When Pizzicato plays, the space bar is also used as a shortcut for the STOP.

• Click again on START. In the right part of the recorder, a text box displays the current playing measure. Click on the PAUSE key, represented by:

The score stops instantaneously where it is, holding the possible playing notes. It is fixed at a precise time of the score. Click again on the PAUSE and it continues playing again from there. With it, you can listen to (or visualize using the keyboard window) the constitution of a chord. You just need to use the PAUSE during the chord.

• Click and hold down the fast forward key:

The current measure number goes more quickly and Pizzicato ignores measures to catch up to the current measure. Release it and the score continues to play normally. Do the same with the fast backward key:

The same principle occurs in the other direction. These two keys let you locate a musical passage easier. When Pizzicato does not play, a simple click on one of these keys advances or moves back one measure at a time. A double-click on the fast forward brings you at the end of the score and a double-click on the fast backward brings you back to the beginning. The recording button will be used further; it is represented by the following picture:

Right under the main buttons you will find a slider used to fix the tempo, i.e. the speed used to play the score. The present value is 128 quarter notes per minute. Press on START and while listening to the score, modify the tempo value by moving the slider to the left to slow down, then to the right to accelerate. It can vary between 1 and 500. The "-" and "+" buttons allow a precise adjustment of the tempo, one step at a time.

The menu located just below is used to select the reading mode of the score. Four choices are offered:

• The default choice is First visible meas. ---> End. When you click on START (or use the space bar), Pizzicato starts to play the score starting from the first measure visible on the screen. If it is measure 15, it thus starts to play starting from this measure and it continues to play up to the end of the score, even if the end is not visible on the screen.
• The Start --->End choice specifies that Pizzicato will always start to play starting from measure 1, wherever you are in the score view.
• The Start ---> Last visible meas. choice specifies that Pizzicato will play starting from the first measure and stops as soon as last visible measure is reached on the screen.
• The last choice is All visible meas. Pizzicato will play only the measures visible on the screen.

Just below is a check box entitled Loop on xx measures. Check this box and complete the text box value with "2" if it is not already done. Go to the first measure and press START. The score starts to play the first 2 measures and then plays the first again. It makes a continuous loop with the first 2 measures. Note that during this time, you can continue to work the score by erasing, moving or adding notes. Pizzicato continues its loop with the first two measures. By using the corresponding text box, you can modify the width of the loop. Click on STOP.

In the right part of the recorder, you can see a box called Mtr. It means Metronome. In music, a metronome is a small device used to indicate a tempo using a regular movement and an audible "click". The performer uses these clicks as a time reference to play his score with an exact tempo and with a precise sequence of measure beats. The metronome is a reference mark to guide its performance.

By checking the Mtr box, Pizzicato simulates the sound of a metronome by marking each measure beat and beginning. Check this box and press on START. If you have a synthesizer or a GM (general midi) sound card, the beats and the beginnings of measures are marked using percussion instruments. Note that the beginning of the measure is marked by a sound of different intensity. If your synthesizer is not GM compatible, the beats and measures will be marked by a short and high pitched sound.

Press on STOP. Check the Kb. box. This box is used to control the recorder with the musical keyboard (also from the keyboard window). Press on START. The key is activated, the triangular cursor shows the first measure on the score, but Pizzicato waits until you press a musical keyboard key to really start playing. When you need to record a passage in real time, you may prepare yourself to play on your keyboard before giving the OK to record. Press a musical key to start playing or on a window keyboard key if you do not have a MIDI keyboard. For the rest of this lesson, uncheck this option.

Click on the Options button located in the recorder. The following dialog box appears:

The upper part of the dialog is used to determine the MIDI specifications of the metronome.

• The two upper menus select the port and MIDI channel used to send the notes to the metronome. The Test button plays one measure to hear the sound result. The Read synthesizer metronome button loads the optimal metronome for your synthesizer.
• The first two sliders select the pitch and velocity of the note used to mark the beginning of a measure. By clicking on Listen, you can play the note on the musical keyboard and Pizzicato will automatically adapt the pitch and velocity on the sliders.
• The same adjustments are available just below to specify the note used to mark each beat of a measure. By clicking in the Read synthesizer metronome button, Pizzicato will load the values best adapted to your synthesizer and will display them on the sliders.

• When several musicians play together, the conductor of an orchestra or one of the performers first counts one measure without playing, in order to give the tempo and to allow everyone to start exactly together. The One measure count menu displays the Only while recording choice. It means that when you will record, Pizzicato will first play the metronome during a whole measure. During this measure, nothing will be recorded. It is only used to give you the reference tempo so that you can envisage the beginning of the next measure where the recording will really start. Two other choices are possible for this menu. The first is named Never and disables the measure count. The second, Always, allows to count one measure as well when recording as when Pizzicato plays the score. It is useful if you wish to play together with the computer, to keep one measure in order to perceive the tempo with the metronome.

• The next check box activates the automatic return to the beginning. When the score stops playing, the measure counter automatically returns to the beginning of the score, as indicated by the playing mode (measure 1 or the first visible measure).

• The Synchro output is used to synchronize an external equipment (rhythm generator, arranger…) with Pizzicato. When a MIDI port is selected, during the play Pizzicato sends through this port information used to transmit the time reference to another device so that it can follow the tempo imposed by Pizzicato. Similarly, when you use the START, STOP and PAUSE recorder buttons, Pizzicato sends these orders through the MIDI output, to control the external equipment. If you do not use an external MIDI device, select None.

• The Synchro input allows the reverse operation. When you select a synchro input port, Pizzicato does not use its own tempo any more to play the score, but it waits synchronization orders coming from the synchro input. An external equipment may then control the tempo used by Pizzicato. If you do not have an external MIDI device used to control the play of Pizzicato, it is essential to select None. Otherwise, Pizzicato has no tempo at all, because its internal clock is disabled.

• The following menu, entitled Synthesizers reset, specifies the reset mode of synthesizers. When you stop playing a score, Pizzicato sends MIDI commands to stop any note in progress. There are several conventions to reset notes. In most cases, the Minimal choice will be correct. If you hear notes remaining "stuck" when you stop a score, you will have to take the Full option and things will be better.

Click OK.

Start recording from the musical keyboard

• Close this document and open the Ex050.piz example.

Before starting to record, it should be specified where it will start and which track will be recorded. That can be done starting from the sequencer or the score view.

• Open the sequencer view:

Just before the first measure, you can see a column entitled R for Record. On a recorder, this term is often used under the Rec abbreviation. All boxes of this column are blank right now, which means that no track is active to record. By clicking on the recording button of the recorder, nothing happens.

• Click inside the R column, in front of staff (track) 1. The box is coloured to show that recording is activated for track 1. Only one track can be recorded at a time.

• Click now in the column R in front of track 2. Track 2 is activated and the track 1 is disabled. To disable all tracks, click a second time in the active track box.

The recording will start from the first measure played according to the playing mode selected in the recorder.

• Activate track 1. Ensure that the Mtr box is checked in the recorder and that the loop is disabled. We will record our first notes in real time. If you do not have a MIDI keyboard, open the piano keyboard window. Click the recording key or use its shortcut which is the Return or Enter key.

• An empty measure is counted. After that, play some notes with the musical keyboard (or in the piano keyboard window, with the mouse or the shortcuts), and continue until the recording stops itself at measure 6. The sequencer view redraws and graphically displays the recorded notes as small horizontal lines in track 1:

Notice that the score located below has also transcribed the notes in musical notation.

• Press on START. Pizzicato plays the exact sequence of notes you played during the recording. You can modify the tempo to hear it more quickly. If you use the piano keyboard window, the played keys are progressively showed as the measures progress.

• Open the piano roll view. By adjusting the position of the vertical scroll bar, you will get something like:

You can start the record again. If you do it on the same track, the previous recording will be automatically erased and replaced by the new notes. If you work on another track, the two tracks will be heard at the same time.

The Midi filter

When you play on a MIDI keyboard, the synthesizer sends the notes through the MIDI cable connected to the computer. Other messages are also sent to take into account the other actions done at the keyboard, such as for example the Pitch Bend and the Modulation (often handled using a wheel or a lever) or a pedal connected to the keyboard. The MIDI filter is used to determine which information will be taken into account to be recorded by Pizzicato.

• In the Options menu, select the MIDI filter item. The following dialog box appears:

The left column contains the main MIDI messages which can be sent by a synthesizer or a keyboard. When a box is checked, the messages of this type will be recorded. Some types of messages were added in this table so as to be complete, but correspond to very technical cases whose explanation are outside of the scope of this manual. If you want to learn more about MIDI, read a book on the subject.

The two columns to the right indicate which of the 16 MIDI channels are recorded. If you uncheck one of them, the associated channel is ignored. The All and None buttons are used to activate or disable all channels at once.

The default values of this filter are correct for most cases and will seldom require modifications.