Willing 2 Pay 4 help! Let's start here with these 2 ........

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Lambofchrist
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Mar 24, 2006 12:12 am

Post by Lambofchrist » Fri Mar 24, 2006 12:36 am

I need help learning Cakewalk Home Studio II. I've had this software for a while now but have been discouraged by the learning curve. I really need to learn this damned thing. I'm willing to pay for in depth help. But for starters can anybody help me with these two problems below?

1) I imported a Led Zeppelin song so I could learn a specific piano part. I want to be able to play the song back really really slow so I can hear it better. Is there a way that I can use my mouse to slide the tempo marker along at my own speed? Right now it plays back at the song's original speed. I hit play and it goes at the song's oroginal tempo. Can I do it manually? And, or, can I set it to play back at my desired tempo?

2) How do I adjust the editing markers? Right now when I magnify an area I want to edit or mess around with it automatically goes either to left or to the right of my desired mark. How do I make the increments smaller so to speak?


I will be needing additional help with this software. And hopefully my ability to articulate exactly what I need will not be hampered by the vernacular one must learn in order to operate this program. I can Paypal a small stipend for serious tutoring. Any takers?


andychap
Posts: 685
Joined: Wed Aug 27, 2003 7:26 pm
Location: UK

Post by andychap » Fri Mar 24, 2006 5:35 pm

There are a lot of good books that can walk you through these type of programs. Type Cakewalk into Amazon and you will be suprised at whats available. A lot cheaper way to learn than paying somebody.

First question: On the toolbar near the temp box there should be some buttons, these slow down and speed up the tempo by half wach time you click them. You should also be able to double click the tempo box and manually enter a tempo you require. If you can't see the tempo box then make sure it is enabled in View menu> Toolbars and check the box next to tempo.

Second question is down to your snap to grid settings. Easiest way is to right click on the time ruler at the top of the track pane view and select snap properties from the pop up menu. From the dialogue box that appears you can select how you want your measurements defined ie by musical note value or time value or bars beats and ticks. You can either disable the snap to grid completely and click where ever you want or set it to a very small value for accurate and precise editing.

Hope that helps.

HDB
Posts: 46
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2004 12:19 am

Post by HDB » Sat Mar 25, 2006 12:46 pm

Keep in mind that slowing down an audio track will also lower the pitch. I don't know what audio effects HomeStudio includes, but if it has Time/Pitch Stretch (look in the Edit area for Audio Effects), it may allow you to speed up or slow down the audio while preserving the pitch, (or conversely, raising or lowering the pitch without changing the timing). Keep in mind that the farther from the original of either that you do, the more the sound will degrade. If you try to slow it down by half while preserving pitch, it will probably sound pretty bad, but it may be good enough to peck out the notes/chords that you want to practice on. Once you feel you learned them, you can always just do the same thing thing again at slightly faster speeds until you can play it at normal speed.
Remember, also, to save your time-mangled files as a new file, such as "Kashmir 50%", then "Kashmir 75%" etc,, so you don't destroy the original and have to rip it again.

Left mouse-click and hold usually controls the left edit marker, and right mouse-click and hold should control the right. (You can actually drag the right to left of the left by using the right mouse button, but of course, that is illogical.)

HDB

andychap
Posts: 685
Joined: Wed Aug 27, 2003 7:26 pm
Location: UK

Post by andychap » Sun Mar 26, 2006 1:07 pm

This is a handy and cheap program for slowing tracks down so you can learn to play them.

Slowblast

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