Operation Manual
Original Sequel Operation Manual by Steve Kostrey, Michael Baggley Revision and Quality Control for this version: Cristina Bachmann, Heiko Bischoff, Marion Bröer, Sabine Pfeifer The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. The software described by this document is subject to a License Agreement and may not be copied to other media except as specifically allowed in the License Agreement.
Table of Contents
6 Introduction 38 The Pilot Zone 7 7 7 Welcome About this manual Key command conventions 8 System requirements and installation 9 9 9 9 10 10 About this chapter Minimum requirements Installing Sequel Activating Sequel Register your software Read on… 11 Tutorial 1: Recording 12 12 17 The tutorials Recording audio Recording instrument parts 39 39 39 42 43 43 43 44 44 46 46 46 48 Introduction The Sequel menu (Mac only) The File, Project and Edit menus The Automation buttons The Edit Remote Contr
88 Setting up your system 89 89 89 89 89 91 94 94 About this chapter General notes on how to set up your system Defragmenting the hard disk (Windows only) MIDI requirements Audio hardware Setting up audio Setting up MIDI Optimizing audio performance 96 Key commands 97 97 Introduction The available key commands 99 Effects reference 100 100 101 Introduction Track/Global Effects Instrument parameters 102 Index 5 Table of Contents
1 Introduction
Welcome After you have registered Sequel online, take some time to explore the community section at www.sequel-music.net. You will find lots of useful information and get to know other users in our discussion forums. Registering at www.steinberg.net/mysteinberg also gives you access to special offers from Steinberg in the future. Congratulations and thank you for your purchase of Steinberg Sequel 2. You have now become a member of the world's largest community of music production software users.
2 System requirements and installation
About this chapter Installing Sequel This chapter describes the requirements and installation procedures for the Windows version and the Mac version of Sequel. The installation procedure puts all files in the right places, automatically. Windows Minimum requirements 1. Insert the Sequel DVD into the DVD drive of your computer. Ö The following requirements are based on performance measurements for a typical project with an average 12 tracks (incl.
Register your software We encourage you to register your software! By doing so you are entitled to technical support and kept aware of updates and other news regarding Sequel. There are two ways to register: • In Sequel, open the File menu and select the “User Registration…” option. This is an Internet link that will open the Registration page of the Steinberg web site. To register, follow the instructions on screen. When you launch Sequel, you will also be prompted to launch the registration process.
3 Tutorial 1: Recording
The tutorials The following chapters provide a quick introduction to Sequel. But first, please take a look at the figure below, as it gives you an overview of the Sequel program interface: The Pilot Zone is described in the chapter “The Pilot Zone” on page 38. Details on the Arrange Zone can be found in the chapter “The Arrange Zone” on page 49. The Multi Zone and its various pages are described in the chapter “The Multi Zone” on page 59.
Setting the save folder Now let’s add an audio track to record onto. For our example we are going to record a guitar. You can also record bass or whatever instrument you want. The method is the same for any instrument you wish to record. In order to save projects in Sequel, it is important to make sure you know where the projects are going to be saved. 1. Go to the Program Settings Page. Ö By default, the audio input for the track is set to the first input available in the “Input Selection” pop-up menu.
Turning on the Metronome click 4. In the Style column, select a style that suits the style of guitar line you would like to record. We’ll want to have a click or metronome play in the background as we record the guitar so that what we record aligns with the bars and beats displayed in the ruler. • Activate the Metronome button in the Pilot Zone. The metronome is automatically set to add a two bars precount before recording starts. 5.
7. Use the Repeat function to make the loop 4 bars long. Do the best you can to send the maximum amount of volume to the audio inputs of your audio card before you hear any distortion. Most audio cards show some kind of level or volume indication. If yours doesn’t, don’t worry; we can change the amount using the track volume slider. Just click in the middle of the right edge of the event and drag right until the loop is repeated to the beginning of bar 5.
Recording the guitar Playback 1. Click in the ruler at the position where you want the recording to start to move the project cursor to this position. To listen to what you have just recorded, you have to play it back. Playback in Sequel is easy, but there are a few tricks to learn so that you’ll be playing back with precision! You can also click the the “Jump to Previous Marker” and “Jump to Next Marker” buttons in the Pilot Zone to position the project cursor in the Arrange Zone.
Recording 3. Make sure the Cycle button is activated. Now that we have a track and we have our sound, let’s record something. Recording instrument parts is very similar to recording audio events. Make sure you read the beginning of this chapter where we discuss recording audio. Ö Sequel automatically finds and uses any MIDI devices that we have on our computer. 4. Click the “Jump to previous marker” or “Jump to next marker” buttons until the song position cursor is sitting directly on bar 2.
Congratulations! You have just recorded your first instrument part in Sequel. ! Load the project “MIDI Playback” found in the “Sequel Tutorial 1” folder. Press the [.] key on your numeric keypad to set the song position cursor to bar 1 and press the space bar to listen back. Move ahead to the next chapter to learn how to edit the audio events and instrument parts we’ve recorded.
4 Tutorial 2: Editing
Introduction Resizing You can resize an event by adjusting start and/or end of the event. Used in combination with splitting and repeating, this is usually all the editing you’ll need. In this chapter, we are going to show you how the Pilot Zone, Arrange Zone, and Multi Zone work together when editing audio events and instrument parts. Refer to the chapters “The Pilot Zone” on page 38, “The Arrange Zone” on page 49 and “The Multi Zone” on page 59 if you aren’t sure about a specific function. 1.
4. Cut on bar 1 beat 3, bar 2 beat 3, bar 3 beat 3, and bar 4 beat 3. Splitting with Snap off Splitting with Snap off allows you to cut the event anywhere you like, without locking to the grid. 5. Undo your actions by selecting the Undo Split option from the Edit menu. Make sure there are no splits in the “Drums” event any more. Moving Let’s move all of the events in the project so that all the events on all tracks line up with bar 2. 1. Make sure that Snap is activated.
Muting Copying Muting an event stops you from hearing just that event. You may want to mute events on a track so that the track continues to play except for the muted events. Copying can be used to copy an event to another area in the Arrange Zone. Using copy and paste Ö Note that this is different from muting a track. 1. To copy an event, click on the desired event and choose “Copy” from the Edit menu. In our case, let’s copy the “Guitar” event. 1. Hover the cursor over the event you wish to mute.
Editing instrument parts About the Sample Editor The Sample Editor is used for detailed editing. It can be used for the following: • • • • In this section, we are going to look at some of the editing functions for instrument parts that are available in Sequel. Quantization Time Warp Adding Silence Reversing Key Editor The Key Editor is where we can make changes to the instrument data on our instrument tracks. These features are described in the chapter “Advanced features” on page 79. ! 1.
Copying notes Creating or drawing in notes Let’s copy all of the notes from the second bar into the first bar. We can use the Key Editor to draw in notes. This is great for creating instrument arrangements that you are having trouble playing in yourself. 1. Lasso all the notes in bar 2. Let’s add some notes to the first two bars of the song: 2. Hold down [Ctrl]/[Command] and drag the notes from bar 2 to bar 1 to copy them. 1.
The Controller lane The Controller Lane allows us to add in or modify instrument data such as velocity and controller information. The most common use for this is to edit velocity or pitch bend. If you find that the velocity is too strong or weak on certain notes, you can view and edit them at the bottom of the Key Editor. Pop-up menu The controller lane 1. On the pop-up menu, select the information you wish to view or change; in this example, choose “Velocity”.
5 Tutorial 3: Mixing
Introduction In this chapter, we’ll show you how to get to a mix ready with proper levels, EQs and effects. Automation will be added and then we’ll export the audio. Ö The following sections make references to tutorial projects, located in the default Sequel project folder. Setting levels The first thing that we need to do is set the levels for our project. This helps us get a great starting point for the mix so we can add EQ and effects later. ! That’s it for setting levels. Let’s check out pan next.
Mute and Solo ! Load the project “Mixing 3” found in the “Sequel Tutorial 3” folder. For each track, there are buttons for Mute and Solo. Mute will prevent you from hearing the track, and Solo will only play that track or tracks that have Solo enabled. 3. Click on the “Equalizers” tab. Ö Make sure that you have a section of your project playing that features the “Drums” track so that you can hear your EQ changes. Each track in Sequel has a 3-band EQ.
Audio effects The middle EQ is a parametric EQ. That means that the frequency range of this EQ can be widened or shortened. To do this, click on the middle width or “Q” slider and drag right to widen the range and left to shorten it. ! Load the project “Mixing 6” found in the “Sequel Tutorial 3” folder. Let’s add some effects to our project. In Sequel, there are three types of effects that we can manipulate: • Track Effects • Global Effects • Output Effects.
5. Adjust the Threshold slider until the bass sounds smoother and there isn’t such a big difference between the notes that were played quieter versus the notes that were played a little louder. 9. Make changes to the effect manually, or select a preset from the “Effect Preset” menu. Effect Preset menu For details on each effect and its parameters, see the chapter “Effects reference” on page 99. 6.
Output effects Let’s make the whole song fade out by changing the volume automation on the Master track. Output Effects, like track effects, are inserts, but in this case, they are applied to the Master channel. The “Output Effects” tab features two changeable effects and two fixed effects. 1. Activate the “Edit/Write Automation” button in Pilot Zone. The “Show Automation” button will be activated automatically and the Master track will appear in the Arrange Zone.
Experiment more with this exciting tool! It is so helpful in making your project sound great. Remember that pretty much any knob, slider or fader can be automated in Sequel. 4. Drag the anchor point at the end of the song down until you can’t drag it any further. Removing and disabling automation To remove automation, proceed as follows: • To remove the track automation for the current parameter select the first option (“Remove Volume Automation”, or “Remove Panner – Left-Right Automation”, etc.
Ö Normally you’ll want to save your exported file as a “Wave File”. This is the most universally compatible file type for audio. If the application you need the file for demands a different format, you can choose one from the pop-up menu. Exporting Now that we have our project mixed, we’ll want to export it so that we can send it to others, burn it to a CD, or listen to it on our iPod. ! 3. A bit depth of 16 bit is common for CD burning. Let’s use 16 bit.
In the Write Project to Audio File dialog, specify the export location and the file name in the corresponding fields and activate/deactivate the following options for mp3 files: Option Description Bit Rate In this field you can select a bit rate for the mp3 file. As a rule, the higher the bit rate, the better the audio quality and the larger the file. For stereo audio, 128kBit/s is often considered to result in “good” audio quality.
6 Tutorial 4: Live Pads and Chain Play mode
Introduction Live Mode In this chapter, we’ll show you how to use Sequel to make Live Performances fun and easy. We’ll take you through creating Arranger parts and using the Arranger Page. ! Now that we have Arranger parts set up, let’s use them to play back our project. Arranger parts 1. Select the Arranger Page in the Multi Zone. Ö The following sections make references to tutorial projects, located in the default Sequel project folder.
6. [Alt]/[Option]-click along the bottom of pad A and name it “Intro”. 2. Click on “Pad A”. Notice that an “A” appears in the “Current Chain” display. 7. Let’s also name pad B “Verse”, pad C “Chorus”, and pad D “Extro”. Current Chain 3. Add B, C, and D to the Current Chain display. You can also drag parts from the Arranger track onto the current chain. 4. Press the space bar on your computer keyboard to start playback. Each Arranger part will play in the sequence found in the “Current Chain” display.
7 The Pilot Zone
Introduction Preferences Not used. You will find the main preferences of Sequel on the Program Settings Page, see “The Program Settings Page” on page 77. The Sequel window is divided into three main sections: the Pilot Zone (explained below), the Arrange Zone (see the chapter “The Arrange Zone” on page 49), and the Multi Zone (see the chapter “The Multi Zone” on page 59).
About Sequel (Windows only) Open Project… This option allows you to view the exact version of Sequel you have installed and also take a look at some of the people involved in putting it together. Selecting this option allows you to open an existing project. • The key command for this is [Ctrl]/[Command]+[O]. Save Project Credits and Copyrights Selecting this option allows you to save your project. Lists credits and copyright information. This menu also contains links to the Steinberg website, e.g.
• You can also use the key command [Ctrl]/[Command]+[Shift]+[M] to access the Manage Projects dialog. Undo Selecting this option will undo the last action that you performed. You can undo any action that you have performed since opening the project. Export Project as Audio File… Selecting this option opens a dialog which allows you to export your project, e.g. for burning to CD. To burn a CD you will need the appropriate software on your computer.
Split at Cursor The Reset Instruments function Split at cursor allows you to split the selected event at the cursor location. In some cases, problems e.g. hanging notes or a constant vibrato may occur after loading an instrument preset and hitting a key on your keyboard. If this is the case, use the Reset Instruments function on the Edit menu. This sends out note-off messages and resets controllers on all instrument channels.
The Edit Remote Control Assignment button Macintosh In the top left hand corner the program window, there are buttons for minimizing, maximizing and closing Sequel. Close Minimize Maximize Edit Remote Control Assignment It is possible to remote-control certain Sequel functions by assigning external controllers, i.e. small mixers or keyboard controllers with USB or MIDI connection and the ability to send MIDI messages. • Selecting the Minimize button will hide the window in the dock.
The Tuner • You can zoom in and out to see your project in more detail by clicking and holding in the lower portion of the ruler bar and dragging up or down. Sequel features a built-in tuner used for tuning instruments like a guitar or bass before recording. Dragging up zooms out and dragging down zooms in. • You can also create a loop region for Cycle mode by clicking and dragging the mouse in the upper portion of the ruler.
To start playback To locate the previous marker or go to the beginning of the project • Click on the Play button. • Click on the “Locate Previous Marker” button. • Press the space bar on your computer keyboard – this toggles between start and stop. • Press [Shift]+[B] on your computer keyboard. • Press the [Enter] key on the numeric keypad. To locate the next marker or go to the end of the project • Double-click in the lower half of the ruler. • Click on the “Locate Next Marker” button.
The Metronome The Pilot Zone display To add a click sound to playback and/or recording (as specified on the Program Settings Page, see “The Program Settings Page” on page 77), activate the Metronome button. The metronome will follow the project tempo and time signature. The Pilot Zone display contains important information about your project. Displayed from left to right are the Song Position, the Tempo, the Time Signature and the Project Root Key.
The Tempo (TEMPO) • To activate Rehearsal tempo, click in the top right corner of the tempo field. The tempo display shows the current project tempo at the cursor position. To change the tempo, you have the following possibilities: • Double-click the tempo field and type in the desired tempo. Rehearsal tempo is activated. • To use the normal project tempo again, click again in the top right corner of the Tempo field. • Click in the tempo field, keep the mouse button pressed and drag up or down.
The Virtual Keyboard • In piano roll display mode you have two full octaves at your disposal. That way you can enter two voices simultaneously: for example bass and lead voice or bass drums and HiHats. The Virtual Keyboard allows you to play and record MIDI notes by using your computer keyboard or mouse. This is useful if you have no external MIDI instrument at hand and you do not want to draw in notes with the pencil tool. Hit the second and third row (“z”, “s”, “x”, etc.
8 The Arrange Zone
Introduction Show Transpose Track The Transpose track allows you to set global key changes. Activating the “Show Transpose Track” button reveals the Transpose Track just below the ruler. Track list Click here to show the Transpose track. Audio events and instrument parts The Arrange Zone is where all of the main elements of your project will reside. This is also where all of your recording, editing, and arranging will take place. The Transpose track with transpose values.
Show/Hide Track Pictures Selecting tracks When you activate this button, the track list will be expanded to the right to make room for the Track Pictures. These are set up on the Track Inspector Page in the Multi Zone, see “The Pictures tab” on page 62. To hide the Track Picture section, click on the button again. You can select tracks by clicking on the track name. You can select multiple tracks at once by [Ctrl]/[Command]clicking on each track you wish to select.
Track controls ! Freezing Audio tracks Effect plug-ins (see “Effects reference” on page 99) can sometimes require a lot of processor power. If you are using a large number of track effects, you may eventually reach a point where the computer cannot play back the track properly (the Computer Overload indicator lights up, you get crackling sounds, etc.). Click on the button “Large Tracks” to display all available track controls. Each track includes a set of track controls. These are described next.
puter Overload indicator lights up, you get crackling sounds, etc.). In this case you should consider freezing the instrument track. This is also useful for sounds that use a lot of RAM, e.g. for pre-loading samples. By freezing the instrument track, the RAM becomes available for other processes or plug-ins, etc. 3. A progress dialog is shown while the program renders the Instrument track to an audio file on your hard disk.
Automatic Fades (audio tracks only) Track volume and pan Found next to the Freeze button, the “Automatic Fades” button applies a short fade to the edges of all the events in the track. Ö This button is only visible when the corresponding audio track is selected. This is useful for eliminating pops or clicks that can occur when playing over event boundaries. Track volume Track pan Track meter The track output volume and pan can be controlled directly on the track itself.
Ö You can only edit automation events if you activate the “Edit/Write Automation” button in the Pilot Zone, see “The Automation buttons” on page 42 and “Adding automation” on page 31. Track Pictures If the “Show Track Pictures” button is activated above the track list, and track pictures are assigned, they are displayed to the right of the track controls. Track pictures are set up on the Pictures tab of the Track Inspector Page, see “The Pictures tab” on page 62.
Timeline and grid The Zoom Commands The timeline and grid serve as tools to help editing be more precise and to help lock events to time. To the right of the “+” and “-” buttons you can find the “Zoom Commands” pop-up menu with three quick zoom settings: The resolution of the grid depends on how far zoomed in or out you are. Option Description Zoom Full Zoom full will zoom out so that all of the events in the Arrange Zone are visible.
Working with the Smart Tool The events in Sequel have a bunch of functions built right on to them. When you hover your mouse over an event, the functions appear. We refer to this behavior as the Smart Tool. While clicking and holding, drag to repeat the event. Changing the event name Along the top is the event name. To change the name, double-click on it and type in the new name. When you let go of the mouse button the event will be repeated.
Splitting events Also notice the line going across the bottom of the event. When you hover the mouse over it, it changes to the Split tool. Just click to split the event.
9 The Multi Zone
Introduction • Note that you can completely hide the Multi Zone by clicking the button in the middle of the lower edge of the Sequel program window. Click the button a second time to show the Multi Zone again. You can also press [E] on your computer keyboard to hide or show the Multi Zone. The Multi Zone is where all of your project’s mixing, effects processing and advanced editing will take place.
Channels Hover mouse here to display the Color Selector. Each track has its own channel which includes a Record Ready button, a Mute button and a Solo button. These buttons have the same functionality as the respective buttons in the track controls area in the Arrange Zone. Mute Solo Record Ready Channel Level (Volume) Track Name Track Number Panner Each channel is labelled and numbered. These labels and numbers correspond to the ones found on the tracks in the Arrange Zone.
If you are clipping the Master channel, the channel will become red. Lower the fader to return the channel to normal, or alternatively lower all track faders by the same amount to reduce the level going into the Master channel. Click the Audio Overload button to reset the clipping indicator. Adding Factory Track Pictures Proceed as follows: 1. Select the track on which you want to insert a track picture and open the Pictures tab. The track pictures available in the included Factory content are displayed.
On the Pictures tab, you can now edit the track picture in the following ways: Proceed as follows: 1. Go to the location on your computer where you store the picture you want to assign, click on it to select it and drag it to the Track Picture display. • Increase the tinting of the picture in the track color, or reduce the tinting to zero by moving the slider up or down.
The Event Effects tab (instrument tracks only) Transpose Play Direction determines whether the pattern’s key will go up, down, or a combination of the two. The Event Effects tab only works with instrument tracks. It includes two effects: a Chorder and an Arpeggiator. Arpeggiator Play Mode determines what type of patterns will be played back. When it is in Phrase Mode, pressing a single note will play a scale and the Arpeggiator will not recognize chords.
The Track Effects tab The Equalizers tab Each track can have two insert effects, which are prefader. That means that raising or lowering the track fader doesn’t affect how much audio signal is sent to the effect. The Equalizers tab features a three band EQ. It features a low shelf or bass frequency, a parametric mid or middle frequency, and a high shelf or treble frequency. Bypass Effect The low shelf or bass frequency sets the frequency at which the low tones will be affected.
Adjusting level (gain) The Global Effects tab You can adjust the EQs level by raising or lowering the bass, middle, or treble gain slider. Each project can have two send effects. These are referred to as “Global Effects”. You can select any of the available effects as global effects. To do this, click and drag up or down on the desired slider. Using global effects can help reduce CPU load on your computer. If e.g.
The MediaBay Page The Output Effects tab You can apply two custom and two fixed output effects to the Master channel. These effects are similar to the track effects in that they are pre-fader. The MediaBay Page is a browser for audio and instrument loops, instrument presets, and track presets. This page is extremely useful because not only can you manually enter a name to search for at the top of the page, but you can also define so called tags, i.e.
At the top left of the MediaBay Page you will find the content selection pop-up menu. Here you can decide which content you would like to use the MediaBay Page to search through. Showing Loops, Sounds and Tracks Using the Show Loops, Sounds, and Tracks buttons you can decide what kind of files you want to search for. Show Sounds Show Tracks Show Loops By activating the “Show Loops” button only audio and instrument loops will be shown.
Show Family Items Reset Filters When you select a loop, the “Show Family Items” button at the far right becomes available. Activating this button filters the results to only show loops that are part of the same family. To reset all of the filters, click the “Reset Filters” button in the top left hand corner of the page.
Changing media file attributes Here you can apply meta data to the loops based on the attributes listed along the left-hand side of the window. Click beside the attribute and select a value from the pop-up menu that appears. Setting these attributes will make it easier for you to organize and find the files later. You can also change the attributes that are associated with a file.
The Sample Editor Adding silence The Sample Editor allows you to edit audio files. The selected audio event is displayed in the center of the Editor Page. Here you can see a detailed waveform rendering of the audio file. You can add silence to an event by selecting a section of the event (by clicking and dragging) and then pressing [Delete] or [Backspace] on your computer keyboard. This is non-destructive and will not affect the audio file in any way.
Transpose Lock Reverse Activating transpose lock will lock the original transpose value of the event. The event will no longer follow any global transpose changes throughout the project. Stretch Mode Free Warp Here you can switch between either the “Song Tempo” or “Original” stretch modes. Simply click to switch between them. Warp Beats Quantize • Activating “Song Tempo” will lock the event’s tempo to the project tempo.
Swing (“Song Tempo” mode) Quantize grid (which varies depending on the value set in the Quantize pop-up menu) and change it with the Warp tool. See “Audio quantization and warp” on page 81 for more information. Ö The warp settings are saved with the project. ! Warp Beats activated Swing If you have several copies of one event and use the Free Warp function for one of them, only this event will be modified. All other copies will leave as they are. The modified event will change its color.
You can zoom in and out using the plus and minus buttons in the bottom right corner. You can also click in the ruler along the top of the Editor Page and drag up to zoom out and down to zoom in. Once you are zoomed in, you can use the scroll bar along the bottom to scroll left or right and the little scroll bar on the right hand side to scroll up and down. You can also use the mouse wheel to scroll up and down and [Shift]+mouse wheel to scroll left and right.
Activated Step Input Clicking on the Controller Lane pop-up menu allows you to decide what specific controller data you would like to view or modify. “Activated Step Input” allows you to enter instrument data note by note and beat by beat, using a MIDI keyboard or controller. It’s great for quick entry of instrument parts. When activated, this button puts Sequel into step input mode. A blue vertical position line appears. Each time you press a key, a note will be entered at the vertical position line.
In order to do this, you first need to create Arranger parts. Make sure that the “Show Arranger Track” button above the track list is activated, see “Show Arranger Track” on page 50. Show Arranger Track Pad assignment [Alt]/[Option]-click along the top of a pad to open a pop-up menu allowing you to choose which part will be linked to that pad. You can also set this to “None” or to “Stop”. Arranger part “A” Pad name [Alt]-click along the bottom of the pad to name the pad.
The Program Settings Page Just select each pad in the order that you want them played. You can also press the corresponding key on your computer keyboard to add the pad to “The Current Chain”. As you select them “The Current Chain” will begin filling up. “The Current Chain” resides along the top of the Arranger Page and is only active in “Chain Play” mode. The Program Settings Page is where you define all of the main settings in Sequel.
Start-up Action Show Tips This pop-up menu allows you to decide whether Sequel will create a new project when you load up or load the last project you were working on. Show tips, when activated, will display tips when you hover over a button or object. Options Audio Settings Instrument Recording – Auto Quantize If this option is activated, anything recorded on a track will automatically be quantized.
10 Advanced features
Introduction 4. Find an area where the guitarist wasn’t playing. There is an area right at the beginning and in between the first and second bar. Click and drag to highlight a section of the event. You may want to zoom in. In this chapter, we are going to go over some of the advanced features found in Sequel. Make sure you have gone through all of the previous chapters before proceeding. Notice that the selection area becomes gray.
Add silence to any other areas in the Guitar event that you think might need it. ! 4. Change the Stretch Mode to “Song Tempo” and change the optimization to “Mix”. Load the project “Adding Silence 2” found in the “Sequel Tutorial 5” folder to hear the project now that silence has been added. Audio quantization and warp Audio Quantization • First of all, make sure that the right number of bars is set and that the grid lines are positioned at the visible beats.
Free Warp 3. Determine where the first beat of a bar in the audio event does not match the corresponding ruler position in the waveform. Click at the beginning of this beat to create a warp tab. Sometimes, an event might need a bit of manual adjustment as well. That’s where “Free Warp” comes in handy. Free Warp tabs are a kind of anchor that can be attached to musically relevant time positions in the audio, e.g. the first beat of every bar.
Smart Transpose 6. Repeat this procedure for any drum beats that appear off time. Keep listening back to make sure that you are getting the desired result. When you set the Project Root Key in the Pilot Zone, it becomes the reference that any audio file or MIDI loop will follow when it is added to a project. What this means is that when you add a file to your project that has a defined key, it will be changed to match the root key of the project.
6. Drag the “02 112 D horns” loop to bar 1 underneath the guitar. 9. Play what we have so far and hear that the guitar and horns are in the same key without any extraneous transposition. 7. Click on the “03 105 Bb Guitar” event and go to the Editor Page. Notice that the Root Key is “A#” and Transpose is set to “0”. Let’s add a drum loop to the project. Drum loops aren’t affected by the Project Root Key or Smart Transpose. They can only be transposed using the “Transpose” feature in the Sample Editor.
Locking transpose • You have three options to start this recording mode: You can also lock the key of the loop using the “Transpose Lock” feature. • By pressing [Ctrl]/[Command]+[R] • By pressing [Ctrl]/[Command]+[*] (“multiply” on the numeric keypad) • By [Ctrl]/[Command]-clicking the Record button. Remote-controlling Sequel Transpose Lock Transpose It is possible to remote-control certain Sequel functions by assigning external controllers, i.e.
Assigning Controllers using the mouse The assignment browser consists of the following elements: Proceed as follows: 1. Connect your remote device with the USB or MIDI port on your computer and start Sequel. The name of the Sequel function 2. Click the Edit Remote Control Assignment button in the Sequel Pilot Zone. Sticky Browser The main user interface becomes dimmed, so that you can clearly see which elements can be assigned to remote controls (indicated by black frames).
Ö Each time you assign a new remote controller to a Sequel function, a new entry appears in the list of available Remote Items. By default, these entries are named Remote Item x, where x represents an incrementing number. 6. To assign another remote controller, click on the next program function with the mouse. You can also step through the assignable functions with the arrow keys, see below.
11 Setting up your system
About this chapter MIDI requirements In this chapter, you will find information on the basic computer setup (audio card and drivers, etc.) and on more advanced audio and MIDI system setups.
Using the built-in audio hardware of the Macintosh • A DirectX driver for the audio card, allowing it to communicate with DirectX. If the audio card supports DirectX, this driver should be supplied by the audio card manufacturer. If it isn’t installed with the audio card, please check the manufacturer’s web site for more information. • The ASIO DirectX Full Duplex driver, allowing Sequel to communicate with DirectX. This driver is included with Sequel, and does not require any special installation.
Setting up audio ! • External mixing means having a hardware mixing device with a group or bus system that can be used for feeding inputs on your audio hardware. Always make all connections with all equipment turned off! In the example below, four busses are used for feeding signals to the audio hardware’s inputs. The four outputs are connected back to the mixer for monitoring and playback. Remaining mixer inputs can be used for connecting audio sources like microphones, instruments, etc.
Recording from a CD player In many cases all available settings for the audio hardware are gathered in a control panel, which can be opened from within Sequel as described below (or opened separately, when Sequel isn’t running). In some cases, there may be several different applications and panels – please refer to the audio hardware documentation for details. Most computers come with a CD-ROM drive that can also be used as a regular CD player.
• Under Windows, you open the control panel by clicking the “Setup…” button. • You can edit the Buffer Size setting in this list if necessary, by double-clicking on the value and typing in a new value. The control panel that appears when you click this button is provided by the audio hardware manufacturer and not Sequel (unless you use DirectX, see below). Hence it will be different for each audio card brand and model.
Port selection and activation (Mac only) On the settings page for your audio card, you can specify which input and which output port should be active. This allows you e.g. to use the Microphone input instead of the Line input or even to deactivate the audio card input or output completely, if required. Ö This function is only available for Built-In Audio, standard USB audio devices and a certain number of other audio cards (e. g. Pinnacle CineWave).
Short response times (latency) looking for properties of the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controller’s primary and secondary channel. DMA transfer mode is enabled by default, but may be turned off by the system should hardware problems occur. Another aspect of performance is response time. The term “latency” refers to the “buffering”, i.e. the temporary storing, of small chunks of audio data during various steps of the recording and playback process on a computer.
12 Key commands
Introduction Project commands Option This chapter contains a list of the available key commands in Sequel, structured according to the different edit categories in the program.
Virtual Keyboard - Navigate commands Ö When the Virtual Keyboard is active, the usual key commands are blocked. The only exceptions are: [*] (“multiply” on the numeric keypad) for recording, [Space] for start/stop and [Home]/[Command]+ [Home] to jump to the project start.
13 Effects reference
Introduction Distortion This chapter describes the effects and instruments included with Sequel. How to use these is described in the section “The Track Inspector Page” on page 62. Distortion is great for adding crunch to your tracks. This effect is easy to use with only two parameters, but it is extremely effective. “Boost” cranks up the distortion amount. “Output” raises or lowers the signal going out of the effect.
Chorus Other Effects Chorus works by doubling whatever is sent into it with a slightly detuned version. “Rate” changes the speed of the chorus effect. “Width” adjusts how much the signal is detuned. The “Mix” parameter determines how much original signal you hear versus the affected signal. Reverb Reverb is a reverb effect. Reverb allows you make it sound like your music was recorded in a large hall or cathedral. The “Mix” parameter determines how much original signal you hear versus the affected signal.
Index
A Activated Step Input 75 Activating Sequel 9 Add new track (button) 50 Add Track 42 Adding an audio track 13 Adding Automation 31 Advanced Features 80 AmpSimulator 100 Arpeggiator 64 Arrange Zone 49, 50 Arranger Page About 75 Arranger parts 36 Arranging About 36 Chain Play Mode 37 Live Mode 36 ASIO driver 90 Audio Connecting 91 Audio Driver Selecting 92 Audio hardware About 89 Mac 90 Settings 92 Audio Mixdown 34 Audio quantization and warp 81 Audio Settings 78 Auto Quantize 78 Automatic Fades 54 Automation
Export mp3 33 Project as Audio File 41 Project to iTunes 41 F Family 69 File menu 39 Flanger 101 Free Warp 73, 82 G Gate 100 Generic Low Latency driver 90 Global Effects 30 About 66 Amount fader 66 Grid 56 Grid Snap Status About 44 H Hard Disk Defragmenting 89 Hardware About 89 Installing 90 History Menu 77 I Input Selection 54 Installation About 9 Instrument parts Editing 23 Instruments Parameters 101 iTunes Export project to iTunes 41 K Key commands 96 About 97 Conventions 7 Edit 97 File 97 Navigate
Program Settings Page About 77 Project 41 Creating 12 Managing 40 Menu 40 New 40 Open 40 Recent 41 Save 40 Save as 40 Project Location 77 Project menu 39 Project Root key 47 Project Tempo display 47 Q Quantize Audio events 72 Instrument parts 74 Quit 40 R Recent Projects 41 Record Button 45 Record Format 78 Record Placement Method 78 Record Ready 52 Recording CD player 92 Levels and inputs 92 One button record 85 Precount 16 Recording audio About 12 Redo 41 Registration About 10 Rehearsal mode 47 Remote C
Track Freeze Audio Tracks 52 Instrument Tracks 52 Track height buttons Large Tracks 51 Maximal Tracks 51 Minimal Tracks 51 Normal Tracks 51 Track Inspector Page About 62 Instrument tab 64 Track Meter 54 Track numbering 51 Track Pictures 55 About 62 Transport Controls 44 Transpose lock Audio Events 72 Instrument parts 74 Tremolo 101 Triplets On 74 Tuner About 44 Tuning 15 U Undo 41 User Content Location 77 User Interface 78 V Vibrato 101 Virtual keyboard 48 Volume 54 Adjust 54 W Windows requirements 9 Z
