Home Studio 2004 - No MIDI synch or Draw Line Tool?

[Max Doubt]

Greetings,

It's been quite a while since I have been here...

I have been using Guitar Studio 2, and Guitar Tracks 2 for a couple of years and recently decided to upgrade to a new computer and Home Studio 2004. I'm finding HS2004 has either renamed, moved, or lost a couple of features that I found pretty useful before.

1) MIDI synch - The MIDI synch toolbar check box is grayed out. There doesn't seem to be anything about it in the help files either. MIDI otherwise works fine.

2) The Draw Line Tool was very useful (to me) for audio editing. You could draw fade-outs etc. and it was very handy for surgically removing clicks, pops and other short duration noises from audio tracks. I don't see anything similar in HS2004. The only way I have been able to approximate this is to select the audio, then decrease the level by 3dB repeatedly until the noise(s) are sufficiently attenuated. I used to just draw a line. So simple...

Any help (besides "buy Sonar") most appreciated.

 

[guttadaj]

Don't know about the MIDI synch thing, but regarding your second question, you can always split the audio at the trouble spot. Then, you can slip-edit (drag the edge of the clip) so the bad stuff is edited out (it still exists at least until you choose apply trimming, but it's not played). You can also draw fades at clip edges too. Put your mouse up at the top corner of the clip, and, when it turns into something like a slanted line in a box (I think), that's your fade tool. Click and drag into the clip to create a fade-in/out. You can also change the shape of the fade (linear, fast curve, slow curve) by right-clicking when the mouse shows the fade icon.

HTH,
-Jeff

 

[brzilian]

What exactly are you trying to do with MIDI Sync? HS cannot slave to an external MIDI timing source - it has to be the master.

 

[Max Doubt]

Hey Jeff,

Thanks for the tips. Slip editing is a new concept for me. I tried your suggestion and it works well for what I wanted to do. I can see some other good uses for it also. I haven't played around with the fade tool yet. I'll need to master that also because the old draw line tool was used to fade in/out.

Hi brzilian,

I'm not much of a MIDI expert, so I hope this makes sense. I was using CW GS2 to record multiple MIDI parts from a keyboard or sequencer. With GS2 set for MIDI synch, it would begin recording as soon as I initiated "playback" on the external MIDI device. I'm not sure if the MIDI interface was actually clocking during this time, or if GS2 was simply seeing a MIDI Start command (GS2 being previously setup with correct tempo, and tracks armed, in record mode etc.). Prior to using this method, I used to get a lot of practice hitting both "go" buttons at the same time.

So I guess GS2 was the MIDI slave as I triggered recording from the external MIDI device. I'm not sure if there's a way to accomplish the same thing with HS 2004 as the master?

Thanks,
Max