Hi there,
New to project recording and to EZD…am using Mixcraft 5 for ease of use but already coming across some limitations of course (wont allow EZD to export to individual tracks for a start…sigh)
So, what I want to be able to do efficiently is to take say a midi song file and extract a bar here or there as a separate clip to the EZD files for use in my own songs…or perhaps write my own ‘clips’ or ‘grooves’. In fact, I want to do this with instruments such as keys also, not just for EZD, but this is the most obvious and specialist use.
EZD is made for this, intuitive and easy to use…other than stereo out only, works well with MC5. And I know that Toontrack is also in the business of selling ‘grooves’ themselves. I am kind of surprised that they have not thought to make a midi loop making interface program (hint, hint) as while the grooves are great and the artists performing them are great, they may not quite be what I’d want for my own songs and grooves.
So, how do other people do this…are there drum machine like step sequences that one could use? How about the piano roll, I’m not in the market quite yet for another full blown DAW and learning how to use that, let alone the expense, but would be interested on how people do these kinds of things and the tools that they use.
With Mixcraft 5 so far, the only way I have found is to cut out say a single bar, delete everything else and save the entire project (now consisting of just a bar say) as a midi track. This can sometimes even cause problems and certainly not efficient if you wanted to save several nuggets from a session or track for later use, whether drum tracks or a library of midi licks to be used later like audio loops are used.
A typical way I might be using these things is to make a ‘sketch’ track of a tune, save the essential clips and then come back to the tune later and arrange as the track progresses with these elements…as an example…but basically to create my own ‘grooves’ to add into EZD and some EZX packs easily.
Any tips or tricks or advice appreciated. If using another DAW, interested to know how the workflow is with these…is there is way to say highlight a portion of midi sequence and save this only as a midi file?
PC i7 Win7 64 12gb ram, UA-25 interface, Mixcraft 5 Pro, AT2035 Mic, EZD+Claustrophobic, Too many guitars!
Investigating Reaper
