Recording Your First MIDI Track.

From within the Tracks window, double-click the track named 'Drum Loop 120' to display it within the Graphic Editor window. Notice the audio file display within the Graphic Editor.

Now let's record a MIDI track to add a 16th note high-hat figure over the top of the drum loop sample. The file Drum Loop 120 plays back at 120 beats per minute, which is Metro's default BPM configuration. Remember, MIDI channel 10 is designated as the drum channel for all General MIDI sound modules.

Before we record, let's configure Metro's count off time:

  1. Choose Record/Play from the Setup menu.

The Record and Play dialog box appears. Use it to configure Metro for record and play operations such as count off, record mode and input quantize.

  1. Enter 1 in the Count off 'N' bars before recording field. This sets Metro to play a 1 bar count off before recording.

  2. Click OK to exit the Record and Play dialog box.

  3. Open the Transport window (Command-B) and expand it to its full size, if necessary.

  4. Choose Count off from the popup menu in the far right portion of the Transport window.

This instructs Metro to play a count off before recording. Count off time is 1 bar, the number you specified in the Record/Play dialog.

Now let's record our first MIDI track:

  1. Within the Tracks window, click on the 'R' column to record-enable track 3.

  2. In the track 3 Outputs column, click the popup menu and choose Channel 10 of your General MIDI device.

note02.gifNote: When Automatic MIDI Thru is enabled (Switches menu), MIDI Thru automatically sets itself to the Metro Output assigned to a record-enabled track. This convenience eliminates the need to reassign MIDI Thru each time you want to record a track.

  1. Click the Record button in the Transport window to begin recording. Remember, there will be a one measure count-off.

  2. After the 1 bar count off, play a high-hat figure to complement the drum loop. MIDI notes F#1, G#1 and A#1 are assigned to high hat sounds on the drum channel of General MIDI sound modules.

  3. Click the Stop button in the Transport or press the spacebar after you've played in at least 2 bars of a high-hat figure.

note02.gifNote: If you made a mistake while recording, click Stop and choose Undo from the Edit menu to delete what you just recorded. Press Return (to return to zero) and click on the Record button to try recording the part again.

  1. To name your newly recorded track, Option-click on the name of track 3 and type in the name 'high-hat 16ths', press Return to enter the name.

The next step in your first session is Editing Your First MIDI Track.

Recording Your First MIDI Track.