Looping Playback of an Area Within Your Track

In addition to looping an entire MIDI track, you can specify a range anywhere within a (non-synthesizer plug-in type) MIDI track to loop play as many times as you want, or to virtually play forever (or at least for many hours).

Metro's loop playback feature is a powerful compositional tool that allows you to build increasingly complex patterns without actually increasing the amount of data contained in a track.

You can specify the range you want to loop by graphically selecting it within any of the Graphic Editor window's display types (Notes, Drums, Controllers, After Touch, etc.), or by typing the beginning and ending locations directly into the Looping dialog box (Special menu). If you select the range graphically, Metro automatically enters the beginning and ending locations into the Looping Options dialog box.

To loop playback of an area within your track:

  1. Click the Arrow Tool in the Graphic Editor window.

  2. Drag across the desired range to select it, then release the mouse.

  3. Choose Looping from the Special menu.

The Looping Options dialog box appears. Notice that the beginning and ending locations of your selection are entered in the From and To fields in the Looping Options dialog box.

  1. If you want the range to loop a specific number of times, click the Loop 'N' Times button and enter the desired value.

  2. If you want the range to loop virtually infinitely, click the For Many Hours button.

  3. Click OK.

Notice that Loop icons now appear within the Graphic Editor window at the specified begin and end locations. In the Graphic Editor window you'll see a number next to the Loop End icon, which is the number of times you specified the range to loop. Once playback of the loop begins, you'll see a number next to the Loop Begin icon that designates the cycle number of the loop currently playing.

If you play looped and unlooped tracks at the same time, when the looped track finishes the looped section, it skips over enough of the following measures to catch up to the unlooped track.

In the Tracks window you'll see one of two Loop icons in the Loop column, indicating the track is loop enabled. A Loop icon with a single arrow designates that the entire track is looped (from beginning to end); a Loop icon with two arrows designates that a range within that track is looped.

Important: Loop ranges within tracks do not work with Audio or synthesizer plug-in MIDI tracks such as VSTi's or AudioUnit Music Devices. Use Copy and Paste And instead to copy and paste the data that you want to loop.



Let's explore a powerful editing capability in the next part of our tutorial, which is Looping Cues.

Looping Playback of an Area Within Your Track