Recording/Editing/Overdubbing Track Mutes

Ok, so I've been searching on here for about an hour and haven't found the solution to my problem so please excuse if it has been posted before. I'm on JJOS 1, with an arrangement as one long sequence with recorded track mutes over it. My problem is that, if I'm overdubbing at all, editing these track mutes can really be a pain. Every time I hit overdub/play, it records a snapshot of the track mutes for all tracks at that spot in the timeline. So I end up with all these extra track mutes that aren't needed.

For example, in step edit, if I set view mode to Track Mutes it'll look something like this:

0001.01.00 Track 1 Mute:off
0012.01.00 Track 1 Mute:off
0015.01.00 Track 1 Mute:off
0017.01.00 Track 1 Mute:off
0021.01.00 Track 1 Mute:on

Where it really only needs to be

0001.01.00 Track 1 Mute:off
0021.01.00 Track 1 Mute:on
(The middle 3 mutes are redundant since it's already off from 0001.01.00)

Where this comes to be a problem is, when I decide that I actually want the mute to switch on at 0010.01.00 and stay on until the end. I record a track mute at 0010.01.00, but instead of staying on until the end, it switches back off at 0012.01.00. I have to go in and find all the in between mutes, 0012.01.00, 0015.01.00, 0017.01.00 and delete them manually (and probably should delete the now redundant 0021.01.00 as well). Not impossible, but a HUGE pain.

I realize that it is "correct" behavior for it to record this snapshot each time I overdub, but I wonder if there's not some way to stop it from doing it - I've tried punching in too and same problem.

Or maybe behavior is different in 2 or 2XL?

If not, has anyone figured out an alternative way of overdubbing/editing track mutes that works well for them? I essentially just want to be able to make multiple passes (starting at different points in the sequence) and mute/unmute stuff. Doesn't seem like it should be that complicated...

Thanks,
Jeremy

when in the track mute screen, thats the way it works.

When you want to record the performance of TRACK MUTE, [REC] or please press [PLAY] or the [PLAY START] key,
pressing the [OVER DUB] key.

.

try recording rough mutes while the sequence plays , go to main screen, then enter and adjust in step edit.

same issues have also been drivng me nuts lately. it just got too complicated for me editing track mutes in step edit.

i caved in and reasmpled my tracks, transfereed them to my computer and arranged them in my DAW.

Why not use the next sequence feature instead... You can cut,copy and paste parts of your long sequence and play the pads in the next sequence screen. Seems to me that this would be the easier alternative, once you have your sections that you would like to track mute mapped out, you could the go ahead
and work on your mute Variations... Hope this helps.

Anamorphosis wrote:Why not use the next sequence feature instead... You can cut,copy and paste parts of your long sequence and play the pads in the next sequence screen. Seems to me that this would be the easier alternative, once you have your sections that you would like to track mute mapped out, you could the go ahead
and work on your mute Variations... Hope this helps.

+1 on this. just make a bunch of copies of your main sequence, set up your different mutes in each one, and then you can switch sequences on the fly (or set up the changes from one to the other in song mode) and each time you go to the next sequence the mutes of that sequence will be in place. it's also easy to go back & change things later if you want.

you can have up to 99 sequences loaded at once. take advantage of them.

i ended up with so many sequences, i couldn't keep track of them. but i think you're right, this is the way to go. i just have to work at it more.

beach_break wrote:i ended up with so many sequences, i couldn't keep track of them. but i think you're right, this is the way to go. i just have to work at it more.

best thing to to do Beach is to label/rename your sequences in order of the way you want to play them... example SEQ1-Verse A, SEQ2-Verse B etc.. if you want to create fills and breaks for lets say SEQ2 you could label the break SEQ... SEQ2A. Im assuming most of you out there who use the track mute feature alot tend to compose your songs in a non-linear fashion so by labeling your sequences you will be saving yourself alot of time and practice by fleshing out the basic foundations of your track first and then labeling it in the order you want it to play when using the next sequence feature.

The whole reason I got an mpc was to avoid arranging in DAW so not really feeling the resampling thing.

I was actually doing multiple sequences in song mode before, but I was ending up with like 30 sequences. Aside from being difficult to manage, sometimes I wanted to tweak something that was in all of them. Copying an updated bassline out to 30 different sequences is far more annoying than this track mute thing IMO.

Mikolo, I think I get what you are saying. Seems like the key would be to do as much as possible in the first pass, then do everything after that in step edit. Not quite as convenient as overdubbing in track mute screen but it does avoid adding all the extra mutes. Thanks.

What would be great is if it simply checked the status of the previous track mute on a track before adding another, and, if it was the same (ie last track mute was off and new one is off) it just didn't add it. I wonder if this would break desired functionality for anyone. What do you guys think? Worth a feature request?

Also, I noticed one possible bug in OS1: Say you are on track 1 the main screen. You want to move a track mute from 0010:01:00 to 0008:01:00 on track 2. You go to step edit, select view:track mutes, then choose "2" to the right of that (so you are are seeing only track 2's mutes). You do f3 edit -> f2 move, change the timecode and hit do it. Now, that mute has disappeared! It's not at 0010:01:00 or 0008:01:00. Except no, switch the view to track 1 and your mute has just moved from track 2 at 0010:01:00 to track 1 at 0008:01:00 (since 1 was the active track on the main screen). This only happens if you have selected a specific track at top right (in step edit), not if it's on "all". If it's on "all", it stays on the track it was on.

Can anyone verify if this happens in 2 or 2xl as well? If so, do you think it's worth a bug report?

Jeremy