Big Time

Markers

Lyrics Video Sysx

StudioWare

Zoom Controls

Many of the views contain Zoom tools that let you change the horizontal and vertical scale of the view:
Lasso zoom Zoom out vertically Zoom in vertically Zoom in horizontally Zoom out horizontally
The zoom tools are used as described in the following table:

Tool Zoom out

How you use it Click to zoom out incrementally, or press Shift and click to zoom all the way out Click to zoom in incrementally, or press Shift and click to zoom all the way in Click and drag to zoom continuously Click to arm, then click and drag in the view to select the zoom area

Zoom in

Zoom fader Lasso zoom
Lasso zoom is automatically disarmed after use. Double-click the lasso zoom button to make the selection stick.You can also zoom with the keyboard:
Key I O G What it does Zoom in vertically and horizontally Zoom out vertically and horizontally Go to (center) the Now time, without zooming Arm lasso zoom Undo the current zoom
In the Track view, you must also hold down the Ctrl and Alt keys when using these shortcut keys.

Layouts

You may spend a lot of time making sure that all the views are laid out on the screen just the way you want. When you save your work, you can save the screen layout along with it. You can also save the layout by itself and then use the layout with other projects. See Layouts on page 12-2.

Working on a Project

Much of your time in Pro Audio is spent recording and listening to your project or song as it develops. The Transport toolbar, shown below, contains the most important tools and other pieces of information youll need to record and play back your project. Every project has a current time, known as the Now time. As you record or play back a project, the Now time shows your current location in the project. When you create a project, the Now time is set to the beginning of the project. The current Now time is saved with your project. You control recording and playback using tools on the Transport toolbar, which work a lot like the ones on your tape deck or CD player:
Go to Beginning Play Record Stop Go to End Reset

Go to Beginning

Play Record Stop Go to End
As you work with a project, you can use Pro Audios mute and solo features to choose which tracks are played, or you can create loops to play a particular section over and over again. You can also create markers, which are named time points you add to your project to make it easy to jump to a particular location.

Other Types of Files

Pro Audio lets you create and work with several other types of les, in addition to the work les that store your songs and other projects:

File type Play List

Purpose To play a series of Pro Audio projects and standard MIDI les, one after another To write, edit, and run CAL programs that extend the capabilities of Pro Audio To control external MIDI devices from Pro Audio

To Display the Big Time View
1. Choose View-Big Time to display the Big Time view.
Change the settings according to the table:
To do this Switch time format Do this Click on the view to toggle between MBT and SMPTE time Right-click on the view, choose the font and color you want, and click OK Drag any corner of the view to change its size

Change font or color

Change the size of the view
Note that Pro Audio ignores font styles and effects such as strikeout and underline.
Other Ways to Set the Now Time
There are a variety of commands and keyboard shortcuts you can use to set the Now time:

Go-Time

Lets you enter the Now time in the Position toolbar or in a dialog box Sets the Now time to the From time (the start time of the current selection) Sets the Now time to the Thru time (the end time of the current selection) Sets the Now time to the beginning of the project Sets the Now time to the end of the project Sets the Now time to the start of the previous measure Sets the Now time to the start of the next measure

Go-From

Go-Thru

Go-Beginning

Ctrl-Home

Go-End

Ctrl-End

Go-Previous Measure

Ctrl-PgUp

Go-Next Measure

Ctrl-PgDn
If your project has markers, you can use the Marker toolbar to set the Now time:
To do this Skip to the next marker Do this Click on the Markers toolbar (or press Ctrl-Shift-PgDn) Click on the Markers toolbar (or press Ctrl-Shift-PgUp) Choose the marker name from the list in the Markers toolbar, or press F5 when typing a Now time in the Transport toolbar
Skip to the previous marker

Jump to any marker

Command.

Shortcut.

What it does.
Controlling playback is very simple, and you have your choice of tools, menu commands, and shortcut keys for most common operations. When you start playback, the Now time updates continuously to show the current time. When you stop playback, the Now time stops at the time you stopped. When you start playback again, it continues from the same point. If the Now time is advancing but you dont hear any sound, see Appendix A: Troubleshooting. If you are using MIDI sync or MIDI time code sync, Pro Audio waits to receive external timing data before it begins playing. For more information, see Chapter 15, Synchronizing Your Gear.

stored in the le. You can edit the time values in those views or use the Edit-Slide command.
To Set the Time Offset for a Track
1. Move the highlight to the Time+ column of the track you want to change. Press the + or key until you reach the value you want.
You can also change the time offset in a variety of other ways, as described on page 3-15. To change the time offset for more than one track at a time, select the tracks you want to change and choose Track-Property-Time+.
Other MIDI Playback Settings
Two other MIDI settings can affect what happens when you play back your project, as described in the following table:
Option Zero Controllers When Play Stops
How it works If this option is enabled, Pro Audio zeroes (resets) the pitch wheel, the pedal Controller, and the modulation wheel Controller on all 16 MIDI channels whenever playback is stopped. It also sends a Zero All Continuous Controllers MIDI message, which turns off other continuous Controllers on newer synthesizers. If you experience frequent stuck notes when playback stops, try checking this option. If this option is enabled, Pro Audio searches for and sends the most recent patch change, wheel, and pedal events on each port and MIDI channel before starting playback. This ensures that all these settings are correct, even if you start playback at an arbitrary point in your project.
Patch/Controller Searchback Before Play Starts
To set these options, choose Options-Project and click the MIDI Out tab. If you have set up a playback loop, enabling either of these options can cause an audible delay when the loop is restarted.

Video Playback

Pro Audios Insert-Video File command lets you include an AVI, MPEG or QuickTime video in your project. This video is shown in real time as your project plays. You open the Video view by choosing View-Video. The Video view displays the current time (as in the Big Time view) and the video itself. The display in the Video view is synchronized with the Now time, giving you convenient random access to the video stream. This makes it easy to align music and digitized sound to the video. Commands in the Video views pop-up menu let you set the time display format, the size and stretch options for the video display, the video start and trim times, and other options. Your projects video and digital audio data can be saved together in a new AVI le with Tools-Export Video to AVI. For more information, see Preparing Audio for Distribution on page 9-29.

To Set the Meter and Key Signature
1. 2. 3. 4. Display the View toolbar by choosing View-Toolbars-Views. Click on the View toolbar to open the Meter/Key view.
Select the rst (and only) meter/key change in the list. Click to open the Meter/Key Signature dialog box.
Enter the top and bottom meter values in the two boxes. Choose the key signature from the Key Signature list. Click OK.
You can also set the meter and key signature in the Large Transport toolbar display.
Setting the Metronome and Tempo Settings
The metronome counts off each beat in a measure, so you can hear the tempo of your project. You can choose to have the metronome sound during recording, during playback, or both. When you start recording, Pro Audio can play one or more measures of metronome clicks before recording begins. This can help you get in the groove before you start performing. These measures are called the count-in. When you create a new project, you should set the metronome to play during the count-in and while recording. If you are adding material to an existing project, you might only need the metronome for the count-in. You can customize the metronome sound to use your PC speaker or any note on a MIDI instrument. By default, Pro Audio uses a hi-hat cymbal sound from a general MIDI drum kit for the metronome, but you can change this setting to anything you like by changing the MIDI port, MIDI channel, and duration. You can also choose the note and velocity (volume) to use for the rst beat of each measure and for all other beats. The metronome settings are stored separately with each project, so you can use different settings for each one. Most metronome options can be set in the metronome toolbar:
The metronome MIDI note parameters must be set in the Metronome Settings dialog box.
If you are synchronized to an external clock source, you cannot use the count-in feature. For more information, see Chapter 15, Synchronizing Your Gear.
To Set the Tempo and Metronome for a New Project

Setting the Audio Sampling Rate and Bit Depth
Each Pro Audio project has an audio sampling rate and a bit depth that indicates the level of accuracy with which audio data are stored. The same parameters are used for all the digital audio in a project. When you create a new project, if you do not want to use the default setting, you must choose a sample rate before you start recording audio. Pro Audio lets you choose from ve different sampling rates: 11025 Hz, 22050 Hz, 44100 Hz, 48000 Hz, and 96000 Hz. The default is 44100 Hz, the same rate as audio CDs. A higher sampling rate produces better quality sound. However, a higher sampling rate also means that each audio clip takes up more memory and disk space and requires more intensive processing by your computer. If you have an older computer, or a slow hard drive, you might be better off with a lower sampling rate.
To Set the MIDI Metronome Sounds from your MIDI Instrument
For more information, see Improving Performance with Digital Audio on page 13-20. By default, the bit depth of audio data is 16 bits. If your sound card supports 18, 20, 22, or 24 bit audio, you can choose to take advantage of these higher resolutions. If you are creating a new project that will contain only MIDI material (no audio), you do not need to set the audio sampling rate or bit depth. If you import audio from a wave le or another digital audio le, the sampling rate will be set automatically to your default setting.

Note for Experts:

If you are planning to move your project to a Digital Audio Tape (DAT) or to some other media via a digital transfer, set your sampling rate to match the target unit. For example, use 44100Hz for a project that will be mastered to a CD, so that no sample rate conversion is required.
To Set the Sampling Rate for a Project
1. Choose Options-Audio to display the DirectShow Audio dialog box. Select the desired sampling rate from the Default Sampling Rate list. Set the desired bit depth in the Default File Bit Depth box. Click OK.
The sampling rate will be saved with the project le.
Setting the MIDI Timing Resolution
Each Pro Audio project has a setting for the timing resolution, or timebase, that indicates the resolution of MIDI data. This resolution is measured in ticks or pulses per quarter note and is often abbreviated as PPQ. The default resolution is 120PPQ, which is accurate enough for most applications. In this timebase, each quarter note is represented by 120 ticks, each eighth note by 60 ticks, each eighth-note triplet by 40 ticks, and so on.

Auto Punch

Recording only takes place between the punch-in and punch-out times. The new material replaces (overwrites) any existing material.
To Choose a Recording Mode
Select a mode from the drop-down list in the Record toolbar. to display the Choose Realtime-Record Options or click Record Options dialog box, then select the desired mode.
Cakewalk saves your recording options with each project, so you can save a different recording mode with each of your projects.

Choosing a Source

To record into a track, you must choose a source for the music or sound to be recorded. Usually, you choose MIDI Omni to record material from a MIDI instrument or the left or right channel of a digital audio device (such as a sound card) to record audio material, or stereo if you want to record stereo audio in a single track. The source for each track is displayed in the Source column of the Track window and at the bottom of each module in the Console window.
When you choose MIDI Omni as the input source for a track, Pro Audio merges material from all MIDI sources (ports) and instruments. This means you dont have to worry about port, channel, or other MIDI settings. Sometimes, you may want to record different MIDI channels into different tracks. To learn how to do this, see Recording Channel by Channel on page 4-28.
While each track can have a different source, it is also possible for several tracks to have the same source. If you record the same material into several different tracks at once, the resulting material will be stored in linked clips. For more information about linked clips, see Working with Linked Clips on page 5-21.
To Choose a Source in the Track View
1. Double-click in the Source column of a track to display the Track Properties dialog box. Choose a source from the Source list, and click OK. OR 1. 2. Click in the Source column of the track you want to set. Press the + or key until you reach the source you want.
To Choose a Source in the Console
1. Click the Source button and choose a source from the list.
If you want to assign all your audio sources to a series of tracks, heres a quick shortcut. Hold the Shift key and click in the Source cell for each track. Pro Audio will assign the audio sources to these tracks in increasing order. The names of the sources depend on your audio hardware. The assignment of sources will wrap to the rst audio source when you exceed the number of available audio sources.

MIDI data is recorded using Step Record even if the track is not armed, loop markers are ignored, and Step Record always uses the Sound on Sound (blend) record mode, regardless of the current record mode. You use the Step Record dialog box to perform step recording:
The step size and the duration can each be set to one of three things:
Setting A particular note value
How to use it Simply choose the note value from the list Choose the note value and check the Dotted option Click Other, enter the number of MIDI ticks, and click OK

A dotted note value

A number of MIDI ticks
The Auto Advance option automatically advances recording to the next step when all MIDI input stops. For example, if you press the three keys that make up a C major chord, as soon as you release all three keys, Pro Audio automatically advances to the next step. This makes it very easy to record a series of chords that are spaced at regular intervals. With Auto Advance disabled, you must click Advance each time you want to advance to the next step. While this requires more effort, it also
provides you with more exibility. For example, with Auto Advance disabled, you do not even need to play the notes at a single step at the same time! You can play any number of notes one at a time, and they will all be recorded at the same step until you click the Advance button. You can even record notes of different durations at the same step simply record the notes of one duration, change the duration, and play more notes, without clicking Advance. You can click Delete to erase the notes you recorded in a single step. If Auto Advance is enabled, the Delete button deletes the notes played at the prior step, and it also backs up a step so you can rerecord the notes at that step. With Auto Advance disabled, the Delete button erases any notes you have recorded at the current step.

To Use Step Recording

1. 2. Choose the source for the track(s) you want to record. Set the Now time to the point in the project where you want to start recording. Choose Realtime-Step Record, or click to display the Step Record dialog box. in the Record toolbar
Follow the instructions in the following table:
To do this Record the next step
Do this Play the note(s) you want on your MIDI instrument Click Delete Click Advance without playing any notes Click the scroll arrows in the scroll bar Drag the indicator in the scroll bar
Erase the most recent step Skip a step (add rests)

L = 20 log (p/p0)

Similar decibel scales are used in other branches of science and engineering to measure electrical power levels and other signal levels, always with respect to some reference level. In Pro Audio, decibels are used in several places: To scale the amplitude of the waveform (3dB Louder and 3dB Quieter commands) To indicate volume levels of audio tracks in the Console view To indicate the effects of lters and equalizers
The reference level (0 dB) usually corresponds to the current loudness of the sound. A positive change in decibels makes the sound louder; a negative change makes the sound quieter.

Audio Events

If you have read from the beginning of the chapter, you should have a good idea of what is contained in a Pro Audio audio event. An audio event contains a long series of numbers, or samples, representing the uctuating amplitude of a waveform. Audio events are typically quite large, hundreds of kilobytes to many megabytes in size. By comparison, a MIDI event takes only a few bytes to store. The Audio view lets you see your audio waveforms in great detail; you can zoom in until you see the individual samples. To change the display, right-click the track number to the far left in the Audio view. Pro Audio can display the amplitude of the waveform as a percentage in the range 100% to +100%, as dB, or as actual sample values.
You should also now be aware of some things to watch out for when editing your audio data. First, if you cut audio events apart or splice them together, you should do so at zero-crossings in the waveform, in order to avoid sudden changes in amplitude that may cause clicks and pops. Second, you should beware of clipping. Clipping of the audio
waveform can occur if you record a signal at too high a record level, or if you apply audio processing or effects that increase the waveform amplitude too much. If you accidentally cause the waveform to clip, you should undo the command and try again with different parameters. Clipping can also occur in other situations, for example, if you try to play or mix several loud audio tracks together, the aggregate signal strength may at times exceed the clipping limit, and the output signal will be distorted. To correct the problem, you can reduce the velocity parameter of loud audio events or reduce the track volume in the Console view.

Create a Send Submix

All selected audio tracks are mixed down into a stereo submix. This stereo submix is fed into the plug-in, in stereo. The stereo output of the plug-in is placed into a new stereo track at the destination you choose. If you check Keep Original Data, Pro Audio won't delete the original audio data. If you leave it unchecked, the processed data will replace the original audio events.
Adding Parametric Equalization
The Cakewalk FX Parametric EQ command lets you apply a complex lter to your audio data. The complex lter is a combination of up to three simple lters, each dened individually. Parameters for each lter are described in the following table:
Parameter/Option. Low-pass Band-pass High-pass Gain Center Frequency Q
Meaning. Removes frequencies above the center frequency Removes frequencies near the center frequency Removes frequencies below the center frequency The amount of increase or decrease in gain, in dB The center or cutoff frequency for the lter The quality, or sharpness, of the lter
While you are setting up the lters in the Cakewalk FX Parametric EQ dialog box, you will see a graphic representation of the composite lter, like this:
Parametric equalization is useful in many different circumstances. For example, you can use it to boost low frequencies or high frequencies, to
The horizontal axis shows increasing frequency; the vertical axis shows the gain or attenuation at each frequency. If the curve is above the horizontal center line, parts of the signal at that frequency will be boosted; if the curve is below the center line, the signal will be attenuated.
attenuate 60-cycle hum or high-frequency noise, or to boost a particular instrument sound for use in other Pro Audio commands.
1. 2. Select the audio data to be affected. Choose Audio Effects-Cakewalk FX-Parametric EQ from the Edit menu or from the pop-up menu to open the Cakewalk FX Parametric EQ dialog box. Set options for the rst lter, as described in the table above. Change Current Filter to 2 and set parameters for the second lter. Repeat for the third lter. Click OK.
Pro Audio applies the composite lter to the selected data.

Adding Chorus

The Cakewalk FX Chorus command fattens the audio to make one instrument sound like many. When many people sing together, for example, each of their voices is slightly out of tune and off the beat. Therefore, detuning and delaying the signal makes many instruments sound richer, including guitars, vocals, and strings. The Chorus effect has the ability to act on a stereo track or a stereo pair, a pair of consecutive tracks, one of which is panned hard left (0), the other of which is panned hard right (127). The feedback signal can be crossed between the tracks to create a richer stereo effect. The parameters used to specify the chorus effect are as follows:

Length

Retrograde Transpose

Scale Velocity

Fit to Time
To Change the Staff Pane Layout.
1. Click the Staff View Layout button Layout dialog box. to open the Staff View
Select a track from the list (if the track you want to edit is not in the list, click the Pick Tracks button in the Staff view toolbar and select it). The Clef option shows the tracks clef. Select a new clef from the list. If you select Treble/Bass, select a Split point. If you select one of the Percussion options, click Percussion Settings to set up the appearance of percussion notes. Repeat steps 2-5 for other tracks. Click Close when you are done.
Pro Audio displays tracks using the new staff settings.
If a piano parts left-hand and right-hand parts overlap, a split point will not correctly separate the two parts into treble and bass staves. You may prefer to put the two parts into two separate tracks.

The Fretboard

The Fretboard shows you the notes located at the Now time in the Staff pane, laid out on a virtual guitar fretboard. For example, if the Staff pane shows you this:
The Fretboard pane shows you this:
The Fretboard stays in sync with the Now Time during playback and recording, and stays in sync with the scrub time during scrubbing. The color of each note on the Fretboard is the same as the color of the corresponding clip in the Track view. (See Arranging Clips on page 5-5 for information about setting clip properties.) To turn the display of the Fretboard on or off, click.

Fretboard Popup Menu

When you right-click the Fretboard in the Staff view, the Fretboard popup menu appears, giving you choices for note editing, Staff view layout, and Fretboard appearance.

Menu command Select Draw

Result Changes your cursor to the Select tool. Changes your cursor to the Draw tool.
Erase Scrub Layout Select Fretboard Track
Changes your cursor to the Erase tool. Changes your cursor to the Scrub tool. Opens the Staff View Layout dialog box. Controls which of the displayed tracks receive the notes you enter on the Fretboard. Saves the track in ASCII TAB format with the extension TXT. Inverts Fretboard so highest-sounding string appears at the bottom. Fretboard appears in rosewood with high screen resolution. Fretboard appears in rosewood with low screen resolution. Fretboard appears in ebony with high screen resolution. Fretboard appears in ebony with low screen resolution. Fretboard appears in maple with high screen resolution. Fretboard appears in maple with low screen resolution.

Mirror Fretboard

Rosewood Hi

Rosewood Lo

Ebony Hi Ebony Lo Maple Hi Maple Lo

Basic Musical Editing

The Staff view's tools let you edit a song by manipulating the elements of standard music notation. Using these tools, you can create and edit notes, pedal marks, expression marks, hairpins, and lyrics.

Inserting Notes on the Staff
You can add notes to your composition with simple point-and-click techniques. To help with your composing, Pro Audio gives you audio feedback as you place each note. You can insert notes anywhere in the Staff pane, but inserting them at the Now time gives you control over the exact time you want to insert to. The Shift-Right/Left Arrow command moves the Now Time forward or backward by the amount of the note duration you choose. Six buttons let you select a note duration ranging from a whole note to a 32nd note. Buttons to the right of the notehead buttons let you select dotted note or triplet modiers. The Ctrl-Right/Left Arrow command pages you through the track, sounding each note as the cursor passes over it. You
can also page through the track by clicking the Play-Next button or the Play-Previous button. Note: You cannot insert notes whose durations are less than the value in the Display Resolution eld, which is located in the top level of the Staff view toolbar. You may want to pick a different snap-to grid value for a particular note. For example, if you want to insert a half note in the last quarter note position in a measure (in order to get two tied quarter notes), you must set the snap resolution to a quarter note. Pro Audio will automatically convert the half note to two tied quarter notes. The same method can be used to insert a syncopated note, such as a quarter note at an eighth note position. You may also wish to disable the Fill Durations and Trim Durations options before you enter notes on the staff. This will allow you to see the true durations of all the notes you enter. These options are discussed in Changing the Way Notes Are Displayed on page 8-15.
To Insert a Note on the Staff.
Select a notehead size, and a modier (dot or triplet) if desired. Move the Now time to the location where you want the new note by pressing Shift-Right arrow or Shift-Left arrow. Notice the vertical line that marks the Now time in the Staff pane. Click the cursor on the vertical line at the pitch that you want.
Pro Audio places the new note in the staff. If desired, drag the note horizontally or vertically to a new time or pitch.
Inserting Notes with the Fretboard
You can also enter notes onto the staff from the fretboard using the mouse. You always enter notes into the staff at the Now time.
To Insert Notes on the Fretboard with the Mouse
1. 2. 3. 4. Click in the time ruler to set the Now time. Click to select the Draw tool.

To Delete Unused Audio Files
1. Make sure all project les that contain audio are immediately accessible on a hard disk. If you are running Windows 95, empty the Recycle Bin. Choose Tools-Clean Audio Disk to display the Clean Audio Disk dialog box. Click the Find button. Pro Audio searches your hard disk for audio les that appear to be unused by any existing projects, and displays the names of these les in the list. Follow the instructions in the table:
To do this Listen to a le Do this Highlight the le name in the list and click Play Highlight the le name in the list and click Delete Click Delete All, and click Yes to conrm

Delete a le

Delete all les
Click Close when you are done.

Compacting Audio Files

The Compact Audio Data command places all digital audio used in the current project into a single digital audio le. This can improve the efciency of playback, particularly if you have performed lots of audio editing. Individual audio events in the project point to specic portions of this single le. Audio events may continue to use the same portion of the audio data le in order to reduce disk usage. When this command has been carried out, all of the original audio les remain in the wavedata folder. To reclaim disk space, use the Tools-Clean Audio Disk command.

To Compact Audio Files

1. 2. Choose Tools-Compact Audio Data. Conrm that you want to compact your audio data.
Pro Audio compacts all audio data for the current project into a single le.
Backing Up Projects with Digital Audio
A bundle le is a single le that contains all the informationexcept videoused in a project. A bundle le includes everything that is stored in a normal project le, plus all the digital audio that is used in the project. Use a bundle le when you want to: Make a backup copy of a project that contains digital audio Transfer a project containing digital audio from one computer to another
Because a bundle le makes an extra copy of all the digital audio in your project, it will require extra disk space. Bundle les are not intended to be your primary means of storing a song. Bundle les have a le extension of.bun. When you open a bundle le, the audio data are placed into the wavedata folder, and the remainder of the song is loaded into memory. Use the File-Save As command if you want to save the project as a regular project (.wrk) le. Normal Cakewalk project les (extension.wrk) contain various project settings, any MIDI data, and references which "point" to audio clip data. The audio data itself is not saved in a project le. To save audio as well, save your project as a Bundle le (extension.bun). Bundle les contain everything that a project le contain in addition to the digital audio. Bundle les are useful for backing up projects and for transporting on removeable media, like a Zip or Jaz disk.

After you add or remove a driver with the Drivers icon in the Windows Control Panel, you must restart Windows for the change to take effect.
Dening Your MIDI Instrument or Sound Card
Once you have selected your MIDI Input and Output devices, Pro Audio, by default, plays back MIDI sequences using a General MIDI instrument denition. If you are using a synthesizer or sound card that does not adhere to the General MIDI standard, you may want to dene that instrument. For information about instrument denitions, see Chapter 10, Using Instrument Denitions.

Appendix D: MIDI Files

The Standard MIDI le format is a le interchange format dened by the MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA). The purpose of the format is to allow for the exchange of MIDI data between different programs. Any program that can read and write MIDI les has a common language with which to talk to other MIDI software. The compact size of MIDI music les makes them particularly useful for delivering music online. Pro Audio can open standard MIDI les, and can save your projects in standard MIDI le formats. Note that only the MIDI portion of your projects is saved in a standard MIDI le. If your projects contain digital audio, the audio portion of the project will be lost when you save it to a standard MIDI le. Pro Audio supports two different MIDI le formats, MIDI Format 0 and MIDI Format 1. Format 0 MIDI les contain a single track, with all events stored in that track. Format 1 MIDI les can store up to 256 tracks, just like Pro Audio project les. When you load a MIDI Format 0 le, Pro Audio splits it into 16 separate tracks, based on the MIDI channels assigned to each event. When you save a project to a MIDI Format 0 le, Pro Audio collapses MIDI information from all of its tracks into one single track. Pro Audio also lets you save and load les in the RIFF MIDI le format. This is a standard Resource Interchange File Format specication that encapsulates a Standard MIDI File of either format 0 or format 1. These les typically have an extension of.rmi. A disadvantage of MIDI les is that the way the le sounds on playback varies based upon the sound reproduction hardware you are using. The same song sounds very different on two different synthesizers or two different sound cards. Another problem is that the Standard MIDI File

MIDI Files

specication leaves some details open to interpretation by software and hardware manufacturers.