Metro 6 Released And Online, Why don't they *tell* us these things... Options

[Levon River]

Topic title sez it all:

http://www.sagantech.biz/acart/agora.cgi

Click on "Software."

And they din't even wait for that damn NAMM, thank-you-ma'am.

There's a non-G4 version, a G4 version (both at $319.99 [Why don't people just charge $320.00 and save the lives of some 9s?]), plus a surprise "SE" version for just $59.99.

Get 'em while they're hot.

This post has been edited by Levon River: Fri 10 Jan 2003, 00:27

[Levon River]

gorillacake: I'll give you my best shot at it. As for the opening "old" vs. "new" Ports thing, I'd just ignore whatever it's throwing into the "Old" side. If you've got Apple's "Audio MIDI Setup" (AMS) correctly configured, then whatever your MIDI interface is should show up in the available choices in the dropdown menu on the "New" side. In fact each MIDI I/O you've got on your interface should show up there, named the same as you have them named in AMS. So in your case, use two of those "New" dropdowns to assign as "Ports" the MIDI I/Os on your Quattro that you plan to use--each one of those Ports carrying 16 channels of MIDI. (You have the clickable option of Metro then creating a separate available "Instrument" for each available MIDI channel on all your selected "Ports".) When you're done there, bail from that window.

(Once you're out of there, I suggest you go into Metro Preferences and change something and save it. I think that seems to keep that "Ports" window from presenting itself every time you open the program. )

For your audio "Ports," you configure that under the "Setup" menu, "Digital audio..." Selecting that opens a window where you can configure Metro for your audio I/O. It also should present you with options that are a reflection of what you have configured in AMS. One thing you have to check in there, though, is the option if you want to record in stereo. Otherwise it defaults to recording in mono. Also, be sure to go into "Device Options" and do whatever seems called for there. Once you've set all that, you're actually pretty well done and ready to make happy noises. (Why the manual doesn't just say that, I dunno. )

After that, in the "Tracks" window, you should see a bunch of tracks all assigned to one of your MIDI "Ports" (16-channel I/Os) in the "Instruments" column. If you click on that Port name in any track, you'll get a contextual menu in which you should see a list of each and every MIDI channel for each configured MIDI port, plus whatever audio Ports you've configured. Set the track to what you want, and that's the MIDI channel or audio "Port" that *that* track will record from and play back to.

After that, select "Instruments" in the "Windows" menu. That brings up an on-screen mixer showing all your configured MIDI channels and audio I/Os (which Metro calls "Instruments"--wisely or unwisely) on individual channel-strips in the mixer, and named with the default names. Each of the channel-strips with faders represents one of the (in your case) 32 MIDI channels, or one of your audio I/Os--all of which is assignable by you to any channel strip on the mixer. Double-click on the name below any of the faders. That opens a "Define Instrument" window showing you which "Port" that channel strip is currently assigned to (audio or MIDI), and, if MIDI, which channel it is. You can rename it anything you want (like "DX7 Bells").

It's right about this point that you should start to be getting a little bit of a warm glow of satisfaction and a feel for the way this powerful, if complex, beast is put together, and should be able to start intuiting a few things into working order. It takes some fiddling and fuddling around, but pretty soon you go, "Whoa!"

For more command and control power, go to the "Special" menu and select "Modify Instruments and Busses..." (Why is in the "Special" menu? What is the sound of one hand clapping?) There you'll find just scads of options for setting up your mixer channels (Instruments) and your busses any damn way you want.

Anyway, play around with it and record some audio and/or MIDI on one of the tracks, and play it back, and double-click on its track (opening the "Graphic Editor" window), and hopefully it'll all start making some sense about that time.

Once you have some audio recorded or imported into a track, for some instant fun gratification, select that track, then go to the menu "Windows/Plug-ins," opening that. You should see a complete list of all your available AUs and VSTs. Then go to the menu "Windows/Effects," opening that. You then have a window into which you can drag any of your plug-ins, which then presents you with a fine interface, like for Apple's reverb. How they get applied where depends on how you have your busses set, etc., but the manual seems to be fairly clear in that area at least.

Hope this at least gets you going and yer juices flowing, and hope you have fun.

This post has been edited by Levon River: Thu 16 Jan 2003, 03:24