Muting certain instruments in a Bar

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 10 Apr 2011 3:31 pm

I want to have the piano and drums drop out for 2 bars and then resume. I remember there's a way to do this but I can't recall it. Can anyone please remind me how? (I seem to recall something about typing the letters of the instruments you want to keep, or to lose, or something like that...)

Thanks
Jim

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 10 Apr 2011 3:49 pm

Most bartenders keep one of these handy, Jim.

Andy Sandoval · Post by **Andy Sandoval** » 10 Apr 2011 4:03 pm

Jim, if you can't find one of Bob's hammers try this. Right click on the bar where you want to mute an instrument and choose "bar settings" or hit the F5 key. Remember to do the same thing at the bar where you want the instrument to resume playin.

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 10 Apr 2011 4:29 pm

Yeah, that's the ticket. Thanks, Andy.

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 10 Apr 2011 5:14 pm

My apology. I responded to the title, not the post.

Ken Lang · Post by **Ken Lang** » 10 Apr 2011 5:44 pm

We usually drag them off the stage and beat the hell out of them. Takes all night to recover.

David Collins · Post by **David Collins** » 11 Apr 2011 3:00 am

Andy's answer is certainly correct, but I kinda like B0B's too

Sidney Malone · Post by **Sidney Malone** » 11 Apr 2011 4:02 pm

You can also type the chord for the bar with a period and the 1st letter of the instruments you want to play.

Let's say the the chord for the bar is A and you only wanted the bass & guitar to play it would look like this: A.bg

You can actually specify what to play on each beat of a bar if you like by entering a comma between the specification for the 1st & 2nd beats and the 3rd & 4th beats if necessary. Here's an example of a change of instruments at every beat in a bar, all in the key of A: A.bg,A.bd (enter) A.bdp,A.bdgs

Of course this would be a rare circumstance but it shows the possibilities available as any combination of these can be used as well as "Shots" by using 2 periods (A..) or a "Hold" by using 3 periods (A...), on any beat.

So if you wanted a double shot with bass, drums & guitar only on either beats 1 & 2 or 3 & 4, it would look like: A..bdg,A..bdg If you wanted the same shots on beats 1 & 3, you would enter it like: A..bdg (enter) A..bdg

The key can be changed at any beat as well by just specifying the letter (or Number) of the key at that beat.

I know this is much more than was asked but maybe someone can learn from it.

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 11 Apr 2011 4:13 pm

Sidney, thanks for posting that. That is, in fact, the original method that I had forgotten. Happy to be reminded of it.

I wish there were a way to be able to change chords on every eighth note, instead of just every quarter note. The need for this doesn't come up often but occasionally it does. I seem to recall readng in the HELP directory one time that the only way to do this is to expand the song form to twice as many bars and then double the tempo. Seems like a kludgy work-around.

Sidney Malone · Post by **Sidney Malone** » 11 Apr 2011 10:10 pm

Glad to be of some help Jim....The only way to do eighth notes that I know of is just what you said....double the length & double the tempo. You could do it for just the bar(s) you needed the eighth notes on by doubling the tempo/bars for just those bars, then returning to the original tempo/bars for the remainder of the song. Also if those bars repeated you can copy/paste so you don't have to re-enter everything again.

I haven't tried this with real tracks but I don't think doubling the tempo would work too well because the real tracks are set up to work within a tighter tempo range than that....haha, if you doubled the tempo using real tracks, it might send the whole band into cardiac arrest