Punch Loop Marker
Punch in and out and Loop, in OOM, are simple and easy to use, and those who are familiar with these functions in other DAWs should have little trouble identifying how these functions are used.
Punch in and out can be adjusted in the Composer, and the Performer.
This page contains the following sections:
- Punch In and Out
- Loop
- Markers
(Middle mouse click for left indicator, and right mouse click for right indicator, with the mouse hovered in the ruler)
The punch in and out indicators in OOM set a range for recording, and are also used for selecting multiple parts to erase, move, or copy elsewhere in your project, and define a range for automation node selection in audio track types. Reference is made to punch and out functions specific to use with other functions in the relevant wiki pages, but the process of setting punch in and out is constant.
In the ruler, position your mouse where you wish to set a punch indicator, and either middle or rightclick for which indicator you wish to set.
In the transport icon set, or the main Transport Window F11 , punch in and out indicators can be toggled on and off, as you want. When indicators are active, a vertical line will appear across the entire canvas giving you a clear indicator per track where punch in and out start and finish. When the punch in and out functions are deactivated, the vertical lines will disappear, leaving only the green punch indicators in the ruler.
You can also move the punch in and out indicators to a selection automatically, for example a highlighted part, by pressing the shortcut, ALT + P .
Note. If you have 2 parts, each of one bar duration, with the first one starting on Bar 5, and the next starting on Bar 10, when you press the shortcut ALT + P , it will move the right hand indicator first. You will need to to press the shortcut again to then move the left indicator. This is to enable you to either add the next part to the existing range selection, or by pressing the shortcut a second time, select a completely new range to work with. This 2 stage function only works going right, along the timeline. Going left, both indicators will move at once to a part selection, so you can then add to the right as you want. Each time you highlight a part going right, a single shortcut ALT + P will add the highlighted part to the current range, unless you press the shortcut a second time.
The loop function in OOM works in conjunction with punch in and out indicators to define a range for a loop. The loop function is as implied, a function to loop constantly between the punch in and out indicators. When recording with the loop function turned on, the user can define the type of recording, overdub or replace, in the transport window. Overdub will add your recorded data to existing data, and replace will add new data, erasing the previous data. When your punch in and out indicators are set, and the loop function is active, with the track or tracks record armed, then commence looped recording by pressing the space bar, pressing it again when you wish to stop recording.
With indicators set, you can toggle the loop function on and off with the / key. This will also disengage the indicators when toggled off.
User Tip. It's been our experience, when setting a loop range for recording, that positioning the playback cursor 1 or 2 bars before the loop region gives you a decent run into the record loop when you hit record. You can also do this automatically by positioning the playback cursor before the loop region, and pressing U (Toggle on/off). This is called the Universal Return function and returns the playback cursor to the same place you started from, when you press space to stop recording or playback. We find this highly useful, as it's often the case that even with record "replace" engaged, takes don't always turn out exactly right, and each loop record just seems to get worse. (No one's perfect) You can turn the Repeat function off by either clicking on the icon in the toolbar, or by pressing CTRL + U
The marker dialog is a window where markers can be added to your project, and text can be added to the marker for your specific purpose.
The process of adding and removing markers is simple. Open the Markers dialog from the Views menu, or use the shortcut F9 .
The Marker dialog is a list format, so simply add or remove from the list, using the plus and cross icons at the top left of the dialog. You can also do this from the Marker dialog Edit menu.
Set the value for the position of the marker on the timeline using the value boxes in Marker properties at the bottom left of the dialog, and in the text window at the bottom right of the dialog, add the text you want for that marker. You can change the text at any time, by selecting a marker entry, and modifying the associated text. Markers will appear in the ruler as Orange, and as the playback cursor passes from one marker to the next, the ruler will light up with a highlighted section, indicating the playback cursor positions is in that marker's range.
You can also add markers on the fly, for the current playback cursor position, by positioning the PB where you want to the marker to appear, open the dialog, and add a marker. The new entry will automatically reflect the current PB position value.
To change the position of an existing Marker, using the Marker dialog, select the list entry, and use either of the bottom left positional value boxes in Marker Properties to make the change.
The left value box is Bars, and the right value box is Time.
Select one or the other, and using the left and right arrows, move the highlight to the value you want to change, with left being a coarser value and right being a finer value.
At the bottom of the Marker Dialog, next to the Text box, is an icon for a padlock. You can "lock" the marker in place, using this icon, rendering editing of the Marker entry as disabled. When an entry is locked, a purple icon will appear in the entry.
Press the padlock icon again to unlock.