How to duplicate a song section
Probably asked before (maybe even by me...) and solved. But whats the quickest way to copy a song section if it already has patterns to the right of it in timeline?
Like if I have 8 tracks with patterns on each track and a verse, bridge, chorus along timeline. And i want to copy the verse containing all patterns from all 8 tracks to after the chorus on timeline. What's best method? Feels like I should just be able to select all the sequences in the verse, hit copy, move timeline cursor to after the chorus, hit paste. But that option doesn't seem to exist in BM3...
Options seem to be -
-Move bridge and chorus patterns along timeline to make space after verse, duplicate verse patterns, position them, put other patterns back where they were.
-rebuild the verse sequences arrangement by using the pattern helper. Tedious if the section contains multiple patterns like lots of drum patterns etc.
Both methods feel pretty ridiculous.... Is there a trick to do it in just a couple clicks?
Comments
Those are two of the three options I can think of right now. The third is to simply repeat or duplicate your selection, depending on if you want to create new patterns or not, as you would have if this section was already at the far right of your song, but then move the selection of patterns afterwards. Remember that BM3 still allows "layering" of patterns and notes on top of eachother. I don't know if it's considered a feature, as it's not easy or nigh impossible to tell when something is stacked on top of something else.
Also, if you duplicate the selection, remember that 3.0.10 still has the crash bug when you undo a duplication that includes multiple copies of a single pattern.
Thanks @ronji
So if I repeat/duplicate, it will place it OVER the adjacent files and then I can select them, without selecting the patterns underneath, and move them? Sounds super sketchy/abnormal but like the quickest way, thanks
Really surprised that you can't just select patterns, hit Copy and drag them to where you want... Like using Ctrl and dragging a clip in most daws... Touchscreen is ideal for that kind of function
@Heyez I feel like copy and paste of patterns will come soon. In essence, repeat and duplicate technically are a similar workflow to "hit copy and drag where you want", except when you hit repeat or duplicate then the copies are automatically placed to the right of the selection.
But to be clear, you wouldn't select the repeated or duplicated patterns that are over the other patterns as a separate step. When you repeat or duplicate a selection, the repeats/duplicates are automatically selected, and you must then move them while they are selected. If you don't, there are ways around it, but I have to run and can't describe them right now hahaha.
Following on from Ronji's advice...
The trick is to move the duplicated block of patterns right away, whilst it is the 'active selection'. If you somehow accidentally deselect the copied pattern(s) my advice is to hit Undo and redo the repeat/duplicate process again to get the selection back.
Exactly. However, there are ways out if you lose your selection before moving it, AND don’t forget you will crash and lose unsaved progress (no autosave) if you undo a duplication of patterns that included more than one copy of any given pattern.
Here’s a video that shows the ways out and also reminds you of the undo duplication crash
Also, the reason I say I’m not sure if the overlapping of patterns is supposed to be a feature or bug, the functionality works in that two patterns that overlap will play the entire content of both patterns (barring any choke or poliphony restrictions). It’s just not a great feature because you can barely tell that there are patterns overlapping, if at all.
Kind if feels like scene past to timeline could be useful here ?
I've never encountered that crash, but then again I only ever use duplicate on individual patterns.
@5pinlink perhaps, but I haven’t tried that yet, still not that savvy with scenes. Is this something that should work now? Or are you suggesting a FR (or existing FR?)
@tk32 it’s really easy to produce if you’d like to encounter it
it’s got an almost 100% successfailure rate!
@ronji long tap a scene header, there is an option to paste to timeline, you can paste where you place the play cursor in arranger.
The only reason i posted a caveat question mark is that obviously with scenes you have a rigid column of patterns, you cant select multiple columns of patterns to paste whole sections.
But may still be quicker.
@5pinlink ah ok, I see. So if you’re already using scenes in your workflow, that might be faster, but if you’re not then you’d have to go make scenes, so that would probably take longer. Dunno if you checked the video I shared above, but it’s actually fairly quick to select the part in the song, repeat or duplicate, then move that selection. It’s just the current state of selecting, overlapping patterns, and the possibility of deselecting, and the undo duplicate crash, you have to know those caveats or you might end up more frustrated. If deselection was an undoable step, that would make things easier. For that matter if you could just copy and paste in the song arranger like in most daws then that would also alleviate these issues. But of course, the dupe undo crash bug should be fixed in 3.1, so undoing should be enough if nothing else gets improved by then.
I think it is safe to say the arranger is the weakest part of Beatmaker right now, its a back bone of what could be.