Yamaha AW4416, Music Production, AW2816 manual Plan AHEAD…

opportunity to import data from an existing recording. This function1 means that once you get to know the AW, you will be able to import your favorite setups from any previous recording sessions making working with the unit easier as you go along. Just select OK and press [ENTER]

•You can also NAME the SONG and write any comments about the session. If you have not invested in a simple serial mouse, do so. You will find it invaluable navigating the AW and especially when naming and writing comments. Best $10 you can spend!

•When working with music and musicians, you will find it convenient and wise to have the clock count MEASURES and BEATS. The AW can count hours, minutes, seconds, frames and fractions of a frame or just hours, minutes seconds and milliseconds, but when working with music and MIDI set the display to count in “musician language”. Press [SONG]/ [F2] Setting, set the DISPLAY parameter to “Measure”. This will increase your ability to “talk” music with the composer…most musicians know that the bridge starts at measure 49, not 1min:32.476seconds into the song.

•Next you will want to set up the Metronome function. You can set the metronome by pressing the [TRACK] button and selecting the F1 TRACK VIEW screen. Use the down cursor to the select the “METRO” ON/OFF parameter and turn it ON. This is an audible metronome but will not be recorded to the track (unless you have an open microphone near your speakers). You can use this click as opposed to the click of the MIDI sequencer for all recording, if you wish.

•Set the TEMPO MAP. Press the [SONG] button of [SONG]/[F4] to select the TEMPO MAP screen. Input the time signature and BPM of the song you are getting ready to record. You can actually create a tempo map event list, outlining any tempo changes or time signature changes that are in the song. By doing this ahead of time you can have the metronome count correctly no matter how complex the song. You cannot remove this “STEP 01” event. What you can do is affect where “Measure 001: beat 1” occurs. It is, generally, a good idea to place a few seconds in front of the meaningful start of the song, just in case you need you to build a count-in or want to place information in front of the main song. To

1The AW2816/4416 can recall SCENE MEMORY, TEMPO MAP, AUTOMIX, LIBRARY settings, and MIDI REMOTE setups from any other session and import them to the new Song session.

do this we can “Set the START Point”… This will be the time at which the measure counter begins and the AW begins to generate MIDI clock (or MTC) for controlling the connected slave devices. We will be literally placing measures prior to the start command of the clock. If at a later time you need to overdub a musical part that starts at measure 1, beat 1, you will be glad that you have this “count-in”.

•Under the [TRACK] button select the [F4] MARK ADJ. screen and select the “LOCATOR POSITION” function. This will show you a list of key points within the recording. You will see START, END, Marker A, Marker B, and Last IN and Last OUT points of the SONG. Move the cursor to the ‘frames’ position next to the “START” time: Hrs:Min:Sec:Frames:sub- frames:

00:00:00:00.00.

The time is always displayed here in Absolute time. As you begin to move the Data Wheel clockwise to input a new start time the measure counter will begin to count backwards. As you dial up the frames you will see the BEAT counter start counting according to your selected time signature and tempo. If, for example, your song is in 4/4 time, you will see the BEAT counter count back from 4. As you scroll the time you can count how many measures of lead-in you are creating. For example, if you want a two measure count-in let it count backwards from 4 twice and add one extra tick (for good measure):

04 – 03 – 02 – 01 – 04 – 03 – 02 – 01 – 04

You stop at the next 04 so that when you start the playback you get the four-count complete twice.

PLAN AHEAD…

An important part of music production on the AW in conjunction with a MIDI sequencer, is the actual project planning. There are no specific rules or ways to proceed. Only suggested guidelines for using the strongest tool for the job given the technology. For example, the biggest advantage that recording as MIDI tracks offers you, is the ability correct the performance data and the ability to control the sound of the instrument. You can maximize the use of the synthesizer/tone generator by recording tracks as MIDI, correcting any performance errors in the event data and then maximizing the sound before transferring that MIDI track to the AW as an audio track. This is only one of many possible scenarios. You might never commit your MIDI tracks to audio. Instead you could use the AW tracks to record only acoustic sounds (vocals, live guitars, live drums, acoustic piano, etc.) while keeping the MIDI tracks “virtual”. The word “virtual” here is used in