Song Layers?

[henryb]

I was reading the article in your Sept newsletter about new features in V2. The one that I found very interesting was the "Song Layer". I was unaware of this feature, and I would like to learn more about it. I perused your Online User Guide and although that topic is listed in the index... there is no information about it? Can someone expand on how to use it?

[dave]

Hi henryb.

I tried to explain it the best I could in the article, but I'll try to give you some more info here.

Let's say that you've created a song like you always used to by creating individual Riffs and sequencing them in the Song Sequencer. You can hit play in the Song Sequencer and hear them playing back sequentially through your song. Hit stop.

To add some Song Layers, click on the Song Layers brick in the RiffList. Your Riff Recorder will now be showing you your Song Layers. There shouldn't be any because you haven't recorded any yet. Hit the record button in the Riff Recorder. You will hear your whole song while you play along and the position marker in the song timeline will be moving. Start playing what you want to record over the whole song. If you don't want to record anything over certain parts, just stop playing during those. When you're finished recording, hit the stop button in the Riff Recorder. You should see a new layer in your Song Layers. Now when you press play either in the Riff Recorder or the Song Sequencer, you will hear that song layer that you recorded playing right along with your Riffs.

Dave

[michelle]

Here is the page on SongLayers in the guide. I'll fix the link in the index right now.

http://www.sonomawireworks.com/guide/index.php/SongLayers

Thanks.

[henryb]

Thanks, that clarifies things alot. I just didn't realize what that SongLayers area was? This is a great feature, I know a bunch of users of this product that record vocals will be thrilled. Now if I could only sing!!! .

Brent.

[depepat]

Dave

On the subject of song layers, which are a great feature that adds considerable versatility to Riffworks, is it possible to record a song layer over just a part of a song; in other words, to have a number of sequential song layers making up the vocal track, much the same way that riffs work ?

Can you start recording a song layer part-way through a song, or do you have to record the song-layer from the beginning, in one uninterupted take ?

depepat

[mickeymix]

Put the song pointer to where you want to record click the songlayers and then record.... this works..... just point to the spot before you want to record at and it works like a punch in/out .when your done just press stop or the record button again and the song will keep playing , but no recording being done then.
hope this helps.


..............Mike

[depepat]

Thanks for the info Mike; I'll have a play around with it.

I assume that you could do this a number of times and thus effectively 'compile' a vocal track from a sequence of song-layers, provided that they were in the right order and didn't overlap; in other words, you can record a verse, then a chorus, then another verse, and so on - takes a lot of pressure off recording a song's whole vocal in a single take !

[mickeymix]

just make sure that the songbar arraingment is the way you want it 1st .......... if you later rearrange the songlayers might not sync up... just a heads up........I've recorded guitar solos that overlap in some collabs and someone re arrainged ........luckily I had taken a screenshot to fix the songbar.........

[troy2006]

Irecorded a song and used the song layers brick for recording over the song.iwanted to redo Isee it is undoable maybee ,so do i import the song into a new prject and if so how do Ido this? It would be nice to not lose everything iv'e done. maybee it would be better to just not use this feature.

[guilhermenobrega]

How could I take so long to learn that!! I spent the last months mixing the song to a riff, exporting it to a riff file, creating a new song and importing the riff just to create song layers.. How stupid was I! Thanks a lot! Made it way lot easier.

[cwight]

Troy, the songlayer shuuld be undoable, just delete that layer. Make sure the songlayers is clicked and then select layers, then delete. Actually, I think songlayer is the wrong name, it's more like a song Riff that goes the length of the whole song, but you can add multiple layers to it....

[blue4u]

It can be tricky to tell the difference between working on a normal riff layer and working on a song layer. The key to seeing this is the little arrow that appears within the riff. When you click on the song layer brick you will see a left-aligned and centered arrow appear there. It's doesn't really stand out but if you click back on one of your other regular riffs you will see the arrow move to that riff layer. This is an important visual cue and I think a primary reason why many people miss out on this GREAT feature!! I hope this helps someone...

Rich

[troy2006]

Thanks cwight and blue4u for telling me about this I will check it out

[Stymie]

Is there any way to export songlayers and then import them into another file? The reason I'm asking is that I would like to play drums on collaborations, but since I'm not the author I can't mute the instant drummer. It makes it very hard to play along.

Thanks,
Ron

[gatorjj]

Ron, I think you're talking about RiffLink? You can solo the SongLayer part which would get rid of the drums (click the 'solo' box on SongLayer). Problem being though, you won't hear what are in the riffs themselves, only what is recorded in the songlayer.

The other alternative I guess is to ask the author to mute the drums so you can play!

J.J.