Since I’ve been talking about the MIDI editor for the last two days, I’m going to take this opportunity to answer a question that a reader asked about the best way to duplicate loops during MIDI editing.
When programming parts, it’s very common to start with a 1 bar loop to get the basic feel, then duplicate that loop out to two, four or eight bars to create some variations. There are lots of ways to get this done – I’ll show you mine. It’s nice and quick, and requires very little use of the mouse.
Once you’ve got your one bar loop programmed, click on the Loop Brace. This will turn it’s horizontal bar solid black, and highlight the entire bar in yellow as seen below.
Now it’s time to duplicate the loop, which we’ll do using the Duplicate Time command (cmd+shift+D on the Mac). We could just as easily use Duplicate, but that would move the loop. Duplicate Time leaves the loop position alone. To make the pattern four bars long, you would use Duplicate Time three times. Zoom all the way out, and you’ll have something that looks like this:
The final step is to extend the loop length to four bars. Cmd+up arrow (Mac) or Ctrl+up arrow (PC) doubles the length of the loop, so double the length of the loop twice and you’re there. Remember that the loop has to be selected (as shown above) for this command to work.
That’s it! Now you’ve created a nice four bar loop with a minimum of fuss, and you’re ready to start programming variations.
