How do I link together sections in a song?

Having watched youtube videos on this subject, I have tried holding the first section and the last section of my song down, however this does not seem to link he sections together; I have to press the loop function to link all the sections together. Can anyone assist please

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gaz long

Uwe303

Thanks for the additional advice "what if you press and hold "shift + restart" then press "All" and "loop" if loop isn´t already active, there are several ways to do it all the above described should also work, maybe you forgot to pin a screen with the leftmost button over the screen"

Press and hold "shift + restart" then press "All" and "loop" seems to have solved my problem with the sections automatically looped. I have attached a screenshot.

Sections looped Screenshot.png

Many thanks Goldie B and Uwe303

Goldie B

Brilliant! Have fun experimenting and learning - it’s great fun once you get going!

All comments

Uwe303

Hello,

maybe this helps: https://www.native-instruments.com/ni-tech-manuals/maschine-mk3-manual/en/working-with-the-arranger

ozon

What do you mean by „linking“? What do you want to achieve?

gaz long

Thanks for your reply ozon. After selecting the patterns I want to use and deciding their order, when I am arranging their order. I want to link them together to create a final song.

gaz long

Thanks for your reply Uwe303, I have read and feel I understand the "working with arranger" section you pointed me towards, However, perhaps I should have been more detailed; my initial query could have been "after selecting the patterns I want to use and deciding their order, when I am arranging their order. I want to link them together to create a final song".

Any further assistance will be greatly appreciated. Many thanks in advance

Gaz

gaz long

https://youtu.be/prEuh1P6-JM?t=3992

The area I am having difficulty with is from 1:06:18. to 1:06:40. Listening to the whole song, holding the first and last section of my song connecting all the song parts with each other. THE LOOP MARKER EXPANDED ACROSS THE WHOLE ARRANGEMENT …As I restart, I can listen to the whole song from the beginning.

macchinista

Did you create Sections in the Song view, as shown in the Boris' video you linked? (at 1:04.37 - Song View: arranging your ideas with sections)? Once you have Sections and you assign Scenes to them, then they are linked by their respective order and position in the timeline. And that's basically your song.

gaz long

Hi macchinista,

Thanks for your reply;

Yes, I created sections in song view. as shown in Boris' video. This is my problem exactly; at this point I hold this first and last sections together, however, the loop function does not seem to correctly span across the selected sections.

I seem to be able to achieve everything up to this point; To successfully loop the selected sections I manually activating the loop function. So, I am looking for assistance to achieve this correctly.

Gaz

PK The DJ

You don't need to create a loop in order to listen to the entire arrangement.

Also, you don't need to "link them together", and creating a loop doesn't link anything together either.

Did you read the manual?

Goldie B

Make sure you’re in ‘Song’ mode (shift + ideas/song button OR shift + arranger button on older models), until you see the options for ‘Ideas’ on first button above left display, and ‘Song’ on the second button. While continuing to hold ‘shift’, select ‘song’ mode with that second button, if it isn’t already selected.
You should see your scenes laid out on the 16 pads. Press pad 1 FIRST and then, while holding it down, press the highest numbered illuminated pad.
That should give you the grey loop ‘braces/boundaries’ you’re looking for. Experiment with making the braces smaller by holding pad two while pressing g pad 3 etc.
If for any reason that doesn’t work, try this: Can you see your sections laid out on the pads? If not, press shift + scene/section button. You should see ‘Section’ appear on the 1st top button, and your scenes, in pad formation, on the right display. If it disappears when you let go, press shift+section again, and hold them, while pressing the 1st top button that says section. This will make your scene button a persistent ‘toggle’ (on/off), as you’ll have seen them describe in that video for the patterns and events buttons etc.

Something in the above should help you nail this. The key thing we need to know here is if you’re actually seeing your scenes ON THE PADS - and making sure you press the first and last illuminated pads one after the other - while keeping the first one held down.

Hope this does the job!

gaz long

Goldie B

Thanks for replying to my query. I followed your suggestions whilst making a small song using a kit from Black Arc and entered arranger mode however,

Make sure you’re in ‘Song’ mode (shift + ideas/song button OR shift + arranger button on older models), until you see the options for ‘Ideas’ on first button above left display, and ‘Song’ on the second button. While continuing to hold ‘shift’, select ‘song’ mode with that second button, if it isn’t already selected.

All good so far..

however to create sections I had to press shift while in song mode

2. You should see your scenes laid out on the 16 pads. Press pad 1 FIRST and then, while holding it down, press the highest numbered illuminated pad.

I saw 16 pads illuminated, pressed pad 1 first and then while holding it down pressed the highest numbered pad (16). I heard a long bass sound from pad 16.

3. That should give you the grey loop ‘braces/boundaries’ you’r looking for. Experiment with making the braces smaller by holding pad two while pressing g pad 3 etc.

I did not get the grey loop braces/boundaries; I have attached a screenshot of what I did get at this point (screenshot without loop) and also a screenshot as I created the loop by activating the loop function manually by clicking the loop function (screenshot with loop)

Screenshot with loop.png

Screenshot without loop.png

I am obviously doing something wrong, any further advice/help will be greatly appreciated.

Gaz

Goldie B

lI can see the loop ‘braces are there in both screenshots. In the ruler area, note how the ruler area 1-8 is a different shade to bar 9 and beyond of the ruler. It does seem to be a less intense shade of grey in your second screenshot - but this is probably just to differentiate it from the normal loop ‘bracing’ colour scheme - since here, it’s representing a ‘range’ of sections, containing scenes - instead of representing ‘loop start and end points.

As someone else said, above - you shouldn’t actually need this selection in place in order for your track to play through - but it will help when you go to ‘export’ the audio. If it’s not doing so - double check you are in ‘Song’ mode not ‘Ideas’ mode! See instructions in previous message for this. If it’s just playing the same scene over and over again, you’re probably in Ideas mode :)

When you press the ‘restart’ or ‘play’ buttons on your maschine controller - does the song not play through all the sections?

I think you may be done - and perhaps worrying yourself more than necessary. It may just be that there’s a graphical difference update between the recording of the video and your following it?

So also try moving on to the next stage of the video, and seeing if everything else goes to plan - it may well be that you’ve already achieved what you need to :)

Apologies if I’m missing something, am out on my phone right now without a big screen, but will be home again later.

If unsure, try experimenting with selecting a smaller area for the loop start and end - for example, press and hold the first pad and then press, say, pad 6, or pad 8 while watching the ‘ruler’ above your ‘scenes’. can you see a different shade on the ruler, after the bar of the last pad you selected?

Hope you ,crack it this time - like I say - you may already have done, from what those screen shots look like! :)

Goldie B

Also - the reason you had to press shift in Song mode is because you haven’t ’pinned’ the ‘ ‘section’ button! See step 4! :)

Uwe303

what if you press and hold "shift + restart" then press "All" and "loop" if loop isn´t already active, there are several ways to do it all the above described should also work, maybe you forgot to pin a screen with the leftmost button over the screen.

Goldie B

Yep - i think it’s the not pinning the section button that’s throwing Gaz - give that a try and see how you do, Gaz. Google the manual and search it for ‘pin’ for more ex soles of the concept - it turns pages that you usually only see when you hold down a button into pages that toggle between displayed and not displayed when you press the button that usually shows the page you want. As a beginner, you should be pinning lots of the buttons, including patterns, events, and others - go back to the very start of the maschine tutorials to see this done on video.

You’re using a very long video - maybe go to the NI youtube channel and look for the playlist of ‘getting started on maschine’ videos - they have a list of getting started vids that are only a few minutes each - and they cover a lot of the same things you’re trying to do here, but in more bite sized chunks. Then when you’ve been through those, go back to the ‘how to do everything in machine 1 hour+ one you’ve been working on. Then you’ll have two versions of the instructions to compare and contrast, along with what’s in here :)

gaz long

Hi again Goldie B

4. If for any reason that doesn’t work, try this: Can you see your sections laid out on the pads? If not, press shift + scene/section button. You should see ‘Section’ appear on the 1st top button, and your scenes, in pad formation, on the right display. If it disappears when you let go, press shift+section again, and hold them, while pressing the 1st top button that says section. This will make your scene button a persistent ‘toggle’ (on/off), as you’ll have seen them describe in that video for the patterns and events buttons etc.

After pressing shift + scene/section button I managed to create sections laid out on the pads. Once again this still does not create a loop over the scenes I have created. again I have attached a screenshot

still no loop Screenshot .png

Gaz

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