M8 Tracker Beginner Tips

The following are notes from this video

• When starting a new project, set up an FE Chain of four FE Phrases.  You can then use this Chain as a placeholder/spacer.
• Also set up an FD Chain, as shown.  The FD Chain can be used to stop any holdover from a previous Track or reset any commands that might have been incrementing.  This will be your kill/reset Chain.
• Number your Chains by Track, as shown
• Phrases within a Chain can be thought of as variations of a musical phrase.  In the video, Read Means Recording says they tend to work with 8-bar patterns but instead of putting 8 Phrases in one Chain, they prefer 4-Phrase Chains because they feel this organization gives them more control.
• Phrases are not numbered by Chain or Track.  It's just quicker to use Edit-Edit to number a new Phrase, based on next available number.
• Clone can be used to copy a Phrase so that you can edit the copy to make a variation.  The procedure is a little tricky, however.  The exact steps:
  
  
  1. Hold the SHIFT button by itself
  2. Continuing to hold SHIFT, press OPTION then release OPTION
  3. Still holding SHIFT, press EDIT, then release EDIT
  
  
• Deep Clone is for cloning not only a Chain, but also all the Phrases in the Chain. The exact steps:
  
  
  1. Hold the SHIFT button by itself
  2. Continuing to hold SHIFT, press OPTION then release OPTION
  3. Still holding SHIFT, double-tap EDIT, then release EDIT
  
  
• Use the DRY and effects send settings on the right side of the Instrument for most of the level settings for an Instrument.
• One way to use the Instrument Table is as an arpeggiator.  Just enter notes under the N column - these will be offsets in relation to the note in the Phrase triggering the Instrument.  
• He shows HOP, which is one of the commands you can select in the FX slots.  HOP tells the sequencer to jump to the specified row number, and loop from it to the end a certain number of times.  The built-in help system explains it pretty well.
• The Table can be used to introduce a polyrhythm, since it can run independently of the sequencer tempo.
• Interpolation shortcut:
  
  
  1. Hold the SHIFT button, tap OPTION to activate Selection.
  2. Use up/down arrow buttons to Select the column values
  3. Press and hold SHIFT, tap EDIT - the selected values will be interpolated between the first and last values of the selected area.
  4. Tap and release EDIT
  
  
• Table can be used for side-chaining.  The example in the video has a bass line on Track 1, and Track 8 playing kick drum.  Go to the Table for the kick drum, and enter the VT1 command in the FX1 slot for all the lines in the Table.  VT1 controls volume for Track 1.  Set the first line to the lowest volume you want, and the highest value to E0, which is the max speaker volume.  Then use the Interpolation shortcut above to automatically fill in the values between the lowest and highest.
• REP command can be used for ramping up Snare timbre and color over time.
• He duplicated a kick pattern to introduce variety. An alternative approach is put a CHAnce or NTH operator on that last kick<
• Other topics covered that I won't study much at this time:  Sample slicing, making up for lack of onboard compressor, using instrument filter modes for mixing

More tips not covered in the video:

• For automating filter cutoff, in Phrase view, use CUT command followed by a REP to have cutoff repeat
• At the bottom of the Project screen, there is a Clean/Pack command which is useful for deleting duplicate Phrases and stuff if you run out of slots.
• Cut/Delete function on the Tempo in the project screen resest Tempo to 120. Useful if you load an instrument that messes with the tempo.
  
• Chord Tutorial Check out THO command when using Tables too
• Tap over to the blank Input column in the Mixer page, hold Edit and tap up, you will activate dual mono mode. When recording you can change the input to be left or right
• For somewhat random melodies, you can use a table, where you write the notes of the scale that can be triggered,. Use the RAN command in all the steps, but the first one where you have to write the HOP00 command. This way everytime the note is triggered a different note of the scale will be choosen.
• M8 Meetup Video Timestamp List

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