Save a file as $OPTIONS.SEQ, and it will be loaded by PTW as the default sequence during start-up or File-New.
To speed redraws up a bit during playback use the Options - Hide Piano, and uncheck "Highlight Played Notes" in the Notation Options dialog.
Having no more than one Notation Window open at a time during playback will result in faster redraws and response to commands.
Visit the PG Music Web site at http://www.pgmusic.com. It's a great source for tech support.
If you have a question on using PowerTracks, the User's Manual, on-line help, and the readme file are the first places to look for info on PowerTracks.
Inserting Vol, Pan, Chorus, and Reverb events into a track in the Event List is the best way to store these settings. (Controllers 7,10,93, and 91)
Uncheck the 'Show Tips at Startup' checkbox and this Tip of the Day dialog will not appear at program start-up.
To print blank staff paper (w/ just clef/key sign) uncheck the 'include notes', 'chord symbols', and 'bar numbers' checkboxes, select 1 bar per line. The song section will be printed blank.
Save short drum patterns as a .DP file, and then use the Fill Track With Drum Pattern command to later import the pattern into a song.
The current mixer settings of non-empty tracks are saved to a.SEQ file and are sent when loading the file. Inserting settings into the tracks themselves overrides this.
If more than 1 track uses the same MIDI channel and port, use the mixer column of the lowest of these tracks to control all those tracks.
Disable the Undo for Event Level Editing in the Options | Preferences dialog if you're working with dense tracks and need to speed up event level editing.
The 'Engraver Spacing' option may make the Notation look less crowded but could also slow screen redraws significantly.
Normally you'll always want to save your songs as .SEQ files. You can save as .MID if you wish to export the songs to another sequencer.
You can advance chord by chord to step through a song. This is done by using <Ctrl> >Right Arrow> or <Ctrl> <Left Arrow>. Shift <arrow> advances a note at a time. Advancing a chord at a time is an easy way to learn a song.
You can sync PTW up to an external drum machine or sequencer. Set Options | Sync to MIDI. Then PTW won't begin playing or recording until you press PLAY or record on the external device. Make sure your device is sending clocks to PTW.!
When reading in a MIDI file from the ClipBoard, you can choose File | Open from ClipBoard (instead of Edit | Paste ). This will read in all the information, including track names (and chord symbols from Band-in-a-Box 6.0 )
The Sys-Ex Window allows you to EDIT and create new sysex messages. Press the EDIT button inside the SysEx window to do this.
If you've recorded a guitar track (on channels 11 to 16 ), this maybe printed out in guitar tab format (in addition to Notation. Check the guitar tab checkbox in the Options dialog inside the notation Window to do this.
You may open up a notation window by clicking on the Notation Button on the main screen. Alt F2 will open up the Window as well.
You may open up an event list window by using the shortcut function key F2.
You may change the resolution (PPQ) of any song at any time. Use the Options | Resolution to do this.
You can automatically fill a track with a drum pattern file. Choose Edit | Fill Track with Drum Pattern, and then choose from 100 patterns. Most styles have an 'a' and 'b' pattern, e.g. JAZZ_A.dp and JAZZ_B.dp, and some have fills JAZZ_F.dp .
You can merge 2 tracks into one. The easiest way to do this is to choose Track | Merge.
You can type chord symbols onto the Notation Window of PowerTracks. Open the Notation Window, check the Ch checkbox, and then type in chords. Type F7 for example, then press cursor key or ENTER. Inside notation, Press F1 for more help.
The mixer settings are now stored with each song. They are sent out as soon as the song is loaded. This replaces the .ms mixer files.
The mixer is now track based (formerly it was channel based). So adjusting the #9 slider will affect track 9.
On the tracks window, you may use the + and - keys on the numeric keypad to change most settings. For example to change patches , select the Prg column (program) by clicking on it, then press the + or - key to change patches.
If you want a "clean screen" look to allow room to have several windows open, then hide the top ToolBar and the top Piano by selecting these options under the Option menu.
If practicing a piece (or "jamming") , use the Options | Endless Loop feature to repeat any section of the tune over and over.
If your synth doesn't have a Pitch bender, you can use the on-screen Pitch bender. Choose Action | real Time Control for this.
You can quickly jump to a new location in a song by pressing the F6 key (Go to Time)
The JukeBox can be used to play any collection of files . For example you could play the songs in 2 directories by choosing a list like c:\mysongs\*.*;c:\newsongs . The ; (semicolon) separates lists of songs.
You can use PowerTracks jukebox feature to provide background music for telephone on-hold. Choose a playback string of *.* and PTW will play all the songs in a directory, without stopping till you press a key.
The Piano Roll (Staff Roll) Window may be printed out. This is very useful to analyze a piece that wasn't played in time, or a complex piece with slurs and grace notes that you are trying to learn exactly as it was played.
Use the Edit | Eliminate Note Overlap command on monophonic tracks to prevent notes from running into each other. It can save a lot of time that would've been spend manually editing the notes in the Staff Roll view.
Using the Data Filter in an edit command such as Cut, will allow you to specify which types of events will be affected by the command as opposed to all.
Use the Edit | Extract Channels to Tracks command to extract events of a multi-channel track to different tracks based on the MIDI channel numbers of the events.
You can save a MIDI File as a Type 0 file if you wish to export the song to a sequencer that can only read Type 0 (single track) files. Use this only if a sequencer can't handle multi-track (Type 1) files.
If you enable the Options | Auto Rewind, the sequencer will automatically rewind to the location where you began recording after recording has stopped.
The Notation redraws faster with the Engraver Spacing and Detect fine resolution settings disabled.
The Sysex delay setting in the Options | MIDI Out dialog lets you specify a delay in milliseconds if your synth can't handle a fast transmission of the sysex data.
Enable the 'Send Realtime Messages' command in the Options | MIDI Out dialog when you want to sync an external MIDI device to PowerTracks.
Enable the 'Send Most Recent Patch/Wheel/Controller' command in the Options | MIDI Out dialog and PowerTracks will automatically send these settings if you start playback in the middle of a song.
Copy, Cut, and Paste now can work for tempo changes. Check the 'Tempo Changes' checkbox in the command's dialog if you need the command to work on tempo changes.
Press the Panic button to shut off any hung notes. The panic button is on the toolbar and has an exclamation point.
You can Copy, Cut, and Paste text to/from the clipboard when in the Comments Window. There is a limit to the amount of text the comments window will hold but PTW will warn you when saving the file if you've exceeded the limit.
You can insert a note into a Notation window by clicking on PTW's piano keyboard. The note will be inserted at the current time location of the song.
The 'Timer Period in Milliseconds' setting in the Options | MIDI Devices dialog lets you fine tune the timer interrupt for slow and fast computers.
If a Notation printout looks crowded horizontally, you can lower the Bars Per Line setting, but first try enabling the Engraver Spacing setting. If the Notation is crowded vertically, you can lower the Staves Per Page setting.
MIDI Input in Enhanced Mode may be more accurate if no DOS windows are currently open. Some MIDI Drivers may have a problem with input shutting off if a DOS window is opened.
Use the 'Percentage' setting in the Quantize command to tighten up the timing of the music without quantizing all of the way.
The Files Menu will have the five most recently used files appended to the bottom of the menu. This lets you select them quickly if you need to load one of them again.
You can mark a section of the song in the Bars Window by clicking on a square with the left mouse button and then dragging the mouse while holding the button down.
ALT-F2 is shortcut key combination that lets you open a Notation Window.
Mixer settings for non-blank tracks are saved to .SEQ files. Both the saving and loading of mixer settings with .SEQ files can be disabled in the Options | Preferences dialog box.
In the Mixer Window, clicking on a Knob or Slider with the right mouse button lets you see the exact numeric value, and also lets you type in a new value.
In the Tool Bar, double clicking on the fields for From, Thru, Tempo, etc. lets you change the value without having to use a menu command.
You can easily select a group of tracks in the Track View by clicking on the track number and dragging the mouse upward or downward while the mouse button is held.
In the Sysex Window, you can use the Auto button to enable Auto Transmit of the currently highlighted bank. When Auto Transmit is enabled, the bank will be sent when the .SEQ file is loaded.
You can use the Edit | Velocity dynamics to compress or expand the range of velocities in a track.
You can Undo the keeping of a take you just recorded with the Edit | Undo command.
You can set MIDI Thru to Global in the Options | MIDI Thru dialog if you want MIDI Thru to always be sent on the same channel regardless of the current track's parameters.
When entering notes in the Notation window, the Shift key will make the note a half step sharp and the Ctrl key will make it a half step flat. The Alt key will make the note a natural.
When entering or editing notes in the Notation window, the Snap To Grid Lines option will place the notes to the nearest grid line to where you clicked on the window.
If you are using the notation to view 'Jazz Swing' music, try using a resolution setting of 3 (Triplets).
You can give the current song a title by going into the Print dialog of a Notation Window and entering a title near the bottom section. You can then press the Close button to exit without printing.
If your interface is MPU-401 compatible, and the manufacturer supplies a driver, try using the manufacturer's driver instead of the driver that comes with Windows. It might work better and have more features.
The Staff Roll mode in the notation window is the best view for editing notes, although there is now an Editable notation mode that is very convenient. Use the 'N' button in the notation window to toggle between modes.
Normally you'll want to save your work in .SEQ file format (PowerTracks Files) because many PowerTracks settings are saved to .SEQ files. Save as .MID files when exporting to another sequencer.
If you get a GPF when exiting PowerTracks, your MIDI input driver may have a problem in which it isn't shutting off the input. Contact the manufacturer of your interface if this occurs for a driver upgrade.
You can use the Edit | Slide command to move a section of a song forward or backward in time.
The Solo button on the Tool Bar lets you solo the current track. Just don't forget to de-activate the Solo button when you want to hear all the tracks.
Use the Randomize command to make quantized tracks less stiff sounding, but don't use very big time offset values because it can make the timing sound sloppy.
When using the Drum Grid Editor, the keys at the bottom of the keyboard (Z X C V B N M , . /) are shortcuts for entering preset velocity values. Try them.
If you record a drum pattern with a resolution of 16, and you change the resolution to 12, you might find that you've now got a useful new pattern for a different song with a triplet feel.
Use the Random Parameters and Substitute drum notes commands to make .DG patterns vary when pasted to a track with the Fill command.
Use the Options | Record Filter if you want to filter out some MIDI channels or types of events during the current session.
Use the Save Scap to save the marked area of a song to disk to be loaded in with Load Scrap at a later time. Use .SEQ files instead of .MID, or tracks might be renumbered upon loading.
Use the Options | Preferences dialog to change some miscellaneous settings in PTW, such as the 'Dialogs Use CTL3D Effects' setting.
Use the Fill button in the Tempo Map window to create a gradual increase or decrease in tempo.
PTW doesn't record on multiple tracks, but you can record to one track and then use the Extract Channels to Tracks command to split the track into multiple tracks.
Use the 'T' button in the notation window to switch the track number of the window without having to open a new notation window.
Use the Enless Loop command for rehearsal purposes. Use Cut and Paste for creating seamless loops, or the Track Window's Loop field for looping individual tracks.
Use the Send GM Mode On message to switch you synth into GM mode if your synth supports General MIDI.
If the Notation Window is in Staff Roll mode, you can change the duration of a note by clicking on it with the right mouse button and then dragging the cursor to the desired end location.
You can give a song a title by going into the Print dialog in the Notation Window. Use the close button to exit the Print dialog without printing.
Use the Lyric Position setting in the Notation Window's options dialog to change the vertical position of the lyrics if you want them higher or lower.
If you're syncing PTW to MIDI or SMPTE, enable the Options | Auto Sync Chase and PTW will automatically wait for timecode to start again after you're stopped your drum machine or tape deck.
In the Bars Window, you can highlight a section of the song by clicking on a square with the left mouse button and then dragging the mouse cursor to expand the highlighted area.
Use the slash (/) key to force the current track in the Tracks or Bars window to be the only selected track.
You can select a group of tracks in the Tracks Window by clicking on the track number and then dragging the mouse over the tracks you want to select.
Click on the Notation Window's gray time line with the right mouse button to change the resolution for a beat.
Check the Scroll Ahead Enabled checkbox for sightreading notation during playback.
While inserting a note on the staff, holding down the shift key will make the note 1 half-step sharper.
Save your favorite window setup as FAVORITE.WS, and PTW will recall it during start-up or File | New.
While inserting a note on the staff, holding down the ctrl key will make the note 1 half-step flatter.
If you move or re-size a big lyrics window, this will be remembered the next time you launch one.
While inserting a note on the staff, holding down the alt key forced the note to be a natural.
The Bars Per Line From This Screen On setting lets you have different BPL settings throughout the song in the Notation Window.
Try increasing the amount and/or size of the sysex buffers in the Options | Preferences | General dialog if you're receiving incomplete dumps.
You can setup PTW to always convert loaded files to a favorite PPQ in the Options | Preferences | Files dialog.
When syncing to SMPTE/MTC, make sure you set a SMPTE offset and the type of SMPTE time code in the Options SMPTE dialog.
If you're a programmer, you can write a .DLL or .EXE that communicates with PowerTracks. See PTWDLL.TXT and EXEDEMO.ZIP.
You can 'bounce' Audio tracks by using the Track | Merge command or by Copying and then doing a 1-Track Paste.
Press the Default button in the Options | Preferences | Audio Settings dialog whenever you've installed a new sound card driver.
Cutting and Pasting one audio track at a time takes less disk space than cutting and pasting a bunch of audio tracks.
The Edit | Audio Effects sub menu lets you process an audio track with effects.
The File | Wave Files sub menu has commands for importing and exporting .WAV files and for playing MultiTracks .WAV files.
The Options | Preferences | Audio Settings menu has settings that affect digital audio playback/recording.
You can re-size a column width in the Tracks window by clicking and dragging the right border of the top row of a column.
Use the Action | Test Audio Performance command to get a rough estimate of the amount of audio tracks your system can handle during playback.
If the song approaches the max audio tracks your system can play, mute some of the audio tracks while recording audio to prevent a glitch.
Use the numpad-period and numpad-zero keys to advance or backup a track chord by chord. (Works same as Ctrl-Right Arrow and Ctrl-Left Arrow.)
When using Numpad-zero or Numpad-period to advance/backup, and notes are sustained in editable notation mode, up/down arrows will alter the pitches.
Use the Markers window to add text markers to the song. Use the Next Marker and Prev Marker buttons to jump forward/backward to those locations.
Use the Silent Message Boxes option in the Options | Preferences | General Preferences dialog to get rid of annoying beeps when messages are shown.
When loading a .MID created by Band-in-a-Box, and a .WAV of the same name exists in the same directory, PT will automatically import the .WAV as audio.
Change the Guitar Window's height or width, and the guitar's fretboard will be re-sized.
Use Edit | Audio Effects | De-Ess to get rid of excessive sibilance in audio tracks.
Use Edit | Audio Effects | Pitch Shifter to transpose entire audio tracks or just to fix individual notes that were off key.
Make your audio tracks stand out with Edit | Audio Effects | Exciter or Edit | Audio Effects | Enhancer.
Get rid of annoying AC-hum in your audio tracks with Edit | Audio Effects | Hum Filter.
Use the File | Wave Files | Launch CD Burner command to burn your own CDs.
The newly redesigned All Volume, All Chorus, and All Reverb controls on the mixer serve as master levels for the whole mixer.
See the 'Latest Features and Quick Start Tutorial' section of the PowerTracks Help for a list of the newest features in PowerTracks Pro Audio.
Use the 'DirectX Audio Plugins' effect to apply DirectX effects to your audio tracks.
When in the Print dialog box, press the OK - Preview button to preview the printout before printing.
You can save either a page (or a group of pages) in the Print Preview window as BMP, JPG, etc. using the Save (or Save Range) buttons.
In the Options | Preferences | Files dialog, enable the 'Open Lyrics Window for track with most lyrics' setting to have PowerTracks open a lyrics window automatically when loading a file.
Enable the Display Chords setting in the Lyrics window options to display chord symbols along with the lyrics.
The Solo button now solos a group of tracks that are currently selected in the Tracks window. (Note: Use the '/'slash key to make the current track the only selected track, for normal soling)
Use the loop screen button on the Notation and Lead Sheet windows to play the current screen in a loop.
Use the Zoom In (+) and Zoom Out (-) buttons in the Notation Window to increase or decrease the size of the Notation Window's font.
Highlight a section in the Notation Window with the mouse (in Editable Notation Mode) and then you can Copy or Cut the highlighted notes.
When displaying multiple tracks in the Lead Sheet Window, you may have to reduce the font size (in the Options dialog) in order for all the tracks to fit on screen
By default, PowerTracks will automatically interpret chord symbols when loading a file that doesn't already have any stored in it. You can disable this in the Chords Window Options dialog.
You can use the Ctrl-1 through Ctrl-9 hot keys to easily switch between the various kinds of regular windows seen at the bottom of the Window menu (Tracks, Bars, Chords, etc.)
You can print multiple tracks if you press the Print button at the top of a Lead Sheet window which is currently displaying multiple-tracks
You can enable the Use Jazz Font setting in the Notation window for a different type of appearance to the notation.
It's easier to enter chord symbols in the Chords Window than in the Notation Window
When using realtime effects, the Aux busses are a more efficient way to apply effects to several tracks than using the individual track inserts.
