Questions & Answers

Notion and Progression - 12/8 time sig with 4 clicks/measure. How? 6/8 time with 2 clicks per measure? How?

+4 votes
1,371 views
asked Nov 5, 2016 in Notion by anthonymolica (1,340 points)
Please explain or even show a video on how to setup 12/8 sig with 4 metronome clicks/measure.  And/or 6/8 time sig with 2 metronome clicks per measure?  can't do it.  these time signatures are very common.  it's ridiculous the metronome can't be set for them.  Did someone forget about 12/8 and 6/8 time signaures?  What's up with that? Can you fix progression and notion and get an update out there to deal with this?  Very frustrating.  The world isn't just 4/4 and 3/4.  why are these time sigs an oversight?

8 Answers

+1 vote
answered Nov 15, 2016 by andrewmalloy1 (1,180 points)
It can be done, you just have to set a tempo marking (shift + _ )  and set the tempo dq=110 or what ever your tempo is.
+1 vote
answered Nov 15, 2016 by anthonymolica (1,340 points)
Andrew Malloy did not answer the question. He misread the question.  Please, if someone could read the question and answer it accurately, that would be great.  I have a hard time believing that Presonus completely forgot about 6/8 and 12/8. Please tell me they didn't.  From what I can gather they have dropped the ball.  There is no way to set 12/8 with 4 clicks/measure (normal feel), or 6/8 with 2 clicks/measure (normal feel).  Go try it and if you can figure it out, post your video or detailed instructions.  thx!
0 votes
answered Nov 19, 2016 by wcreed (1,420 points)
The regular forum is a much better place to post question like this
+2 votes
answered Jan 6, 2017 by simonkhorolskiy (180 points)
I have the same issue. It's ridiculous. No matter if you put 6/8 or 12/8, it still subdivides the beats into 2. So whenever I quantize it screws everything up. I huge portion of my music is in 6/8 9/8 or 12/8, but the way its set up doesn't work to get the feeling of 2 beats in 6/8, 3 beats in 9/8 or 4 beats in 12/8. I'm very frustrated. The top denominator (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)  is worthless to adjust. The bottom denominator  is what needs to be able to change, but currently its only 2,4,8, and 16. This issue needs to be addressed or else I'm swapping my DAW.
+1 vote
answered Jan 31, 2017 by ChrisS23 (13,770 points)
Hi,
actually Andrew's is the correct solution. The metronome mark needs to be set with a dotted value for compound time - then you will get the required clicks per measure.
-Chris
+1 vote
answered Jan 31, 2017 by anthonymolica (1,340 points)
dq stands for dotted quarter.  That's the key cryptic detail.  Thank you Andrew, although in this case I'll have to give my vote to Chris for pointing out "dotted" in his response and clarifying.
0 votes
answered Feb 16, 2019 by markclark11 (560 points)

It's lunacy. 

35 years ago when sequencers first came out, they ALL could do 12/8, 6/8, etc. correctly. Fast forward 35 years and the ONLY DAWs that can do this correctly today are Performer and Pro Tools. 

You have 4 solutions, (1) only write in 4/4 and 3/4 (unacceptable), (2) Play in 4/4 with "triplets" (totally unacceptable), (3) do mathematical equations to get your "tempo" to come out right, by using the tempo you want, divided by 2 multiplied by 3 (guaranteed to create a botch using this method and again, totally unacceptable), (4) go with a pro level DAW... get Digital Performer. 

DP does this correctly, and has been doing so since day one back in 1985 (as well as most every other DAW back then, including Voyetra which ran under DOS!!!). 

In DP, you can set your click to anything, and also tell it how you want it to click. Meaning, if in 4/4, you can tell it to click every 8th note if you like. 12/8 is a breeze. Just enter 12/8, then set the click base to a dotted quarter. Presto! You're clicking on beats 1,4,7,10.

I really like Studio One, BUT... this tempo setting thing is a deal breaker. Was hopeful, but I need a professional level DAW with the type of projects I seem to get.

0 votes
answered Nov 1, 2021 by williamshively1 (140 points)
12/8 isn’t possible. I followed the instructions:

Change tempo to a dotted 1/4.

Did that.

No 12/8 appears

Check back to tempo marking, the software removed the dot and I went back to simple 1/4 notes.

Is there something im missing?
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