I've tried in the past to convert to song, but I'm getting a "No Data" error with the triangle warning icon when attempting to Convert to Song 001: (no data). So I am wondering if this is perhaps because I haven't actually recorded anything, only setup the Chain.
When you create a Chain, you can verify it right on the same “Chain” screen by pressing the Play button.
If it plays, it can be Converted to Song... if nothing plays you haven’t recorded anything for it to play. You HAVE NOT set up a Chain, if it has nothing to play.
The Song 001: (no data) — means Song 001 is empty, contains “no data”
When you attempt to make a Chain with invisible (empty) Scenes you’ll likely get an error message telling you the Scene is Empty (contains no data)
On the Pattern screen a white box appears next to a Part if data is recorded in this Scene on that Part’s Track..
If you go to “Edit/Job” > then touch “Overview” you will see an overview of your 8 Scenes and which of the 16 Tracks in each are occupied (contain data) — no white boxes, no data on that Track in that Scene.
...what I didn't say is that I intend on staying on the last Scene (7) which just keeps time for as long as the worship leader wants to keep singing, then manually hit Scene 8 for the ARP with the drum ending.
If you manually want to change the Scenes, then you do
not want to use a Chain.
By definition, a Chain, is for when you want to automate the playback order of your Scenes... if you wish to let Scene 7 just vamp endlessly, you don’t want to leave this in CHAIN. Chain will play from top to bottom as constructed. It will not loop Scene 7 until you want to cue the ending. Here’s how to do that...
What you can do:
Create the Chain (with actual data)
Make a mental note of at what measure SCENE 7 begins and the measure where SCENE 8 begins.
Convert your CHAIN to a linear Song.
Say you tap “Convert to Song” and you target “Song 001: (no data)
The CHAIN will be written out as a linear structure.
When completed, press [EXIT] to return to the Sequencer
Tap “MIDI” and recall Song 001
On the MIDI Song screen you can set MEASURES for “Loop Start” and “Loop End” — these allow you to do exactly what you asked:
Say Scene 7 starts at measure 112, and Scene 8 starts at measure 144...
On the MIDI Song screen set “Loop Start” =
112 : 01 ____ Set “Loop End” =
144 : 01
Set LOOP = ON.
the sequencer will play linearly as normal, starting from measure 1, until it reaches your defined Loop segment... it will stay in that Loop segment until you turn Loop Off... you can have it loop as long as you like, once Loop = Off then when it next reaches measure 144 it will continue to play the final segment which will end playback.
Hope that helps.