Hi to all, and Andy Taylor.  My experience of the term 'step recording'
in MIDI sequencing software (and I assume Cakewalk is no different) is
that it usually refers to the input/acceptance of note data (from your
Midi keyboard), taking the note values (and sometimes velocity info)
but ignoring the durations, which are preset from a toolbar/palette/menu.

For example, say I want a march, I'd set the step input value to be
say crotchets, and then merrily tap in the notes any old how, knowing
that they will all be entered on the score as crotchets, the final
duration on playback being controlled by the master tempo setting =100
or whatever.

This is different to Quantisation, where the program 'tidies up' our
loose timing on live playing, 'rounding' to the nearest specified
quarter-note say, for the purposes of notation.

Hope this helps. Cheers,

Dave Chisholm
Palmerston North, New Zealand


 [ The old QRS arranging piano was used by capable pianists to record
 [ quantized music.  The artist (most often J. Lawrence Cook) held the
 [ piano keys down and kicked a foot pedal at 12 kicks per beat.  The
 [ organ stop-tab switches 'held down' more notes when the artist ran
 [ out of fingers!  He entered _chords_, not just single notes.
 [
 [ For Cook's purposes this yielded master rolls faster than marking
 [ blank paper with a pencil, and faster than editing a hand-played
 [ roll created with the Melville Clark recording piano.  One can make
 [ a modern sequencer and synth keyboard do the same process by adding
 [ a foot switch and pulse generator and sending the signal to the
 [ 'External MIDI Sync' input, typically port B.  -- Robbie