Countdown to Playback in X3 ?

they call it pre-roll in other things I use IRC.. but why for playback , is it for you are playing live against it ?
 
 

Sorry dude, I'm quite tired at the moment and didn't quite pay attention to what you were getting at.
 
Yeah so, it's looking like the pre-count is record only. If it exists I can't find it? And yeah, the screen shot is from X3.
 
You could always count to four and then hit the space bar?...

No the point is I set a 2 bar count in so after I hit the space bar I have time to return either my right hand to the picking position or my left hand to the fretboard of my guitar then still have a 4 beat count to get the groove in my head.  I've gone through the same series of workaround suggestions every time I've made this feature request over the years. Next someone will suggest using Count-in to Record and then delete the recorded tracks.....every time.  Next it will be a suggestion to add 2 empty bars the the beginning of a song which I'll have to delete when I actually do want to record a track then re-add when I want to go back to working on ideas......every time. You can see how simply putting a check mark in a box in Options is so much easier........
Here's how I use Count In to Playback every day.  First I start my guitar based tracks with a drum track then I start working on the guitar parts. When I first start working on a track I'm just working on ideas and arrangement. I don't want to record anything at first and sometimes not for quite awhile. Sometimes never and I just dump the drum track and start over.  You can see why constantly recording and deleting tracks would be tiresome and time consuming.  The second way I use Count in to Playback is that I have several projects that i use for practicing my guitar...different tempos etc.  Just like any band who is practicing songs they use a Count In to set the groove.
I seriously don't understand why this simple feature request hasn't been added.  As you can see in your screenshot there is plenty of room to add Count-in to Playback and I have to think we're only talking about a few lines of code. The point is I don't need workarounds since my other DAW already has this feature and it's one of the main reasons I use it over Sonar.  Guess I'll just keep using my other DAW. Maybe X4 will add this feature.....

Teksonik
 Next it will be a suggestion to add 2 empty bars the the beginning of a song which I'll have to delete when I actually do want to record a track then re-add when I want to go back to working on ideas......every time.

Not sure why you need to do this.  I have never started a song at bat 1 beat 1.  Always measure 3 or if I'm scoring to picture 10 seconds in.   Can't you just leave the 2 extra measures at the front the whole time?
 
There are lots of good reasons to start your song at measure 3.  What if you were recording your guitar and you played a hair before beat 1.  It would get cut off. 

Starting at beat one is a bad idea for many reasons. One big one is it doesn't give certain effects time to get their shiz together before the audio slams into them. Look ahead stuff needs a bit of time to anticipate what's coming or else you can end up with pops or other weirdness. I learned that the hard way.

@scook... Yeah, that's how I have/intend to deal with these scenarios when need be but I've actually hit a bit of a wall with my current adventure. I'm creating a practice project that has a simple multi purpose drum beat (I went through all the loops to get one that would work for the various styles I'm tossing in the project). I've got the drum tracks then I'm adding MIDI bass tracks. The first is a simple I IV V blues pattern played in E which only plays the chord root (this way I can play in Major or minor or any chord value I choose really). Now I can use the Key fader (using +/-) on the MIDI track to change the key so I can practice in any key I fee like. I made another track where I put in a simple ii V I jazz pattern (which also fits with the drum track and only uses root notes) and I'll be making some other ones to practice altered chord/scale patterns or other variations I conjure up.
 
So that's all good. I don't really need a count in because I loop it and can jump in whenever I feel like it. However the Little Wing progression fits over the drum track as well and I'd like to include it in this project. If I program in a bunch of extra MIDI stuff to count in for that one progression it kind of defeats the multi purpose angle I'm going for here and I'd have to move all the other tracks way further down the timeline to make room for the intro measures (not a big deal but still). As it stands I'll just play the intro over top of the drums for now or figure something else out but if I could pop open the metronome and do a quick set up like I described earlier it would be quite helpful. I'm sure there will be other tunes I may want to try similar things with.
 
Anyway... mostly just thinking out loud before I fire up the DAW for the day but this thread got me thinking about the "ultimate" metronome. Cheers.

Jimbo 88

Teksonik
 Next it will be a suggestion to add 2 empty bars the the beginning of a song which I'll have to delete when I actually do want to record a track then re-add when I want to go back to working on ideas......every time.

Not sure why you need to do this.  I have never started a song at bat 1 beat 1.  Always measure 3 or if I'm scoring to picture 10 seconds in.   Can't you just leave the 2 extra measures at the front the whole time?
 There are lots of good reasons to start your song at measure 3.  What if you were recording your guitar and you played a hair before beat 1.  It would get cut off.

The point is it doesn't matter if you understand the need or not or how you do things.  We all work differently and Count-in to Playback is very important to me whether others see the need or would rather use wonky workarounds........
Trust me the way I work serves me well...or I wouldn't be doing it this way for such a long time. Should everybody work that way ? Of course not but you don't see me trying to argue down a simple feature request just because it's not something I need or understand.  Ok my question was answered....No X3 still does not have Count In to Playback so I'll just keep using my other DAW. I'll make another official feature request and maybe sometime between now and X4 the CW programmers will spend the hour or so it would probably take to implement this simple feature that already exists in a least one other DAW.......