t7 User Guide
t7 User Guide
t7 User Guide
Bill Edstrom
This book is for sale at http://leanpub.com/guide_to_tracktion_t7
This is a Leanpub book. Leanpub empowers authors and publishers with the Lean Publishing
process. Lean Publishing is the act of publishing an in-progress ebook using lightweight tools and
many iterations to get reader feedback, pivot until you have the right book and build traction once
you do.
Thank You! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i
Chapter 1 - Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Whats New in Tracktion T7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Whats in the Book? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Whats Not Covered in this Book? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Tracktion Videos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Setting Tracktion Keyboard Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Is Tracktion the Software or the Company? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Modifier Keys Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Assigning the Duplicate Command to the Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Moving On . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Moving On . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Roll-over Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Quick Start Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Keyboard Shortcut List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Tracktion Videos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Tracktion Forums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Tracktion Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Moving On . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Moving On . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Note: Unless you absolutely must read from hardcopy, I dont recommend printing this
book.
With traditional book publishing, the book is developed, edited, copy edited, carefully proofread
before being transferred to a fixed layout. That layout then goes into a queue for printing. Once in
print, it is fixed and unchangeable until the next edition. This means the book is usually outdated
before it is ever released for sale. As new features are added, the book gets further and further behind.
Lean publishing focuses on delivering the book much more quickly to readers so they can use the
information. To do that, several steps of traditional publishing are condensed. This allows the author
to get the book to interested readers even before it is complete or completely copy edited.
That brings me to the important point. This book is neither fully complete nor perfect. If you find
errors, typos, or incomplete descriptions let me know. The beauty of the system is that you get the
information quickly. The down side is that, much like the software it explains, it is an on-going work
in process. I can make corrections and compile a new version of the book very quickly and make it
available for download.
Some observers state that Tracktion is an easy-to-use beginners DAW. While its not hard to use, it
can also be deep and technical. Further, Tracktion is not fully documented. This book documents
how Tracktion works. Even so, there are big features of Tracktion that I just didnt have time or
space to cover. This is my fourth DAW book and I have learned that it is impossible to fully cover a
DAW in a single volume.
I see the beauty in the Tracktion DAW. I have enjoyed helping to bring it back, attract new users,
and do what I can to help improve it. The team at TSC have been very supportive of this effort. Ive
had numerous conversations with Woody via Skype about the vision for Tracktion. While writing
the book, I logged dozens of bug reports to the Tracktion bug tracker which Dave Rowland quickly
processed. Dave also made numerous changes to the wording of T6 features for consistency with
the book explanations and even added my custom keyboard mapping to the software.
Back in January 2015 when I was just a few chapters into the T6 book, I met up with Woody,
Dave, Julian and others from TSC out in Anaheim during the NAMM show. We had some great
conversation about T6, audio hardware, instruments, code, music - along with a pint or two! They
are a great group of smart, creative, if not slightly unconventional thinkers. Thanks guys for the
inspiration and encouragement!
Chapter 1 - Introduction
Welcome to Guide to Tracktion T7. The goal of this book is to help you learn T7. If you are coming
to T7 from another DAW or learning computer recording from the ground up, you will find this
guide useful. This book will be particularly interesting to those who already have experience with
the Tracktion DAW. Tracktion T7 has dozens of new and innovative features. This latest version
streamlines the workflow while making the software more powerful than ever.
T7 runs on both Mac and PC including 64-bit versions of OS X and Windows. T7 is also one of
the top mainstream DAWs that runs on Linux. All versions are maintained in parallel so the latest
revision is almost identical across platforms.
T7 like its predecessors is unique in that it has a one screen user interface with a mixer channel
integrated to the right of each track. There is no separate console view so you never need to flip
back and forth between a track view and mixer view. This concept was pioneered with T1 more
than a decade ago and seems modern even today.
T7 has a very flexible plugin architecture that includes native plugins, plugin racks, and third party
plugins supporting VST, VST3 and AU.
Tip: I encourage you to go to the Tracktion website and make sure that your installation
of T7 is fully up-to-date.
Also, check out the Book Extras. You will find a keyboard shortcut cheat-sheet that you can print
and reference.
Many of the above topics are addressed in the videos at Groove3.com, on the Tracktion website,
or my YouTube channel. If this book is successful, some of these topics might make it to a future
edition or a follow-up book on advanced topics. Remember to subscribe to my YouTube channel so
you know when new Tracktion content is added.
I dont attempt to cover fundamentals of recording like mic selection, recording technique, or the
broad topics of mixing and mastering. There are plenty of other resources for that. This book is
focused on how to operate Tracktion T7.
Tracktion Videos
I have also produced video series covering all the majority of new features in T7 that has been
published by Groove3.com titled Tracktion T7 Update Explained. The video series is 1 hour and 15
minutes of live walkthroughs of the new features covered in Chapters 38 through 41 of this book.
In conjunction with the first edition of this book, I produced a series of free videos that detailed new
features in Tracktion T6. You can find those on my website BillEdstrom.com.
I also produced a full Tracktion video tutorial video series - Tracktion 5 Explained. Many of these
videos are available for free on the Tracktion videos page.
The full series is available for purchase and download at Groove 3, Inc.
For in-depth coverage of the plugin racks feature, check out Tracktion Plugin Racks Explained also
from Groove 3.
While the Groove 3 videos were produced for Tracktion T5, you will find the core workflows are
still relevant. This book along with the videos mentioned above are your best companion as you
learn Tracktion T7.
http://goo.gl/YnaOMd
https://www.groove3.com/Tracktion-Software-training-video-tutorials/Tracktion-T7-Update-Explained
http://billedstrom.com/tracktion-software
http://goo.gl/GKbdlM
http://www.tracktion.com/support/videos
http://goo.gl/GKbdlM
http://goo.gl/w6ffyW
Chapter 1 - Introduction 4
This set of keyboard shortcuts was carefully designed for efficient workflow and keeps the
commands consistent between Mac and Windows. You may download printable keyboard templates
and cheatsheet PDFs for the alternative key-mapping from the Leanpub store where you purchased
this book.
Chapter 1 - Introduction 6
Command - Cmd
Control - Ctrl
Option - Opt
Alt - Alt
In most cases Cmd on Mac will translate to Ctrl on Windows. For the book, I present both using the
convention Mac / PC like this: Cmd + C / Ctrl + C.
Note: Most Linux users will use the Meta key in place of Alt. On a typical PC keyboard,
Meta is usually the Windows key.
Moving On
With those things set, your T7 installation will match the examples in this book. Get ready to learn
all about Tracktion T7!
Chapter 2 - Installing Tracktion T7
Most likely, you already installed T7. If you havent yet or have any questions about installation,
keep reading.
After you log in, you will see your Tracktion licenses listed there. Click on My Downloadable
Products and choose the version you want to install.
https://marketplace.tracktion.com
Chapter 2 - Installing Tracktion T7 9
Tracktion T7 64-bit:
The key point here is this. If you want to run older 32-bit plugins use the 32-bit installation of T7.
If your computer has more than 4GB of RAM, then running the 64-bit version allows you to load
more instances of large virtual instruments. For the examples in the book, I am running the 64-bit
version.
Chapter 2 - Installing Tracktion T7 10
Warning: If you use the 64-bit version, T7 will not recognize your 32-bit plugins. If you
rely on 32-bit plugins, then stick with the 32-bit version of Tracktion.
Click on correct link to download the installer. This happens fast because the installer is only a bit
over 10 MB which is pretty amazing!
The installation varies slightly between Mac and Windows so I will walk through both.
Mac OS X Installation
The installation file on Mac has a .dmg file extension. This is typical of most Mac installers. Double-
click the file to open the disk image. You will see the T7 app right there.
Drag T7 to the applications folder which is conveniently aliased right next to it. Thats it, Tracktion
T7 is installed. You still need to unlock it and we will get to that shortly.
Windows Installation
The installation file on Windows has a .exe file extension. This is typical of most Windows installers.
Double-click the file to start the installation wizard. Step through the wizard to tell Tracktion where
you want it to be installed. In most cases the defaults will work best. In flash its done.
Linux Installation
To date, I havent run T7 under Linux personally. The great thing is that current Linux builds are
available and reportedly work very well.
There is a separate Linux section on the Accounts > Download page on the Tracktion website. There
you will find the latest 64-bit build in the form of a Debian package (.deb). If you are running Ubuntu,
you can just download the file and double click and install the package.
Note: If you are experienced with Linux and would like me to add more here, send me a
note!
For more about running T7 on Linux, the best source I have found is the Tracktion Linux FAQ on
KVR.
http://goo.gl/XUNiwA
Chapter 2 - Installing Tracktion T7 11
1. Select the Help > About menu item at the lower left of the Projects tab. This loads the About
box. You will see all kinds of information about T7.
2. Locate and click the Unlock button.
3. Enter the address and password you used when registering at the Tracktion website and click
Register.
Pop-up Help
As you start exploring T7, you will soon notice pop-up help. Pop-up help balloons appear as you
move the mouse pointer over objects on the window. While somewhat helpful, these messages are
also pretty annoying. I suggest turning pop-up help off. To do that, click Help > Turn off pop-up help.
The help button is located in the lower left corner of the Projects tab. You can easily reverse that if
you want pop-up help back.
Tip: If you ever want to see pop-up help with it disabled, point to the thing youre interested
in and hit F1.
Chapter 2 - Installing Tracktion T7 12
Note: At the time of writing, the pop-up help messages had not been updated for a while.
They might be incomplete or inaccurate.
Exit T7 if it is running
Go to the Tracktion website and log in (Account > My Account)
On your Account Page copy or make note of the Celemony - Melodyne Essential license code
listed there (Account > MyAccount)
Go to the Celemony website then click login. Log in or create a new account.
Follow the website instruction to register Melodyne Essential, download it, and install it.
Tip: Make sure to install Melodyne using its installer defaults. Tracktion T7 is integrated
with the ARA technology of Melodyne and should detected it on the next restart.
Note: T7 also works with the full Melodyne Editor. If you already have that on your system,
just check to make sure it is the latest version.
Note: Melodyne is not available for Linux or the Linux version of T7.
For more information on getting Melodyne Essential up and running check out TSCs Melodyne
Configuration Tips & Tricks page.
Moving On
At some point you will want to scan your existing plugins and loop library. You can learn how to do
that in Chapter 22 if you want to work ahead. However, thats not necessary quite yet. Lets move
on to installing the demo Projects.
http://www.celemony.com
http://goo.gl/1dntgM
http://goo.gl/gvUY3X
Chapter 3 - Installing the Demo
Projects
This chapter simply walks through the process of installing the Tracktion demo songs. The demos
are cool because they give you something to experiment with as you learn the basics.
Select the songs to download from the list, choose the destination folder then click Download. I
suggest using your newly created Tracktion project folder as the destination. You also have the
option to show only new songs meaning those you havent yet downloaded.
Demo song downloading will be handled in the background. You can use the Progress Meter in the
upper right corner to see how the downloads are progressing.
When the downloads are finished, the demo songs will appear at the bottom of your Active Projects.
Tip: I like to reorganize the demos into a folder to keep them separate from my own projects.
Chapter 3 - Installing the Demo Projects 15
Moving On
With Tracktion installed and a few demo files ready to play with, its time to move on to configuring
your audio interface. Thats up next.
Chapter 4 - Audio Device Setup
To use Tracktion, it is essential to configure it to work with your audio interface. While Tracktion
does work with internal audio, most users will use an external audio interface. Tracktion supports
Core Audio on Mac. Tracktion supports ASIO and Windows Sound (WASAPI) on PCs.
Warning: To configure Tracktion for recording you must use the Auto-Detect feature
along with a hardware loopback. If you dont then your overdubbed tracks will not be in
alignment with existing tracks. While this is not difficult, it is essential to do this manual
step anytime you change the Audio Device Setup. The procedure to do this is covered in
this chapter.
This chapter covers the essential steps to get your audio interface configured as an audio device in
Tracktion. The steps are simple and important so you can hear playback.
1. Click on the Settings tab then select the Audio Devices page.
Chapter 4 - Audio Device Setup 17
2. Select an output Device. Assuming you have necessary drivers installed and the device hooked
up, it should appear as an option for the Output: property.
Note: With OS X, USB audio interfaces that follow USB Audio Class 1 (1998) or USB Audio
Class 2 (2009) will function without installing any additional driver. In the product specs
for such devices they often list class compliant.
Tip: I strongly suggest that you select the same device for the output and the input. In this
example Im using a USB iTwo which is a simple 2 in / 2 out interface.
Note: On OS X, you can select the input device and output device separately.
Test Button
There is a convenient Test button next to the audio device parameter. Click it, to send a short
test tone to the output. If you hear the tone you are pretty much good to go at this point.
Chapter 4 - Audio Device Setup 18
Windows Audio
Windows Audio (Exclusive)
DirectSound
ASIO
So which to choose? Any of them might work with your computer but there are definite differences
and best choices here.
ASIO
This is the best choice if you are using an external audio interface. You will need to install
the manufacturers driver. The good news is will usually give you the best low latency
performance for recording and playback. Many modern audio interfaces include a mixer app
to control low latency mixing within the unit. When using ASIO, you just choose the device
and it is set for both inputs and outputs.
Windows Audio
Use this if running Windows Vista/7/9/10 on your computer and using the internal sound on
your machine. Great for using a laptop directly while traveling. This device type uses WASAPI
(Windows Audio Session API) which offers nicely optimized access from applications software
to audio I/O. Windows Audio will also function with USB Audio Class 1 interfaces.
Note: As of this writing, no version of Windows supports USB Audio Class 2 devices
natively - not even Windows 10. This applies to most USB2 or USB3 interfaces. They
might function okay because they usually default back to USB Audio Class 1. For best
performance, install the manufacturers drivers and use ASIO if possible.
DirectSound
Choose this when using Windows XP with your internal sound. This is not a good choice for
Windows Vista/7/8/10. For Windows 8 and 10, it is deprecated and might not work at all.
Tip: If you arent on Windows XP dont use the DirectSound device type.
Control Panel
On some but not all audio interfaces, clicking the Control panel button will open the
manufacturers driver control panel to set the buffer size. Many audio interfaces dont allow
you to set the buffer size or the sample rate through host software. If that is the case, locate
the control panel software on your system, and open it. Set the Sample Rate and Audio buffer
size there. In some cases, you will need to restart Tracktion for the change to take effect.
1. Go back to the Projects tab and select one of the demo tunes - Subways is a good choice.
2. Locate the Edit on the right (SubWays T4) and double-click to open it.
3. Click Play (spacebar) and you should hear music!
About Latency
The process of mixing your tracks together, calculating digital effects, and triggering instrument
samples takes time in any DAW. It is impossible for digital mixing to happen instantly. The amount
Chapter 4 - Audio Device Setup 22
of time your computer needs to compute, process, mix and playback from input to output is called
latency. Latency is the amount of time you allow the computer think and is normally measured in
milliseconds - from just a few to several hundred milliseconds.
During playback, latency is detected only as a delay between hitting play and hearing playback.
This results in a barely detectible lag in the transport functions and doesnt cause much trouble.
Latency during overdubbing is more of an issue. If you are hearing playback of existing tracks a
bit late, then what you are recording is not going line up correctly because your timing reference is
shifted - late or early. Even a few milliseconds will effect feel. At 30 or 60 milliseconds, the timing
will seem off. This can have an impact on the feel of the recording or even make it the timing seem
completely off.
For these reasons, DAWs have latency compensation. Following recording, the audio tracks are
essentially shifted to compensate for latency in the A/D process, mixing, and plugin DSP processing.
Managing Latency
Audio buffer size by default is 512 samples (11.6 ms) on OS X and 256 samples (5.8 ms) on Windows.
On modern Mac computers, you can usually run with the buffer size set to 256 as well.
Note: The choice of buffer size options available varies. It depends on what what audio
interface, connection type, and driver technology.
Lets consider a latency of 11 ms. In reality, 11 ms is a very short period of time. In the real world
if you are playing a MIDI controller into a virtual instrument, there will be an 11 ms lag between
when you play a note and when you hear the note. Its the same thing if youre working with a
virtual guitar amp or amp simulator. When you play a note the guitar you hear the sound 11 ms
later. Sound travels through air at the rate of approximately one foot (0.34 meters) per millisecond.
So this latency is like playing with your guitar amp or keyboard monitor 11 feet (3.4 meters) away.
There is a delay but you might get by. At 6 ms delay, usually the delay is barely noticeable.
With computer recording, we alway aim to strike a balance between noticeable latency and getting
clean playback. Why not just lower it all the way down? Because, the computer needs time to think
and produce the sounds and process effects. If we get too aggressive with lowering the buffer, the
computer starts to complain in the form of pops, clicks, dropouts, and the like. So during recording
you might keep this lower, during editing and mixing you can increase it.
Tip: Try 256 samples when you get started. While your songs are simple, this should work
fine on most modern systems. If you feel there is to much delay when playing virtual
instruments, try even lower. If the audio starts to break up, try higher settings.
Chapter 4 - Audio Device Setup 23
Note: When using Melodyne Essential for editing audio, you will need to increase the
buffer size to at least 1024 samples to prevent getting a warning message and to have clean
playback.
Warning: This test sets up up a deliberate feedback loop. Switch your speakers off during
this test.You will be connecting an output to an input using a patch cord so be careful.
Select an Input
1. Click Run Test. Tracktion will send a short test signal from the output to the input. It will
calculate the delay between output and input.
1. Click Apply and Traction will copy the delay value to the Time Adjust property.
Chapter 4 - Audio Device Setup 25
For recordings to be aligned during overdubs, you must repeat this every time you make a change
to the Sample rate or Audio buffer size. If you dont, your recordings will be several milliseconds
out of alignment with existing tracks.
Tip: You can keep a note of the Time Adjust values at different settings an enter it manually
for the settings you commonly use.
Warning: To configure Tracktion for recording you must use the Auto-Detect feature
along with a hardware loopback. If you dont then your overdubbed tracks will not be in
alignment with existing tracks. While this is not difficult, it is essential to do this manual
step anytime you change the Audio Device Setup.
available. The maximum is typically the number of hardware cores in your CPU times two.
For example, if you run a four-core processor, the maximum cores will be reported as eight. If
you are running some other software alongside Tracktion that needs more CPU power, then
you can reduce this number to make Tracktion leave some cores open for other tasks CPU.
Cases where this is necessary are rare except when debugging specific problems.
Use 64-bit Maths When mixing Tracks
I normally leave this on. If you have a nice fast computer you can leave that on. It gives you a
little bit more headroom in the mix engine. You probably wont notice much difference if its
on or off. If you have a very old computer with limited CPU, leave it off. By default its off; I
usually leave 64-bit maths turned on.
Only Show Enabled Devices
The Channels list on the Audio Devices page includes a check mark next to each input and
output. Click that check mark and it turns to a red X. This disables that hardware and after
that Tracktion will no longer present it an option in other menus. Well, this setting Only Show
Enabled Devices will hide disabled inputs or outputs when turned on. I usually leave it off.
Max Monitoring Latency
This is the maximum allowed latency when in low latency monitoring mode. If latency
exceeds this, Tracktion will shut off some plugins. I suggest you leave this at the default 5
ms and dont worry about it. It has no effect unless you engage low latency mode.
Low Latency Buffer Size
This is the alternative buffer size to use when in low latency mode. Leave this at the default
and dont worry about. It also has no effect unless you engage low latency mode.
Tip: If you are curious about low latency mode, click the i next to the Max Monitoring
Latency or Low Latency Buffer Size parameter. You enable low latency mode from the
CPU usage window which is opened by clicking on the icon in the upper right corner of
the Tracktion window header.
Leave the page at the defaults and press OK. This resets the page to the factory settings.
If you tick Reset input devices option, all the settings for input devices will get reset. Those include
Input gain, Trigger level, Time adjust, and recording options.
If you tick Reset output devices then the output options are reset. Output options include Treat as
stereo pair, Dithering Enabled, Left/Right Reversed and Alias parameters.
Moving On
Audio device setup is straightforward apart from running the Auto-Detect loopback test. Even so,
you dont need to fully understand everything on the Audio Devices page. Follow the guidelines in
this chapter and you will be ready to move on!
Chapter 5 - Basic Navigation
This chapter is an overview of how to operate Tracktion. You will also learn how to set up Tracktion
for an efficient workflow and how to change the tempo of your song.
Notice that there are no menus along top like other Mac and Windows programs. Menus are located
at left side of the Controls panel in Menu section. The Menus are different depending on if you on
the Projects tab or an Edit tab.
The only useful thing you will find in the normal menu location is the command to close Tracktion.
Pop-up Help
Pop-up help is helpful for the first few minutes, but gets old really fast. If you are using the alternative
Tracktion key-mappings, you can see available pop-up help by pointing at an item on screen and
pressing F1.
Disable pop-up help from the Menu section using Help > Turn off pop-up help.
Chapter 5 - Basic Navigation 30
Roll-over Help
In addition to pop-up help, there is roll-over help. Rollover help messages appear in the upper right
for controls and objects. The messages appear automatically as you over over items on the screen.
Note: At the time of writing, I found both pop-up help and rollover help to be out of date
with current terminologies and features.
Tip: If you find any help messages wrong or unclear, send a message and screenshot to
support@tracktion.com.
Creating a Project
The very first step to produce a song in Tracktion is to create a project. Here is how:
After clicking Create Project you see the contents of the project in a list to the right with the title
All items in project: projectname. For now the most important entry in the All Items list follows
the word edit - that file called an Edit. In our example, the Edit name is SummerSong100 Edit 1.
N>Note: Creating a project creates a folder containing folders to hold the project media, a Project
file (.tracktion) and an Edit file (songname.tractionedit). The folder, Project, and Edit all use the
name you provided in the New Project dialog box.
Edits and Revision Control: In Tracktion you can have as many Edits per Project as you want. This
gives you a great system for revision control. At key milestones in your workflow, go back to the
Project tab click Create a Copy. This copies the Edit to a new file. Rename the copy appropriately
and resume work using the new Edit. You can return to the previous state of the Project at any
point by opening an earlier Edit.
Basic Navigation
What you need to know to navigate an Edit:
Tip: By default the cursor will jump back to the start position when you stop playback. If
you dont like that and would like the cursor to stay at the stop position, there is a setting
for that in the menu Options > Return cursor to start position when play stops. Turn that
off, and the cursor wont jump back on stop. Instead it will pause right at the point you hit
stop.
Chapter 5 - Basic Navigation 33
Hold Shift + Opt / Shift + Alt and drag to select an area. The pointer changes to a magnifying
glass. When you release, the view zooms in to your selection.
To step back from that zoom level, once again hold Shift + Opt / Shift + Alt and click in the
arrangement.
T7 remembers the zoom levels so you can zoom in repeatedly. Then, press Shift + Opt / Shift
+ Alt click to zoom back out.
Tip: Quick zoom can really speed things up. Give it a try!
On the timeline just above the cursor, grab and drag it left or right
Opt-click / Alt-click the timeline and the cursor will jump to that spot
Click in the background of the track area
Use the left and right arrow keys to move the cursor backward and forward
Tip: You can change the way clicking on the Timeline works by selecting Options >
Timeline drag action > Drag to position transport. With this set, when you click in the
timeline, the cursor jumps to that position. If you drag in the timeline the cursor follows
as well.
Note: In this mode, to drag zoom, you need to hold down Opt / Alt. Since you can still
zoom in and out with the mouse wheel or the up and down arrow keys, this mode is fast
becoming my favorite way to get around in Tracktion.
The Tempo is represented as a line in the Tempo track. This line is called the Tempo Curve. For a
fixed tempo tune it will appear as a line set to a beats-per-minute (BPM) value.
For tunes with tempo changes it might appear with step ups or step downs in tempo, or even gradual
tempo changes represented as curves (thus the name Tempo Curve). In other software this is often
called a tempo map.
1. Click the tempo BMP readout in the Master section. The Properties section will show the
Tempo properties
2. Adjust the BPM parameter to the desired tempo. Either click and type it in, or drag the slider.
3. Alternatively, open the tempo track and drag the tempo curve line up and down.
Note: Setting the tempo this way changes the tempo only for the segment of the tempo
curve that is under the current cursor position.
Video Clip: To learn how to use the tempo track to map tempo changes to an existing
recording, Check out my video on Creating a Tempo Map
1. Position the cursor where you want the tempo change to occur
2. Right-click on the timeline, and select Insert tempo change at cursor
3. In the Properties section, adjust the BPM parameter to the new tempo.
4. To see the results of the tempo change, open the tempo track to see the step up or down on
the Tempo Curve
Note: The Tempo Curve can also be adjusted with more detail in the Tempo track in much
the same way as automation. Click to add points (nodes) to the curve and drag them to
shape your tempo changes along with an adjustable Curvature.
Scale Curve
Select the Tempo Curve, then drag left or right over Scale Curve to reduce or emphasize the
amount of tempo variation across the entire Edit.
Moving On
That was a basic introduction to the operation of Tracktion. You can now operate the transport; you
can open the demo files; you can create a new blank project; and you can adjust the playback volume
and tempo.
That is enough to start exploring Tracktion. Stay tuned, there is a lot more to come!
Chapter 6 - The Settings Tab
The Settings tab is organized into pages for configuring global preferences. Click one of the page
headers along the left to select a page. The settings for that page appear on the right and a short
description of the page appears in the lower left. In this chapter, you will learn what each page is
about.
Tip: Here are two useful keyboard shortcuts: Press F2 to jump directly to the Setting tab.
Press F3 to flip between Settings and your Edit.
Chapter 6 - The Settings Tab 39
Note: The Auto-Detect feature for inputs is also accessed from this page. This essential to
getting your overdubs to properly sync to existing tracks. Pay particular attention to that
discussion in Chapter 4.
Plugins Page
While Tracktion includes some basic effects and virtual instruments, it also hosts third-party VST
plugins in Windows and VST and AU plugins on Mac. To use third-part plugins you need first to
tell scan for them.
To do that, click Scanning and Sorting then select from one of the plugin formats to scan. You need
to repeat the scan for each of the plugin formats that you want to use. Read more about plugin
scanning in Chapter 28.
Username
Customize Tracktion with your name, band name, or studio. This gets saved with Project and
Edits.
Tip: Many Tracktion settings can be saved to text files making it easy to restore them to
another computer or just save them in case you need to reinstall the software. To keep
exported settings organized and easy to back up, I create a set of folders under the main
Tracktion folder to hold them.
Other Settings
There are several other settings like Meter Response, Peak Hold, and Solo Behavior. We will cover
those in context in later chapters.
Chapter 6 - The Settings Tab 42
Note: Having Traction index your loops is entirely optional. If you already have loops
organized into folders, you can simply bookmark your loop folders in the Browser Files
tab. The downside of indexing your loops is that you get a longer list of results when using
the Browser Search tab. This can make it a bit harder to see relevant results when searching
for plugins.
Marketplace
The Marketplace page allows you to set the destination paths for plugins so that anything you buy
from the Tracktion Marketplace can be installed automatically after purchase. You can launch right
into the Tracktion Marketplace shop by clicking Show Marketplace Account Settings.
chapter-14
Chapter 6 - The Settings Tab 43
Marketplace loads right inside Tracktion assuming you have a working Internet connection. There
you can buy Tracktion add-ons like Master Mix, BioTek, or the Micro Synth pack(FM Synth & Analog
Synth) along with third-party plugins by various manufacturers.
Moving On
Now you should have a better understanding of the General Behaviours page of the Settings tab.
Chapter 7 - Getting Help
This chapter is a summary of the various ways to get help when working with Tracktion.
Pop-up Help
The first source of help is pop-up help. While useful at times, you will quickly find that it is both
annoying and out of date. Turn off pop-up help with Options > Help > Turn off pop-up help. Press
F1 to view pop-up help for the item under the pointer. Refer to Chapter 5 for an illustrated guide
to pop-up help.
Roll-over Help
Roll-over messages appear in the upper right for items under the pointer. These messages give you
a description of the object under the mouse pointer.
pop-up-help
Chapter 7 - Getting Help 45
For a searchable list click View as HTML to load the current list in your web browser. From here you
can search it with Cmd + F / Ctrl + F or print it out.
Tracktion Videos
The Tracktion videos page has a nice selection of training videos. My series Tracktion T7 Update
Explained is available from Groove 3, Inc along with other Tracktion videos. Groove 3 is a deep
resource for all things music production.
Also checkout my YouTube channel for various free videos demonstrating Tracktion features.
The book you are reading Guide to Tracktion includes links to videos many of which are only
available here. Check out [Appendix A]{appendix-a} for a complete list of videos lined from within
this book.
http://www.tracktion.com/support/videos
http://goo.gl/GKbdlM
http://goo.gl/hywdxh
Chapter 7 - Getting Help 46
Tracktion Forums
The long term official forum for Tracktion Software is hosted at KVR. This the most active
Tracktion forum that exists. Here you can interact with the other users, TSC staff, and developers.
There is also a growing private Tracktion Users Group on FaceBook. If you use FaceBook its a
great idea to request to be added to the group. I post updates as do other Tracktion users. The TSC
team are also members of that group.
Also check out the Tracktion Software official Facebook page for updates, news about Tracktion,
promo offers, and profiles of Tracktion artists - Tracktioneers.
Tracktion Support
In large part, your success with getting issues resolved, requesting features, and reporting bugs,
depends on knowing the the tricks when filling out the request form.
Tracktion Request Form
http://goo.gl/YaygV6
kvraudio.com
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Tracktion/
http://goo.gl/Hv3Xjr
https://tracktion.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
Chapter 7 - Getting Help 47
Follow these same guidelines when posting bugs and feature requests to the KVR Tracktion Software
forum.
Moving On
Those are the key ways to get help when learning and using Tracktion. Next lets get into more detail
on using Tracktion!
http://goo.gl/YaygV6
Chapter 8 - The Edit Tab
In this chapter you will learn the layout of the Edit tab. The Edit tab is where most of the action
occurs during recording, editing, and producing your song. This chapter is important because will
learn the terminology for the Tracktion interface and objects used throughout the rest of this book.
Note: The keyboard shortcuts used in the chapter are based on the alternative key mappings
under Settings > Keyboard Shortcuts > Reset to Defaults > Use alternative Tracktion key-
mappings. Ive already mentioned this several times and this might not be the last! If you
want to follow along with the keyboard shortcuts used in this book, load the alternative
key-mappings.
The Browser
The Tracktion Browser resides along the left side of the Edit. You can open or close it by clicking its
icon or by pressing B. The Browser includes a collection of tabs giving you quick access to media,
plugins, messages, and markers.
Tip: Starting with T7, you can move the Browser to the top or right side of the Edit by
dragging its icon to the appropriate edge of the screen.
Chapter 8 - The Edit Tab 51
Files The Files tab gives you quick access to the audio files used in the project and the project folder
structure. It also gives you quick access to common locations and drives on your system. Most
import however is the ability to bookmark folders for quick access. Using bookmarks is the
primary way I access my loops library. Audio files and loops can be easily auditioned from
the Files tab as well.
Presets
Plugin, instrument, rack, and track presets are all searchable from the Presets tab. The tag field
at the top gives you a quick way to filter by tags. Drag any presets you find to the arrangement.
Right-click to rename a preset or update the tags.
Tracks
Use the Tracks tab to filter tracks in the arrangement by tag. First you need to tag them by
selecting one or more tracks and setting tags in Properties.
Search
The unified Search tab, allows you to search for loops, presets, or plugins in one interface. The
tag field dynamically updates to show the relevant tags for filtering.
Notifications
Use this for a history of Tracktion notifications. There are many notifications that happen
related to Tracktion Marketplace purchases and plug-in installation. Clear individual notifi-
cations by clicking the X on the message. You can jump right to the plugin referenced in the
message by clicking the arrow icon. Press Clear All to clear the list of notifications.
Markers
Use the Markers tab to add bars & beats or timecode markers to the Marker track. Navigate to
Chapter 8 - The Edit Tab 52
any marker by simply clicking on the marker name. You can also quickly delete the selected
marker, change its name or marker type in Properties.
Clipboard
Use the Clipboard tab to see what is currently in the clipboard. Put selected items from an edit
or project on the clipboard by pressing Cmd + C / Ctrl + C. Then, drag clipboard contents to
the arrangement from the Browser Clipboard tab. The clipboard can contain clips, plugins, or
racks. It is particularly useful when copying items out of other projects on the Projects tab.
For much more about the Browser check out Chapter 9 - The Browser.
Tip: Resize the Browser by dragging the right edge left or right. This is particularly helpful
when working with the Search tab which has numerous search columns that might be
hidden.
The Arrangement
The Arrangement is made up of the Timeline, Track Headers & Inputs, Tracks, and the Mixer.
Chapter 8 - The Edit Tab 53
Parts of the Arrangement: A, The Timeline. B, Track Headers & Inputs. C, Tracks. D, The Mixer
Timeline
The Timeline acts as a ruler measuring the time of the edit. While it is commonly set to show the
bars and beats of your song, it can also show seconds and milliseconds or seconds and frames with
a simple right-click selection.
The Timeline is related to several other onscreen features:
Tempo Track
The Tempo track appears below the timeline when open. Here you define the the tempo and
tempo changes. Open and close the Tempo track using F9.
Tempo Track
Marker Track
There are actually two marker tracks that can be opened below the Timeline. One is for
bars & beats markers such as song sections. The other is for absolute time in terms of
hours:minutes:seconds and milliseconds. Cycle through the options with F10.
Marker Track
Show/Hide Buttons
Several areas of the Edit tab can be opened for use or closed to declutter the screen. Here are
the buttons to control those filled by the corresponding keyboard shortcuts.
Show Hide Buttons. A, Show/Hide the Tempo track. B, Show/Hide the Inputs. C, Show/Hide the Mixer, D,
Show/Hide the Controls Panel, E, Show/Hide the Marker Track
Chapter 8 - The Edit Tab 56
Track Headers
The leftmost column of the Arrangement forms a list of track headers. Select a track by clicking
directly on the track name within the header. Additional track properties including the Name
became available in Properties. To rename a Track, simple edit the name property. Tracks can
be reordered by grabbing any track from the header and dragging it to a new location.
Track Headers
Inputs
Inputs appear as right facing rectangular arrows. Click on an input for a menu of options
that includes a selection of available inputs. Use the menu to set up a track for recording.
Additional input options are available in Properties. You can even drag an input to another
track to continue recording.
Chapter 8 - The Edit Tab 57
Inputs
Tip: Resize tracks using the zoom tools in the lower right corner of the arrangement.
Clips
You can drag in audio files and loops to build your Edit, or record them directly. The same goes for
MIDI clips. Step clips are a unique in-line step sequencer. Step clips are variation on MIDI Clips.
While Edit clips allow you embed an entirely different Edit into your song as single clip. Selection
an of the kinds of clips to access more properties and actions in Properties.
Audio Clips
Audio clips are created during recording or can be dragged in from the Browser or desktop.
Audio clips are one of the key elements of a Tracktion arrangement. Tracktion gives you a rich
set of tools to work with Audio clips to split them, combine them, reverse them, or change the
pitch, timing, or speed. You can also edit Audio clips with Melodyne to adjust the intonation
of recorded notes. T7 gives you Clip Layer Effects for even more options to manipulate audio
clips. See Chapter 41 - Clip Layer Effects to learn about this new type of audio processing.
Audio Clip
MIDI Clips
MIDI clips are the Tracktion container for MIDI performance notes. The clips have many of
the same editing features as Audio clips. Expand MIDI clips vertically to see the full in-line
piano roll MIDI editor. The MIDI editor comes with a full set of tools for editing, entering,
and modifying MIDI notes.
Chapter 8 - The Edit Tab 58
MIDI Clip
Step Clips
Step clips are a unique type of inline step sequencer that gives you amazing flexibility to
enter MIDI notes on a grid. Step clips are ideal for programming drum beats and rhythms,
they can also be used for baselines, synth leads or just about anything else. Some Tracktion
users program complete compositions entirely with Step clips.
Step Clip
Edit Clips
Edit clips are another unique Tracktion concept. You can embed and entire Edit into a clip.
You can also use Edit clips to separate out all your drum programming to another Edit as
an aid when doing complex drum programming. Use Edit Clips to compose songs in blocks
- develop the verse, chorus, and bridge in separate Edits and bring them together in another
Edit. Teachers use it when recording several students singing over the same underlying track.
It is a very unique feature and uses are still being discovered!
Edit Clip
Edit clips behave in the arrangement just like Audio Clips. How can you tell the difference? They
have an additional tab in the Properties panel to manage the link to the underlying Edit.
Chapter 8 - The Edit Tab 59
The Mixer
Tracktions Mixer is one of its unique, defining features. For each track, signal flows from left to
right - Input to Track, Track to Mixer, Mixer to Master. The Mixer is where you arrange plugins to
create whatever channel strip you need for the track. If you have MIDI clips on the track then insert
virtual instrument as a sound source. If you need to EQ a vocal, drop in an EQ.
The Volume & Pan and Level Meter plugins are installed by default however you can remove, reorder,
or even add more instance of them. You will find the following things on every track by default:
Mixer Default Setup: Volume & Pan Plugin, Level Meter Plugin, Solo Button, Mute Button
put the meter anywhere in the track using drag and drop. You can change the meter response
between Peak, RMS, and Sum & difference from the right-click menu or from Properties.
Mute
The Mute button mutes and un-mutes the track. You can also mute by selecting a plugin and
then right-click. The keyboard shortcut for mute is Shift + M.
Solo The Solo button silences all other tracks so you can hear one track at a time. Settings > General
Behavior > Solo Behavior allows you to customize exactly how Solo works. Choose from
Cumulative or Exclusive modes. From the right-click menu you can choose Solo Isolate which
allows the track to continue to play if another track is soloed. This is particularly useful if a
track is configured as an effects bus.
Tip: Right-click on either Mute or Solo to access a menu. From here you can reset all the
solo and mute states for all tracks.
Sections of the Controls Panel: A, Menu section. B, Properties section, C, Master section
Properties Section
What is shown in Properties depends on what object you have selected. Each track, input, clip,
plugin, rack, and automation point has its own set of properties. Click to select any object and
Properties will automatically switch to show values and actions for whatever you have selected.
This is a key concept when using Tracktion is core to its design.
Master Section
The Master section contains cursor position information, the Transport, Master plugins, Master
volume control, and a set of global control buttons.
Chapter 8 - The Edit Tab 63
The Transport
The Transport is made up of a set of eight buttons that include all the usual suspects - Play/Stop,
Record, RTZ, Rewind, and Fast Forward. In addition, there are buttons for Automation Read,
Automation Write, and Panic. The Panic button restarts Tracktions audio engine. All of these
can be assigned to keyboard shortcuts for fast access.
Master Level
The Master level provides the final volume adjustment for the entire mix. The corresponding
pan control provides control of the balance between the left and right signals. For most
applications the Pan control will remain centered.
Master Meter
The Master meter shows the final output level. Right-click the meter to set the meter mode or
reset any overload indicators.
Loop
Loop (L) turns looping between the In-marker and Out-marker on and off. This is for both
playback and loop recording.
Click
Click (C) turns the metronome click on and off.
Auto Lock
Auto Lock is short for Automation Lock. As the name implies, this button locks automation
to clips. When on, as you move clips around the automation curves follows along.
Punch
With Punch (P) tuned on, Tracktion will only record when the cursor is between the In-marker
and the Out-marker.
Snap
Snap (Q) button turns snap-to-grid on and off.
Scroll
With Scroll (S) turned on, Tracktion pans the screen to keep the cursor on screen during
playback and recording.
Chapter 8 - The Edit Tab 65
MIDI Learn
Click MIDI Learn to enter MIDI Learn mode. In this mode you can easily assign external knobs
and faders to on-screen controls.
MTC
With MTC enabled, Tracktion will chase sync to incoming MIDI Time Code. Unless you are
still syncing to tape or hardware sequencers, leave MTC off.
Moving On
That was a broad overview of sections, controls, and buttons on the Edit tab. Next, we start to break
all this down so you can have fun making music with Tracktion.
Chapter 9 - The Browser
The Tracktion Browser provides quick access to files, loops, plugins, and presets. It allows previewing
loops, filtering of your Tracks by tags, and bookmarks to you favorite folders. When you located
media files and plugins in the Browser, you add them to the Edit using drag and drop. The Browser
also has tabs for notifications and the clipboard. In this chapter you will learn about each of the tabs.
Tip: Remember, you can open and close the Browser (B) with the Browser icon. You can
also resize the Browser tab by dragging the right edge right or left.
Creating Bookmarks
To create a bookmark to a favorite file location, navigate in the Files tab to any drive and
folder on your system. When you locate a frequently used folder, open the Files tab menu and
select Bookmark current folder.
Tip: Using bookmarks is a great way to access your loop library if you already have it
organized by folders. For me this is often a more direct way to get to certain loopset than
searching in the Search tab.
Removing Bookmarks
To remove a bookmark, navigate to that folder, click the Files menu icon, and select Delete
bookmark for current folder. Notice that the delete option will only be available when the
current folder has been bookmarked.
Tip: A quick way to located exported mixes of your song is to use the Browser Files tab.
From the Files menu, select Project folder > Exported. By default all your exported files go
into this subfolder of the parent project folder. To get to the resulting file directly on your
system, right click any file and select Open the folder containing this file
Chapter 9 - The Browser 68
Auditioning Files
Click any audio file in the files list and use the Play/Stop button along with the Audition level
to preview it. By default, audio files start to play immediately when you select them. You can
turn that off by deselecting Auto-Play. With Loop enabled, files play continuously until you
press stop or select a different one. You can also see a thumbnail of the waveform along with
a moving playhead line during the audition.
can audition presets before dragging them to your song. Tags allow you to categorize and organize
presets to your liking.
Saving Presets
For the Presets tab to be useful, you need to save presets. Here is a quick summary for the most
common types.
Plugins
For instrument or effects plugins, select the plugin in the mixer, then click Save in the Preset
line in Properties. This will load the Preset Details dialog box where you can add a name,
description, and tags. After you enter the information, click OK to save the preset.
Plugin Racks
To create a preset for a Plugin rack, open the window for it (usually by double-clicking) then
select Save from the Preset line. This opens the Preset Details dialog box to complete the
process.
Step Clips
Select the Step clip by clicking on its header. In Properties, click Create Preset. You can choose
to include or exclude patterns. Choosing either opens the Preset Details dialog box to complete
the process.
Tip: If you exclude patterns, a Step clip will use the default Step Length and Number of
Steps. I suggest always choosing Include patterns. If you want to create a blank template,
just clear all the notes, before saving.
Tracks
To save track presets, right-click on the Track header then click Save Preset. You will then
choose between saving the Whole track or part of the track - Track inputs, Track outputs,
Track plugins. I almost always use Whole track however you might want to use Track plugins
for a convenient way to save a channel strip configuration for quick recall.
Chapter 9 - The Browser 70
Using Presets
It is pretty obvious that you click the tags to filter presets and search for them by name using
the Search field. Once you find a preset to work with, drag it to the appropriate section of the
arrangement. Here are some other important features.
Renaming a Preset
Right-click any preset in the list and select Edit Preset. This opens the Preset Details dialog
box. Here you can update the name, description, and tags.
Chapter 9 - The Browser 71
Deleting a Preset
Right-click a preset and select Delete Preset to remove it permanently.
Export a Preset
To export a preset to share with another Tracktion user or transfer to another computer, right-
click the preset and select Export Preset. The resulting file contains a description of the preset
and has the .trkpreset file extension.
Importing a Preset
The easiest way to import a preset file is to drag it from your system and drop it on the
Tracktion browser. You can also load a preset by right-clicking an existing preset and selecting
Import Preset.
Applying Presets
To use a preset, drag it to the appropriate object in the arrangement - track, clip, or the mixer. There
are other ways to work with presets. Here is rundown:
Tracks Tab
The Tracks tab works in conjunction with track tagging. Once tracks are tagged you can filter which
tracks to view from the Tracks tab by enabling Show Only Tagged Tracks and then clicking on the
tags for the tracks to view. All tracks that dont include the tags are hidden.
The most common scenario is to tag tracks of a similar kind like drums, guitars, or vocals. Then
you can filter by those types.
Chapter 9 - The Browser 73
Tagging Tracks
To add tags, select one or more tracks in the arrangement, and type the tags into the Tag field
in Properties. You can enter as many tags as you like separated by commas.
Tagging Tracks
Note: Tags are case sensitive, so GTR is a different tag than gtr.
Filtering by Tags
To filter the view of track by tags, enable Show Only Tagged Tracks at the bottom of the Tracks
tab. Click a tag to show only tracks that include that tag. You can click several tags to show
additional tracks. If no tags are selected, then all tracks are shown. If you turn off Show Only
Tagged Tracks, then all tracks are shown.
Removing Tags
You can remove a tag from a single track by editing the Tag property in Properties for that
track. You can remove a tag from all tracks by right-clicking the tag in the tag field of the
Tracks tab and selecting Remove Tag. A dialog box will appear to confirm the deletion. Click
OK and the tag will be removed from all tracks.
Chapter 9 - The Browser 74
Search Tab
The Search tab allows searching by keyword and filtering by tags for loops, presets, and plugins. This
unified search also gives you all the same preview functions offered in the Presets tab for auditioning
loops.
Searching
To search for a file, simply start typing into the Search box. The results will immediately
appear in the results list. Searching and the results list include the Name, Tags, Category, and
Manufacturer organized into columns. You can sort by any column by clicking on its header.
You can rearrange the columns by dragging them. Search terms are not case sensitive.
Tip: If you cant see all the search list columns, expand the width of the Browser by
dragging the right edge.
Tag Field
To filter by tags, click any combination of tags. The logic for the selection is and. What I
mean is this. If you select both Drums and Mallets tags, the results list will only show
items tagged with both Drums and Mallets.
Chapter 9 - The Browser 75
Setting Tags
You can set or change the tags for one or more items in the results list with a right-click. The
exact process is a bit different between loops, presets, and plugins. For Plugins and Presets,
you right-click and select Set Tags A single line field opens for editing where you and type in
or edit the tags. Separate the tags with commas.
For loops, the same right-click and Set Tags opens the larger Tag dialog box. From there you can see
available tags, type in new ones, or edit the existing ones.
Note: If you dont want to use Tracktion to search your loop library, then you dont need
to have it scan and index your files. You can simply create bookmarks to your loop library
folders on the Files tab.
Notifications Tab
Tracktion shows notifications when new plugins are added, certain background processes complete,
and for confirmation of purchases through the Tracktion marketplace. These might appear briefly
in the operating system but the Notifications tab keeps the history of these messages. Scroll through
the list using the mouse wheel or the scroll bar along the right side. Here are a few things you can
do with the notifications that appear in the list:
Removing a Notification
Each notification has an X in the upper right corner to remove it from the list.
Markers Tab
Use the Markers tab to add Bars & Beats or Timecode markers to the Marker track. You can also use
it navigate to any marker by double-clicking on the marker name. You can also quickly delete the
selected marker or change its name in Properties.
We have complete coverage of Markers and the Markers tab in Chapter 10 - Using Markers.
Clipboard Tab
The Clipboard tab shows the most recent item copied or cut. Copies at typically done using Cmd +
C / Ctrl + C while cuts are done using Cmd + X / Ctrl + X. There are also on screen buttons for copy
and cut depending on the object and context.
To use the last item copied or cut you typically use Cmd + V / Ctrl + V. Alternatively you can go to
the clipboard tab and drag items onto the arrangement. It is particularly useful when you want to
copy elements from other projects on the Projects tab, then drag or paste them into a different Edit.
You can also copy and paste between Edits.
Chapter 9 - The Browser 78
Moving On
Reading about all the features of the Browser should give you more insight into the capabilities of
Tracktion. It will make even more sense after you get familiar with the core workflows of recording,
editing, and mixing.
Chapter 10 - Using Markers
In this chapter, You will learn about using markers in Tracktion. There are four different kinds of
markers in Tracktion:
Bars & Beats Markers on the Timeline (with Marker track closed)
Note: In Tracktion the term marked region means the range of an edit that occurs between
the In-marker and the Out-marker.
Pressing I will locate the In-marker to the cursor position. Pressing O locates the the Out-marker to
the cursor position.
You can alternatively draw in the range between the In-marker and Out-marker. Double-click on
the Timeline and start dragging right. Double-click positions the In-marker at the starting point. As
you drag right, the Out-marker comes along to set the out point when you lift the mouse button.
Tip: To set the marked region over a selection of clips and press A. This also works for
Marker clips making it a great way to set the In-marker and Out-marker over a song section.
Chapter 10 - Using Markers 81
Note: When Loop is enabled, playback will only play within the marked region. If the
cursor is located earlier than the In-marker or after the Out-marker when you press Play,
it will jump to the In-marker and play from there.
Even though the track is armed for recording, no recording will happen until the cursor gets to the
In-marker.
Tip: Auto punch recording means that recording is only allowed between the In-marker
and Out-marker. Also, punch recording only works when Loop is off.
Marker Track
Lets take a closer look at the Marker track. You can open and close the Marker track with the Marker
track show/hide button.
The Marker track can contain either Bars & Beats markers or Timecode markers. If you dont like
to see the types mixed together on the same track, there is an additional split mode that shows each
type on separate lanes.
To access that mode, select the Marker track by clicking the header. Then in Properties, de-select
Use a single track for all types of marker. In this mode, the Marker track has two lanes. The top lane
shows Timecode Markers and the bottom lane shows Bars & Beats Markers.
Chapter 10 - Using Markers 83
Note: F10 is my assignment for the keyboard action Toggle the marker view mode. Pressing
F10 cycles through the three marker track states - hidden, normal, and split mode.
Tip: You can click on any blank space in the Marker track to instantly position the cursor.
Adding Markers
Are are the various ways to add markers to the Marker track:
Press Return
The Return key (Enter on PCs) has several functions related to Marker navigation during
playback. At the most basic level, pressing Return adds a new Marker at the cursor position.
The type of Marker clip matches the most recently added Marker. If a Marker clip is selected,
it adds one of that type. Markers added with Return, use the next available sequential Marker
number.
Marker clips behave like other clips in several ways. You can adjust the length using the trim handles,
you can split them, drag them, duplicate them, or nudge them. They also contain several properties
that I will breakdown here.
Chapter 10 - Using Markers 85
Number
Marker numbers are issued sequentially as you add Marker clips. You can edit the Number
property if you want. If you change Number to one that is already in use, then the other clip
will be assigned the next available number. Marker numbers can be used for quick navigation
during playback.
Tip: If you feel compelled to renumber all your Markers to get them into a nice sequential
order, you might want to skip some numbers to make it easier to insert new Markers. For
example, if I have a lot of markers in the song, I re-number them by 5s.
Type
Type allows you choose which type of Marker clip you want - Bars & Beats or Absolute. Bars
& Beats markers adjust to the tempo changes in the song. Timecode markers are fixed to a
specific time offset into the Edit and are not affected by tempo changes.
Note: Timecode markers are also called absolute markers, TC markers, or absolute
timecode markers within Tracktion. All those terms refer to the same thing. For this book,
I usually call them Timecode markers.
Name
The Name property sets the name shown on the Marker clip. By default it will be New
Marker. Most users rename it based on song section. For example: Intro, Verse, Chorus, Bridge,
or Outro.
Start
The Start property shows the bar, beat and tick start time for B&B markers. For Timecode
markers it shows Hours/Minutes/Seconds/Milliseconds. For either type, you can edit Start
directly to move the marker to a different location.
Length
Similarly, Length shows B&B marker length in Bars/Beats/Ticks format. For Timecode
markers, it shows length as Hours/Minutes/Seconds/Milliseconds. Edit the Length property
and the Marker clip length will change to match.
End End values are in the same format as the Start property. Edit it to change the ending time.
When you change the End value, Length gets adjusted to match. Start always remains the
same. If you edit End to fall before Start, it will be set to match the Start time. In that case,
Length gets set to zero.
Chapter 10 - Using Markers 86
Colour
Choose from one of the nice colors. This sets all selected Marker clips to the color you choose.
Tip: You can change a Marker clip from Bars & Beats to Timecode using nudge. Press F10
until the Marker track split mode is showing. Select the marker clip to convert and press
Shift-up or Shift-down to nudge the clip to the other lane.
Navigating by Markers
Once you have Markers set up, you can quickly navigate using the Marker number and the Return
key. Just type in a Marker number like 5 or 11 and hit Return (Enter on PCs). As you type the
number you will see it appear in green in the upper right of the Tracktion window. When you see
the number, you have about two seconds hit Return before the number disappears.
If you enter a number that doesnt have a matching Marker, then Tracktion will insert a marker
with that number at the cursor. Also, if you just press Return, a Marker clips is inserted at the cursor
position.
Undo (Cmd + Z / Ctrl + Z) removes a marker if you didnt intend to insert it.
Tip: The Number + Return approach to navigation works during playback but also works
when Tracktion is idle. If it doesnt seem to be working when playback is idle, click the
header of the Marker track or select any marker and try again.
Rename a marker
Click a marker to select it. Then, edit the Name property in Properties.
Add a Marker
Click Add at the bottom of the Markers tab. Select from the two types: Absolute timecode
marker and Bars & Beats Marker.
Delete a Marker
Select a marker in the list and click Delete or just press Delete on your keyboard. Undo (Cmd
+ Z / Ctrl + Z) restores a deleted marker.
Renumbering Markers
It is really easy to get your marker numbers out of order. There is an easy trick to renumber them.
Open the Markers tab in the Browser. Select all the markers and edit the Number property. For
example if it shows 1 with all the markers selected change it to 2. The markers instantly renumber
starting from 2. If you really want them numbered starting from one, then just do it again, changing
the Number property back to one.
Tip: I recommend you not spend much time working with the adjust markers type of
markers. This is a legacy feature that is not well implemented or particularly useful.
Chapter 10 - Using Markers 89
Moving On
Markers can be extremely useful in the context of recording and editing. Not only do they keep your
project organized by then provide easy navigation into important locations within the Edit.
Chapter 11 - Selecting and Snapping
In this chapter, we start working with clips. The examples focus on Audio Clips and MIDI Clips.
Keep in mind that most of these techniques also apply to Step clips, Edit clips, and markers.
First, youll learn how to select clips and groups of clips. Then, you will learn about the snap-to-grid
functions. Snap-to-grid makes it easy to align clips to the bars and beats of your song. Lets get
started with selecting clips.
Selecting a Clip
To select a clip, simply click on the clip. The clip is highlighted and its properties appear in Properties.
A Selected Clip
Auditioning a Clip
To audition a clip, double-click and you will hear it play back starting at the spot where you double-
clicked. Click within the clip to jump to a new spot as playback continues. Click anywhere outside the
clip and the auditioning will stop. Moving pointers above and below the clip indicate the playback
position.
Auditioning essentially solos the clip - everything else within the Edit is muted in this mode.
Chapter 11 - Selecting and Snapping 91
Once you have multiple clips selected, you can do operations on them as a group, such as moving
them by dragging, duplicating, or deleting them. Well cover more about clip editing operations in
Chapter 12 - Basic Audio Editing. To clear a multiple selection, simply press the Esc key.
Another way to make a multiple selection is to use the lasso tool. Heres how that works:
Tip: You can further customize a multiple selection by holding down Cmd / Ctrl then click
any clip you want to de-select.
Chapter 11 - Selecting and Snapping 92
Shift-select works for clips on a single track and even across multiple tracks.
Tip: Shift-select also works for many other kinds of Tracktion objects including Browser
lists and tracks.
Deselecting Clips
You can always press Esc to deselect everything.
Tip: Pressing Esc also works to clear selections of other objects in Tracktion like plugins
and tracks.
Using Snap-to-Grid
Snap-to-grid makes aligning clips and notes to musical time accurate and efficient. Working with
this powerful feature is core to using Tracktion for editing audio and MIDI.
Enable/Disable Snap-to-Grid
To toggle snap-to-grid on or off, click on the Snap button (Q) in the Master section. When snap-to-
grid is enabled the Snap button appears highlighted.
Pressing Q also toggles Snap on and off. You can also control the snapping state from the menu
section - Snapping > Enable snapping.
Tip: Remember the keyboard shortcut Q is short for quantize. Snap-to-grid is a form of
quantizing. If you dont like that shortcut you can always remap it to another key.
Tip: You can always see what your current snap resolution is by hovering the mouse pointer
over the Timeline. A tooltip appears showing, Snap resolution bar, Snap resolution beat, or
Half beat for example.
Note: Snap-to-grid is an alignment of the beginning of a clip to a grid line. Notice that
snapping also applies to editing functions like trimming.
Chapter 11 - Selecting and Snapping 94
caption
To test this, zoom out so that the snap resolution is Beat. Now move the cursor around and it will
obviously snap to the nearest beat.
Tip: To get clear indication of exactly where the cursor is, look at the time display in the
Master section.
Tip: A problem with Snap clips to neighbors is that you need to have snapping enabled for
it work. To snap clips to other clips with with snap-to-grid disabled, just hold down Opt /
Alt as you drag. This is really the best way to arrange clips end to end!
Chapter 11 - Selecting and Snapping 95
Overriding Snap-to-Grid
Temporarily override snap-to-grid by holding down Cmd / Ctrl. Using this modifier you can freely
position clips without first turning off Snap.
Nudging Clips
To move clips using the keyboard, select a clip then press Shift + Right Arrow or Shift + Left Arrow.
The nudge action moves the clip by one grid increment. You can also move clips track to track using
nudge. To nudge clips track to track, use Shift + Up Arrow and Shift + Down Arrow.
I often use nudging when moving large selections of clips over to add a song section or make room
for an intro.
Note: Nudging works the same whether snapping is on or off. The nudge move is by the
grid increment.
Nudging Notes
Snapping is useful when working with Audio clips but even more so when working with MIDI
notes. We cover MIDI editing in Chapter 25 however here is a preview while we are on the topic of
nudging.
Double-click on the header of a MIDI clip. It goes into the large view so you can see the MIDI editor.
MIDI notes work much like clips, in that they respect the snap resolution. You can drag a note to
snap by the current grid increment - bar, for example. You can nudge notes forward or backward
in time by the grid increment as well. To do that, hold Shift while pressing the Left Arrow or Right
Arrow.
Chapter 11 - Selecting and Snapping 96
Moving On
Now that youve learned how to get around in Tracktion, its time to start having fun manipulating
audio. Well jump into that in the next chapter.
Chapter 12 - Audio Clips and Editing
Audio
In this chapter, you are going to learn how to work with Audio clips. You will learn how to work
with the integrated editing handles that are part of each Audio clip. Lets get started.
Header
Move Audio clips by dragging from the header. The header includes the trim handles (hollow),
slip handles (solid), and other tools.
Chapter 12 - Audio Clips and Editing Audio 98
Body
The Audio clip body features the waveform thumbnail, fade handles, and the clip name.
Plugins
Audio clips can host plugins directly, so you might see a one or more plugins right on the clip
body. Learn more about that in Chapter 32 - Clip Effects.
Properties
Like most other object in Tracktion, Audio Clips have lots of additional properties and controls
in Properties.
Note: If you accidentally move or edit an Audio clip, you can always press Undo (Cmd +
Z / Ctrl + Z) at the top of the Menu section.
Moving Clips
As you move the mouse pointer over the Audio clip header, it changes to a grabbing hand. Use that
to drag the clip forward or backward in time. If Snap is on, the beginning of the clip will snap by
grid increments.
Note: As we discussed previously, the grid resolution depends on the zoom level.
You can also drag Audio clips from track to track. With snap enabled, track-to-track drags will
usually stay in sync. However, with snap turned off, it is easy move the clip slightly off time. To
prevent that, hold down Shift as you drag track to track. The Shift key, constrains the timing of
track to track drag moves.
Chapter 12 - Audio Clips and Editing Audio 100
Tip: Another way to move a clip track-to-track without changing the timing is to use
nudge. Select the clip the hold down Shift and press Up Arrow or Down Arrow to nudge
it to another track.
Deleting Clips
The easiest way to delete a clip is to selected it and press Delete or Backspace. The cut (Cmd + X
/ Ctrl + X) keyboard action does the same thing. If you need yet another way to delete, locate and
click the convenient Delete button in Properties.
Tip: As you work with clips sometimes you just want clear the selection. The fastest way
is to just hit Esc.
Trimming
Hollow left and right arrows on both of the upper corners of the clip are trim handles. Grab
a trim handle and drag left or right to trim the start or end of the the clip. Notice that
trimming this way directly changes the Start and End values in Properties. With Snap turned
on, trimming snaps to the grid. To trim freely, hold down Cmd / Ctrl as you drag or turn Snap
off.
Chapter 12 - Audio Clips and Editing Audio 101
Slip Editing
Slip editing means moving the waveform within the clip without altering its Start, Length,
or End values. Drag the solid box shaped handle left or right to slip edit. You can override
snap-to-grid during slip editing by holding down Cmd / Ctrl.
Reframing
The hollow box shaped handle allows reframing the clip. Drag it left or right and the clip moves
but the waveform doesnt. It essentially allows you to reframe the audio without affecting its
timing. I actually havent found a good use for this in my day to day editing, however you
might!
Slip Trimming
The solid left and right arrow handles are for slip trimming. You really need to try these to
get how they work. Try dragging the left solid arrow. Notice that it moves the clip Start while
keeping the End planted. Now try the right solid arrow. Moving that one, moves the End while
keeping the the Start planted. Now that sounds a lot like trimming, right? The difference is
that the underlying waveform slips relative to the end that is not moving. I know that is not
clear, so try them out. In reality, I rarely use these.
Tip: With Snap on, hold down Cmd / Ctrl as you drag to temporarily override snapping
for most editing operations.
Chapter 12 - Audio Clips and Editing Audio 102
Splitting a Clip
Splitting Audio clips, is essential for audio editing. Here is the quickest way:
Tip: If you want to make numerous splits, you can keep holding down the left mouse button
as you drag the cursor and press slash (/) - never lifting the mouse button.
Audio Clip Properties also has Split Clips actions. Look to the far right of in Properties and find
the Split Clips button. You will find options to slip at the cursor along with options to split at the
in-marker or out-marker. Keep in mind that these actions will only affect selected clips.
Duplicating Clips
To duplicate one or more clips, select the clip and press D. That will copy the clip and paste it right
after the original clip. Duplicate works like copy and paste, all in one action.
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Chapter 12 - Audio Clips and Editing Audio 103
Tip: If you want to use a different key for the duplicate action, you can change it in Settings
tab > Keyboard Shortcuts > Editing Functions: Duplicate.
Fade-in/Fade-out
In the upper corners of the Audio clip body, notice the fade handles. Each is shaped like a tiny box
with a diagonally line through it. Grab a fade handle and pull it inward. This action draws a fade-in
or fade-out.
By default you get a linear fade but you will see that there are other fade types available in Properties
for the clip. For more control, directly edit the Fade In and Fade Out numerical values in Properties.
http://vimeo.com/user356034/fades
Chapter 12 - Audio Clips and Editing Audio 104
Pitch Fade
Right click on the fade handle, and you can select between a volume fade and pitch fade. Pitch fade
gives you a very cool tape stop effect or tape run-up effect. The fade graphic is shaded darker than
for volume fades.
Note: You will definitely want to experiment with pitch fade! This is just about the simplest
implementation of this effect I have seen.
Crossfades
A crossfade is fading out one Audio Cclip while fading in another. Some controls in Tracktion are
labeled X-Fade when referring to crossfade. Here are the steps to create a crossfade:
Thats it - a crossfade. Its a fade-out that overlaps the fade-in of the next clip. You can adjust the
fade shapes using the buttons in Properties just like any other fade.
Note: Keep in mind that the fade shape buttons only operate on the selected clip. You will
need to select the clip on the appropriate side of the crossfade for the fade shape buttons
to work.
Drag Crossfade
The Settings tab, General Behaviour page has a setting labeled Default Drag X-Fade. It has two
possible settings - On by default or Off by default. When set to On by Default, the simple act of
dragging a clip so that it overlaps another clip will create a crossfade. I usually set it to On by
Default. Other DAWs call this auto-crossfade.
Note: In Tracktion, Drag-X Fade is actually a property of each Audio clip. When you change
Default Drag X-Fade it will only take effect for new clips you create or add to the Edit.
Edge Fades
When editing, sometimes you need to apply short fades to both edges of an Audio Clip to avoid
popping. This is especially true if you split a clip in the middle of a note. The solution is add as short
fade-in and fade-out to the clip. Tracktion calls those edge fades.
Chapter 12 - Audio Clips and Editing Audio 106
The good news is that you can instantly add edge fades by clicking Apply Edge Fade in Properties.
This applies 7 ms fades to the start and end of all selected clips.
Gain
Drag the slider left or right to adjust the Gain value. Alternatively, click the slider and type
in a value directly. The gain change is reflected right away in the height of the waveform
thumbnail on the clip.
Chapter 12 - Audio Clips and Editing Audio 107
Mute
Click the Mute icon to silence the clip. The waveform thumbnail will dim to gray.
In a few moments, Tracktion combines them into a single contiguous clip. There are many ways to
merge, render, and export that we will touch on later.
1. Set the in-marker and out-marker over the section you want to delete.
2. Select all the clips on all tracks (Cmd + A / Ctrl + A)
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Chapter 12 - Audio Clips and Editing Audio 109
3. In Properties choose Delete > Delete marked region of selected clips, and move up any selected
clips (Cmd + J / Ctrl + J).
1. In Properties change the Stretch property to Melodyne. The word Melodyne appears at the
center of the clip.
1. Click the word Melodyne at the center of the clip to open the Melodyne UI.
The Melodyne UI
1. Edit pitch and time by manipulating the note blobs in the Melodyne UI. Note that the
transport and loop is synchronized between Tracktion and Melodyne as you edit.
Chapter 12 - Audio Clips and Editing Audio 111
Tip: To learn all about Melodyne click Help > Manual within the Melodyne UI. Skip the
section on Loading, Transferring and Saving. All of that is handled automatically by ARA.
Video Clip: Here is a video clip that explains how to invoke Melodyne in Tracktion.
Moving On
Those are the simple but powerful tools in for editing Audio clips in Tracktion. We didnt even cover
time stretching, Warp Time. But, these are the fundamentals. Lets move on to looping Audio clips
- in the next chapter.
https://youtu.be/N3T8G-qF4zQ
Chapter 13 - Working With Loops
In this chapter we introduce the looping capabilities of Tracktion. You can drag in files from your
loop library as Audio clips and repeat them with the Duplicate (D) action or switch any Audio clip
into looping mode and roll out repetitions over as many bars as you want. This makes it easy for
example to extend a short loop into a beat to play over the full length of a song. Loops have a special
tab in Properties and we will explore that in this chapter as well.
1. Use the Browser Files tab and navigate to wherever you have audio files and loops on your
system. Drag loops you find there to tracks in the Edit. As you drag in loops they appear as
an outline until you drop them.
2. Use the Browser Search tab and search for loops and then drag them into your Edit. The
Browser also gives you the ability to preview loops to help you select the right one for the
song.
3. Simply drag them from you computer desktop drop them onto tracks .
4. From the menu section, select Import > Import an audio or MIDI file. Navigate to a file on
your system and click open. The Select a file to import dialog box even includes a basic file
audition function with Auto-play.
1. Click on the BPM setting in the Master section. Properties will show the BPM value.
2. Click on the BPM value and type in the new tempo.
Tip: If you dont like having the cursor jump to the end when dropping in loops, hold down
Opt / Alt as you drag. This prevents the cursor from jumping to the end.
Tip: To drop a selection of clips to parallel tracks, hold down Cmd / Ctrl as you drag and
Tracktion asks if you want to put them on one track or separate tracks. This is great when
working with multitrack drum loops. It even creates additional tracks if there arent enough
available.
To repeat the clip, drag the right trim handle and roll out as many repeats as you want. You will see a
white repeat divider at the start of each repetition. The underlying audio wave file is not duplicated,
it is just being replayed over and over. All other editing operations work the same as any other loop.
To stop looping, click the L icon gain to toggle looping off. That returns the clip to a single cycle.
There is another way to activate clip looping. Select the clip then click Loop this Clip in Properties.
From there you can select the number of times to loop. This is an alternative to dragging the right
trim handle to roll out repetitions.
The nice thing about looping is it doesnt take up any additional space in the project. You can loop
just about any clip. You could take a four bar drum loop and separate out one or two bars of the
main groove then loop it. That can give you the starting point for a song. Roll it out across the entire
song, and youve got something more inspiring than a click to play against.
Duplicating Clips
Another way to repeat a clip is to duplicate it. It is simple. Select a clip and press D. Duplicate is
the equivalent of copy followed by paste. The duplicate clip is placed immediately after the selected
clip.
Chapter 13 - Working With Loops 115
Duplicating a Clip
This is the best approach if you plan to edit the audio in a unique way for that section of the song.
Loop Properties
Notice that Properties has a second tab labeled Loop Properties. This tab appears whenever you select
an Audio clip. These properties are related to the underlying wave file. Tweaks to these properties
affect how the Audio clip will respond to tempo, pitch, and time stretching. Here is a description of
the most essential properties on the Loop Properties tab:
Auto-Pitch
With Auto-Pitch enabled, Tracktion will change the pitch of the clip appropriately to match
key change events in the Tempo track. This only works if you have a Root Note set for the file
- more on that in a moment.
Auto-Tempo
With Auto-Tempo ticked, the Audio clip will be automatically stretched to match the song
tempo and tempo changes in the Tempo track. For Auto-Tempo to work, you need to make
sure you have the Root Tempo set for the file and Stretch set to an appropriate algorithm.
Warp Time
With Warp Time enabled the waveform view to the right becomes a Warp Time editor. You
can add warp points and do fine timing adjustments. This powerful feature was new in T6
and is covered in detail in Chapter 18 - Warp Time.
Chapter 13 - Working With Loops 116
Time Signature
Edit Time Signature values to set the time signature of the file.
Root Tempo
Root Tempo is the original tempo of the loop file. Tracktion uses this to know how much to
stretch the file to sync it to the Edit tempo. If Root Tempo is not recorded along with the loop
file, you can set it here. Files created within Tracktion will automatically have the Root Tempo
set to match the Edit tempo.
Beats
The Beats parameter is the number of beats in the file. Using Beats and Root Tempo Tracktion
calculates the length of the loop file in musical terms.
Pitch Offset
If you just want to pitch the file up or down, enter an offset value for Pitch Offset.
Stretch
Stretch sets time stretching algorithm used for this loop file. Usually you will want to use
Elastique (Monophonic) for lead vocals and solo instruments. Use Elastique Pro for everything
else. Melodyne is typical selected used for pitch correction.
Waveform View
The waveform view allow you to play the file. You can also adjust the in and out loop points
by dragging the purple lines inward. There is a convenient level control here as well. This
view is replaced by the zoomable Warp Time editor when Warp Time is enabled.
Loop Start/End
This button contains a few quick tools to set the start and end loop points of the underlying
wave files to match the current Audio clip start and end points.
Beat Points
Beat Points are a type of marker that shows where the transients are to assist with time
stretching. This concept is very similar to how acidized files work. With the latest Elastique
Pro stretching algorithms manually manipulating the beat points is not necessary. I wouldnt
spend much time working with Beat Points. I expect that this functionality will get merged
with Warp Time in the future.
Add to Library
If you create an Audio clip loop and might want to reuse it in other projects, click Add to
Library then give it a name and tags.
Note: When you use Add to Library, the loop file will be saved to the User Loops Path
folder as designated on the Loop Database page of the Settings tab.
Chapter 13 - Working With Loops 117
Tip: If you want more control when adding loops to your library, try Export > Render
to a File. If you choose, Only Render Selected Clips you get much more control over its
properties and where to put the resulting file.
Moving On
Theres a lot more you can do with clip looping, loop files, and loop libraries in Tracktion, but those
are the fundamentals.
Chapter 14 - Keyboard Shortcuts
In this chapter you will learn how to customize the keyboard shortcuts in Tracktion. In Chapter 1 I
covered how to change the default keyboard mapping. In short, go to the Settings tab and select the
Keyboard Shortcuts page. Then near the bottom of the page click Reset to Defaults, and choose Use
alternative Tracktion key-mappings.
Note: The alternative Tracktion key-mapping is used for all examples in this book.
Tracktion allows you to have more than one shortcut tied to a single action. This is really helpful if
you want to have a way to do something on your laptop but then take advantage of the extended
keypad when youre on a desktop computer.
Chapter 14 - Keyboard Shortcuts 119
Lets take a look at an example. To start recording you click the Record button in the transport or
press keyboard shortcut R. When working on a computer that has a full size keyboard, I prefer to
start recording by hitting the asterisk (*) key on the keypad.
Heres how to set that up:
1. To the far right of each action theres a plus icon. To create or add a keyboard shortcut to an
action, click the corresponding plus icon. The New Key-mapping dialogue box opens up.
2. Type the key or key combination that you want to trigger this action. The key or key
combination will be identified in the dialogue box and it will also show you if theres a conflict
with an existing mapping. For our example, press asterisk (*) and then click OK.
Now, both R and the keypad asterisk () are assigned to the Record action. Back in the Edit test this
by turning *Record on and off using either R or asterisk (*).
Chapter 14 - Keyboard Shortcuts 120
Note: Keyboard mappings are global. Any changes you make will be active for all your
Edits.
To save your shortcuts setup, click Save Key-Mappings and Tracktion presents a dialogue box
requesting a file name and path. You can store the key-mapping file anywhere you like. Tracktion
key-mapping files have the .tracktionkeys extension.
Chapter 14 - Keyboard Shortcuts 121
Tip: I created a settings folder under my main Tracktion folder to hold such files. I suggest
naming the key-mapping files with a version number at the end. That gives you the ability
to easily roll back to a previous version if ever change your mind about a new keyboard
layout.
Moving On
At this point you should have a good handle on how to customize the keyboard shortcuts in
Tracktion. Since T6, Tracktion offers powerful macro scripting you can use to further customize
keyboard shortcuts. For more about that, see Chapter 37 - Macros.
Chapter 15 - Recording Audio
Now its time to learn how to record your own instrument or vocal tracks into Tracktion. First, you
will learn how to configure track inputs for recording. Then, you will learn how to use Tracktions
built-in metronome to provide a reference click to keep your recordings in time.
Warning: To configure Tracktion for recording you must use the Auto-Detect feature along
with a hardware loopback. If you dont then your overdubbed tracks will not be in sync
with existing tracks. While this is not difficult, it is essential to do this manual step anytime
you change the Audio Device Setup.
Tip: If you dont see the input objects, click the Show/Hide Inputs (Shift + F12) button at
the top right corner of the Edit tab.
Chapter 15 - Recording Audio 124
Click on an input object to see a menu of options. From the menu, select which hardware input
to use for recording to this track. You can set it to No input or select any input from your audio
interface. In this case its set to Input 1.
Input Menu
When you select an input, the input object shows the input name, a real-time input meter, and the
record arm R button. Also, a full set of input properties appears in Properties.
Chapter 15 - Recording Audio 125
In essence a track behaves like an audio track if you set an audio input; it works like a MIDI track if
you set a MIDI input and insert a virtual instrument plugin.
Number of Inputs
This feature is something uniquely Tracktion. You can set up more than one input on a single track.
Why? Well why not, I suppose. You can have up to four inputs assigned to a track.
Chapter 15 - Recording Audio 127
Now, if you record with more than one input armed, you will get a separate clip for each. This results
in stack of audio clips which is not really convenient.
The best use I have found for this is to have several recording chains configured and ready to go when
auditioning mikes and preamps. Just arm the input you want to try and away you go. It makes it
super efficient to switch to a different mic/preamp combination by simply arming the desired input.
Test the input signal. If youre using a microphone or a guitar, play a note or have the singer sing
something. You should see the meter moving on the input while testing. If not, check your input
level on the hardware and make sure phantom power is on if necessary for the mic.
Tip: Once recording has started you can still click R to enable and disable recording on the
fly. This allows you to do manual punch-in and punch-out style recording. This was new
as of T6. Here is a video I created that explains Punch In/Out on the Fly.
Hit Record
With the input setup done, recording is a matter of clicking Record (R) on the Transport. While
recording, Tracktion draws the waveform on the track. To stop recording press Spacebar.
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Chapter 15 - Recording Audio 128
Recording always starts at the cursor position. There are several ways and options to stop recording
which I will explain in a bit.
Input Meters
Click on an input to select it. Notice the large meter along the bottom edge of the Properties section.
This gives you a nice reference for setting up the input level.
Tip: As a rule of thumb, you want to set input level to hover around the middle of the
range shown on this meter. The input level is adjusted using the gain controls on your
audio interface or preamp.
If youre doing multi-track recording and you want to see large meters for all the tracks at once,
press F12. Tracktion will go into big meters mode. This superimposes a very large meter onto each
track.
Note: The big meters obscure your view of clips on the tracks so you will want to toggle it
off (F12) when not recording.
Chapter 15 - Recording Audio 129
Note: Dragging the input track to track is really one of the cooler aspects of Tracktion.
Once you start using this feature you will miss it when you record with any other DAW!
Renaming a Track
To rename a track, click directly on the track name, then edit the Name property in the Properties
section. A really quick way to do this is to click Name, press Tab, and start typing. As soon as you
tab off the Name property or click elsewhere in Tracktion, the new track name will be set.
The reason I point this out now, is that it pays to stay organized during recording. Keeping your
tracks and inputs properly labeled is a big part of that.
1. Arm the track or tracks for recording by clicking R on the track input.
2. Make sure Loop is turned off in the Master section.
Note: Tracktion supports loop recording but well get into that in a later chapter.
Chapter 15 - Recording Audio 130
1. Make sure the cursor is rewound to beginning by clicking Return-to-zero (Home) in the Master
section.
2. Verify that Click (C) is turned off (for now) in the Master section.
3. Click Record (R) in the Master section. Play something into the input using your instrument
or your voice depending on the kind of input selected.
Note: As you record, youll see the meters and youll also see the waveform start to draw
on the Audio clip.
Tip: If your recorded take just isnt really going well, you can press Abort or Abort &
Restart on the transport. These options only appear during recording.
Click Settings
Enable Click
Another way to enable or disable click is to open the Click Track menu and select Turn on
click track or Turn off click track. That does the very same thing as pressing C or clicking the
Click button in the Master section.
Click Volume
Adjust the volume of the click using the Click Track > Volume slider. There are also Low
volume (-14dB) , Medium volume (-4.4dB), and Full volume (0dB) presets available.
Note: Curiously, Full volume is not actually full. The Volume slider goes to +3db. Thats
three more than Full volume if you are keeping score.
Count-in
While recording you can have the click start a bit before the cursor position. This gives you or
the artist time to get into the groove before performing. Enable the count-in from Click Track
> Pre-record count-in length. Select from none, one bar, two bar, or two beats for the count-in
length.
With count-in enabled you will hear the click during recording. If the cursor is at the beginning of
the Edit, you will hear the count-in then the cursor will start moving. If the cursor is not at the start,
it will actually jump back by the count-in length and play from there. I would call that pre-roll.
Chapter 15 - Recording Audio 132
Count-in Options
Emphasize Bars
To clearly hear the downbeat of each bar, enable Click Track > Use loud clicks to emphasize
bars. With that enabled, Tracktion uses a different sound for the first beat of each bar.
Click Sound
To change what sounds are used for the click, select Click Track > Change Click Settings. This
opens the Click Track Settings dialog box. From here, you can change the samples used to
make the click sound. Just select the audio files for the normal and emphasized beats. If you
leave the File properties blank, you will get the default sounds.
Not too many people still do this, but its possible to use an external MIDI sound module for your
click sound. If you are inclined to do that, you can set the MIDI note numbers in the Click Track
Settings dialog box.
using MIDI for the click, you can set the click sound note numbers as explained in the previous
section.
Using a click is an essential reference tool for studio recording. It is great to have a synchronized
click built-in and ready to go.
Simple audio interfaces have a mix knob that allows you to mix between the inputs (your mic) and
playback (previously recorded tracks). For example, when recording a vocal leave the mix knob just
about in the middle. Half of what you hear is the live input off your mic, the other half is whats
being played back from Tracktion.
Now many audio interfaces dont have a specific knob on the front panel to control the mixer level.
They have an app that you run alongside Tracktion that features a virtual mixer. That app comes
from the audio interface manufacturer. It allows you to set up the monitor mix in your headphones
Chapter 15 - Recording Audio 134
separately from whats happening in the recording software. I cant really generalize more than that.
Audio interface control apps vary widely in capabilities and complexity.
The downside is latency. You might possibly notice a delay between when you play a note and when
you hear it. Its a time lag between you sing and when you hear it in your headphones. At high buffer
settings it will sound like an annoying delay slap or echo. At lower buffer settings it might sound
like a hollowness if you are singing with headphones on. When playing an instrument, you might
not hear any problem at all.
To really hear the effect of latency, try turning the buffer size up - to 1024 or even more. Then as
you play youll hear a noticeable delay between when you sing, speak or play a note and when you
hear it.
Note: Latency delay is more of a problem for singers than it is for somebody playing guitar
or another instrument. The sound of your voice is coupled through your skull right into
your ear with zero latency. When combined with your voice slightly delayed through the
interface and software the result might seem hollow or phasey. This wont be recorded
but might throw you off during recording.
Why then would you ever use live input monitoring? You need it for guitar amp simulators and for
virtual instruments. For normal vocal and instrument recording, its a lot better to use your audio
interface to provide zero latency monitoring.
Chapter 15 - Recording Audio 135
Recording in Process
Tip: When working on my own songs, I liberally delete bad takes. However, when working
with a someone with talent, I am much more careful to keep all takes. It is pretty easy to
mute the audio clips from failed takes and organize them into a folder track. You never
know when you might need a word or phrase later.
Note: For my own recording I am waiting for Tracktion to implement Abort Next Take
and Delete It.
There is a variation on this - Abort recording, delete take, and restart. That does the same thing but
then drops right back into recording. I dont use this because I think following an abort its usually
best to take a breath and think about what you are about to do. This action appears on the transport
during recording as the button * *.
This was intended to be funny.
Chapter 15 - Recording Audio 136
When you record from a stereo input youll wind up with a stereo clip showing both the left and
the right waveforms.
1 ![Stereo Waveform](images/15/23.png)
Retrospective Record
There are times where you wish you were recording because a practice take was so amazing?
Or maybe singer sings a pickup just before the downbeat. Retrospective record actually keeps a
recording buffer running for any track that has an input set up.
To enable this feature, from the Menu choose Option > Retrospective record and select the buffer
size. I find that the 30-second buffer is usually enough to safe-guard against chopped off picks or
endings. For live shows or recording speeches I set it to 5 or 10 minutes.
To recover lost audio just click the retrospective record icon in the upper right corner of the Tracktion
window. The buffered audio will be added as Audio clips to the appropriate tracks. If you click the
icon while the transport is still running, the audio will be synched to the timeline. If you click the
icon with the transport stopped, the audio will be placed at the cursor. In that case you will need to
manually align the clip to the track.
Retrospective record doesnt consume much CPU and is a great safeguard against losing important
audio or a killer take.
Safe-Record Mode
When recording shows, doing long recordings, or if you ever need to leave your computer
unattended while its recording, consider enabling Safe-Record (Options > Safe-Record mode).
In safe-record mode, you starting recording in the normal way. However, as soon as recording starts,
Tracktion shows a the Safe Record modal dialog box. You cant do anything in Tracktion including
stop the recording without entering the four key shortcut.
Here is how to get out of safe-record mode:
OS X: Shift + Opt + Cmd + R Windows: Shift + Alt + Ctrl + R
Those are the defaults, but you can change those to any other crazy key combination you want.
Chapter 15 - Recording Audio 138
Moving On
That was a lot of information about recording audio in Tracktion. In the next chapter we will
continue on with overdub recording.
Chapter 16 - Recording Overdubs
In this chapter we walk through an example of recording a simple song. In the previous chapter, I
explained how to use the Click feature to hear a metronome tempo reference while recording. In
this chapter we will use a drum loop instead. Later you will learn the steps to overdub guitars and
bass to create a simple tune.
Tip: For overdub recording, you typically do all the recording wearing headphones with
your main speakers off. This prevents bleed from one track to the next for cleaner mixing
later on. If you are engineering for another artist, then you will need to split the headphone
signal so both of you can wear headphones during the process.
Here are the tracks we will have by the end of the chapter:
1. Drag in a loop from the Browser. I am using a two bar loop. This will create an Audio clip. I
used Track 1 for the loop which I renamed to DrumLoop.
Tip: If the loop doesnt align to the bars correctly, hold Opt / Alt and drag the right trim
arrow until it does.
1. Click the L icon on the Audio clip to convert it to looping mode. Now drag the right trim
handle to roll out as many copies of the loop as you want.
1. We wont use loop recording, so make sure the Loop button is turned off in the Transport
section.
2. Turn off Click because we are using the drum loop track for the timing reference.
3. Lets use a two bar count-in. To set that up, select Click Track > Prerecord count-in length >
Use 2-bar count-in.
2. Next, arm the track for recording by clicking the R icon on the input. When you try this you
will see the metering on the input moving if you play a chord.
3. Test the input level by playing at the loudest level you plan to use for the track. Adjust the
level using the gain control on the audio interface.
4. Verify that the cursor is at the beginning of the edit. If not, press Home.
5. Press Record (R) on the Transport to start recording. Now record a take of your song. At the
end hit Spacebar to stop recording.
Tip: If recording doesnt go as planned, delete the Audio clip and try again. I went over
several ways to do this in Chapter 15.
Note: If you hear some kind of weird phasing as you play your instrument, then it probably
means you have Live Input Monitoring enabled while also monitoring through your audio
interface. Disable Live Input Monitoring.
Tip: You might want to lower the original track 3 to 6 dB using the Volume & Pan plugin
to better balance the recorded track with your live mic.
1. After recording, play back and balance the new recording with the original guitar track. To
get a wide stereo effect from the doubled part, pan the tracks to opposite sides using the Pan
slider from the Volume & Pan plugin.
Overdub a Bassline
When I wrote this, I recorded the bass by connecting it directly to the audio interface - no amp, no
mic.
High Impedance Inputs. Identify which input on your interface supports a direct 1/4 high
impedance input. This is often indicated by the guitar, gtr, or hi-z. Sometime you need to engage
a switch or button for the high impedance mode. Your bass or electric guitar will sound better if
you have the hi-z mode enabled.
1. Connect your bass to the interface using a normal 1/4 to 1/4 guitar cord. For my setup, I
selected Input 2 which has a high impedance switch.
Chapter 16 - Recording Overdubs 143
1. From this point, recording works exactly the same as with a mic. Select the correct input and
adjust the input level. Make sure the bass has a good level but is not activating the clip LED
on the interface using the gain knob on the audio interface.
2. Arm the input for recording if its not already. Adjust the levels of the existing tracks so that
you can hear the the tracks. At the same time, you want to hear what you are playing on the
bass.
3. Rewind and hit Record. If if the take doesnt go well, stop, press Undo and try again.
Tip: If you get a good take but think you can do better, dont delete the clip. You can drag
the input to another track and try again. Just mute the original track or clip so that you
dont hear it while recording the next take. The first take might wind up being the best
take!
Rename Tracks
As you record overdubs, its good idea to stay organized. One key is to name the tracks appropriately.
Click directly on the track name then edit the Name property.
Chapter 16 - Recording Overdubs 144
Renaming a Track
Tip: It can get annoying when renaming several tracks. You keep mousing between the
track and the Properties section. To avoid all the extra mouse mileage, click the track name
then press Tab. Tab puts the focus directly on the Name property ready for typing.
1. Press T. Select any existing track and press T. That creates a new track directly below the
selected one.
2. Right-click. Right-click in any blank space or on any track and select Create new track.
3. Track Menu. Another way is to select Tracks > Create a new track. using the Tracks menu.
Or, select Tracks > Create several new tracks to add up to sixteen new tracks in one go.
Tip: Like most things in Tracktion, you can undo creating tracks using the Undo button
(Cmd + Z / Ctrl + Z). To remove a track from your project, select it and hit Delete or
Backspace.
Rearranging Tracks
To rearrange the tracks, drag the track from the track name area and drop it in the new position. As
you drag the track, a glowing bar will appear between tracks showing you the target for your drop.
When that bar is in the right spot, let go of the drag and the track will be repositioned.
Chapter 16 - Recording Overdubs 145
Tip: If you temporarily overload the master meter, you can reset the overload indicators
using the backslash key ( \ ).
Moving on
That was a walk-through of overdubbing. At this point, you should be getting familiar with basic
recording in Tracktion and have a handle on how to work with tracks in Tracktion.
Chapter 17 - Clean-up Editing
After you have some basic tracks recored, you can use the Tracktion editing tools to clean up the
clips and fix small problems with the takes. We covered Audio clip editing in Chapter 12. In this
chapter I will show you a few practical examples of how to use them.
Note: Sometimes it is easier to make timing edits if you move the part youre working on
near the drum part. That way you can see the timing of your notes compared to the timing
of the essential rhythmic elements of the song.
Trimming
The trim handles are a great way to clean up the beginning and ending of recording takes. Trim the
beginning to keep the track silent until the part actually comes in. Then trim the end to silence any
extra noise that happens after the song is done.
To use the trim handle just grab and drag. If you leave Snap on, trimming will snap to the grid. With
Snap turned off, you can trim freely.
Tip: You can temporarily override snapping by holding Cmd / Ctrl while trimming.
You can also trim multiple Audio clips at the same time. Just select several clips using Opt-drag /
Alt-drag and then adjust the lengths using the trim handles on any of the select clips.
Chapter 17 - Clean-up Editing 147
Look at this example baseline compared to the drum loop. One of the bass notes is early. Ideally, you
would re-record this part. If thats not an option you can easily correct small issues like this. The
strategy is to separate the out-of-time note to its own Audio clip, them move it slightly.
1. Position the cursor just after the note and press slash ( / ) again. The bad note is now separated
to its own Audio clip.
Chapter 17 - Clean-up Editing 148
1. Click to select the single note. Trim the clip to shorten it a bit.
1. Zoom in enough so you can see the alignment between the note and the drums. Grab the note
and slide it to line up with the correct drum hit.
Note: I like to do this with Snap turned off. This sort of editing doesnt need to be absolutely
perfect. I generally want to correct something that is obviously wrong but not every single
note.
Chapter 17 - Clean-up Editing 149
1. Complete the edit by trimming and crossfading into the other notes.
Splitting & Selecting. Right after you split a clip, youll notice that the two resulting clips are both
selected. If you trim, slip or move a clip the action will apply to all selected clips. That might not be
what you want. To select a single clip, just click one of the clips. At any time, you may hit Escape
to de-select everything.
1. If the note was early, trim back the previous clip to get rid of the extra bit.
1. Position the cursor at the end of the note and press slash to split it again. The bad note will
will have a separate Audio clip.
1. Select only the note you want to adjust. Grab and drag the slip handle (solid box). The
waveform will slip within the window of the Audio clip. Align the waveform so it starts
just after the leading edge of the clip.
Drag the Slip Edit Handle to Adjust Timing Within the Clip
Chapter 17 - Clean-up Editing 151
Note: If you have automatic crossfade turned on then as you move one clip to overlap an-
other, a crossfade will be created automatically. See Chapter 12 for more about crossfades.
Fade-outs
You can also adjust the fade-outs at the end of takes simply by using the fade handle and dragging
it to the left for each track appropriately.
Adjusting Fade-outs
Remember, you can adjust the shape of the fade-out by selecting one of the four preset shapes in the
Properties section.
1. First, separate out the note that you want to stretch using split as in the other examples.
2. Hold Opt /Alt and drag the right trim handle to extend the note to the desired length.
1. Audition the playback to make sure that it sounds clean. The more you stretch it the more
chance you have to degrade the audio quality, but you might be surprised at how well this
really works.
Note: Besides just simply cleaning up the takes, you can do detailed editing on Audio clips
to completely change the timing or even the arrangement. While writing songs, I use these
tools to compose bass lines that tightly lock in with the drums. I do this by adjusting the
timing, removing notes, or shortening notes. It all depends on the nature of your music
production. When I am writing a song, I used these tools to try many different ideas.
You could zoom way in and add tiny fades to the beginning and ending of each clip. The easier way
is to select the clip and click Apply Edge Fade in Properties. This instantly puts 7 ms fades at the
beginning and ending of all selected clips.
If clean-up editing leaves your track looking like a shredded mess, you can quickly render all the
clips back to a singled clip. Here is how to do that:
1. Select all the clips you want to combine to one clip. One way to do that is to click the first
clip, hold down Shift, then click on the last one.
1. In Properties select Render Clips > Merge the selected clips. In Tracktion 6, merging is a single
command, which is a great enhancement to the workflow.
Chapter 17 - Clean-up Editing 154
Moving On
Those are some of the basic techniques you can use to clean up your recorded tracks. Use these
techniques to trim clips, apply fade-outs, make minor timing adjustments, and then render all the
changes to a single clip.
Chapter 18 - Warp Time
Warp Time is an audio editing option that was introduced in T6. Rather than needing to split out
notes to move them as discussed in the previous chapter, you can drag Warp points to bend and
stretch audio into time. Apart from simply correcting timing problems, you an apply it creatively to
compositions and loops to alter the feel of recorded audio.
The implementation is actually very simple. You can get up and running with Warp Time very
quickly.
Tip: Since T7, Warp time is also available as one of the Clip Layer Layer effects as described
in Chapter 41
The waveform view on the Loop Properties tab switches to the zoomable Warp Time editor.
Chapter 18 - Warp Time 156
The Warp Time Editor is working on the underlying audio in the clip so there might be much more
audio shown than you see on the Audio clip. This will usually be the case if you have trimmed the
Audio clip before hand.
Tip: If you want the Warp Time editor view to exactly match the waveform on the selected
Audio clip, render the clip using Render Clip > Flatten the selected clip. This will create a
new underlying file. After that, what you see and hear in the Warp Time editor will match
what you see and hear in the Audio clip.
Tip: You can add a Warp point and drag in a single action. Just click on the timeline, hold
and start dragging. The waveform will stretch until you stop dragging.
Warp Point
Chapter 18 - Warp Time 157
Before Warping
To correct audio timing over a constrained area, you can think about a three point technique. You
typically want to add Warp points just before the beginning of notes or percussive hits. That would
be just before a transient. If you do that then stretching occurs over the note not in the middle of it.
With the three point technique, you insert Warp points before and after the note you want to alter
to lock down the timing. Then add a Warp point right at the transient you want to change and drag
it into to time.
Most of the time, Elastique Pro will give you the best results. If you have specialized needs, you can
experiment with the other Elastique options under the spanner icon.
Elastique Options
Moving On
I created a video demo of Warp Time that you might find interesting:
Warp Time Video Demo
Warp Time, the standard editing tools, and Melodyne give you amazing potential to manipulate the
timing of your Audio clips.
https://w-edstrom.wistia.com/medias/8klw4ees4u
Chapter 19 - Loop Recording
Loop recording is a really cool way to quickly record multiple takes of a part onto a single track.
Following loop recording, you can easily pick the best take and make it active so that it is the one
you hear during playback.
Loop recording also sets you up to use the track comping tools that are built into Tracktion. Comping
allows you to go phrase by phrase through the different takes and choose the best parts and create
a composite best take. We cover comping in detail in Chapter 20.
Note: The Click count-in works for loop recording. If you want a running start for each
take, set Click Track > Pre-record count-in length to one or two bars.
Chapter 19 - Loop Recording 161
1. Configure the input and check your levels just like we did for standard recording.
While recording when the cursor hits the Out-marker, Tracktion will automatically loop back for
the next take. You can do as many takes as you like. I usually do five or six, but you could record 20
takes or more if you feel like it.
Tip: With your takes recorded this way, it is perfectly set up for comping, which we will
cover in the next chapter.
Chapter 19 - Loop Recording 162
That instantly coverts an Audio clip full of takes to a series of tracks containing separate Audio clips.
Now you can use normal audio editing to move them around, chop them up, or arrange them into
a song.
Moving on
The secret to loop recording is to set the In-marker and Out-marker over the section you want to
record, make sure Loop is turned on, and then record like you normally would. Loop recording also
sets you up for comping which is up next! Turn the page.
Chapter 20 - Comping
In this chapter, were going to go over the cool comping features in Tracktion. Comping is an editing
technique where you select the best phrases from numerous takes to build a composite or comp.
The idea is to create the best possible take. Engineers have been doing this for years, but Traction
makes it much easier than the traditional methods.
Comping typically starts with takes recorded in Loop mode. I covered that in Chapter 19 - Loop
Recording.
Loop recording you used to be a prerequisite for doing comping. Starting with T6, Tracktion also
allows you build composites from any collection of tracks using the new Comp Groups feature. More
on that later in the chapter.
Note: I am assuming that you already recorded using the technique in the previous chapter.
If not, go back to Chapter 19 and get some takes recorded!
1. When you finish loop recording, make sure to save the Edit with Save > Save edit (Cmd + S /
ctrl + S).
2. Go to the Projects tab and select the correct Edit. In the Controls panel, click Create a Copy.
3. I like to keep the Edits organized by adding a revision number. Do this by clicking on each
Edit, then editing the Name property.
4. On the original Edit, add a comment that says, This version is before comping or similar.
5. Close the tab for the original Edit and open the new copied version.
Strategically creating copies of your Edits and naming them in a logical way, works like a revision
control system. You can always roll back if something goes wrong or if you just change your mind.
Chapter 20 - Comping 164
Comping Takes
Now that everything is setup, its time to get to the creative, fun part of the process.
1. Select the Audio clip that contains the takes you want to comp.
1. Click on the plus (+) icon in the lower right corner of the clip and select Show takes. That
expands the clip to show all of the individual takes. If you play back over this section of the
Edit, you will hear the very last take you did during loop recording.
Chapter 20 - Comping 165
1. To build a composite take, click and drag a range over a phrase from any take. That phrase is
instantly promoted to the active take. This drag-to-select action is called swiping.
Tip: While comping, sometimes its helpful to have the cursor return where you started
playback whenever you stop playback. Do that by enabling Options > Return cursor to
start position when play stops. This makes it easier to audition phrase by phrase without
needing to constantly reposition the cursor.
1. Continue swiping and auditioning to build up the composite. If you want to switch a selected
phrase to a different take, just click another take. The selection instantly moves to that take.
Chapter 20 - Comping 166
1. If the swipe selection doesnt fully enclose a phrase, adjust either edge of the selection by
simply dragging the edge to trim it.
Note: While comping sometimes youll use a little bit from every take. Other times youll
predominantly use one take and just fix a couple of bad phrases.
Once you finished, click the plus (+) icon and select Hide takes. At that point, youre finished
comping!
Chapter 20 - Comping 167
Hide Takes
Tip: After comping, it is a great time to create another copy of the Edit and add a note that
this was saved after comping. This gives you the option to roll back if you ever want to
make some changes.
Flatten Comp
If you feel compelled to remove the underlying takes from the Edit, click the plus (+) icon on the clip
and select Flatten current comp. This gives you the option to delete the source files. Keep in mind
that this operation is permanent.
Tip: Dont flatten the comp without first saving a copy of the Edit. Also, I would not
recommend selecting the option to delete the source files. This will remove them for your
other saved Edits.
Chapter 20 - Comping 168
1. Select one of the tracks then in the Comp Group menu select Show Editor > Edit track comps.
This puts the tracks in to comp mode.
1. Now you can start swiping to select phrases from any of the tracks. On playback only the
selected phrases are played back.
1. You can adjust the window of your selection by dragging either edge of range. This works
very similarly to comping takes which we covered earlier in the chapter.
Tip: If you want to have good control over the silent parts of a comp, it helps to add a blank
track to the Comp Group. For the parts you want to silence just swipe over that range on
the blank track.
Render Comp
When you have the composite complete, you can render the result to single track. The Comp
Group menu gives you two options for this. Render and replace comp group replaces the all
the comp group tracks with the resulting track. Render comp group to a new track leaves the
existing tracks in place and adds a new track with the composite.
One interesting thing about comp groups is that you can have as many of them active in the Edit as
you want. There are many uses beside typical comping. I often comp silence with tom tracks instead
of gating. Comping is also fast way to mash up two beats or two different songs.
Moving On
The comping features in Tracktion are very easy to use. As you are learning Tracktion make sure to
explore these powerful features.
Chapter 21 - Using an Amp Simulator
Plugin
In this chapter, you will learn how to use an amp simulator plugin while recording direct with
an electric guitar in Tracktion. Out of the box, Tracktion doesnt include an amp simulator plugin.
However, most of the third party amp simulator plugins will work. If you dont have any of these,
there is a great sounding free amp sim plugin from Voxengo called Boogex. I used that when
preparing this chapter. You can download it from Voxengo.com.
1. Connect your guitar to the high impedance input on your audio interface as described in
Chapter 16. If your interface doesnt have a guitar input then use a suitable preamp.
http://www.voxengo.com/product/boogex/
Chapter 21 - Using an Amp Simulator Plugin 174
1. Create a new track, select the input, and arm it for recording.
Chapter 21 - Using an Amp Simulator Plugin 175
1. Make sure that direct monitoring of your signal though the audio interface is turned all the
way down or disabled. To make this work you need to monitor 100% of your guitar signal
through Tracktion.
Chapter 21 - Using an Amp Simulator Plugin 176
1. Select the input and turn on Live Input Monitoring. At this point you should be able to hear
your dry unprocessed guitar signal.
Chapter 21 - Using an Amp Simulator Plugin 177
1. Open the Browser and go to the Search tab, and type in a few characters of the name of your
amp simulator plugin. Drag the plugin to the mixer section.
1. If the UI window for the plugin didnt open, double click it. If you have Live Input Monitoring
enabled you should hear sound through the plugin when you play. Select a preset and it should
sound like you are playing through a guitar amp, maybe even amps, effects, cabinets, whatever
your plugin simulates.
Tip: To bypass the plugin just click on the plugin to select it and press F. You can also enable
or disable it using the Enabled control in Properties. The shortcut F will enable or disable
any selected plugins.
A big advantage of recording this way is the ability to tweak the sound after the fact. You can also
record using an endless variety of guitar rigs that you dont own. Plus, you can do this without
disturbing the neighbors!
An important but subtle advantage is when you go to edit your guitar tracks. Edits that occur
before the amp and distortion sounds more natural and are way less apparent when you edit a
fully processed guitar part.
Managing Latency
When working with guitar amp simulators, latency can be a factor. If you have the Audio buffer
size set too high, you get a big delay between when you play and when you hear a note. If you set it
Chapter 21 - Using an Amp Simulator Plugin 179
too low the you might get pops and clicks if the computer doesnt have adequate time to process the
sound. The challenge is to find a good setting the feels responsive but still has perfect sound quality.
Latency is determined by Audio Buffer Size parameter. Here is how to set that:
3. Enter an Au-
dio Buffer Size value. Values around 256 or lower tend to work pretty well depending on what else
is going on in the Edit.
Note: Its always a balancing act between setting the buffer size as low as possible to get
the latency down while keeping it high enough to have clean, solid playback. I usually
leave it set at 256 samples for my computer that works very well. When mixing, I increase
it to approximately 1024 mostly because that is required for Melodyne ARA.
Chapter 21 - Using an Amp Simulator Plugin 180
Tip: If you dont have a tuner plugin, consider downloading one as part the the MFreeEf-
fectsBundle from Melda Production.
Assuming you have a tuner plugin available, here is how to get it going:
http://www.meldaproduction.com/plugins/product.php?id=MFreeEffectsBundle
Chapter 21 - Using an Amp Simulator Plugin 181
1. Open the Browser, go to the Search tab. Make sure Plugins is selected from the search options
drop down menu. Type in a few characters of the name of your tuner plugin. The plug-in will
show up in the search list.
2. Drag the tuner and drop it in the plug-ins area of the track. Normally, as soon as you drop it,
the user interface window will pop open. If not double click the plugin to open the UI.
3. Play a note on your guitar. If the tuner does not respond make sure to arm the track for
recording and enable Live Input Monitoring. This is necessary for the signal to flow through
the track to the mixer section and to the tuner plugin.
Tip: To keep the plugin open, click the pin icon in the upper right corner.
When you are finished with tuning, click the red X in the upper left corner of the tuner to hide its
user interface.
Note: In earlier versions of Tracktion, Live Input Monitoring was called End to end
monitoring. It has been renamed to reduce confusion about this feature.
Moving On
You can always record in the traditional way by miking your guitar amplifier. Its also interesting
to split your guitar signal and record the direct signal along with your miked guitar amp. That way
you can blend the sound of the amp sim with the real amp when mixing.
Chapter 22 - MIDI Setup
Were going to move on to MIDI recording and editing in this and the next few chapters. The first
step is to set up a MIDI keyboard so that you can play notes into Tracktion. If you dont have a MIDI
keyboard, you can enter notes manually into the MIDI editor, or you can use the computer keyboard
as a virtual MIDI device.
The setup is quite simple. I am using an USB external keyboard controller but the setup works
much the same for other types of controllers. Specifically Im using a CME Xkey keyboard for this
walkthrough.
MIDI Drivers
Before you dive in here, you might need drivers for your controller. Check the manufacturers
website for drivers for the controller model and your operating system. With Tracktion closed,
download and install the drivers. Once youve done that, the rest is easy.
Tip: If you dont see your devices listed, make sure the controller is connected and has
power. If that checks out, then make sure the latest drivers are installed. At any time you
can click Refresh. Refresh initiates a scan for connected MIDI devices.
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Chapter 22 - MIDI Setup 183
Tip: You can customize Alias for a specific Edit, by selecting the input in the Edit tab and
changing it in Properties. Changing Alias on the Edit tab takes precedence over the Alias
property in the Settings tab.
This hides those from the selection list when setting up a track.
1. Click on an input and select the MIDI input that matches the controller you just configured.
Chapter 22 - MIDI Setup 184
1. Play some notes on your keyboard. You will see the meter registering the MIDI activity on
that track.
1. With the input selected look in Properties. Turn on Enable Input Monitoring if it isnt already
on.
With this done, MIDI events come into the track from your keyboard and the pass through to the
virtual instrument that were going to setup next.
1. Insert your synth plugin ahead of the Volume & Pan plugin. By ahead, I mean ahead in the
signal path. So in this example, I dropped FM Synth to the left of Volume & Pan.
1. Play some notes on your keyboard and at this point you should hear synth notes.
Note: There is no difference between a MIDI track and an audio track in Tracktion. To
configure a MIDI track, just set a MIDI input and insert a virtual instrument plugin as a
sound generating source. Then, as you record your performance, youll create a MIDI clip
instead of an audio clip like we did in the previous examples.
1. Enter a name such as Qwerty Piano into the Virtual MIDI device dialog box
1. Notice the piano keyboard along the bottom of the screen. To play the keyboard first click on
any key with the mouse then use keys A,S,D,F,G,H,J,K,L as white keys. Use W, E,T,Y,U,O,P as
black keys. This virtual keyboard lets you play notes in the range from C4 to E5.
Tip: Click the lock icon in the upper left corner Properties. This locks the Tracktion
keyboard to the Virtual MIDI Piano feature. Also, when attempting to record, it helps to
start recording using a keyboard shortcut. If you click record, the qwerty piano loses focus
until you click a key on the virtual keyboard.
Note: When you are finished using the virtual keyboard, unlock Properties by clicking on
the lock icon again. It will stay stuck on the virtual keyboard until you do that.
Moving On
In the next chapter, youll learn how to record a MIDI performance onto the track!
Chapter 23 - MIDI Recording
In this chapter youll learn how to record a MIDI performance from your controller. Your controller
could be a keyboard or any other sort of instrument that you can use to generate MIDI note data.
We covered how to set up a MIDI controller in the previous chapter.
In this chapter, well go further and cover the details of how to record your MIDI performance. You
will also learn about the various MIDI recording modes. The MIDI implementation in Tracktion is
fairly comprehensive while also being quite easy to use. Lets get started.
Setting up a Track
There isnt a special type of MIDI track in Tracktion. Any track can be used for audio, MIDI, or Step
Clips. To record MIDI, pick any unused track or create a new track. On the track, set up the input
by selecting your MIDI controller. Play a few notes on your MIDI controller to see if you have MIDI
activity.
To hear any sound youll need to insert a virtual instrument. Do that by dragging the plugin object
to the mixer section, or search for the synth plugin in the Search tab on the Browser. When you find
it, drag it over to the mixer section of your track. I usually drop it to the left of the Volume & Pan
plugin. As soon as you drop it, the user interface will open up for the instrument plugin. Choose a
suitable preset for the part.
We covered all this in the previous chapter. If when you play notes on your controller you dont
hear anything, go back to Chapter 22 and make sure the MIDI input is set up correctly.
1. Enable the track for recording by clicking the red R on the track input
Chapter 23 - MIDI Recording 189
Enable Recording
1. In the Transport, click the red Record button to start recording. You can also do this using the
keyboard shortcut R.
Start Recording
Tip: To record your MIDI performance with a metronome click, configure and enable Click
using the procedure outlined inChapter 15.
Position the cursor before the newly recorded MIDI clip and hit spacebar again to playback. You
should be able to hear the exact performance.
Chapter 23 - MIDI Recording 190
Tip: If you dont like what you recorded, simply select the MIDI clip and press backspace
to delete it.
Note: The PRV in Tracktion allows you to see the timing of notes as they relate to the
timeline, and the pitch of notes as they relate to a piano keyboard. The graphic length of a
note represents how long that note is held in musical time.
The MIDI editor PRV includes everything you need to edit MIDI data. You can add notes, delete
notes, copy notes, and duplicate them. You can also work with velocity and other controller values.
Well get into the details later when we go deeper into MIDI editing.
Merge Mode
By default, Action is set to Merge newly recorded MIDI into any existing clips. If you rewind and
record in some more notes, you will find that theyre merged into the MIDI clip that you created
in the first pass. It doesnt replace notes that you recorded before; it just adds new notes and and
merges them with the original MIDI clip.
If you mess up an otherwise good performance in merge mode, undo the new notes by pressing Cmd
+ Z / Ctrl + Z.
Tip: I find merge mode is very helpful if youre building up a part pass by pass - particularly
when layering a drum part and adding additional drum hits in each pass.
Replace Mode
If you wanted to replace what you played previously, change Action in Properties for the input
to Replace existing clips with newly recorded MIDI clips. Now when you start to record, the new
recording will create an entirely new MIDI clip and it will gradually overwrite what you had before.
It doesnt exactly erase the original clip. If any portion of the clip is still visible, you can trim the
edges of it and expose the original data. Of course, Undo will get you back to where you started from
if things dont go well.
Note: You can envision replace mode as being similar to tape recording. As you record
something new onto tape, you are erasing the section you are recording over.
Overlay Mode
In overlay mode, as you record youll get a new MIDI clip stacked on top of the original clip. After
you have record this way youll hear the output from both clips mixed together. Personally, I dont
really like to ever have my clips overlapping.
Tip: In practice, I leave Action set to Merge newly recorded MIDI into any existing clips and
I manage the clips myself.
During playback you hear the overlapping MIDI clips merged together. At least for me, I think thats
confusing and dont like to use this mode.
Chapter 23 - MIDI Recording 192
As you record, youre going to hear the notes however you play them in, but on playback all of your
notes will be snapped to the value you set in Quantize.
The downside of this is that often the result is rather unnatural. Thats because this approach
quantizes both the note start and the note ending. Notes get stretched out and tend to sound
mechanical. In general, input quantize is more useful for drum programming than playing something
like a piano part.
Note: Input quantizing does not happen in real time. You hear the result during playback.
There are other ways (Apply Groove) to quantize after the fact. Well be getting into that in Chapter
26 - Quantizing MIDI Notes.
Moving On
Thats an introduction to MIDI recording. You learned the essential options to set up a MIDI input.
You learned about the MIDI record modes. We also took quick look at input quantizing. Next up,
loop recording with MIDI!
Chapter 24 - MIDI Loop Recording
In this chapter youll learn about loop recording and MIDI. When you loop record in merge mode
its useful for layering up a drum part or maybe building a chord over a couple of passes through
the loop.
Tracktion also supports MIDI loop recording to layers, which gives you the capability to build a
composite MIDI performance in the same way you can do with audio. This is a really cool feature
of Tracktion.
1. To put your track into MIDI merge mode, click on the track input, then in Properties set Action
to Merge newly recorded MIDI into any existing clip.
1. To prepare for loop recording, set the In-marker and the Out-marker over the area you want
to loop.
Enable Loop
1. As Tracktion cycles through the loop, youll immediately hear the results of what you played
in previous passes. Keep adding passes until youre happy with the part.
2. To stop recording, either click Record again or hit Spacebar.
Following loop recording, youll have a single MIDI clip containing the part you built up over
successive recording passes.
This technique is particularly useful for programming drum parts - especially if drumming is not
your main skill. For example, on the first pass play in the high hat. Then, on the second pass add the
kick and snare. Finally, strategically add a crash on the downbeat.
Set the In-marker and Out-marker and turn Loop on. Hit Record and record a performance during
each cycle through the loop.
When you hit Stop youll have separate takes in the MIDI clip for each loop pass - just like in audio
loop recording.
Chapter 24 - MIDI Loop Recording 195
You can also expand the view to show all the takes below the track. Click the plus icon and select,
Show takes.
Not only does this show the takes, but it puts you in comping mode. Swipe over the phrases you
want to keep and build a composite from the best parts of each take.
Chapter 24 - MIDI Loop Recording 196
Note: When you select Flatten current comp Tracktion asks if you want to delete the unused
takes. If you want to flatten the takes to a single MIDI clip you need to accept this. Its not
a big problem. Unlike audio comps, you can use Undo following this action.
Chapter 24 - MIDI Loop Recording 197
Moving On
Loop recording and comping are really powerful tools for MIDI composition just as they are when
working with audio. Next up, learn how to edit MIDI clips and MIDI notes.
Chapter 25 - MIDI Editing
In this chapter you will learn MIDI editing. There are two aspects to MIDI editing. You can, of
course, edit individual MIDI notes but you can also edit the MIDI clip. Editing a MIDI clip is similar
to editing an Audio clip with a few key differences. We will go over both in this chapter.
Many of the tools for working with clips work much like they work with Audio clips. Each MIDI
clip header has several drag handles. Lets take a look at how they work.
Note: One difference between Audio clips and MIDI clips is that the MIDI clips dont have
fade handles.
Use the left solid arrow to slip the notes later in time while leaving the ending of the clip anchored.
The right solid arrow works the opposite way. You can slip the end of the clip while leaving the
beginning of the clip anchored.
Tip: I use slip editing much less for MIDI clips than for Audio clips. When I do, I always
use the middle solid box slip handle.
Chapter 25 - MIDI Editing 200
You can also split using the Split Clips actions at the right side of Properties. The various actions
give you more control over splitting.
Note: As you split MIDI clips, any notes that are sustained across the split area are separated
into two notes.
You can even split a mixture of Audio clips and MIDI clips across multiple tracks by selecting a
combination of them at once.
Another way to see the MIDI note editor is to double-click on the MIDI clip header to toggle track
height.
Note: Clip header double-click behavior is dependent on a global setting. Go to the Settings
tab, General behavior page and find the Track Resizing property. You can choose a number
of options based on how you would like that resizing to occur when you double-click. This
setting also holds for audio tracks. I like to leave it set to toggle between the small and
medium height.
To fine tune the vertical size of MIDI notes, drag the arrows above and below the piano graphic.
I find its generally helpful to have MIDI scrolling on during MIDI editing. Youll find this setting
in the menu under Options > Mouse wheel action > Mouse wheel scrolls MIDI grid.
The most basic edit? Click a note to select it. Drag it up or down to change the pitch.
If you dont see the per-note automation editing area, you can turn it on and off in Properties.
To start, select any single note. The automation editing area will appear for the full length of the
note. By default you will be editing Volume (controller 7). Select the pencil tool and draw in the
desired automation curve by click-dragging over the editing area.
Note: You need to select the pencil tool to draw in the per-note automation.
The curve will appear as steps based on the current snap resolution. The snap resolution is set by
the zoom level, so to draw in a more detailed curve, zoom in more.
You can select any other control by clicking the Type button on the MIDI editor toolbar. This type
of editing gives you tremendous control over performance details and articulations.
Chapter 25 - MIDI Editing 205
Nudging Notes
Nudging works much like it does for Audio clips and MIDI clips. You hold down Shift and use the
arrow keys. Shift-up and Shift-down change the pitch. Shift-left and Shift-right change the timing.
Nudging is particularly helpful when changing the pitch because theres no chance of altering the
timing of the note.
Note Length
You can trim the length of a note by grabbing the right edge and dragging it left or right.
Copying a Note
Note Colors
The color selection along the top edge of the MIDI editor allows you to select set a note color. Select
a group of notes, click on a color and then it will change those notes to that color. It doesnt affect
playback, but it gives you a way to visually organize a sequence. For example, when programming
drums you could make snares, hi-hats, and kick drum all different colors.
Note Colors
You can also add or remove notes from a multiple selection by holding down Shift (or Cmd / Ctrl)
then clicking additional notes youd like to toggle in and out of the selection.
To select an entire row of notes that are the same pitch, hold down Cmd / Ctrl and click on the PRV
keyboard key corresponding to that row of notes. That selects the full row of notes.
Chapter 25 - MIDI Editing 209
Once you have a multiple selection, move all the notes in time or by pitch by dragging with the
arrow tool. Or, you can change values in Properties that will apply to all notes in the selection.
Nudge also works on well on a multiple selection of notes (Shift plus the arrow keys).
If you choose Other, from the velocity drop down, you can type in whatever value you want from
0 to 127.
Tip: Heres another trick way to adjust velocity. Select a note then hold Shift as you drag
up and down over the note. Notice the Velocity value changing in Properties as you drag.
You can also edit multiple velocities together by first selecting several velocities. Say we want to edit
the velocity of all the C4s. Hold down Cmd / Ctrl and select all the C4s, then, just grab one of them
and they will all adjust together.
Example editing aftertouch: In the MIDI editor click Control > Type > Channel Pressure. Now the
channel pressure data will appear in the same way velocity appears.
Moving On
Those are the fundamentals of MIDI editing. Were going to get into quantizing MIDI notes in the
next chapter.
Chapter 26 - Quantizing MIDI Notes
The idea of quantizing is to correct the timing your MIDI performances. At a basic level, quantizing
snaps each note to the nearest correct note on a virtual grid defined by the bars and beats of your
song. Tracktion gives you tools to define that grid in musical increments like quarter note, eighth
note, but it does so using divisions of a beat. Ill get to that in a bit.
Tracktion takes quantizing further with groove templates. Groove templates allow you to quantize
in a way thats not completely perfectly aligned to straight timing. An important use of this is to
introduce swing to the timing. You have all the tools needed to impart the desired feel into your
performance.
How to Quantize
Within a MIDI clip, select all the notes you want to quantize. If you want to quantize all of them
you can use select all (Cmd + A / Ctrl + A). The quantize actions are available by clicking Quantize
in Properties.
There are four different quantize actions available as shown above. The most common option is the
first one - Quantize note start times. To complete the action, you pick which beat division to use.
The beat division selection can be a little confusing. Musical divisions in Tracktion are represented
as fractions of one beat. For example, if you want to quantize to eighth notes and youre in 4/4 time,
Chapter 26 - Quantizing MIDI Notes 213
then you select To nearest 1/2. One half of one beat would be an eighth note. If you want to quantize
to sixteenth notes, then select To nearest 1/4 beat from this menu.
Youll will notice right away that quantizing perfectly tightens up up the performance. It will snap
the notes to the nearest increment of the division that you selected.
Note: If youre playing was so far off that it actually snaps it to the wrong note, then you
might need to do some MIDI editing to clean that up!
Tip: Some styles of music are based on perfectly quantized timing while other styles arent.
To get a more natural feel but also fix timing errors, you can always edit timing note-by-
note manually with Snap turned off. Groove quantizing also gives you other options for
quantizing with feel. More on that later.
With something like a piano part this can lead to a choppy, unnatural feel. You could try to quantize
the note lengths to 1/4 beat (sixteenth note) if the playing is that inconsistent.
In most cases, its not really important to quantize the note lengths. I use this more quantize the note
lengths on drum parts, because it helps play out the full attack and decay of a drum hit.
You get this big menu of groove presets. These are custom templates that allow you to apply fine
adjustments to the timing.
Chapter 26 - Quantizing MIDI Notes 215
To cut to the chase, the most common scenario is to apply swing. That means delaying the eighth
notes that follow the four primary beats in a bar. To locate the groove templates for standard swing,
look at those starting with Swing 1/2. Swing 1/2 as in half beat. In normal musical terms thats eighth
note swing. To apply a nice groovy swing, try Swing 1/2 60%.
Chapter 26 - Quantizing MIDI Notes 216
Note: In 4/4 music, eighth note timing is counted 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &. In swing timing, the
& beats are delayed. The swing presets in Tracktion let you pick how much delay as a
percentage from subtle (10%) to dramatic (90%).
After you apply swing youll see it lays back all of the and notes to be a little late - groovy! Tracktion
will also adjust the note lengths appropriately as shown above.
Chapter 26 - Quantizing MIDI Notes 217
Select that to open the groove template editor. Click on any of the presets to see how the logic works.
In the image above I selected the Swing 1/4 60% template I used for the examples in this chapter.
A groove template consists of a pattern length, note subdivision, and the timing for each note. For
each step of the pattern you choose the amount that that note falls early or late relative to perfect
timing.
Chapter 26 - Quantizing MIDI Notes 218
The example in the figure shown above is the setup for a basic swing beat with each and eighth-
note delayed. You can adjust the intensity of the swing feel by how much delay you put on the
eighth notes.
Or, you can create a groove that pushes the timing over two bars to give excitement and tension like
the FastSlow2 preset.
Chapter 26 - Quantizing MIDI Notes 219
Tip: It can also be useful to create a No Groove template to help you remove the effect of
groove. This is particularly useful when applying groove templates to Step clips - more on
that in the next chapter!
While editing a groove template, you may reset it. This removes removes the late/early timing for
the pattern but doesnt change the length or note division settings.
Chapter 26 - Quantizing MIDI Notes 220
Any groove template that you dont need you can delete using Delete Template.
Moving On
Now you should have a pretty good understanding of MIDI, MIDI recording, MIDI editing, and even
quantizing with MIDI. But there is one more thing - Step clips. And that is up next!
Chapter 27 - Step Clips
Step clips originated in T5, but theyve been refined and enhanced since then to be more powerful,
useful, and easier to program. On the surface, a Step clip is a simple MIDI step sequencer allowing
you to turn notes on and off. But they go much deeper than that.
In this chapter, youll learn all about Step clips and how to use them to create drumbeats, synth lines,
or bass lines. This is one of my favorite Tracktion features - lets get started.
Step Clip
Step clips are similar to MIDI clips at a high level. You can add, delete, and copy them. They
are always in loop mode so you can drag the right trim handle to roll out repetitions. Step
clips need a synth plugin in order to make sound just like MIDI clips.
Chapter 27 - Step Clips 222
Header
Click the Step clip header to select it. With the clip selected, have access a wide variety of
settings and actions in Properties. Drag the Step clip by the header to move it forward or
backward in time or track-to-track.
Footer
Click the Step clip footer for access to a drop down menu and additional actions and values
in Properties. These properties are related to working with patterns and sections.
Pattern
A pattern is the grid of notes that you program to do something musical. Each column is a
step and each row is a channel. A Step clip can hold any number of patterns. Patterns and
sections are easily confused so keep in mind that they are not the same thing.
Step A pattern is defined by how many steps it has and what each step represents musically. By
default a new pattern will have 16 steps with a step length of 1/4 beat. A step is one column
of the grid that makes up a pattern.
Channel
Each row on a Step clip is a channel. A channel is assigned to a single MIDI note. Channels
live at the clip level of each Step clip. Channel assignments are the same for all patterns within
the clip. It is possible to assign channels within one Step clip to different virtual instruments.
More on that later.
Note
A note is the cell formed at the intersection of steps and channels. You program patterns by
clicking notes to toggle them on or off.
Section
By default a Step clip has a single section which is assigned to one active pattern. You can
create longer Step clips by adding more sections. Each section is then assigned to a pattern.
Pattern Number
Patterns are numbered local to each Step clip. The pattern number for any section is shown
on the footer. While this might be confusing to read, its really quite simple once you start to
work with sections.
Chapter 27 - Step Clips 223
Tip: You can think about Step clips like this. Step clips hold a series of sections. Each section
is assigned to a pattern. You can assign the same pattern to more than one section if you
want.
Note: Patterns can exist in a Step clip that are not assigned to any section.
Here are the basic steps to programming a drum beat using a Step clip:
As you toggle notes you will hear the result. You are are programming a Step clip pattern! Easy. Fun.
Video Clip: This video overview is a great way to get a better understanding of how all
this works. While the video was created using T6, the workflow is almost identical in this
version.
Name
Give your Step clip a descriptive Name. This will be particularly helpful when you go to save
a Step clip as a preset. The Step clip name is used as the basis for presets.
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Color
Use the color selection to give your Step clip a unique color.
Warning: Clear All Patterns clears all patterns whether you can see them or not, so really
be careful when using this feature. Fortunately, you can click Undo (Cmd + Z / Ctrl + Z) if
you change your mind right after zeroing out all your patterns!
Add Channel
Add Channel will add another row of notes at the bottom the Step clip. You can also insert a
channel from Properties for any selected channel. This inserts the new channel just above the
selected one.
Render Clip
Use any of the Render Clip options to convert a Step clip to an Audio clip.
Note In the Render dialogue box, make sure you have Pass Through Plugins selected. If
you dont, then Tracktion wont produce any sound and will not be able to render the Step
clip to audio.
Create Preset
Create Preset gives you tools to create presets of a Step clips. This is an extremely useful feature
that allows you to set up templates of grid patterns and channel assignments for specific drum
instruments or even create a library of popular drum patterns that youd like to reuse in other
songs. Well get into that more later in the chapter.
Delete
Delete allows you to delete the selected Step clip. Alternatively, just select the Step clip, press
Delete, Backspace, or Cmd + X / Ctrl + X. Any of these will delete a clip.
Tip Just like any other clip, Step clips can be copied (Cmd + C / Ctrl + C), pasted (Cmd +
V / Ctrl + V), duplicated (D).
In Properties, the first two columns of controls are related to the pattern. The last column is related
to sections. Lets go through what these options are all about.
Note: The section and pattern numbers are shown in the title line of Properties when a
footer is selected. For example, Section 1 (Pattern 8).
If you have more than one section in a Step clip, you select a specific section by clicking its footer.
Right-click a footer (or click the footer if the clips already selected) and youll get a menu of actions
Chapter 27 - Step Clips 229
related to that section. All of the actions also appear in Properties. They are available from the
right-click menu as a convenience.
Pattern Options
Step Length
By default, step length is one-quarter beat. This means each beat is divided into four steps.
If you change this to some other value, it will change it for the active pattern but not for the
entire Step clip.
Number of Steps
Number of Steps is the number of steps in the pattern. By default, this is 16. With a step length
of one-quarter beat and the Number of Steps set to 16, each beat in 4/4 timing is divided into
four steps. This is the most common setup for a step sequencer. This also gives you one bar of
music.
Chapter 27 - Step Clips 230
New Pattern
New Pattern simply creates a new blank pattern and makes it active for the section. Youll
notice that the pattern number is automatically assigned. It will be the next available unused
pattern number.
Copy to New Pattern
If you want to quickly make a variation on a pattern that you really like, click Copy to New
Pattern. This copies the active pattern to a new pattern so you can program a variation.
Clear All Notes
Clear All Notes clears all steps of any notes that have been turned on. This is a simple way to
erase the active pattern and start over with some new programming.
Randomize Each Step
The Randomize Each Step button randomly turns on and off notes throughout the entire
pattern. This might give you some creative inspiration or just simply serve as a quick way
to test creating a new pattern.
Chapter 27 - Step Clips 231
Tip: Randomize worked differently back in T5. In T5 Randomize Notes gave you a
cacophony of overlapping sound. Starting with T6, this was refined to trigger a single note
per step. This is much more musically useful. If you skipped over this features in the past,
give it a try!
Note: Keep in mind you can also randomize a channel of notes. Well get to that shortly.
Tip: If you insert or duplicate a section but dont see it, grab the right trim handle and pull
it to the right to expose any hidden sections.
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Note: To be clear, Append Duplicate Section doesnt simply insert a copy of the section to
the right of the current section. It puts it all the way at the end of any existing sections.
Tip: Keep in mind that after you append or duplicate sections, you can quickly assign them
to play whatever pattern you like. Right-click the footer and select which pattern you want
it play.
Remove Section
To remove a section, select it then click Remove Section from the menu or Properties. This
doesnt remove any patterns; theyre still there and can be assigned to other sections.
Chapter 27 - Step Clips 233
Here are the things you can do with Step clip channels:
Velocity
Velocity sets maximum MIDI velocity for the channel. Using the Step clip V/G editor (more
on that shortly), you can set each note to a percentage of this value. The default Velocity value
is 96.
MIDI Channel
MIDI Channel sets the output MIDI channel number. If youre playing into a multi-timbral
virtual instrument, then this would set which instrument is being played from this Step clip
channel.
Note On Every
The Note On Every parameter is followed by a series of buttons. Those buttons complete the
sentence Note on every (blank) steps. Your selection fills in the black. For example, click 2
to mean Note on every 2 steps.
Groove
Earlier, I explained how you can set the groove for an entire pattern by selecting the pattern
and choosing Apply Common Groove. You can set the groove for an individual channel by
Chapter 27 - Step Clips 234
selecting the channel and then choosing Groove in the groove drop-down list. Also, if groove
has been applied to the pattern through pattern properties, that groove setting will show up
here in the channel groove property. In reality, groove is set at the channel level. When you
apply it at the pattern level, it just applies the groove to all the all the channels.
Note: Normally, groove is used to apply swing. In real mathematical terms, that means
slightly delaying off-beat eighth notes assuming a 4/4 time signature. Applying different
groove per channel would be an advanced programming technique and I wouldnt
recommend it unless you really know what youre doing. More on groove a bit later.
Name
Name is the Step clip channel name. As you hover the mouse pointer over a Step clip, youll
see the channel names appear along the left. If you want to set a unique name for a channel,
then select the channel and update Name in Properties.
Clear Channel
The Clear Channel button simply erases any notes that have been programmed in to that
channel. This gives you a blank channel to start over with a new idea for that note.
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Randomized Channel
This just randomly selects an on or off state for all of the notes on that channel. If your Step
clip has multiple sections, it will randomize the channel across the active patterns on all of
the sections.
Shift Notes
The left and right arrow buttons following Shift Notes does exactly that. It shifts the series of
notes in each step one increment left or one increment right per click.
Set Destination
Set Destination opens up one of the coolest features of Step clips. It allows you to choose which,
of many, virtual instruments you assign that particular channel. For example, you could have
your bass drum being played by EZdrummer while your high hat is played by MDrummer.
Then, you can set up a hand clap being played by the Tracktion Sampler.
Note: For this feature to function, Tracktion automatically wraps the virtual instruments
you drag into the track in a plugin rack. For the most part, Tracktion handles the details
automatically when you apply Set Destination.
Deleting a Channel
Select any channel in your Step clip, click Delete Channel and that removes that channel. All the
following channel numbers are then re-sequenced to keep them in numerical order.
Tip: When programming Step clips, theres really no reason to have all eight default
channels taking up space on your screen. Use Delete Channel to simplify your Step clips.
I commonly program fundamental beats for my song using only three channels kick,
snare, and high hat. Its easy to add another channel say, open high hat at any time
using Insert New Channel.
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1. Click V/G at the upper corner of the Step clip to toggle the V/G view. If you dont see it, expand
the vertical height of the track a bit until it appears.
2. Select one the channels in your Step clip by clicking its name. The V/G editor shows the
velocity of each note in a bar graph format. Click or drag within one of the velocity bars to
adjust its percentage.
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Note: The V/G setting is a percentage of the velocity value set in Properties for the channel.
By default it starts at 100%. If you want the notes to hit harder, then increase the channel
Velocity and adjust the V/G percentage to taste.
1. To adjust the velocity for a series of notes, hold down Shift and drag across the bars. This allows
you to paint in velocities for an entire sequence of notes. This is really useful for channels with
lots of notes like high-hats or snares.
1. You can also gate the length of notes by dragging the right side of any velocity bar to narrow
it. This give you freedom to get gated, glitchy notes if you want, or just to tighten up the hits.
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By default, Step Clips loop only the last section. I find it much more useful 99% of the time to loop
the entire Step clip. Fortunately, there is an option for that in Properties - Repeat Whole Sequence. I
always enable that before rolling out repeats for Step clips.
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To save a preset, select the Step clip by clicking the header. Then click Create Preset > Include patterns
in Properties. You can name and tag your preset. Later to find it, use the Browser Presets tab and
filter by Step Clips.
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Tip: I suggest you always use Create Preset > Include patterns. Create Preset > Exclude
Patterns is also available but that will always have the default 16 step blank pattern since
the save doesnt include any patterns. If you use this option, you will be disappointed that
presets dont appear to save correctly. If you want a blank preset, clear all the notes the
save it using Create Preset > Include patterns.
Moving On
Step clips are an incredibly powerful and fun way to work with MIDI data and virtual instruments.
They are also unique to Tracktion. They are one of the key things that makes Tracktion special and
can be used as a secret weapon for creating cool and expressive beats!
Video Clips: I created a series of videos you should find helpful when learning to use Step
clips:
Scanning Plugins
All scanning action happens on the Settings tab, Plugins page. If you previously scanned plugins,
youll see a list of all the plugins on your system. If not, the list will be blank.
To scan your system, click Scanning and Sorting. If youre on a PC, you can scan for VST or VST3
plugin. If youre on a Mac, you can scan for AudioUnits, VST, or VST3 plugins.
If you are just getting started with Tracktion and the plugin list is blank, run scans for each type of
plugin. You will also do this each time you install new third party plugins.
To reset your list of plugins, choose Clear List. That will reset the list, removing all the plugins.
Remove any plugins whos file no longer exist is also useful to cleanup the list especially if you have
been trying and deleting a lot of plugin demos.
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When you run a scan, Tracktion increments through all plugins on your system. This might take
several minutes or it might take just a few seconds depending on how many plugins you have.
Note: If Tracktion cant load a plugin correctly youll see a message indicating that the
plugin was deactivated. This will often abort the scan. Whenever I get a message like this I
re-run the scan for that type of plugin. Tracktion skips plugins that are deactivated during
successive scans.
Tip: When you have trouble loading a plugin, first make sure both Tracktion and the plugin
are on the latest version. Also, report any plugin issues to Tracktion Software so they can
work with the manufacture to establish compatibility.
Once sorted by a column, clicking that header again toggles the sort order between acsending and
descending alphabetical order.
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As you drop it, youll see the selector menu. Pick the plugin you want from this menu. There are
numerous ways to have the selector menu displayed based on the the Plugin Selector and Selector
Sorting options at the bottom of the Settings tab, Plugins page.
Plugin Selector
The default for this is Popup menu but you can choose a Popup tree view instead. You can
optionally organize a fully custom configured menu as described here shortly. The custom
popup can also be in tree or menu format. If those options arent already enough, you can
optionally tag all your plugins and select a view based on the tags. Super flexible!
Selector Sorting
The Selector Sorting property allows you set the sort order of the selector menu or tree. I
typically leave this set Sort by manufacturer when using the standard popup menu, however
Sort by category and Sort by disk location are available options.
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Note: If you dont see the Custom Plugin List, then enable Show Custom Menu Editor below
the plugin list.
To further organize your menu, create groups to hold collections of plugins like Favorites or
Compressors. To create a group, click the plus icon at the lower right. This adds a New Group
folder to the bottom the Custom Plugin List. Right-click the group to rename it or remove it. Drag
it to the desired position and then drag some plugins to the group.
I found this to work inconsistently. If you set it to Single-click, many plugins still require a double-
click. You might want to experiment with this to see how it works with your plugins.
Plugins can be pinned or unpinned when open. Test this by opening a plugin and make sure it is
unpinned. Now, open another plugin and notice that the first one closes. Next repeat this with the
plugin pinned. The pinned plugin stays visible as you open additional plugins.
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Setting Tags
You can add tags to your plugins if you want. You can then use these tags in the Browser Search tab
to filter for specific kinds of plugins. You can also use tags to organize the Plugin Selector menu as
described above.
Settings tab, Plugins page has a drag and drop approach to set tags. Select some plugins from the
list and drag them to the Add Tag button at the lower right. This gives you options to choose any
exiting tag or create a new one.
To remove tags, drag a selection of plugins from the list to the Remove Tag button and choose which
tag to remove.
Tip: You can also set tags directly in the Browser from a right-click menu whenever you
see a plugin in the search results.
Moving On
Once you have your plugins scanned and recognized, you are ready to use them in Tracktion and
thats whats coming in the next chapter!
Chapter 29 - Using Plugins
In this chapter, I want to show you how to apply effects plugins using the flexible Mixer section. In
the previous chapter we covered how to scan for plugins and how to insert them into your project.
Note: In earlier versions, Tracktion used to called effects and synth plugins filters.
Tracktion has moved away from this nomenclature to the more industry standard term -
plugins. You might still run into the old terminology in the onscreen help, older tutorials,
and in conversation with long term Tracktioneers!
The Mixer
The Mixer section resides along the right side of the Edit and completes the left-to-right signal flow
on each track. You can open and close the Mixer using the open/close icon at the upper right or
keyboard shortcut M.
Whenever you create a new track, it will automatically have a Volume & Pan plugin and a Level
Meter plugin inserted. These behave just like any other plugin. You can change the order, remove
them, or even add additional instances of them on the same track.
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For example, you might want a level meter before and after a compressor. Of course, you can add
other plugins both built-in and third party to the Mixer section, and that is the topic of this chapter.
Tip: Each Mixer channel is stereo. If the track contains mono clips you still typically want
to choose stereo versions of plugins for the Mixer. Mono plugins will only effect the left
side of the signal.
Drag the highlight line to the left to expand the Mixer section. If you drag it right, then you can
make the Mixer section smaller. All of the plugins on the Mixer are dynamically resized.
Tip: If you accidentally delete, change, or move a plugin or simply change your mind, click
Undo on the Menu (Ctrl + Z / Cmd + Z) to restore it.
Inserting Plugins
To insert additional Tracktion plugins or third-party plugins, drag the Plugin Object to a track
and then select the plugin that you would like from the list.
For third-party plugins, the UI window will pop up. Apart from the core built-in plugins, each has
its own graphical user interface.
Right-click to Insert
Right-click on any existing plugin and select Add new plugin. This pulls up the plugin selector
menu and you may pick any plugin to add. It will be added to the left of plugin you started
from.
Note: If you dont see some of your plugins, review the previous chapter that details how
to scan your system for all available plugins.
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Plugin Properties
To select a plugin, click on it. When selected, Properties shows a wide variety of settings and
actions related to that plugin. Most of the built-in plugins have the entire user interface in
Properties.
Duplicating Plugins
To duplicate a plugin, select it and press D. This gives you a new instance of the plugin to drag
to a different position or to another track.
Deleting Plugins
To delete a plugin, simply select the plugin and hit Delete or Backspace. You may alternatively
click the red Delete Plugin button in Properties.
Moving Plugins
To move a plugin from one track to another track, simply grab the plugin and drag it wherever
you would like to put it - even to a different track. As you drag, a red insert illumination will
appear showing where the plugin will be after you drop it.
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Moving a Plugin
Copying Plugins
To copy a plugin, hold down Opt / Alt and drag it to where you want the copy. Alternatively,
press D to duplicated it then drag the duplicate to the target location.
Bypassing a Plugin
To bypass a plugin, select the plugin then turn off Enabled in Properties. Or, simply select the
plugin and press the keyboard shortcut F. A bypassed plugin appears with a red X through it
on the Mixer.
A Bypassed Plugin
Tip: You can bypass several plugins at once, by first selecting them and then pressing F.
To set up a quick control parameter, right-click the plugin and choose Select quick control parameter.
Next, choose which parameter to use.
Tracktion Delay has only two parameters but many third-party have dozens of them to to choose
from.
Third-Party Plugins
Third-party plugins are inserted in the same was as built-in plugins. One difference is that the UI
does not appear in Properties. Each plugin has its own UI window. Some editions of Tracktion come
with optional Tracktion plugins like Master Mix that open in separate windows.
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To open the UI for a third-party plugin, double-click the plugin in the Mixer.
Note: You can change to a single-click to open plugin windows the Settings Tab, Plugins
page. The parameter is Opening Plugin Windows.
The search uses an index that includes plugin names, tags, and manufacturer. I covered how to set
tags in the previous chapter.
Tip: It often helps to disable the options for Loops and Presets when searching for a specific
plugin. This gives you more targeted results.
Typically, I put a bus compressor, a limiter, and maybe an EQ on the master. Another great option
is Tracktions own Final Mix plugin that combines all of those in to one package expressly designed
for use on a full mix.
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Tip: You can right click the Drop Master Plugins Here area then choose Add new plugin to
open the plugin selector menu. I find this a bit faster than dragging the plugin object down
there!
Moving On
That there is no separate console view in Tracktion feels refreshing when working with Tracktion.
You build whatever signal chain you need from the built-in plugins and your third party plugin
collection. You never really have to change your thought process between track view and a Mixer
view.
Chapter 30 - Built-in Effects Plugins
The Tracktion built-in effects are really quite simple. They act as plugins you can combine to build
up more complex effects chains in the mixer or within plugin racks. While I wont touch on every
single effect here, I will go over the essential ones. Lets get started.
Tracktion Effects
Drag the plugin object to the mixer and select Tracktion Plugins. Youll see the list of built-in effects.
In this chapter, I am going to go into more detail about the plugins hightailed in the image above.
The other effects provide specialized functions or are not typical audio effects. Well get into some
of those in later chapters; some are outside the scope of this book.
Adjusting Volume
To control volume, click and drag the volume slider up and down. A large volume slider
appears as drag giving you nice readable dB markings for fine level adjustment. The numeric
value for Volume setting appears in Properties.
Adjusting Panning
The pan adjustment works similarly. Click the panner graphic then drag left or right to adjust
left to right stereo positioning.
Resetting Controls
To reset either Volume or Pan to their default position, hold down Opt / Alt as you click the
control.
Properties
With a Volume & Pan plugin selected its values and actions appear in Properties.
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The Volume slider is repeated in Properties along with buttons for Reset and Mute. Pan is repeated
in Properties along with a Centre Panning button that resets panning.
Pan Law
Properties also holds a setting for Pan Law. By default this is set to Linear but you can change
it to other popular formats. For example, many DAWs use a -3 dB pan law so that as you pan
to the center it lowers the volume slightly to make it easier to keep a track in balance as you
adjusting panning.
Tip: To apply a velocity offset to notes going into a virtual instruments, insert a Volume &
Pan plugin before it and enable Apply to MIDI velocities. Adjust the fader to offset MIDI
velocity to increase or reduce the velocity. This is a quick way make your MIDI drums
hit harder - much easier than going back to editing the MIDI data. This only works if you
insert Volume & Pan ahead (to the left) of the virtual instrument.
Level Meter
The Level Meter plugin is also at the right end of the mixer for every track by default. Level Meter
is stereo and shows what the left and right levels are doing.
When you select a Level Meter, Properties displays a large horizontal version of the meter that
includes dB markings.
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The meter indicates signal overload with a red indicator at the top of the meter. You can reset that
by clicking the red overload indicator.
Tip: To clear all overload indicators in the Edit, right-click any level meter and choose Reset
all overload indicators ( Backslash ).
By default the Level Meter is set to peak mode. This is typical of the metering in most DAWs. You
may change the meter mode in Properties or from the right-click menu. Here is an explanation of
each of the modes.
Peak Mode
Peak mode shows the digital peak. This is the normal mode for Tracktion and most other
DAWs. From a technical point of view you want to keep this out of the red to prevent ugly
digital clipping.
RMS Mode
To get a sense of the overall perceived volume your signal you might want to try RMS mode.
This mode emulates the response of legacy VU meters. It gives you a better indication of how
loud one track is perceived compared to others.
Sum & Difference Mode
Sum & difference is a specialized mode that gives you a visual representation of both the level
and the stereo spread. The left part of the meter shows the level of sum of left plus right. This
represents the combined level of the stereo signal.
The right side of the meter shows the difference between left and right. The more difference you see
the wider the stereo spread between the two channels. This gives you a visual indication of stereo
spread. If both channels are playing exactly the same thing then left minus right will cancel to zero
and the right side of the meter will show no activity - a mono signal.
Tip: The level meter will also indicate MIDI activity if you enable Show MIDI activity in
Properties. This can be a very useful diagnostic if you ever wonder why a virtual instrument
is not triggering.
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To adjust the gain of any of the bands, grab the node directly in the middle by the small square and
drag up or down. To set the frequency of any band, drag the node left or right. To adjust the width
(or Q) of the filter drag within the perimeter of the node clockwise to make the band narrower or
counterclockwise to make it broader.
On the shelving bands, drag clockwise to make the slope increase or drag counterclockwise to make
the slope shallower. As you adjust these values youll see the actual numeric values over to the right
for Frequency, Gain, and Q.
Just under the frequency plot notice the Reset button. Click Reset to return all four bands back to
their default values giving you a flat frequency response plot.
Also, the notice the controls for saving and loading presets. Using these you can create a library of
common presets to use in your mixing projects. The 4-band Equalizer is very simple and the graphic
adjustment makes it very quick to sweep through the frequencies to quickly locate your cuts and
boosts.
Reverb
Tracktion Reverb doesnt have a fancy user interface. You get just a few simple sliders. It is however
a really effective, low-CPU way to add some depth to a track. Its refreshing to have a very
straightforward set of controls. That is all you need to get a nice variety of reverb sounds.
Chapter 30 - Built-in Effects Plugins 262
Traction Reverb
Tip: I find it speeds up mixing to assign Wet Mix (Wet Level) as the quick control parameter
when using Reverb. Mixing with a little reverb on a track gives you another dimension to
mix with in addition to level and panning. More reverb pushes the track further back, less
reverb sounds closer. Combine that with left and right placement from panning for more
spacious mixes.
Delay
The Tracktion Delay is an extremely simplified mono delay effect with delay times up to one
second. You control Length with a slider, allowing you to enter delay times between zero and
1000 milliseconds. You can also adjust the Feedback amount with the Feedback slider from no
feedback all the way up to 0 dB, which is essentially full feedback. The Amount parameter
is a mix control. It allows you to set the percentage of the effected signal to pass through.
The Delay plugins also has a Tempo parameter. It is not really a host sync but rather just helps you
calculate delay times based on musical divisions of the beat at the current tempo.
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For example, if you want to get an eighth note delay, click Tempo and select Set delay length to 1/2
beat and it calculates that delay time and sets the value int Length. It is a one time calculation. If
you change the Edit tempo, then you need to set it again.
Chorus
The Chorus plugin gives you the classic chorusing effect. It works as a type of doubling effect but
it provides a shimmery, smooth quality. It can be used on just about any source but is common on
guitars, pads, electric pianos, bass, and vocals.
To get the classic chorus effect, the plugin modulates the delay time. By modulate, I mean the delay
time is gradually changing - getting longer and shorter. The amount of variation is controlled by the
Depth parameter. The Speed slider controls the quickness of modulation to get results from warbling
to smooth. The Width slider adjusts how far apart the dry signal and the wet signal are panned to
give you a wide stereo effect or a narrow doubling. Finally, Amount controls the overall mix of the
original signal with the chorus effect.
Chapter 30 - Built-in Effects Plugins 264
The Phaser
Phase shifter pedals became popular in the late 60s and during the 70s. It gives you an intense
swirling impression you will instantly recognize. While a phaser ia most commonly used as a guitar
effect, it is also frequently used on synths or any track that needs some movement.
The Speed parameter controls the speed of the LFO that modulates the phase shifting effect.
Depth controls the number of octaves the phase shift will sweep through. Feedback lets you adjust
resonance which makes the phasing more or less intense. The Tempo parameter allows you to set
the Speed of the LFO to a musically useful division of a beat based the current tempo.
Tip: As you work with effects you can easily change the order of effects on any track by
grabbing the plugin and dragging it left or right. As you drag, a red drop target will glow
in the spot where the effect will be inserted when you drop it.
The Compressor/Limiter
Tracktions Compressor/Limiter is a very basic compressor that includes most of the common
parameters you expect to find in a compressor - Threshold, Ratio, Attack, Release, and make-up
gain (Output).
As the signal goes above Threshold the compressor reduces the output signal by the amount set by
Ratio. So, if you set Ratio to 4:1, Attack sets how long it takes for the 4:1 ratio to fully kick in. Release
Chapter 30 - Built-in Effects Plugins 265
is the amount of time it takes for the compressor to recover after the signal goes back below the
threshold.
You can set Threshold and the Ratio by dragging the appropriate nodes on the frequency response
transfer plot.
Compressor/Limiter functions as a limiter when you set the Ratio to the maximum of 20:1. When
used as a limiter you also want to set a very fast attack time. In this mode it really clamps down on
transients.
Note: The disadvantage of the built-in Compressor/Limiter is the lack of metering. You can
insert a Level Meter before and after the compressor and look at the difference between the
two meters get an idea of gain reduction. Because of the lack of metering, I actually rarely
use this compressor. Instead, I usually opt for a third-party compressor that shows signal
and gain reduction graphically.
Pitch Shifter
The Pitch Shifter plugin uses DSP processing to change the pitch of the signal in real time change.
For audio tracks, this uses the Elastique Pro or whichever algorithm you select in the Type parameter.
Pitch Shifter is set in semi-tones so if you want to go up an octave, set Pitch to 12. If you want to go
down one octave set it to -12. To reset back to the original pitch, select Pitch and type in zero.
Chapter 30 - Built-in Effects Plugins 266
Tip: I find its usually a lot easier to control the Pitch value by typing in the digits than it
is to use the slider.
Note: If you insert Pitch Shifter ahead of a MIDI instrument, it works on the MIDI data
stream to transpose notes up or down by the value you set in the Pitch parameter.
Once youve made that selection, drag the Frequency slider or type in the frequency. For example,
if you want to just create a common rumble filter to apply to a vocal, Choose High-pass and set
Frequency to 100 Hz.
Tip: A quick way to create a low-fi effect on any track is to insert two of these filters, one
set to High-pass and one set to Low-pass. For example, set the high-pass frequency to about
300 and set the low-pass frequency to about 3,000. That will give you a nice starting point
for a low-fi sound.
Text Plugin
The text plugin is a convenient tool to keep your Edit organized as you record, edit, and mix. Drag
Text it to a track, give it a Name and then type in a Description.
You can type in as much text as youd like describing how the recording was made, the kind of
microphones used, the artist name, and really anything youd like to make a note of. Text plugin
Name appears right in the mixer on the thumbnail. While Text doesnt do anything to your audio
path it can help you remember what you were doing when you come back to a project later on.
Tip: You can enable or disable several plugins at once by simply selecting all of them and
using the keyboard shortcut F.
Chapter 30 - Built-in Effects Plugins 268
Saving Presets
Most of the built-in plugins allow you to load, save, and delete presets. Once you have your favorite
presets saved, you can search for presets on the Presets tab or the Search tab of the Browser.
As you create presets you can also add tags to make it quick to filter to exactly what you are looking
for - Vocal EQ, Guitar Focus, Bass Boost for example.
Moving On
Now weve touched on most of the built-in plugins in Tracktion. The built-in effects along with
third-party plugins give you tremendous creative potential when composing or mixing in Tracktion.
Chapter 31 - Effects Bus Tracks
In this chapter, youll learn how to set up an effects bus track in Tracktion. A bus track is configured
to be shared by multiple tracks within your Edit. Sometimes this is called a master effects bus.
This is an extremely common production technique that originated when recording was done using
large mixing consoles. When mixing with a console, effects like reverb and delay are created using
outboard hardware. In the early days. studios only had a limited number of reverbs and chambers
to use. The solution was to use a common bus for the effect and then send the desired amount of
each track over to the effect bus.
It works the same way in Tracktion. You dedicate a track to the effect and then use a special Aux
Send plugin to send part of the signal from your instrument, vocal, or drum tracks to over to the
effects bus track.
Check that the Dry Mix fader is turned all the way down. You want only the wet signal to go through
Reverb. You can tweak the other parameters later after you get some sound going through it.
Tip: If the plugin youre using has a mix control, make sure its turned to the 100 % wet
position. The critical thing here is you dont want any dry signal being mixed back in
through a different, parallel path.
Notice that it is labeled Aux Return #1 in Properties. Also, you can see it is automatically assigned
to the next available bus - in this case *Bus #1.
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Its optional but, I type in something descriptive for the Bus Name property. In this case Verb 1.
The descriptive name appears right on the plugin thumbnail in the mixer making things much
clearer. This will help even more when you have several effects buses configured.
This is important. Insert Aux Send after the Volume & Pan plugin. This way as you adjust the track
volume, youre also adjusting the amount sent to the bus track proportionally. Even if you lower the
volume all the way down, you wont hear a ghosting of the effects bus from that track playing in
your mix.
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Note: On a conventional mixing console, this position is called post fader. Hardware
consoles will have a special switch or maybe even a special knob that allows you to send
post fader. In Tracktion you do this it in a very direct way - rearrange the order of the fader
so that it comes before the Aux Send plugin. Really cool!
Alternatively, you can just click on the Aux Send plugin and adjust Send in the Properties section.
The more you turn it up the more effect youll get. As you turn it down, you get less and less of the
effect.
When we set up Verb 1, we used Bus #1. For DLY1 I used Bus #2 and gave it a unique name.
Chapter 31 - Effects Bus Tracks 273
As you insert the Aux Send plugin onto each track, select which effect you want to use by choosing
the correct bus.
Tip: Feel free to assign more than one Aux Send to the same track.
Your effects tracks arent limited to a single plugin. You can create an entire effects chain, for
exampling combining compression, EQ, reverb, or delay on a single bus track.
Solo Isolate
Theres a special solo mode that you to want to use on bus tracks called Solo isolate. Here is how
that works. Right-click the Solo button on one of your bus tracks and choose the option Solo isolate.
Notice is that the Solo button changes from S to SI. With Solo isolate enabled, if you solo any
track, this track will also be soloed. Why do you want that? Because when you solo a track you
usually want to hear it along with its send effects. If you dont use Solo isolate on your bus tracks
the effects get muted when you solo a track.
Tip: Tracktion includes a track tagging feature that allows you to quickly view any tracks
that share a tag. I like to tag all of my effects buses with the tag FX. This makes it really
easy to pull up a view of all of my effects bus tracks using the Tracks tab in the Browser.
Take organization one step further by giving your bus tracks a specific color.
In the Preset Details dialogue box, put in an appropriate name for your preset such as Master
Reverb. In the tags area, the tag Track will automatically be entered. I like to add another tag -
Effects Bus.
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Remember to separate tags with a comma. Click OK, then the next time you want to create a very
similar effects bus track, go to the Presets tab in the Browser and filter by Effects Bus. Drag the preset
onto any track to instantly configure your favorite master effects set up.
Moving On
In a full mix, I often have four or more effects buses. Usually I have at least two reverbs and two
delays - drum reverb, vocal reverb, stereo delay, and a mono slap back delay.
One key is to group the bus tracks together. I usually put them at the top of the Edit. Also, make
them a unique color, tag, and label them appropriately.
Once you get a hang of the set up, using effects bus tracks in Tracktion is very straight forward.
Compared to other DAWs, the signal flow is obvious.
Chapter 32 - Clip Effects
In Chapters 29 through 31 I covered using effects plugins in a variety of ways. Now, I want to show
you how to apply plugins to individual Audio clips. Its really quite simple. Lets get started.
Note: Clip effects work with Audio clips but not MIDI clips or Step clips.
The rest of the operation is pretty much the same as using plugins in the mixer. Select a plugin and
hit F to enable or disable it. You can also enable or disable the effect with the Enabled button in
Properties.
For third-party plugins, clicking or double clicking on the plugin opens its user interface.
Tip: How plugins open, depends on a setting in the Settings tab Plugins page - Opening
Plugin Windows. It can be set to either Single-click on a plugin to open its GUI window or
Double-click on a plugin to open its GUI window.
Creative Uses
One of the reasons to use clip effects is if you want to put an effect on just part of a track, even a
single word or a single phrase. Without using clip effects, youd need to move a piece of the clip to
another track to apply a different type of an effect. This is really useful for something like an echo
throw where youre applying an echo effect to a single word, or if you want to process one phrase
of a vocal line in lo-fi. Just separate the phrase or word to its own clip and apply the effect only to
that short clip.
1. First, separate the final word of the phrase from the rest of the phrase. To do that position the
cursor where youd like to make the split and hit the slash (/) key.
2. Now that clip is separated into its own clip, drag in the Delay plugin.
3. Dial in the Delay parameter so it echoes out in a musically useful way - maybe on eighth
notes or quarter notes. Add a little bit of Feedback so you get some echoes that die out over
time.
4. Playback and tweak the Delay parameters until you get the echo thow effect that you like.
Moving On
The same technique is great for lo-fi effects as well. Apply a high pass and a low pass filter in order
to cut the highs and the lows, or even apply chorusing to a few words in a vocal line. Clip effects
are super easy to use in Tracktion and they unlock all kinds of creative options!
Chapter 33 Folder Tracks
With Folder Tracks, you collect a group of tracks into a folder allowing to you work with them
together as unit. The obvious advantage is to collapse the view so that related tracks, like your drum
tracks, can be viewed as a single entity.
Folder Tracks also give you a convenient way to apply volume automation so that you can do a
fade across a number of tracks at the same time. Folder Tracks allow you to solo every track that is
contained within it with a single click. You can also do basic editing across the included. Lets take
a closer look.
Alternatively, right click on the background of the Track section and choose Create a new Folder
Track.
Either of these ways will give a new empty Folder Track. There are easy ways to create a Folder
Track containing existing tracks and we will cover that shortly.
If you already have some tracks in the folder you can drag it over the folder and then down and
youll notice a red glowing insertion point and you can put your track between other tracks to get
the order you would like.
Tip: One of the most common uses of Folder Tracks is to organize all of your drum parts
into a single folder. In this case, you might want to name it Drums or Drums Folder.
Note: When you solo a Folder Track the contained tracks are soloed with a blinking Solo
button. This indicates that the track is being soloed by the Folder Track and not directly. If
you click the blinking Solo it will change to the standard solo state with a steady indicator.
The Solo and Mute functions are really good reasons to set up Folder Tracks for the different
instrument types. I like to set up Folder Tracks for drums, for guitars, for keyboards, and another for
vocals.
Keep in mind that no audio passes through the Folder Track itself. The VCA acts as a remote control,
proportionally controlling the volume of all of the individual Volume & Pan plugins of the tracks
contained within the Folder Track. Its a super convenient way to add top level mixing to your groups
of instruments without going through the complexity of adding numerous additional bus.
Note: You cant insert plugins on Folder Tracks since no audio actually passes through the
track. To do that you would need to create a Submix Track which well cover in the next
chapter. ## Creating a Folder Track with Existing Tracks
With multi-track drums you often have 10, 12, or 13 tracks that you need to put into a Folder Track.
Rather than drag each track individually, there is a quick way to pack the, all into a Folder Track at
once.
Heres how:
1. Select the first track by clicking on the track name. Hold down Shift and click on the last track.
All of the drum tracks should be highlighted.
2. Next, right-click on the track name for any of the tracks and choose the option Create new
folder track containing. This instantly creates a Folder Track containing all of your drum
tracks.
3. Finally, select on the Folder Track and give it a descriptive name in Properties.
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Tip: This isnt limited to drum tracks. Create new folder track containing is my favorite
way of creating Folder Tracks for any related selection of instruments or vocals.
Rearranging
After splitting the Folder Track clip, you can rearrange everything within the folder by
dragging the Folder Track clips to any order. You can use this rearrange a song or just swap
verse 1 and verse 2. If you put all your tracks in to a Folder Track you can use this for block
arrangement.
Trimming
The beginnings and the endings of the Folder Track clips have trim handles. Drag to trim all
the included clips.
Deleting
In addition to moving and splitting clips, you can delete entire sections of the contained tracks
by separating out a section, selecting it, and pressing Delete or Backspace.
1. Grab the little A icon. That is the automation icon for the track. Drag it and drop it on the
VCA fader. A red line appears on the Folder Track. That is the automation curve for the VCA
fader.
1. Double-click on automation curve add points. Add two points - one before and one after the
section you would like to fade.
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1. Drag the last point all the way down to the bottom of the clip to draw in your fade-out.
2. Between the two points you added, notice an additional point was automatically added. This
is a curvature point. Drag the curvature point to adjust the shape of the fade.
You can further adjust the speed of the fade by dragging all these points until it sounds like what you
want. The automation points snap to the current snap increment. Turn Snap off for finer adjustment.
This technique is really a time-saver because you dont have to go in and edit each individual clip
in order to do a fade-out.
Moving On
Folder Tracks are a powerful feature in Tracktion. You may have seen this concept in other digital
audio workstations. Once you get the hang of how it works in Tracktion, you will be amazed at the
creative things you can do with Folder Tracks.
Chapter 34 - Submix Tracks
In professional mixing, it is common to submix drums to a stereo bus to add compression, EQ, and
limiting before mixing it with other other tracks. Actually, it is common to submix other things like
vocals, guitars, or instruments. T6 debuts Submix Tracks that resemble Folder Tracks but with a
twist - you can process a submix with plugins.
Like earlier versions, you still have the option to use any track as submix. This still works and has
certain advantages. I will show you how to configure that later in the chapter.
1. Right-click any of the tracks and choose Create submix track containing. The same action is
also available in Properties as Create Submix Containing.
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A Submix Track
The result looks very similar to a Folder Track. It differs in that the audio actually passes through
the Submix Track. You can use the Volume & Pan plug and add any additional plugins you want.
Removing Tracks
To remove a track from a Submix, simple grab it by the track name and drag it back out.
Open/Close a Submix
A Submix works just a like Track Folder in that you can open and close it with triangular
control at the far left of the header.
Adding Effects
You can add any built-in or third-party effect you want (accept for the Tracktion Freeze Point)
to Submix Tracks. Just drag them to the mixer like any other track.
Muting
Mute works like you would expect, muting everything within the Submix Track.
Soloing
Okay, soloing does not work as you might expect. When you click Solo on the Submix, it
mutes all other tracks including the ones contained within the Submix Track. This means that
you cant really use it. You need to mute your other submixes instead.
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Note: As of the time of writing, soloing on Submix Tracks didnt work in useful way. Maybe
it will change but if not, you need to work around this by muting your other Submixes
instead of using Solo. If you dont need to add plugins to a submix, just use a Folder Track
instead. Or, check out the old school submix method as described below.
Now, you can use the Volume & Pan control on your Drum Submix track to control the volume of
all the tracks that you just routed to it. You can also add any plugins you want to the new Submix
Track. In this example, I inserted a tape simulator and a third party bus compressor.
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Of course, you can use any processing that you like. That depends largely on which kind of tracks
and the style of music.
Tip: I find the soloing behavior of the old school submix technique more predictable. If
soloing is important to your workflow, give it a try. The setup takes a couple more clicks
and you cant collapse the tracks. Apart from that, its still an effective way to set up your
submix groups.
Moving On
I often mix to four submixes. Usually these are a combination of Submix Tracks and Folder Tracks.
My standard set include Drums, Instruments, Vocals, and FX. That is a good starting point but you
can submix anything that makes sense for your recordings and productions.
Chapter 35 - Automation
This chapter is an introduction to the automation features in Tracktion T6. Automation allows you
to program changes to many of the parameters that exist within a track. You can easily program
changes to volume, pan, and plugin parameters. You can program automation using external
hardware like controllers that have knobs and faders. Or, you can program automation by adding
points and changing the shape of the graphic automation curve that appears as a line on or below
the track.
T6 has excellent features to keep all of your automation nicely organized. For example, you can
add Automation Tracks that nest under your track. You can open them when youre working on
automation changes and edits, and then close them when you move onto other parts of your project.
In this chapter, were going to focus on Volume & Pan automation and then offer an example of how
to extend automation to parameters within other plugins.
The first step is to click the plus sign to add an Automation Track. Youll instantly see the Automation
Track appear below your original track. The Automation Track will have minus, A, and plus icons.
The minus icon will remove the Automation Track, the A icon allows you to set up the track, and
the plus icon will add yet another Automation Track below this one.
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Youll see an automation line appear. The line is labelled with the name of the parameter and the
value of the parameter is listed over on the right. This line is the automation curve. Theres no
literal curve to it yet because its just a line. As you will see shortly, its easy to draw curves, steps,
and ramps.
Click the curve to select it and check out the Properties for it. You can change the Name or choose
from several actions. Those make more sense once you have some automation points on the curve.
Tip: A fast way to set the automation parameter for the track is to grab the A icon and just
drop it on the thing you would like to automate. Then choose the parameter from the list.
So, to audiomate panning, drag the A and drop it on the Volume & Pan plugin and then
choose Pan from the list. This also works for third party plugins.
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Creating a Ramp
To draw a ramp add two points and the drag one of them up or down. This adjust the steepness
of the ramp. Drag the points left or right to adjust the start and ending of the ramp.
Tip: The automation point can also be adjusted in Properties using the Value parameter
slider. You will also find a slider for Curvature in Properties.
Clip Fade
To convert a clip fade to automation, first select the clip and then click Copy Fade To Automation >
Transfer Fade-in to Automation, Transfer Fade-out to Automation in Properties.
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That will redraw the automation curve in the shape of the fade and remove the clip fade from the
clip. Now you can apply additional points and shaping using the automation tools.
Reading Automation
Once youve drawn automation like this, T6 performs the automation dynamically during playback.
That is provided you have Automation Read enabled on the Transport.
As you playback watch the controls changing in real time as the cursor moves through the Edit. If
you go back about three decades that feature would cost you about a million bucks!
Curve
The Curve property is the name that appears above the automation curve. This is here for
reference only. You cant change it directly. It is made up of the track name, the plugin name,
and the parameter.
Displace Curve
Displace Curve allows you to drag left or right which offsets the curve up or down. It basically
takes the entire programmed curve and set of points, and moves them down if you drag left
or up if you drag right. This is very useful to make minor mix changes after the automation
is already programmed.
Scale Curve
Think of Scale Curve to function like an intensity control. As you drag to the left, it
proportionately lowers all of the points on the curve - squashing the shape of the curve.
Dragging to the right expands the curve, scaling it upward.
Simplify
If your automation curve becomes very complex with lots and lots of points, you use Simplify
to thin out the points. I usually choose Simplify the entire curve and the pick from Light,
Medium, and Strong. The Light option does the least thinning where Strong thins the most.
This particularly useful if you recorded automation from a hardware controller that added
hundreds of points.
You also have the option to Simplify only in marked region. I use this if I want to simply just a
section that was recorded from hardware leaving the rest of the curve unchanged.
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You can also Delete points within the marked region which means youll delete all the points between
the In-marker and the Out-marker. You can do the same thing and close the gap, means to take out
the time within the marked region.
This is also useful if youve created a very specific effect using automation and want to reproduce
that effect in a later part of the song.
Paste from Clipboard has two options. Most of the time I would use Paste curves at cursor position.
You can alternatively do that with Cmd + V / Ctrl + V.
Alternatively, choose Paste curves to fit between the in/out markers. That allows targeting the
destination only within the merged region. Normally you paste at the cursor position.
Tip: You dont need to manually copy automation when moving or duplicating clips on
a track. Enable Auto Lock in the Master section and the automation follows along as you
move or duplicate clips.
This is particularly helpful if you dont have each parameter on a separate Automation track.
Tip: I suggest you turn Remap on Tempo Change on as a global option for all new Edits. To
do that, enable Timecode > Default remapping options > Remap plugin automation from
the Menu section.
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Note: Remap Plugin Automation is not set as the default or turned on by default to maintain
compatibility with older projects. This setting and the new default option were new for T6.
To go into write mode, enable the Automation Write button on the Transport. Now, during playback,
Tracktion will record any dynamic changes you make to the parameter.
Chapter 35 - Automation 298
Note: You dont need to be in Record mode to record automation changes. All you need is
to have automation write turned on during playback.
Tip: When youve written automation this way, its often a good idea to use Simplify to
thin out the automation points. I get good results with the Medium option.
Automation Lock
Notice in the Master section, there is an Auto Lock button. By default that button is not engaged. If
you move a clip around on a track, the automation will not follow it to the new position.
With Auto Lock engaged, automation will follow as you drag the clip to a different place in time.
Its a great feature, assuming thats what you want to do.
Chapter 35 - Automation 299
Moving On
There is a lot more you can do with automation because you can automate almost any parameter.
You can automate sends to effects. You can even automate your Master plugins. Just create a separate
track and drag the A icon from that track over to the Master section plugins to automate those.
Chapter 36 - Mixing Down
In this chapter were going to go over the steps required to mix down your Edit to a WAV file or
MP3 file.
Regardless, make sure that the metering for the Master section is not going into the red before you
export the mix. Exactly how you process the mix depends on what you plan to do with the file after
its mixed down.
Chapter 36 - Mixing Down 301
If youre having professional mastering done, then you probably dont want to put any plugins on
there, except maybe just a tiny amount of limiting. But if you are immediately going to upload to
your website or SoundCloud, you will want to put some mastering effects on to make your mix into
a finished product.
1. Set the In-marker exactly at the beginning of the song. This defines the start of the export.
Adjust the position of the In-marker to skip any extra bars or count-in at the beginning of the
Edit.
1. Set the Out-marker right after the end of the song. This allows you to control the exact length
of the exported file. I usually leave a couple of extra milliseconds after the final fade.
1. Select Export > Render to a file from the Menu section. The Render dialog box appears.
Chapter 36 - Mixing Down 302
The above example shows the most common settings for exporting a WAV file. You can customize
the file location and name if you want. Also, make sure to select Only Render Marked Region so that
the In-marker and Out-markers are used to define the export region.
1. Click Render and the export happens. Tracktion starts processing in the background as you
adjust the settings. Much of the time export is already done as soon as you click Render!
To locate the file in Finder or File Explorer on your computer, select the exported file and look at
Properties. In Properties, click the button to the right of File and choose Open the folder containing
this file. That opens the folder on your system giving you direct access to the file.
Chapter 36 - Mixing Down 303
Double-click the folder named Exported and you will see your file. To located it in Finder or File
Explorer, right-click and choose Open the folder containing this file.
To enter the metadata, click Edit to the right of the option. That gives you the ID3/Vorbis Info dialog
box. Fill in any information you want to include in your MP3 and click OK.
This information is not required. So, if you dont care to include the info, leave the Add ID3/Vorbis
Info deselected.
Quality
You can choose from common MP3 quality settings. VBR stands for Variable Bit Rate and
helps optimize the file size in exchange for a bit more complicated decoding. CBR stand for
Constant Bit-rate and gives you slightly larger files that are encoded consistently.
Chapter 36 - Mixing Down 305
I normally choose 192, 256, or 320 KB/s CBR. Those will give you good sounding MP3 files to upload
to various sites or use in your own player.
Format
While exporting to WAV and MP3 files are the most common choices, Tracktion supports
several other file types:
Chapter 36 - Mixing Down 306
Stereo
For music it is most common to export to stereo files. If you deselect Stereo the file is exported
as mono. I frequently use mono exports for various types of voice over submissions.
Dithering Enabled
If you dont know anything about dithering, then just leave this enabled and move on. If you
do know about dithering then you can turn this off and add a third-party plugin in the Master
section and configure it to dither as you please.
Render at 1X Play-Speed
If you are using the Insert plugin to mix through some external hardware effect then turn this
on when exporting your mix. Normally, you leave this option turned off. When enabled the
Edit will render in real time, meaning, it will mix it down in exactly the same amount of time
it would take to play back once. Some feel they get the best sound quality rendering at 1X.
For that reason, some Tracktion users enable 1X rendering for the final master exports. For
the vast majority of projects I work on in, I leave this turned off.
Normalize
Normalize adjusts the overall gain of the file so that the highest peak fills up the available bit
depth. Most of the time you will leave this turned off. In some very specialized situations you
might need to normalize, and even if you did, I wouldnt do it right here.
Render Automatically
This is kind of a cool feature of Tracktion. In the background, as soon as you open the Render
dialog box it starts mixing down. It even shows you the progress on the lower waveform
display. If you dont make any changes to the settings, as soon as you hit Render its done
instantly. Tracktion already created the file in the background. Its sort of like working ahead.
If you do make changes it will start re-rendering right away. If you have a slower computer
or you just find this behavior annoying you can turn Render Automatically off.
http://bit.ly/1M47HfS
Chapter 36 - Mixing Down 308
Add to Library
Add to library means you will add what you are mixing down to your loop library so that
you can search for it and use it in another project. Its kind of a cool idea if you are mixing a
lot of things to add to your library to build it up. I would say that I never use this feature and
I always leave that turned off.
Moving On
We have gone all the way from installing the program, to recording, editing, adding virtual
instruments, using guitar amp sims, mixing, and mixing down. Theres still a lot more that you
can learn and explore about Tracktion and your own music. Have fun, and make a lot of music.
Chapter 37 - Macros
Tracktion includes not only programmable shortcuts, but also a full macro programming environ-
ment. You can develop keyboard shortcuts that combine actions in new ways to streamline your
workflow. If the standard keyboard shortcuts dont meet your needs, you can create custom macros
and assign keyboard shortcuts to them.
While you might think of macros as keyboard macros, you dont have to assign them to keyboard
shortcuts. You can always launch them from the Run Script button in the Menu section. I like this
because you dont have to remember the shortcut to macros you only use occasionally.
Script Editor
To open the Script Editor go to the Settings tab, and select the Keyboard Shortcuts page. Enable Show
Script Editor at the bottom right of the Keyboard Shortcuts page. The Script Editor will open.
You can resize the height of the Script Editor by dragging the line that separates it from the keyboard
shortcuts list. The Script Editor is a basic text editor that you use to enter and edit macro scripts.
Tip: With the Script Editor open try clicking on some of the existing keyboard shortcuts.
The Script Editor will show you the underlying code. I use this to get familiar the syntax
of the actions triggered by each shortcut.
Creating a Macro
To create a new macro, click Add a new macro on the Script Editor. This adds a new macro named
Untitled Macro to the bottom of the keyboard shortcuts list under the Macros section.
Chapter 37 - Macros 310
As soon as the new macro is created the name defaults to Untitled Macro and is selected. Start typing
to give it a suitable name.
In the body of the macro, you can type in a list of actions to create the script. The easiest way is
to build your macros using the right-click menu - more on that in a bit! Actions are separated by
semicolons.
Deleting a Macro
While you cant delete the built-in keyboard shortcuts, you can delete any custom macros you create.
To do that, select the macro to delete in the keyboard shortcuts list, and click Delete macro in the
Script Editor.
Programming a Macro
The simplest macro is made up of a single action. You can pick any available action by right-clicking
the Script Editor and navigating through the three collections of actions. When you find an action
you want to use, select it and the appropriate code will be inserted into the script.
Chapter 37 - Macros 311
Actions > Standard Shortcuts includes all the built-in keyboard shortcuts shown on the
Keyboard Shortcuts page.
Actions > Basic Actions includes available actions that are not necessarily available as pre-
assigned shortcuts.
Actions > Advanced actions includes actions that allow you manipulate selected objects
and even display messages on the screen. Advanced actions are provided as tools for more
advanced script programming.
Running a Macro
There are several ways to run a macro:
1. Assign it to a keyboard shortcut. Keyboard shortcuts are assigned to macros in the very same
way as the built-in shortcuts. Find the macro in the list and click the + to the far right and
enter the desired key combination.
2. Click Run Script > User Macros from the Menu section of the Edit tab. All your custom macros
appear there automatically. Select the one you want to run.
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1. Add macros to the Custom Menu. At the bottom of the Keyboard Shortcuts page, click to
enable Show Script Tree Editor. Then drag your macros (or any built-in actions) to the tree
editor. Arrange it using drag and drop, add groups, and rename groups. Access the Custom
Menu from the menu in the Edit - Run Script > Custom Menu.
Javascript Programming
Beyond creating simple step-by-step lists of actions, you can take macro programming to the next
level using the power of Javascript. The Script Editor allows you to program loops and conditions
using Javascript syntax. It even provides color coding for the elements of the script.
Chapter 37 - Macros 313
Note: Tracktion actions are exposed as methods using dot notation. By that I mean that
they start with the word Tracktion, then a dot, then the method. Following the method you
can provide one or more parameter in parenthesis.
Hover Tooltip
If you hover over an action in the script editor for a second or two, you will see a tooltip bubble
explaining what parameters the action takes. If the action returns values you will see the syntax of
that. These tooltips give you key information when programming macros. Tracktion developers use
this to give you meaningful clues about how each of the actions work.
In the above example the the tooltip shows that the zoom action takes two double precision numeric
parameters. The first is the x-proportion (the amount of vertical zoom) and the second is the y-
proportion (the amount of horizontal zoom).
Chapter 37 - Macros 314
I assign the RTZ macro to the Home key because I prefer this action over the default.
1 // Jump to tab 2
2 var index = Tracktion.getWindowTabIndex();
3 var delta = 2 - index;
4 Tracktion.changeWindowTabIndex (delta);
Chapter 37 - Macros 316
My Code Samples
1 /* Park the In-Marker & Out-Markers
2 Parks the In-marker and Out-marker at Zero then Restores Cursor Position. I wrot\
3 e this macro to help a KVR forum member find a quick way to hide the In-marker a\
4 nd Out-marker.
5 */
6 var SavePosition = Tracktion.getPosition ('cursor');
7 Tracktion.moveTransportToStart();
8 Tracktion.moveTransportToStart();
9 Tracktion.markIn();
10 Tracktion.markOut();
11 Tracktion.setPosition ('cursor', SavePosition);
1 /* Search Plugins
2 Opens the Browser to the Search tab, enables the Plugin searching while disablin\
3 g searching for Presets and Loops.
4 */
5 Tracktion.showSidePanel ('search'); // Opens Browser to the Search tab
6 Tracktion.enableSearchLibrary ('plugin', true);
7 Tracktion.enableSearchLibrary ('preset', false);
8 Tracktion.enableSearchLibrary ('loop', false);
9 Tracktion.setSearchPanelText (''); // loads blank text so you can start typing \
10 the search term right away
Chapter 37 - Macros 317
Moving On
These are fairly simple examples. Tracktioneers are only just starting to explore the powerful
capabilities of macro programming in Tracktion.
Chapter 38 - New in Tracktion T7
Tracktion T7 comes with a host of new features and workflow tweaks. Learn about all whats been
added and changed in this chapter!
Tip: If you want to further explore the new features as video tutorials, check out my series
Tracktion T7 Update Explained available at Groove3.com.
There are two new options in the Settings tab, General Behaviour page:
https://www.groove3.com/Tracktion-Software-training-video-tutorials/Tracktion-T7-Update-Explained
Chapter 38 - New in Tracktion T7 319
Note: Apart from these two options, the new color scheme cant be changed. The color
editor feature has been retired. The good news is that you wont waste time tweaking the
colors so you can spend more time recording!
Chapter 38 - New in Tracktion T7 320
Compact Toolbar
To save space while recording, Traction offers an alternative to the traditional Controls Panel. The
new compact Toolbar does most everything the standard Controls Panel does while taking up a
fraction of the screen space. Not only that, you can switch back and forth between the Toolbar and
Controls Panel easily.
To open the full Controls Panel from the Toolbar, click the open icon at the far left.
To shrink the Controls Panel down to the compact Toolbar, click the close icon at the top right of
the Menu Section.
The left side of the Toolbar includes icons to open and close the Menu and Properties sections along
with dedicated Undo and Redo buttons. Also, all of the buttons from the Master section appear as
icons on the Toolbar.
Tip: Hover your mouse pointer over any icon on the Toolbar and look at the rollover help
in the upper right corner of the Tracktion window to see what it does.
To keep Properties open you can lock it using the push-pin icon at the upper right. With it pinned,
Properties will only close when you click its icon on the Toolbar. I leave it pinned all the time and
open and close Properties manually.
Tip: There is a macro action in the script editor to enable the Properties lock push-pin under
Basic Actions > Editing > Lock properties panel.
1. Thats all there is to the macro. Now, assign it to a keyboard shortcut - I used F11.
Note: In the alternative key-mapping used in this book, F11 is assigned to Show/Hide
Controls Panel. I find that toggling between the Toolbar and the Controls Panel is a much
better use of F11 so now I change this on all my Tracktion installations.
Browser Position
If you ever wished the Browser were over on the right instead of being stuck on the left, you are in
luck. You can move it! Not only that, you can move it to the top of the screen if you want. There are
two ways to set the Browser position left, right, or top.
When you have multiple panes, each pane has a drop-down menu at the top to choose the Browser
view - Files, Tracks, Search, Notification, Markers, or Clipboard.
Chapter 38 - New in Tracktion T7 324
You can open as many Browser panes as you want. I like to have one pane showing my Files and
another set to Search by plugins.
The above image above shows the Browser at the top but I normally keep it over on the right.
To close a Browser pane, click the small X in the upper right.
Synchronized Previews
If you have multiple Browser views open and focused on loop files, you can audition the loops
against your song synced to the Edit tempo.
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Since Tracktion allows multiple Browser panes, you can start previews for several loops at the same
time. The Browser preview options have been updated with this in mind. Click the preview options
button to open the selections.
Play All
This is a new option to start the preview of all selected loops across all open Browser panes.
Stop All
This stops all preview playback in all Browser panes.
Re-trigger on play
Whenever you start playing back a new loop, all Browser panes that have loops playing will
re-start from the beginning. You will want to enable Re-trigger on play for each open Browser
pane for synced auditioning.
Auto-play
With Auto-Play enabled, each time you click a loop or select a new loop in a Browser, preview
playback will start.
Loop
With Loop on, preview playback will keep repeating until you stop it. With Loop disable, the
preview plays a single time then stops.
Tip: Enabling Re-trigger on play is essential to have multiple Browser panes preview in-
sync.
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When you find a set of loops that work well together using multiple Browser panes, you probably
want to drag them to your Edit. You can do this in a single operation by dragging one loop while
holding Shift. The Shift modifier caus all the loops to be included in the drag. Next, drop the all the
loops and you are presented with a list of options. Select how you would like the clips to be added
to the Edit.
Video Clip: This video tutorial demonstrates this feature but was created before the
Options menu was implemented.
Zoom Tool
Tracktion T7 offers a new fast and efficient new way to zoom in and out. Hold down Shift-Opt /
Shift-Alt and drag a selection over the arrangement. As you drag, a magnifier loop icon appears.
When you let go, you are zoomed in on that area of the screen.
The zoom tool is multilevel. Zoom in several times then again hold Shift-Opt / Shift-Alt and click
to zoom back out. Each click steps you back one zoom level.
https://youtu.be/KEVGBgm9U28
Chapter 38 - New in Tracktion T7 327
Tip: There are also new keyboard macro actions that you can assign to the keyboard to undo
and redo the action of the zoom tool. The actions are found at Basic Actions > Zooming >
undo mouse select+zoom and Basic Actions > Zooming > redo mouse select+zoom from the
Script Editor.
1 // Undo Zoom
2 Tracktion.undoSelectZoom();
1 // Redo Zoom
2 Tracktion.redoSelectZoom();
If you prefer the long single list from earlier version of Tracktion, choose View as single list from
the View Options selector.
Tip: I like the keep the assets pool column turned off. Usually, you dont need to look at
them and probably should not mess with them anyway!
The Share button to the right of the preview thumbnail gives you two ways to share the Edit.
Share as archive of this edit takes you directly to the Create Archive dialog box. From here you can
export the Edit as a project bundled with with all necessary assets to load back in to Tracktion on
another computer.
The other option on the Share button is Share a preview of this edit. This simply locates the preview
audio file on your file system. From here you can do what you want with it. Its in the Ogg Vorbis
format.
Note: Dont drag, move, or erase the preview file. You need to leave it in this location for
the preview to work on the Project page. If you want to use it somewhere else, copy it first.
Chapter 38 - New in Tracktion T7 330
Double-click on the Timeline and start dragging right. The double-click positions the In-marker at
the starting point. As you drag right, the Out-marker drags along and is set when you lift the mouse
button.
Video Clip: Here is a video tutorial demonstrating how to drag to set the In-marker and
Out-marker.
Give it a try and notice the animation of the new UI as the panels slide in and out. There is nothing
to configure. The auto show feature is available anytime you have a panel hidden.
Note: The auto show feature also works for the new compact Toolbar.
Tip: To turn off the auto show panels action, deselect Automatically hide and show panels
in the Settings tab, General Behaviour page.
Group Clips
With Group Clips, you can combine clips on a track into a single grouped clip without rendering.
The advantage of this is that you can ungroup at anytime for access to the individual clips.
To create a Group Clip, select the clips you want to group on a track. It doesnt have to be a contiguous
selection, but the clips do need to reside on the same track.
)
Chapter 38 - New in Tracktion T7 332
Notice that the resulting clip has a Group label and icon on the lower left which indicates the
number of clips it contains. It also has a simplified header.
A Group Clip
To ungroup the clip back to the original state, select it and click Ungroup in Properties.
If you like, you can create a macro and assign Group Clips and Ungroup to keyboard shortcuts. In
the Script Editor, locate the actions under Basic Actions > Editing > Group selected clips and Basic
Actions > Editing > Ungroup selected clips.
Here is the code:
I find Group Clips to be useful when working with beats created from sliced up audio. You can treat
the Group Clip as a single single clip making move and duplicate operations straightforward. At
any point you can ungroup it to modify the various parts.
Chapter 38 - New in Tracktion T7 333
Linked Clips
You can also easily create linked copies of clips that reference the same underlying audio file or
MIDI data. Changes to the original clip then are reflected to any of the linked copies. This works for
Audio clips, MIDI clips and Step clips.
To create a linked clip, drag the Linked Clip handle from the clip header. As you drag, you are
dragging a copy referenced back to the source clip.
In the following image, I dragged over a linked copy of an audio file. Notice that the lower left of
each clip shows a link icon indicating that this is a linked clip.
To test the link, I reversed the audio on the first clip. Since this changes the underlying file, the
second clip is also reversed.
Non-destructive edits like splits and fades dont affect the linked copy. However, anything that affects
the underlying file will. For other examples of this type of edit select and audio clip then in Properties
Chapter 38 - New in Tracktion T7 334
open View Source Info > Edit Audio File > Basic Editing Operations.
From this dialog you can perform several kinds of edits to the underlying file. These operations will
affect all linked copies as well as the original.
Linked clips might be even more useful for MIDI clips. Any changes made to one of the linked clips
are reflected to all the copies. This can be useful when creating a beat that is used many places in a
song. If you update one linked copy, they all get revised.
While you could so something similar with looped clips, looped clips are a series of continuous
repeats on a single track. Linked clips appear as separate clips and can even be placed on separate
tracks.
Chapter 38 - New in Tracktion T7 335
Step clips can also be copied using the Linked Clips handle.
Tip: Its a bit more difficult to identify linked Step Clips because they dont have clip names
along with the link icon. You can identify linked Step Clips because the Linked Clip handle
in the header turns green whenever there are linked copies present. This holds true for
linked Audio clips and MIDI clips as well.
Automation Patterns
Tracktion lets you quickly create repeated automation patterns between the In-marker and the Out-
marker using a new feature located in Properties.
1. To get started, create an automation curve for a parameter you would like to modulate. In this
example I am using a simple volume curve.
2. Then, set the In-marker and Out-marker over the range to which you want to apply the pattern.
1. Select the automation curve, then in Properties click Create Pattern Between the Marked
Region.
1. Next, choose from the various pattern shape options. For this example I chose Triangle.
1. Choose a note division for the pattern or number of repeats. In typical Tracktion fashion, I
chose 1/2 beat in order to repeat the pattern every 1/8th note.
Chapter 38 - New in Tracktion T7 337
1. Adjust the curve using the Displace Curve and Scale Curve drag controls or by editing the
automation points in the usual way.
Chapter 38 - New in Tracktion T7 338
Sine Wave
Square Wave
Ramp Up
Chapter 38 - New in Tracktion T7 339
Ramp Down
Automation Ramps
As a companion to automation patterns, Tracktion allows you to ramp patterns up or down in a
very simple and effective way. This works in conjunction with patterns to allow you to increase
or decrease the intensity of a pattern over time. The two Ramp options work as modifiers to the
existing Displace and Scale tools.
Automation Ramps are best explained with an example:
1. Set the In-marker and Out-marker over a segment of automation you would like to ramp in.
1. In Properties, manipulate the Displace Curve and Scale Curve sliders. Notice how these affect
the left side of the curve allowing you to fade in the automation pattern.
Taper the Curve using Displace Curve and Scale Curve Sliders
Chapter 38 - New in Tracktion T7 341
The companion Ramp from the end of the Marked Region allows you to taper automation down.
These new features are easy to miss at first glance, but they provide tremendous creative potential
when programming automation.
Tip: The automation ramp features are also available when working the Volume & Pan
Clip Layer effect which is explained in Chapter 41 - Clip Layer Effects.
Video Clip: Here is a video clip that demonstrates the automation ramp modifiers.
Plugin Sidechains
In previous version of Tracktion, you needed to configure a Plugin Rack to use a sidechain input on
plugins that support a sidechain. Since T7 this has been greatly simplified.
Plugins that support a sidechain input will now have a side chain assignment list at the upper left
in the plugin header. Simply pick which track you want to route to the sidechain.
https://youtu.be/koDUoO3XD-0
Chapter 38 - New in Tracktion T7 342
In the above example, I routing the kick track to the sidechain input of a gate on the bass track. Its
a common trick to lock the bass to the kick.
Video Clip: Here is a video tutorial demonstrating how to use the new plugin sidechain
feature.
If you close the panel and wonder how to get it back. Navigate to Help > Show First Run Setup.
Scroll Behaviour
Starting with T7 scroll behaviour options are consolidated on the Options menu into a new submenu
- Scroll Behaviour.
The Scroll Behaviour menu features the new default option Scroll with playback. Here is a rundown
of what each options does:
Scroll smoothly
During playback, when the cursor arrives at a fixed position near the center of the screen, the
tracks scroll under the cursor. This is a matter of personal preference. If you decide to use this
option, I recommend also selecting Scroll with playback.
No options selected
During playback the cursor will move past the right edge of the screen and out of site.
Tip: For most users I suggest leaving Scroll with playback enabled and the other two options
off.
Track LFOs
Starting with T7, Tracktion offers a way to modulate plugin parameters without drawing in
automation curves. This done using Track LFOs. Track LFOs can be assigned to one or more plugin
parameters. Track LFOs can also be beat synced to the Edit. Chapter 40 has a full explanation of
Track LFOs.
I covered that in the Groove 3 series Tracktion T7 Update Explained. Those two resources should
get you well on your way to understanding how to use racks in your projects.
https://www.groove3.com/Tracktion-Software-training-video-tutorials/Tracktion-Plugin-Racks-Explained
https://www.groove3.com/Tracktion-Software-training-video-tutorials/Tracktion-T7-Update-Explained?itemid=10016
Chapter 38 - New in Tracktion T7 346
With the file selected, you see the waveform and other controls in Properties. This is where you find
the button Master With CloudBounce.
Click Master With CloudBounce to upload the exported file to the service.
https://www.cloudbounce.com
Chapter 38 - New in Tracktion T7 347
When the upload is complete, CloudBounce immediately runs the file through its machine listening
and mastering processors and creates a 45-second preview.
Chapter 38 - New in Tracktion T7 348
Click play to listen to the Preview. If you like the results, login or sign up and select a payment
option or subscription plan. You can also access options to tweak the processing and then download
the finished file.
CloudBounce is fast, effective, and low cost. Would you use it for your most critical projects?
Probably not. But if your budget, time, or mastering skills are limited, it might be exactly what
you need.
Moving on
This chapter was a summary of new feature that were incorporated in the T7 release of Tracktion.
There were hundreds of other changes and tweaks and most of those have been incorporated in to
the text of this book as well. The following chapters go into full detail on the major new additions.
Chapter 39 - Visual Plugin Selector
Starting with T7, the Plugin object has a new option. Right-click it to open the Visual Plugin selector.
This chapter walks through a full explanation on how to use the Visual Plugin selector.
Note: If all you see are a lot of question marks, then read on. I will explain how to scan
your plugins to capture thumbnails in a bit.
Chapter 39 - Visual Plugin Selector 350
From here you can scroll through all your plugins. When you find one you want to use, drag it and
the window will close but continue dragging. Now drop it on a track in the normal way.
The Visual Plugin selector window offers just few controls to make finding the right plugin simpler.
1. After opening the Visual Plugin selector, start typing in search characters to filter the list.
Chapter 39 - Visual Plugin Selector 351
2. Adjust the size of the thumbnail images using the slider at the right.
3. If you decide not to pick a plugin, click the X at the upper left or press ESC to close the window.
4. As you drag a plugin, the window will close and youll be dragging a transparent image of
the plugin which you can drop wherever you want to use it.
Dragging a Plugin
VST Icon
Chapter 39 - Visual Plugin Selector 352
VST3 Icon
These are the same icons are used in the Browser Search tab to differentiate the plugin technology.
There are three options: You can scan all plugins, scan for new plugins (those without thumbnails),
or scan from a selection in the list of installed plugins. When you first start with a new Tracktion
installation you probably want to use Scan for all plugins.
Assign a keyboard combination that makes sense. In this example, I used Option + F11 / Alt + F11.
Moving On
When I first tried the Visual Plugin selector, I didnt really see the benefit. However, the more I used
it the more I like how fast it is to find the plugins I need. The key for me is to launch it from a
Chapter 39 - Visual Plugin Selector 354
keyboard shortcut then immediately start typing in characters to filter the results.
Chapter 40 - Track LFOs
Track LFOs allow you to quickly provide movement to any automatable plugin parameter. In this
chapter, learn how to use the Track LFO feature.
You can assign as many LFOs to a track as you want. The LFO objects appear above the plugins for
the track. The shape of the LFO is indicated on the object and you can choose from several colors in
Properties.
To choose and LFO shape, select the LFO then click Wave in Properties and choose one of the five
shapes: Sine, Triangle, Saw Up, Saw Down, or Square. The shape will be represented in Properties
and on the thumbnail image on the LFO object.
With the shape selected you can choose how to control the modulation speed by clicking Sync and
then choosing Time or Beat. If you choose time adjust the speed by dragging the Frequency slider
left or right, or double click Frequency and type in a value in Hz.
If you choose Beat, then the Beat divisions menu appears. Click it and select one of the musical
divisions.
Chapter 40 - Track LFOs 357
In addition to the speed you can adjust the Intensity, Phase, and Offset using additional parameters.
Also of the are useful but I find find Intensity to be the most essential.
Other Properties
Properties for track LFOs contain several other useful controls. Here is an explanation of what these
do:
Enabled
Enabled turns the LFO on or off. If you want to suspend the operation of the LFO without
deleting it, turn Enabled off.
Color
Select one of the nine colors to use for the track LFO object. This is useful if you have several
of them on the same track.
Tip: The LFO is also used for the highlight color if you have Highlight Controlled Plugins
enabled.
Learn
Click Learn then move any plugin parameter and it will be added to a temporary list. The
click the check symbol to confirm the assignments. This is a great way to assign numerous
parameters to the same LPO.
Tip: To remove a track LFO entirely, simply select it then click Delete LFO in Properties.
Video Tutorial
TSC published this video tutorial explaining Track LFOs. It shows a few examples of using them
with a virtual instrument.
Moving On
Track LFOs are a great way to add movement to effects or virtual instruments. They can also be
used to add subtle dynamic panning or aggressive tremolo. The best part is that the are super simple
to use.
https://youtu.be/9UVEAJAvFZ0
Chapter 41 - Clip Layer Effects
Clip Layer effects were introduced with T7. They offer quick offline rendering of many common
audio processes but arranged as layers. You can add or remove layers at will and the effects are
rendered in quickly. You can even rearrange the layers. Effects are applied from the top down through
the layers.
I find Clip Layer effects to be most useful for things like applying clip based volume automation,
conversion to mono, and normalizing. However, those are just a few example of Clip Layer effects
capabilities.
To use Clip Layer effects, click on new FX icon in the header for any Audio clip.
Chapter 41 - Clip Layer Effects 361
From there, select from any of effects. More details on each of these options follows.
Chapter 41 - Clip Layer Effects 362
The Clip Layer will appear. As you hover your mouse over it, a set of controls appears to the right.
The following diagram illustrates the available options.
Chapter 41 - Clip Layer Effects 363
Volume - Volume
Adding a volume layer is the Tracktion way to do clip based volume automation. I have started to
use this instead of track automation when it comes to automating volume.
When you click the gear icon for a volume layer, you will see the Volume & Pan control values in
Properties.
Chapter 41 - Clip Layer Effects 364
While somewhat useful, you are probably more interested in working with the volume automation
curve itself. To do that, click on the volume curve (which initially shows up as a line) and then you
have access to the Properties for the that.
Tip: See Chapter 35 for more on editing the automation curve. Everything about editing
automation curves for tracks applies to volume Clip Layers as well.
Volume - Fade
Fade-ins and fade-outs are also available as layers. After creating the fade layer, drag the left or right
fade handles to create the fade in or fade out.
Fade In/Out
Volume - Step
Add a step volume layer to rhythmically gate the clip.
With the step Clip Layer in place, click the gear icon at the right of the layer and then work with all
the Properties to set the step size and divisions. You can then click on the steps to turn them on or
for unlimited synced gating options.
When you select the pitch curve on the clip, Properties gives you access to the normal range of
controls for automation curves.
Chapter 41 - Clip Layer Effects 366
Right-click the fade handle to choose the shape for the curve.
Drag to Warp
If you want to remove a warp marker, right-click and remove it or all markers.
Chapter 41 - Clip Layer Effects 368
I find this implementation of Warp Time much more convenient, especially if you want to align
transients to things happening on other tracks in the Edit. With the old way, you couldnt really see
timing in relation to the rest of the Edit.
Plugin Layer
You will be prompted to select a plugin as you add the layer. The name of the plugin appears on the
Clip Layer at the lower right when the layer is selected.
Here are the key things to know when working with the plugin CLip Layers:
1. Click the gear icon at the right to open the plugin UI. When you tweak parameters, a few
second later the change is rendered in.
Note: Because of the way rendering works, it is a bit hard to audition changes to plugin
parameters. I find plugin Clip Layers are best for applying known presets. If you want to
do a lot of real time tweaking, then you will probably be better off to use a Clip effect or
normal track plugin.
Chapter 41 - Clip Layer Effects 369
1. Click the A at the top right to show automation curves. Any exposed automation parameter
can be selected which makes its curves visible. Use all your standard automation editing tools
to draw in appropriate automation.
Reverse Layer
Normalise Layer
Then adjust the Normalize value to keep peaks where you want. In my voiceover work, many
customers request the audio to be normalized to -3db.
Normalise Property
The normalize Clip Layer makes it much much easier to normalize than in the past where it the
feature was buried many clicks deep in Properties.
Chapter 41 - Clip Layer Effects 370
Mono Layer
The choose one of options for determine how to render to mono from stereo:
Mono Options
Note: Most of the time I select Average of all Channels. This mixes the left and right
channels to to create a mono version.
Moving On
I think you will enjoy exploring and working with Clip Layers. It is really only from experimenting
with this new approach that you will understand how it works. There are probably many new editing
workflows that have yet to be discovered that leverage the power of Clip Layers.
Appendix A - Video Links
These are links to helpful Tracktion T6 videos. Most of these I created while writing the book. Many
are now featured on the Tracktion website, YouTube, or my website. For a complete commercial
video series on T7 new features, check out Tracktion T7 Update Explained from Groove3.com.
https://www.groove3.com/Tracktion-Software-training-video-tutorials/Tracktion-T7-Update-Explained
Appendix A - Video Links 373
Track Tags
Automation Improvements
Insert Plugin
Creating a Submix
Warp Time
Pitch Fade
Comp Groups
BE: In the early days of coding Tracktion were you working alone or did you have other programmers
and designers working with you?
JS: Just me doing the coding. A friend (Philip Meehan) helped with some of the initial UI design
concepts, drew the logo, recorded the original demo songs, and was a general sanity-checker for the
project.
BE: what point did you realize that you could spin off the foundational code as a cross-platform tool
for creating other audio applications and plugins?
JS: I had been planning to do this from very early on, as I was working on a few other smaller projects
which also shared the same library code. At that point it didnt really have a name or identity. I think
it was at the point where Mackie got involved that I realised I had to actually formalise the dividing
line between the product itself and the library code, and thats when I hurriedly came up with the
name JUCE for it!
BE: Tracktion doesnt make any attempt to look or act like traditional recording gear or consoles.
Was this a choice or were you approaching digital without a background in mixer/console based
production?
JS: A bit of both - Id never spent time using a traditional mixing desk or old-school DAW, so hadnt
got myself stuck in that mindset. But Ive always had that common software designer attitude of
thinking I knew better, and trying to do things differently. And Ive always disliked skeuomorphism,
even before anyone was using that word! But actually, Tracktions not massively different from other
DAWs. The main things about it that were novel were the right-to-left signal flow and the use of
the properties panel. Apart from that a lot of the way it works is pretty familiar.
BE: Tracktion seems to be influenced by non-linear editing for video. For example, the in-marker
and out-marker set using I and O. Also, there is the idea of a Project being an asset pool while
an Edit is an arrangement of those assets. Were you influenced or inspired by NLE video editing
perhaps more than other DAW software?
JS: Well actually my first job was for a video NLE company, so I guess I was influenced by that!
BE: Tracktion has an object oriented feel. What I mean is that the UI elements like clips, plugins,
inputs, automation curves - just about anything you select reveals properties and actions in the
Properties panel. Does this relate to the underlying model of how Tracktion works, or is it more of
a UI design concept?
JS: Yes, it is pretty close to the way things are implemented internally! We have objects in the code
for things that can be selected, like tracks, clips, etc, and those objects generate the content of their
property panels. Interestingly (well, interesting from a software architecture standpoint, anyway)
were currently rewriting that aspect of the codebase to create more separation between UI properties
and the underlying object model, because as the codebase continues to grow, this will make it easier
for us to keep developing more complex properties in the future.
BE: Tracktion features tracks that feed directly to mixer channels with a left to right flow - all in
the same window. This is really a defining element of Tracktion. To me it seems, that the Tracktion
Appendix B - Interview with Tracktion Creator Julian Storer 376
interface makes way more sense in 2016 when the typical computer screen is large and very wide.
Did you ever imagine back in the early days that this configuration was ahead of its time?
JS: To be honest, Ive always been surprised at how slowly monitor tech has developed. The fact that
in 2016 most people are still buying small monitors, and monitors that arent high-DPI seems odd
to me.
When I started all this back in 2000-ish, monitors tended to be a different shape: they were much
more likely to be 4:3 than 16:9, so yes, the fact that since TVs became wide-screen and aspect ratios
got wider has lent itself nicely to Tracktions layout!
BE: Was the decision to make Tracktion cross-platform part of the initial idea or did that requirement
come from Mackie or the users?
JS: I think it was cross-platform pretty early on, before Mackie were involved. At the time, music
was one of very few areas where Macs formed a big part of the user-base, and there was a lot of
user demand for a Mac version. Luckily OS X was starting to replace OS9 at that time, which was
much easier to port it to. I dont think Id have wanted to go through the pain of trying to make it
run on OS9!
BE: Mackie halted development at T3 for several years I suppose due to their own financial priorities.
How was it that you and your partners at TSC got the chance to bring Tracktion back as an
independent product? Did you seek it out or did Mackie come to you?
JS: Yes, my impression is that they just decided that they werent really a software company.
Personally, I had moved on years ago and had lots of other things to do, so wasnt seeking it out!
Woodys the person to blame for its resurrection - he had left Mackie but kept in touch with the
guys there. He was looking for something interesting to do. I wasnt there when he raised the idea
with them, but Id imagine beer was involved. Mackie were quite happy to let us take over all the
moaning users who hadnt been supported for a few years! Woody contacted me to ask whether I
was interested in getting involved, and I tried to say no, but hes a good salesman!
BE: From your perspective, why would a musician or recording enthusiast choose Tracktion T7?
There are numerous capable options for DAW software available. What is unique or special about
the Tracktion DAW?
JS: A big problem with selling a DAW is that people get really comfortable and familiar with what
they know, and persuading them to change is incredibly hard. Even people who hate their current
DAW often stick with it because of the hassle of changing. I guess that in that way DAWs are a bit
like bank accounts or spouses.
Another problem with selling a DAW is that theres a whole slew of competitors out there, which
have all been around for a long time, and theyre all pretty good now. Theyre also all incredibly
complex and have different (but often subtle) strengths and weaknesses, so its hard to come up with
a short, catchy slogan that summarizes why a particular one is better.
BE: Whats special about Tracktion?
Appendix B - Interview with Tracktion Creator Julian Storer 377
JS: Well, its all the little things. I guess the main buzzword that our fans talk about is workflow,
which we do think is a strength. Our single-page GUI approach doesnt seem particularly innovative
now that were surrounded by mobile apps. Historically, most other DAWs have involved dozens
of little floating tool windows, and weve always done a good job of managing the information
overload thats all too easy in an app of this complexity.
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