User guide

Tracktion 4 Reference Manual
118
Auto crossfade: If this clip overlaps another audio clip, this button automatically adjusts the fade in
and out envelopes for both clips, to create a cross-fade across the overlapping region. Figure 4.6.2
shows an example of an auto-crossfade.
Stretch: Select the time-stretching mode to use. Normally when changing the speed of an audio clip,
both the length and pitch of the clip will change together. Time-stretching allows an adjustment of length
without affecting pitch, or vice-versa. The options available are no time-stretching, transient and ton-
al. The no time-stretching mode will simply change the playback rate of the clip, which will alter both
length and pitch. The other two options will ‘stretch’ the audio to allow for natural sounding pitch/tempo
changes. Typically you will use transient when working with percussive audio, and tonal when working
with other kinds of audio, but you should always experiment to nd which mode works best for the each
specic task.
Speed: This controls the rate at which the audio is played back. A value of one is the normal speed.
Higher values result in the audio clip playing faster, and lower values correspondingly result in the clip
playing more slowly. In practical terms what this will mean is that the time taken for the entire content of
the clip to play will vary with this setting. If no stretch mode has been selected, the pitch will also vary
as the speed is adjusted, otherwise the pitch of the clip will remain constant.
Holding down the ALT key (CTRL for Mac users) while resizing an audio clip using one of the tri-
angle resize tools in the clip’s title bar, will automatically change the length of the clip by varying the
speed. For example, by using this feature a drum loop can be easily stretched to a suitable bar length,
thus matching it to the current tempo.
Change speed: This option displays a menu with some pre-set change factors for the speed setting.
Pitch: This control allows you to alter the pitch of the clip. When a new pitch is chosen for a clip, a time-
stretching mode other than no time-stretching will automatically be selected. If the mode is already
set to something other than no time-stretching, it will not be changed. You can use this option to bring
vocals into tune with an edit, for example.
Change pitch: This option displays a menu with standard semitone/octave pre-set pitch changes.
Colour: You can assign a colour to the clip. Colours can be useful for helping to identify clips, or group-
ing certain types of instrument, or musical event, together.
View source info: Clicking this button shows information about the source item. Essentially this is the
same information that you would see if you clicked on the source item on the projects page.
Select clips: This button displays a pop-up menu that provides handy shortcuts for selecting groups of
clips.
Figure 4.6.2