User guide

Tracktion 4 Reference Manual
124
These settings basically allow you to take an imported audio le that lacks built-in loop information,
or one of your recorded clips, and have it gracefully track key changes and tempo changes in your edit.
However, this is only half of the story, as you can take the clip and convert it into a loop le that can be
added to your loop library for use in your other projects. In this way, you can create your own loop les,
and have them be indexed by tempo and genre, etc., in Tracktion’s loop library. Before we look at how
to do this though, let’s look at the loop properties in detail.
Auto pitch: When this option is enabled, the pitch of this clip will automatically follow pitch changes
on the global track. For example, imagine you have a 16 bar bass-line that you are looping throughout
your edit. If the key changes at any point in the edit, the bass-line loop will stay in key, because it will be
automatically pitch-shifted as needed to match the key of the edit at any given point. Tracktion deter-
mines what transposing, if any is needed, by looking at the value of the root note eld. Note: this option
cannot be enabled unless a root note has been set.
Auto tempo: When this option is enabled, Tracktion will automatically time-shift the clip to keep time
with the edit. If there are tempo changes throughout the edit, the clip will keep in time regardless. Of
particular note is the fact that clip will even follow tempo ramps, with the tempo of the audio changing
gracefully alongside your edit. Tracktion determines the base tempo of the clip from the value specied
in the root tempo eld.
Time sig.: You can specify a time signature for the loop. This information will be saved along with the
loop, if you choose to add it to your loop library, and will be used by the loop librarian to help locate
loops by style.
Root tempo: This eld species the root tempo of the loop, i.e., the tempo before any speed adjust-
ments are made. This value is used to match the loop to the tempo of an edit. This eld is not editable
by hand. Instead, when a loop has been correctly trimmed by adjusting the loop start/end points, and
the beats eld is set appropriately, the tempo will be calculated automatically.
Root note: This eld species the root note of the loop, i.e., the note before any pitch adjustments are
made. This value is used to match the pitch of the loop to the key of an edit. For example, if the loop is
played in the key of B, and the edit is currently in the key of A, the pitch of the loop will be transposed
downwards by two semi-tones.
Pitch offset: This eld allows you to add an offset to the root note. This is useful if, for example, you
want the loop to play a harmony a fth above the root note of the current key.
Stretch: This option allows you to select the time-stretching mode to use. There are three modes avail-
able: no time stretching, transient, and tonal. If either pitch or tempo mapping are enabled, you will
need to use either transient, or tonal. Transient is best on percussive unpitched material, such as drum
loops. Tonal is best used on melodic content.
Loop start and end: You can edit the section of the
source audio le that is used in the loop. This allows
you to loop les that have not been cleanly trimmed to
beat/bar boundaries, or that contain only a few bars
of audio that you wish to use. The wave view directly
above this button has two adjustable loop markers that
can be manually adjusted to dene the loop region.
This button displays a pop-up menu (Fig. 4.7.4) with options to automatically set the markers based on
the clip edges. Trimming the clip, and using these menu options to set that loop markers allows you to
utilize the full range of clip editing tools at your disposal to accurately set the loop region.
•
Set loop start to clip start: This option automatically adjusts the loop start marker to match the
point on the source audio le where the selected clip starts.
•
Set loop end to clip end: This option automatically adjusts the loop end marker to match the
point the source audio le where the selected clip end.
•
Set loop start/end markers to clip start/end: This option sets both the start and end positions
of the loop markers in one pass, providing a loop region that exactly matches the current con-
tents of the selected clip.
Figure 4.7.4