User guide

Tracktion 4 Reference Manual

3.3 : Working With Tracks

A Quick Overview Of Tracks And Clips

If you look at the edit page, you can see that audio or MIDI received from an input device ows into

the arrange area, and from there, it then passes into the lter section. If you were to mentally replace

the arrange area with a multi-track recording device, and the lter section with a mixing console, much

of what tracks are might start to make sense.

All input from external devices enters Tracktion through the input devices on the left. That signal then

passes into the arrange area, where it joins any previously recorded material, ready to be passed to the

lter section on the right. When the signal reaches the lter section, it passes serially from the left-most

lter on the track to the right-most, being processed by each as it goes. Finally, the signal leaves the

track and passes to the master outputs.

Figure 3.3.1 shows a schematic diagram of this arrangement.

The main thing to take from this preamble is that signal always runs from left to right in Tracktion, and

that each track is a recording device and mixer channel all in one.

Songs in Tracktion are built up from individual “clips”. These clips are placed on tracks, where they

can be arranged into a composition. A clip is a container for an audio le, or MIDI data. An audio clip

might contain a recorded vocal, or a guitar part, for example. A MIDI clip, by contrast, contains instruc-

tions that tell a MIDI instrument what notes to play. We will look at clips in far greater detail in Chapter

Four. For now it is enough to know that tracks are the foundation upon which clips are arranged.

Manipulating Tracks

To create a new track:

• Click the

tracks button in the control panel. A pop-up menu will be displayed.

• Select the

create new track option from the pop-up menu.

Keyboard shortcut: CTRL + T (CMD + T for Macs).

Sometimes it can be handy to re-order tracks. For example, maybe you’d like to keep the bass part

near the percussion, or you want all of your vocal tracks to be near each other. Fortunately tracks can

be re-ordered very easily.

To re-order the track list:

• Click on the name of the track you wish to move. The track will be selected.

• Drag it up or down to a new slot in the track list.

• Release it when it is correctly located.

If you want to change the name of a track:

• Click on the name of the track that you wish to rename, to select it.

• Change the name shown in the properties panel. The

TAB key can be used to quickly highlight

the name eld, ready for editing.

Figure 3.3.1