User guide

Tracktion 4 Reference Manual

4.2 : Working With Clips

Adding New Clips To An Edit

There are three approaches to adding clips to an edit: The rst is to create an empty clip, and add

some content to it; the second is to copy or import an existing clip or item; and the third is to record

them. Recording clips is described in its own chapter (Chapter Five). This section will cover only the

rst two methods. You will probably nd that you only choose the rst approach when working with MIDI

clips. For completeness however, both methods will be described for both audio and MIDI material.

To create a new clip:

• If you do not already have an edit open, rst open an edit ready for editing.

• Select the track upon which you wish to add a new clip.

• Click the insert a new clip button. You will nd this button in the properties panel (Fig. 4.2.1).

• From the pop-up menu, select the type of clip you wish to add: audio, or MIDI.

If you opted to create a new audio clip, you will be prompted for an audio le to associate with this

clip. Just navigate to the audio le this clip should reference, and OK the prompt. At that point you may

be asked whether you want to copy the audio le into your project folder. Generally, it is a good idea to

make local copies of audio media, as you can then safely make changes to the le without potentially

impacting on other projects. However, if the audio le is part of a large, centralized sample library, mak-

ing local copies of audio may just be wasteful of hard-drive space. Once the le is selected, your clip

will be added to the selected track.

Note: If you do not receive a prompt giving you the opportunity to copy the audio le into your proj-

ect, you may at some point have disabled the prompt dialogue. To re-enable it, go to the user interface

group on the settings page, and set the option audio clip import to ask if le should be copied.

If you opted to create a new MIDI clip, you do not need to do anything further. Your clip will be ready

and waiting for you on the selected track. Note that MIDI clips can be created quickly by using the key-

board shortcut: G.

Creating clips from existing material can be achieved in a number of ways; principal amongst them

however are dragging les into an edit from the quick nd browser, and copying existing clips within the

edit.

To drag add material from the quick nd browser:

• If the quick nd panel is hidden, rst activate it by clicking the

show / hide button (Fig. 4.2.2).

• Select the

browser option from the selection box to the right of

the show / hide button.

• Navigate to the directory that contains the le you wish to import.

• Drag the le into the arrangement area. The le appears as a

ghost outline when it is positioned over the arrangement area.

This outline shows you where the clip will be located when it is

dropped.

Figure 4.2.1

Figure 4.2.2