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Tracktion Manual
Chapter 2 - Projects and Archives
What is a project?
A Tracktion project is a collection of audio files and edits.
In terms of the user interface, projects are listed in the tree view in the top-left window of the projects screen. Clicking on a project will select it, and display the contents of that project in the main list to its right.
How do I create a new project?
If you right-click on the folder at the top of the projects tree, a menu will appear with a 'create new project' option.
This will then prompt you for a filename for the new project. It's sensible (but not mandatory) to keep each project in its own directory, so that its associated files don't get mixed up with those of other projects.
How do I open an existing project?
There are several ways:
- If you right-click on the 'active projects' folder at the top of the projects tree view, a menu will appear with a 'load project' option, which lets you browse for a project file.
- Dragging-and-dropping a project file from a Windows Explorer window onto the Tracktion window will open it.
- Double-clicking the project file in Windows Explorer should also do the same thing.
Once a project is selected, all the items it contains are listed, and each of these can itself be selected. Items can also be re-ordered by dragging them up and down, or by clicking the column-headers to sort the list by the contents of that column.
How do I play audio files and open edits?
When you click on a project, it becomes selected, and its contents are listed in the main area of the screen. The items in the list can then be clicked on to select them and edit their properties. Different types of items are indicated by colour, and described by the 'type' column in the list.
Clicking on an item that is an audio clip will show a thumbnail view of its waveform, and this can be played back by pressing the 'play' button on the right of the waveform window. (Other ways of playing the selected wave file include: double-clicking its row of the list; pressing the spacebar or return key, or clicking and dragging the mouse inside the thumbnail view.)
How do I add wave files or audio CD tracks to a project?
To import existing wave files into a project, first click on the project itself to select it. Then in the project's properties, there is an 'import material' button that provides a number of different ways of finding files to import.
Note that if you import a wave file from somewhere else on your disk, no copy is made of the file. The project just contains a reference to that file, so if you later move, rename or delete it, it'll show up as a missing file. If you import a CD track, however, a new file is created in the same directory as the project.
If you try to import files from a removable disk, you'll automatically be asked whether you want to make a local copy of these files.
How do I add new edits to my project?
First select the project you want to add it to, by clicking on that project in the project list. The properties panel for a project contains a 'create new edit' button that will do just that. Once the new edit appears, you can select it and change its name, description, etc.
How do I delete things from a project?
Select them, and press the delete key (or the 'delete item' button). If it's an edit, this will delete the .trkedit file as well as removing it from the list. For audio files, you'll get the option to just remove it from the project list, or to actually delete the file as well.
You can select multiple items in the list by holding down the shift and ctrl keys when clicking on the items.
What does a project actually contain?
Technically, a project is a collection of links to edits and audio files. The project file itself (the .tracktion file) is quite small, and only contains the names and descriptions of these files, which exist elsewhere, e.g. as .wav or .trkedit files (usually in the same directory as the project file, but not necessarily).
If I delete a wave file from disk, why doesn't it disappear from the project?
A project contains a set of links to edits and audio files, so if the files to which it refers are deleted, their entries within the project won't be affected. When you try to do anything with them, however, they'll show up as 'file missing'. Conversely, deleting an item from a project won't necessarily delete the file it refers to (although Tracktion usually offers the choice to do this).
What happens if I use items from one project in a different project?
It's perfectly ok for an edit to contain references to items in other projects, although for Tracktion to find the material to which it refers, these projects must currently be open (i.e. they must be listed in the projects tree view).
What are library projects?
Projects listed under the 'libraries' folder of the project tree-view can be used just like active projects, but it's intended as a place to put projects with library material that gets shared across multiple projects. For this reason, slightly different rules apply when exporting items from projects in the library list.
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