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Tracktion Manual
Chapter 4a - Editing
How do I get a new edit and open it?
To create an empty edit, select the project you want to create it in from the project list, and click the 'create new edit' button in its properties panel. You can then select this new edit and rename it, give it a description, rename the edit file, etc. By default, the edit will be created as a .trkedit file in the same directory as the project to which it belongs.
To open an edit and get editing, either double-click its row in the project list, or just click once to select it and press the return key, (or the 'open for editing' button on the properties panel).
How do I move around an edit and play it back?
The current position in the edit is shown by a vertical purple line - this is where playback will start from if you press play, and moves along to show the current position when playing. There are lots of ways to move this cursor around:
- Clicking and dragging the left mouse button on most parts of the edit that aren't obviously being used for something else (i.e. if there isn't a button or something there) will drag the cursor around. If it's currently playing, this will let you scrub audibly, and will carry on playing when you let go.
- Using the left/right cursor keys will scrub backwards and forwards.
- Using the page up/down keys will jump backwards and forwards to the next or previous cut-point.
- Using the home/end keys will jump to the start and end of either the currently selected clips (if there are any), or the whole edit.
When dragging the cursor with the mouse, or using the left/right cursor keys, holding down the shift key will keep the cursor in the same place and move the edit behind it instead.
To start/stop playback, you can use the transport buttons (bottom-right of the screen), or press the spacebar (this and other key-shortcuts can be changed using the keyboard mapping options).
Clicking-and-dragging on the timebar at the top of the screen also lets you navigate around, but in a slightly different way - dragging parts of the timebar that aren't near the cursor lets you scroll the screen without the cursor moving, but dragging the cursor itself lets you drag it as normal.
How do I zoom in and out?
There are a few ways to do this:
- Pressing the up/down cursor keys will zoom in/out around the cursor position.
- If you've got one, turning the mouse wheel when the mouse is over the main edit will zoom in/out around the current mouse position (not the cursor position).
- Clicking and dragging sideways with the right mouse button on the main edit area or timebar will let you 'stretch' or 'squash' the space between the mouse pointer and the cursor, whilst keeping the cursor steady. This will only work if you don't click too close to the cursor position.
There are a few keyboard shortcuts to zoom right out and show the whole edit (default key: F5) or to zoom in and show a few seconds around the cursor (F6). Other zooming shortcuts let you fit all the tracks on-screen vertically (F8), or set tracks to a normal size (F9). Check out the keyboard shortcut dialogue for a full list (click the 'keys' button at the bottom-left of the screen).
How do I change the sizes of the tracks?
Between each track there is a thin area you can drag with the mouse to stretch the track's vertical size. Dragging with the left button will affect one track, whilst dragging with the right will affect all the tracks above it. Other ways of changing track heights are:
- Double-click on the track name - this will enlarge it if it's small, or shrink it if it's big.
- Use keyboard shortcuts to either fit all tracks on the screen (default: F8), or set them all to a normal size (F9).
- Hold down ctrl whilst using the mouse wheel to zoom in/out vertically on the track the mouse is over.
When the tracks don't fit on screen, you can scroll them up and down using either the scrollbar on the far right, or the mouse wheel (when the mouse is off to the left or right of the main edit area).
How do I control the master volume?
At the bottom-right of the edit screen, the master volume control has individual settings for the left and right outputs. To move both at once, click in the middle and drag it; to change the left or right level on its own, click on the left or right and drag.
How do I paste wave files into my edit?
There are quite a few ways of doing this:
- If the files you want are already in your project, you can go to the project screen, select the clip you want, copy it to the clipboard (ctrl + C), return to the edit and paste it in (ctrl + V).
- Alternatively, drag the clip from the project list up to the edit tab at the top of the screen (the tab will turn red as you move the mouse over it) and let go. This does the same thing as copying and pasting, but avoids having to press copy/paste. To make this even quicker there's a keyboard shortcut to do the same thing (default: ctrl + B).
- Files can be dragged from Windows Explorer straight onto the Tracktion edit screen, which will automatically import the file into the project and paste it in.
- Clicking the 'import' button (bottom-left of the edit screen) will let you browse for a file to use, and let you preview the files before selecting one.
How do I record new material into my edit?
Down the left-hand edge of the edit screen, there are little draggable icons to represent each of the enabled input devices in your system.
Dragging these around lets you 'plug them into' a track, which is indicated by an arrow pointing at the track; if the device is dragged to the left, there's no arrow, and the device isn't active.
When the record button is pressed (or its shortcut key, which defaults to 'R'), any input devices that are 'plugged-in' will start recording into their tracks. Obviously, midi inputs will record midi clips, and audio inputs will record audio clips. For more options about recording formats, etc., clicking on the input devices to select them lets you view their properties.
Tip - There's a handy key shortcut (default: ctrl + R) that will abort the current recording without adding any new material to the edit, and clean up any files that were being created.
Also see the quick-start guide for more info.
How do I move clips around?
You can select a clip in the edit by clicking on it - it'll be outlined in red to show that it's selected, and its properties are shown in the properties panel.
Once selected, a clip also has a bar along its top, which can be used for moving and trimming it.
To move the whole clip from track to track or left/right, drag any part of this bar (that hasn't got a button on it). To move it up and down without changing its start time, hold down the shift key.
To trim the ends of the clip, each of the buttons along the bar has a different effect, moving either the start, finish, or both, and either keeping the clip's contents in sync with the edit, or moving them. The best way to find out more about these functions is by using Tracktion's pop-up help when the mouse is over them, or see the quick-start guide.
There are many other specialised ways of trimming and moving clips. Most of these are accessed by first selecting a clip, and then down the right of its properties panel, buttons called 'move clip', 'split clips', 'delete region' will pop-up menus of fairly self-explanatory operations that can be done.
How do I select a bunch of clips?
- Holding down the ctrl key when clicking on clips will select or deselect that clip without affecting the current selection.
- Holding down the alt key and clicking-and-dragging in the edit will let you lasso a set of clips. Holding down alt + shift will add the lassoed clips to the current selection, and holding down alt + ctrl will remove the lassoed clips from the current selection.
- Right-clicking a track's name will pop-up a menu with options to select all the clips on that track.
- When a clip is selected, its properties panel contains a button 'select clips' which produces a range of special operations for selecting multiple clips.
How do I listen to individual clips or tracks?
Tracks can be muted or soloed by clicking on the 'S' and 'M' buttons at the right of the tracks; the mute/solo buttons for tracks that aren't being played are shown with a red cross through them.
Tip - Holding down the ctrl key when clicking a solo button will un-solo any other tracks that are currently soloed - this is handy for flipping between a few tracks.
Right-clicking the mute/solo area will pop up a menu with more options.
To preview a single clip on its own without any filters, you can double-click the clip, which will start playing from the mouse position. While this preview is playing, you can click and drag on the clip to listen to different parts.
How do I copy and paste parts of my edit about?
When a set of clips is selected, you can copy this set to the clipboard (ctrl + C), and paste them back in somewhere else.
When pasting into an edit, the new clips will be pasted in at the current cursor position. If a track is selected when pasting, the clips will be go into this track, otherwise they will be pasted into the last track that was clicked on with the mouse.
To paste into tracks by inserting and moving all the existing material along, first select the set of tracks that should be affected, and click the 'insert into tracks' button in the properties panel.
What are the in/out markers and how do I move them?
The vertical red bars on the edit are in/out markers that can be moved around to indicate a region on which operations should be performed.
To move the markers, you can either
- Drag them with the mouse
- Use the keyboard shortcuts 'I' (in) and 'O' (out) to move a marker to the current cursor position.
If playback looping is turned on (using the loop button in the bottom-right of the screen), the marked region defines the extent of the loop that will be played.
To delete a marked region of an edit, select either a set of clips or tracks, and then use the 'delete region' button in the properties panel to choose the type of deletion to perform.
The marked region can also be used to indicate an amount of space to insert - select a track and click the 'insert into track' button.
How do I add effect filters to a track of my edit?
Above the filters area at the right of the edit, there is a 'new filter' tool that can be dragged around with the mouse. To add a new filter to a track, drag this over to the place you want to create a filter (a red highlight will be drawn to show you where the filter will go), and let go.
This will then pop-up a menu to let you choose the type of filter to add. The first few filters on this list are the Tracktion built-in filters, and any plug-in VST filters are listed afterwards, in sub-menus that reflect the subdirectories in the plugin directory.
How do I move and copy filters around?
Once a filter has been added, you can select it by clicking on it, and edit its properties. Filters can also be dragged around, copied to the clipboard, pasted, and deleted as you'd expect. To select multiple filters at once, hold down the ctrl key when clicking on them.
How do I control where the output from each track goes?
Each track in an edit can be sent to any of the available output devices. So a track being used to hold midi clips might be sent to a midi output device, and a track with audio clips might be sent to an audio output device.
When a track is selected, its properties panel contains a list of possible destination devices and tracks, with a tick showing the current setting. A track's destination is also shown below its output filters (but only for tracks that are all enough to have room for this on-screen).
It's also possible to divert a track's output into another track. This means that several tracks can be channelled into another to have a common effect filter applied to the whole lot (and this track could itself be diverted to another track, etc., until finally reaching a real output device).
If a track contains material that can't be played by the type of output to which it's assigned, a warning symbol will appear next to the track's name; moving the mouse over this will show an explanation of the problem.
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