Work with tempo, time signature and reference audio

Musical maps describe how the piece is organized over time. A tempo change sets the speed; a time signature change reorganizes the beats; the written key guides how chords are shown.

Changing the tempo of a section

1. Switch to Editor and show the tempo lane.
2. Place the playhead where the change should start.
3. Open the lane's context menu and add a tempo point at the playhead.
4. Enter the BPM.
5. Add another point where you want to change again or return to the previous tempo.
6. Play from before the first point.

The value holds until the next point. Two points don't create a gradual ramp on their own. You can edit or delete points from their controls; the first point holds the project's reference tempo.

Choosing what stays fixed: TICK or SMPL

The selector is in the editor toolbar. Switch modes while recording is disarmed. Choosing a mode doesn't move any notes by itself; it defines how they'll respond to later tempo changes.

Building a tempo map after recording freely

1. Record the performance without quantizing if you want to keep its original rhythm.
2. Save a copy of the session.
3. In the editor, switch the anchor to SMPL before changing any tempos.
4. Find the first beat or downbeat you want to use as a reference.
5. Adjust the starting tempo so the grid roughly matches the performance.
6. Go through the piece and add tempo points wherever you need to line up bars and notes.
7. Listen after each adjustment: the performance should keep its timing while the grid changes.
8. When the map is ready, switch to TICK if you want future speed changes to affect the notes musically.
9. Save the session.

SMPL preserves the performance while you edit the map; it doesn't detect beats or build the map for you.

Adding a time signature change

1. Show the time signature (meter) lane.
2. Find the musical point of the change.
3. Use the context menu to add or edit the time signature event.
4. Set the numerator and denominator.
5. Check the new divisions in the ruler and the metronome.
6. Review any loops and practice ranges that depend on those bars.

Setting the written key

1. Find the KEY section, below CHORDS: it's always visible.
2. Add or edit a key change at the right bar.
3. Select the key you want.
4. Check how chord names and the chart are displayed.

The written key helps name the harmony; it doesn't transpose the MIDI performance automatically.

Importing an audio track

1. Choose File > Import Audio Track….
2. Select a WAV, AIFF or MP3 file.
3. Switch to Editor to see its waveform.
4. Place the audio where it should start by dragging it in its lane.
5. Turn snapping on or off depending on how precise you need to be.
6. Adjust the lane's level and check its meter.
7. Play it along with the MIDI and fix the alignment if needed.
8. Save the session and keep the associated audio file.

You can use the original recording, a backing track or a reference to play over. The audio plays in all three modes and can be included in exports.

To trim its ends, add fades or adjust its level, read on.

Trimming the ends of the clip (trim)

The clip's edges can be grabbed for trimming: as the pointer gets close, the cursor turns into a double arrow and the edge is marked with a small bar.

1. Move the pointer to the left or right edge of the clip.
2. Drag inward to trim, or outward to bring back what you trimmed.
3. With Snap on, the edge lands on the grid division; turn it off for free trimming.
4. Play the beginning and end to check the result.

Trimming the left edge changes three things at once —where the clip starts on the timeline, where in the file it starts playing, and how long it is— but it's a single undo step: Cmd+Z puts the clip back as it was.

Trimming doesn't change the file on disk: the excess is kept, and you can stretch the edge back out to recover the full audio. A clip can't be shorter than a few hundredths of a second, so there's always an edge to pull.

Adding fade-ins and fade-outs (fade in and fade out)

Each clip has two handles along its top edge: the left one controls the fade-in and the right one the fade-out.

1. Drag the handle into the clip: the fade grows and its curve is drawn over the waveform.
2. Drag it back to the edge to remove it.
3. Right-click to choose the curve: on the handle you get that fade's curve; on the rest of the clip, both —Fade In Curve and Fade Out Curve— along with Remove Fade.
4. Play the start and end to hear them.

The two fades share the clip's length: the fade-out can only use what the fade-in leaves. If you trim the clip shorter than the fade, the fade shortens with it.

Choosing the curve

Trims and fades are part of the mix: you hear them in the editor, and they come out the same in the exported video and WAV.

Muting the track or soloing it

The audio track header, on the left, has the two usual buttons:

• M (Mute Audio Track) (mute) mutes the audio track. It's saved with the session, and a muted track isn't exported either.
• S (Solo Audio Track) (solo) silences the instrument, guide and metronome so only the imported track plays. It's a listening state: it doesn't touch any fader, isn't saved in the session and doesn't affect export, which has its own switches.

Both can be undone with Cmd+Z.

Setting the level with the channel fader

Next to the meter in the header there's a button that opens the track's channel strip: a vertical fader with a dB scale, the meter beside it, a numeric level readout and the M and S buttons.

1. Click the fader button in the track header.
2. Drag the fader: the level changes as you drag and becomes one undo step when you let go.
3. To return to 0 dB, Option-click the fader (or double-click it).
4. Close the strip with the ✕ in its corner.

The meter is a Peak meter, like a mixer channel's: it rises instantly and falls at 20 dB per second. It measures after the fader and before the master volume, so lowering the fader lowers the meter.

Clicking the PK readout clears that maximum and turns off the clip dot. You can set the same level from the Audio Track channel in the Mixer: it's the same control.

Replacing or removing the audio

1. Find the audio lane.
2. Use its context menu to replace or remove the file.
3. If you replace it, check the position and level with the new material.
4. Save the session.

Moving MIDI events, inserting bars or changing the tempo map is not the same as stretching or editing the audio file. Always check sync after changing the musical structure.

To capture a performance over that reference, see Recording. To deliver the mix, see Export.