Track Manager

Overview

The Track Manager (TM from now on) is the all-in-one viewer for almost everything you create with Turbo Play.

The Track Manager contains the following controls:

• The Ribbon
• The Horizontal Toolbar
• The Left Small Mixer Area
• The Upper Control Area
• The Vertical Toolbar
• The Browser
• The Inspector
• The Monitor
• The Transporter
• The Lower Small Mixer Area
• The Tracks
• The Visualizer
• The Embedded Visual Linker

The Ribbon

If you use Windows 7, most functionality in the tracks is shown in the "Editor" tab (If you use Windows XP, the same functionalities are available through right click menus):

The Ribbon has most of the functionality found in the Track Manager and the Editors.

The Horizontal Toolbar

The horizontal toolbar contains 7 groups of control buttons:

• The Control Button which allows you to hide/show the rest of the Track Manager controls.
• The Zoom Buttons.
  These buttons zoom the tracks horizontally or vertically
  • Zoom In button, unlimited zoom in. Hold down Shift to zoom vertically.
  • Zoom Out button, unlimited zoom out. Hold down Shift to zoom vertically.
  • Zoom All button, zooms so the entire tracks are visible. Hold down Shift to zoom vertically to the default vertical zoom.

• Undo/Redo Buttons.
  These buttons perform undo/redo operations.
  • Enable Undo Redo button, enables the recording of the action history so the undo is available. If you untoggle that, no undo will be possible.
  • Undo button, undos the last action of all the selected tracks.
  • Redo button, redos the last undone action of all the selected tracks.
    Note: If you want per track undo/redo then you should use the undo/redo buttons in the track viewer, see below for more.
  
  
• Movement Buttons
  These buttons move the arranger.
  • Down button, moves one down. This is helpful if you want to edit a track that is too down in the list.
  • Up button, moves one up.
  • Left button, moves the arranger one measure left.
  • Right button, moves the arranger one measure right.
  • Goto button, which asks you for a specific position (For more on the position format, see Marker Dialog).
  • Set View/Selection buttons, which ask you for specific precise range view/selection
  • The Lock button which locks auto-scrolling while playing.
    
    
• Part Button
• Tools Buttons
  These are the tools you have to manipulate the arranger. Depending on what tool is selected, the mouse and/or the keyboard does different things.
  • Arrow Tool
    This tool does default actions. If you click with the mouse, you set the transporter's position (This only works when non playing to prevent accidental movements).
  • Hand Tool
    This tool allows you to scroll the arranger left or right quickly with the mouse. It allows also scrolling up or down the track list (the same function as the Up/Down buttons in the toolbar)
  • Select Tool
    This tool allows you to select a range (the mouse snaps into grid if the grid lines are on, see below the View Buttons). If you have selected a range, the sequence starts from the selection start and ends at the selection end when playing/recording.
  • Eraser Tool
    This tool erases whatever is pointed at (midi or audio data).
  • Split Tool
    This tool splits the hit part into 2 parts at the hit position (for more, see parts).
  • Join Tool
    This tool allows you to select 2 adjacent parts that are joined.
    Note: The Split and Join tools revert back to the Arrow tool after the split/join is complete to prevent accidental duplicate splits/joins.
  • Preview Tool
    This tool allows you to listen to a track without configuring the linker manually. See below Track Menu for more on previewing.
    
  • Magnifier Tool
    This tool magnifies the portion of the screen you click on it, or de-magnifies it when you click with the right mouse button.
    This tool is mostly useful when the pianoroll or score is active and you want to resize its default height.
  • Loop Tool
    This tool performs 2 functions, depending on the sequencer state:
    • If the sequencer is not running, then with the loop tool you can select a region (the mouse snaps into grid if the grid lines are on, see below the View Buttons) and this region automatically becomes a loop region (for more, see Regions)
    • If the sequencer is running, if you click it in a non loop region, the region starts to loop indefinitely until you release the mouse.
• Time/Beat Button
  This button switches the view between time view and beat view. When working with MIDI, most times you 'd want to work in beat mode. When working with audio, most times you 'd want to work in time mode.
  • In time view mode, all seconds are equally spaced. Beats might not be equally spaced (they will only be equally spaced if the tempo is the same).
  • In beat view mode, all measures are equally spaced. Time indicators will not be equally spaced unless there are no tempo changes.
    For more, see Tempo.
• Item Button
  This button configure what you view in the track manager's Upper Control Area.
  • Time
    Views the time in seconds.
  • Beat
    Views the measures/beats.
  • Tempos
    Views the tempos.
  • Tempo Curve
    Views the tempo curve changes.
  • Markers
    Views the markers
  • Data
    Views the data (i.e. the graphiic representation of midi/audio). If you want to save CPU usage, disable this.
  • Feedback
    Views the new data recorded. If you want to save CPU usage, disable this one while recording.
  • Regions
    Views the regions.
  • Samples
    Views the sample position.
    Note: If one or more tracks have different sample rates, the sample position has no meaning and therefore it is not shown. See Working with different sample rates.
  • Runtime Effects
    Views all the track run time effects.
  • Snapping Grid
    Views grid lines on time/beats/markers etc. If you have selected a tool that uses the mouse to select areas, the mouse snaps to that grid (unless Shift is held down).
  • Automation Curves
    Views the automation curves assigned to tracks.
    
  • Activity
    Views the track activity while playing. This option enables or disables activities for all the tracks. If you want to enable or disable activity for a specific track, you can use the Mixer.
  • Information and Link Information
    This presents information about the track and the track links.
  • Categories
    Show or hide track categories.
  • Device Bay
    Show or hide the Device Bay.
    
  
  

Left Small Mixer Area

In this area you can put small mixers. Right click to it to add one or more small mixers.
For more, see mixers.

Embedded Visual Linker

This is simply the Visual Linker shown below the tracks and not as a separated Window.

The Upper Control Area

In this area you view everything you have configured using the Horizontal Toolbar's Items button.

• Time, shown in seconds, or if zoom does not permit, in minutes.
• Beat, show in Measure/Beats (if zoom permits).
• Samples. Samples are not shown when there are audio tracks with different sample rates in your project.
• Tempos. At the right of the tempos there is a blue button which is seen if there are tempo presets. Click it and you can load a new preset. Double clicking on any Tempo item will show the Tempo configuration dialog.
• Tempo Curve. A curve that applies to your entire sequence as a tempo modifier.
• Markers along with the preset button (if there are presets). Double clicking on a marker shows the Marker configuration dialog. You can drag a marker around and you can also select it, then press Del to delete.
• Regions along with the preset button (if there are presets). Double clicking on a region shows the Region configuration dialog. You can drag a region around and you can also select it, then press Del to delete. You can also select a region and press L (which converts it to a looping region). If you keep pressing L you specify the number of loops, and you can also press Shift+L to go back.
• Lyrics per Project.
• Data for tracks. You can toggle this off to use TP on slower systems.
• Feedback for recording. You can toggle this off to use TP on slower systems.
• Automation Curves per Tracks.
• Snapping Grid.
• Information about Tracks (Linking and samples/bytes/events size).
• Runtime effects.
• Activity for tracks. For more, see mixer.
• Categories for tracks. For more of the categories, see below.
• The Device Bay. This is a simple area of all your ASIO and VST devices. This provides all Turbo Play features for ASIO and VST devices. For more on the available features, see ASIO and VST.

Vertical Toolbar

The vertical toolbar contains the following:

• Devices button, which allows you to configure ASIO/MIDI/MME devices with a popup menu.
• Track Categories button, which toggles Track Categories. This button is only visible if there are categories defined.
• Link Preset button, which allows you to quickly select a Link Preset (for more see Visual Linker). This button is only visible if there are link presets.
• Quick VST button, which allows you to quickly load a VST.
• Editor Buttons - Push them to open the editors (Click them while holding SHIFT to open the editors in external Windows).
  • Audio
    Views the audio editor. This button is only visible when there are audio tracks visible.
    Note: Each track has its own audio editor so if you press this if 3 tracks are selected, each of them will show its own audio editor. If you want to use a single audio editor for more than one track, group the tracks (see Track Groupping below).
  • Score
    Views the score editor. This button is only visible when there are midi tracks visible.
    Note: Each track has its own score editor so if you press this if 3 tracks are selected, each of them will show its score editor. If you want to use a single score editor for more than one track, group the tracks (see Track Groupping below).
  • Pianoroll editor
    Views the midi/pianoroll editor. This button is only visible when there are midi tracks visible.
  • Note: Each track has its own pianoroll editor so if you press this if 3 tracks are selected, each of them will show its pianoroll editor. If you want to use a single pianoroll editor for more than one track, group the tracks (see Track Groupping below).
  • Byzantine editor
    Views the byzantine editor. This button is only visible when there are byzantine midi tracks visible.
  • Video editor
    Views the video editor. This button is only visible when there are video tracks visible.
    The Video in Turbo Play is not yet functional.
  • Lighting editor
    Views the lighting editor which supports DMX.
  • Container editor
    Views the container editor.
  • Mixer Editor
    Views the mixer editor.

The Browser

The browser is a fixed tree which contains useful shortcuts. For more, see browser.

The Visualizer

The Visualizer takes the rest of the track manager (the area not used by tracks) or it can be an external window. It provides audio visualization for your sequence. For more, see Visualizer.

The Inspector

The inspector provides context-specific information. It is yet under development.

The Monitor

The monitor is a real time tool that contains:

• A mixer for the master out.
• A pan for all the used ASIO output ports.
• A Visualization for the current output in both signal and equalizer (FFT) form.
• The "Automatic Linking" button which toggles whether all new tracks are automatically linked to the ASIO driver.

The monitor can also contain a mixer for the master in and a pan for all the used ASIO input ports.

The Transporter

The transporter is a window which contains transporter commands. For more, see transporter.

The Lower Small Mixer Area

The Lower Small Mixer area is another area which can contain small mixers.

The Tracks

The rest of the Track Manager area shows yout tracks:

For more info on specific track features, see Track Types.

The elements of each track are:

• Number
  Absolute index of each track.
  Note: You can reorder tracks by selecting a track, then press Ctrl+Up or Ctrl+Down to move the selected tracks up or down.
• Track Name and Description
  The track name and a description that is shown in the data area.
• Color
  A color for the track. The default is green for midi tracks, and red for audio. Clicking on that will allow you to choose a custom color.
  The defaults are :
  • Green - MIDI
  • Red - Audio
  • Blue - MIDI Loop
  • Yellow - Byzantine
    
  For Midi tracks you can also specify a piano roll color.
  
• Volume Indicator
  The current track volume. The minimum value is 0, and the maximum depends on the Max Mixer Position (See Options) which is 200% by default. Use the mouse to:
  • Adjust the volume automatically, by left clicking the position.
  • Drag the volume.
  • Middle click to reset it to 100%
  • Right click to show a menu in which you can:
    • Change the view format (Percentage, normalized value or dBs)
    • Set the volume manually
• Control Buttons:
  • Monitor - When this is active, Turbo Play executes playback links even if the track is in "recording" state (this, "direct monitoring").
  • Mute - Mutes this track.
  • Solo - Mutes all other tracks (except the ones that also have the solo flag on)
  • Record - Arms the track for recording.
  • Effects - This applies run-time effects for the track. For more, see Run Time Effects.
  • Takes - This manipulates track takes (see below).
• Undo/Redo
  This is per track.

The track data can appear in parts or no parts mode (depending on your Parts button state in the Horizontal Toolbar). Only audio and midi tracks support parts.

Right clicking the track LEFT area (the area that is left to the track's data) can:

• Set name, description, colors.
• Add a import or delete curves.
• Add lyrics.
• Move the track up or down.
• Set the track sticky. You can also do that by selecting a track and pressing L. A stick track is not hidden when you scroll down or up the other tracks. This is mostly useful for mixer tracks.
• Open a track editor.
• Duplicate tracks.
• Hide/Show tracks
• Resample entire tracks (to resample a specific part, use the Audio Editor).
• Change the recording mode to 'Mix'. In this mode, newly recorded data is mixed with existing data.
• Export a track (for more, see file types).
• Delete curves, lyrics, data or the entire track.
• Preview a track. Track previewing simply creates links that allow only this track to be played, and the track is played until you press OK. You can also use the Preview Tool from the Horizontal Toolbar.
• Assign a category to the track.
• Convert midi channels (for midi tracks). This allows you to quickly change the midi channels for all the notes inside a midi track.
• Group or Ungroup selected tracks. When you group tracks, all actions on the first track will also apply to the group. "Stereo" and "5.1" tracks are essentially groupped tracks.

You can assign a track to a category. When you use categories, the Category button in the vertical toolbar is active and you can use it to hide/show entire categories quickly. In addition, some actions (like mute/solo/recording) can be performed to a category - for example, if you press the Mute button in a category, all the tracks belonging to that category are muted.

To manage the categories, open the "Track Categories" or press Alt+F. You can edit/select/delete/create categories.

Right clicking the tracks RIGHT area (the area that is right to the track's data) when no part is clicked can do the same things as the previous menu, and in addition:

• Create a new part at the clicked position (you can also use Shift+N).
• Undo/Redo per track
• Add marker/region to the clicked position.

Right clicking the tracks on a part, allows you to manipulate parts.

Takes

Takes are simply collections of multiple audio parts. Only one take can be selected at a time, and this allows you to have multiple parts for a track and have a group of them "active". Take regions can overlap.

To create a take, you use the Take button. You can use it to open the Take Manager which allows you to create/assign/delete takes. You can also use a Script to select a take at runtime.

Note that, by default, each new recording creates a new take. You can configure this in Options.

Humanization (Midi)

Humanization is the process of slightly altering midi notes' precision at random, to simulate human performance. If this is switched off, midi events will be played precisely at their times (for example, this is nice for drums). Tracks that have this enabled will change their notes' time and velocity slightly and randomly.