Hey guys, in this video we’ll be covering the Layout of SoundBridge, which is a free
digital audio workstation.
We’ll go over the location of a bunch of the tools that we’ll need to make music.
Before continuing, make sure you check out the previous video in this series where we
get SoundBridge installed and configured with our audio interface, MIDI device, and VST
plugins.
Starting in the bottom left, we have the File, Edit, and Preferences menu that we saw in
the previous video.
Below that we have the SoundBridge logo, and if we press that we can switch to full screen
mode.
Then we have a small rectangular display that tells us what button we’re hovering over
with the mouse.
To the right is the time display that tells us the current location in the project.
This is set to minutes and seconds, but the timeline at the top of the tracks is beats
and bars.
Below that, we have the CPU usage on the left and the master level meter for the project
on the right.
This is helpful to make sure there is no clipping when all the tracks are playing together,
because clipping can happen on the master channel even when the individual channels
are not clipping.
Next we have a few buttons we can use to control the timeline.
First are the punch in and out buttons.
If we press these, it will start recording at the punch in and stop at the punch out.
If these buttons are not selected, the punch in and out points will be ignored.
If we want to change the punch in and out points on the timeline itself, just click
and drag them to a certain point on the timeline.
Then we have the record button to start recording.
This will only work when there are tracks that are armed with either an input or automation.
After that there are the playback and stop buttons.
Below we have the shift button.
When this is lit up, it allows us to click on multiple clips and select them together,
without having to press the shift key on the keyboard.
This is useful if you’re using a touchscreen device.
Then there’s the delete key to remove clips.
Finally, we have Swing, which opens a popup.
We can set it to 1/8, 1/16 or 1/32 timing.
Then we can adjust the swing from 0 to 100%.
We can then press the button to snap to this swing, and we can quantize.
To the right, there is the project tempo control.
Just click on the tempo to change it, it’s set to 120 beats per minute by default.
There is a count in at the beginning when we start playback that can be switched between
1 and 2 bars.
There’s also a time signature button that opens up a window and allows us to set the
time signature to whatever we want.
Next up, there’s a few options that we want quick access to.
First is the Snap.
With this checked off, our cursor and any edits we make will snap to the grid.
The snap resolution is chosen with a dropdown to the right, and this can also be set to
the swing as we saw from the previous popup.
Below we have the button to toggle looping.
With looping enabled, the project will start from our cursor and start looping when it
reaches the loop region.
This just works based on the markers at the top and we can click and drag them along the
timeline to change them.
The start and end markers will snap if snapping is enabled.
With follow enabled, the timeline will move when the cursor reaches the end of the screen.
Otherwise the screen stays in the same place and the cursor won’t be seen anymore.
In the bottom, we have metro which enables and disables the metronome.
Finally, there’s count in, as we looked at the with the tempo.
This button turns the count in on or off.
The next section has a few of our mouse modes.
First is the select tool which allows us to select tracks and clips.
Then there’s a draw tool.
This can be used to draw MIDI clips and notes.
The scissors allow us to make cuts in the track which allow us to split it up and move
them around.
The mute tool allows us to mute clips instead of entire tracks.
The question mark opens up the tutorials window that we can use if we don’t know how to
use the program or we need more information about a specific tool.
Down below, there’s a few buttons that control the window mode.
The first one hides and displays the file and plugin browser, which is found on the
left of the screen.
The next button is to show the tracks view.
Clicking this doesn’t remove it, but we can switch between the tracks and mixer view.
Finally, there’s the Insert Rack which shows our plugins and instruments on a track.
On the right, there is the undo button at the top and the redo button on the bottom.
On the far right at the bottom, there are a few tools to edit tracks.
The split tool will split tracks at the cursor point.
Unlike the scissors, all the tracks are split.
Merge will create one clip out of all the selected clips on a track, but won’t between
tracks.
Merge will work if there is a gap between the clips and it will just create silence
there.
The freeze button is used to freeze a track.
When we freeze a track, it creates a file with all the effects applied, so it reduces
our CPU usage.
The adjust button adjusts the length of a MIDI event to the nearest point on the grid,
which is determined by the resolution to the right of snap button.
Quantize is similar, but it adjusts the start times instead.
Duplicate creates a duplicate clip or MIDI event.
Now let’s cover the left panel.
The first button at the top is to bring up the SkyTracks cloud service login that we
talked about in the last video.
The next button opens our file browser.
Recent at the top has some of our recent folders.
Then we have three directories we can switch between.
Glue allows you to tap a file and then tap anywhere to paste it, without having to click
and drag it.
When you click on a track, it will auto-preview and start playing, and you can press the play
button to stop playback, but it will start again if you select another clip.
This option is helpful if you’re using samples and you need to hear them all as you add them
to your project.
Below we have the volume level for the preview.
The right button at the top shows us our plugins.
Fx is the plugins that are included in SoundBridge.
VST 2 and VST 3 are the plugins that we have imported to the program, and that also includes
the virtual instruments.
Below we can choose to do a full rescan or scan for new plugins like we did from the
preferences menu.
To the right, we have the tracks window, and on the far right there is the effects rack.
Both of these sections will be covered in more detail in a future video.
Thanks for checking out this video on the layout of SoundBridge.
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