Hey guys, in this video we’re going to cover how to setup a project in Tracktion 7, and
then go over the basic layout of the project and where some of the important tools are
that we need for editing.
Before starting, make sure you check out the first video in this series where we covered
how to get Tracktion 7 installed on our system and configured with an audio interface.
When we first open Tracktion 7, we’ll need to open or start a new project.
Our recent projects are available at the top, and it even has projects available from Tracktion
6 if you previously used that program.
We’ll start by creating a New Project instead.
When we do this, we give it a name, and we can choose to change the project location
on our computer, or keep it at default.
I won’t be using a project template for this tutorial.
The project doesn’t automatically open when we create it, so we have to click on the new
project name it created to launch it.
Let’s start with the left panel.
The default view is our files list, which allows us to access things like music files
in a specific folder.
The default is the documents folder, but we can easily change it.
Next is the tracks panel.
Here we can either disable or hide tracks.
If we disable a track, it doesn’t play or show up in the track view, but it’s not
deleted and we can go back and add it again after.
If we hide a track, it remains playing, but doesn’t show in the track view.
Next is search, which can be used to search for presets and plugins.
Then we have a section for notifications, one for markers, which we can add at the bottom,
and one for the clipboard.
If we want to hide this entire panel, we can click the button in the top left, and that
will maximize the space available for our tracks.
Now let’s cover the tracks section.
At the top, we have the time indicator.
This is set to bars right now, but we can change that in the bottom left to seconds
under the Timecode section.
You can also right click on the time area to change it.
Next we can have a bar for tempo and markers.
To enable the Tempo bar, click the tempo button to the right.
With the tempo bar, we can change the time signature throughout the project, and the
options for this are shown in the bottom panel.
First we can set the time that the time signature changes.
By default, we’re just going to be at the beginning of the project.
Below that we can set the time signature, and put it in triplets if we want.
To change the time signature at this point in the project, we set the time to that point.
Then click Insert Time Signature at Cursor.
From there, we can insert a new time signature.
We can use the Delete tool in the bottom right to undo this.
To change the tempo itself, double click on the line on the tempo track to add a new tempo
change.
Then we’ll get a control at the bottom, allowing us to change the time of the tempo
change, and the tempo itself.
Underneath we can open the markers bar in the same way as the tempo.
At the bottom, this allows us to add markers based on Bars & Beats, or absolute time.
Bars & Beats will reposition themselves if you change the tempo, but the absolute time
markers will not.
To the right, we have a few buttons to disable sections of the window.
The top left button disables track inputs, the top right button disables the mixer, and
the bottom button removes the entire bottom control panel.
In the bottom left of the window, we have a lot more controls and menus.
First are the undo and redo buttons that work like any other program.
Then we have Save, which we can save the project and the template, but this doesn’t save
the audio file of the project.
Clipboard can be used for cutting, copying, and pasting.
Import can add audio tracks to the project from elsewhere on your system.
Export allows us to create an audio file from the project.
Next we have the timecode, which we can change between time and beats and bars, like we saw
when we looked at the tempo.
After that, we can create a click track, and we’ll look at that when we record audio.
Next we have an option to enable snapping, and to add more tracks to the project.
The bottom right section of the window has the transport controls, and a few buttons
that we’ll want quick access to while we’re using the program.
At the top, we have the tempo and time signature, along will the current timecode in minutes
and seconds or beats and bars.
The tempo and time signature can’t be changed from here.
Instead it displays the current tempo and time signature at this point in the project.
Under that we have the automation read and write, the play button, and the record button.
Below that there is the panic button if the software glitches and creates noise, the jump
to start button, rewind and fastforward.
We can insert plugins on the master channel, pan, adjust volume, and monitor the levels.
The ones we’ll want to take note of are the loop to loop a selection, click to enable
the click track, and snapping.
Thanks for checking out this video on the layout of Tracktion 7.
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