What it is for
- The track list, and back
The list stands where the strips stand: one row per strip, one column per question. It is where you read across the desk: which strips are stereo, what they measure, what order they are in, where they go.
It is also the one place that draws every strip whatever the desk is showing, which is why it is the only way to bring a strip back. puts it away again, and so does any page key.
The columns
#, NAME, WIDTH, OUT, RATE, DEPTH, LENGTH, LEVEL, PEAK, TRIM and FILE.
Level and peak are measured once, when the project opens. Nothing the desk does can change what is in a file, so they never go stale. Measuring sets nothing: no trim is written, no name is changed, no file is touched until you press something.
Picking rows
Click a row to pick it. and work as they do on the name plates, and PICK ALL takes the lot. Double-click a row to rename, and walks down the desk order. The name opens with all of it marked, so the first letter you type replaces it.
The toolbar acts on what you picked, and says how many. With nothing picked the buttons are drawn dead with the reason on them.
Names and colours
Name the tracks early. The name follows the track onto the strip, and the strip is where you spend the rest of the session.
Eight colours, on the swatches in the toolbar. A drum kit is coloured in one press. TIDY NAMES suggests what every name would become, showing it beside the name and changing nothing until you press again. It needs at least ten tracks, it never empties a name, and it never turns one name into another.
Groups
A group is the standing arrangement: one per strip, set here with the GROUP block, and recalled from the desk.
- Show one group of strips on its own
- The whole desk again
Put the kit in group 1 and leaves the kit on the desk. The strips it takes off the screen keep playing, and the line underneath says so. Nine groups, because there are nine digits.
A group is not a selection. A group is saved and a selection is not. A strip is in one group and in any selection you like. Which group is showing is where you are standing, so that is not saved either.
HIDE and DISABLE
They are not the same thing. A hidden strip is off the screen and playing exactly as it is set: in the mix, in the export, on the sends. It is room on the screen, not a mute.
A disabled strip makes no sound at all: nothing is read off its file, no section on it runs, and its meter is still.
The line under the desk always says which kind of missing you are looking at, and that brings them back.
Order and routing
- The grab handle at the head of a row sorts the desk: press, move over another row, let go. Grabbing one of the picked rows takes them all. The arrows ▲ and ▼ do the same one step at a time.
- The OUT cell steps a strip on to the next place it can go, and wraps around. It means that strip, not the selection. ⌘ takes the picked strips with it.
- + BUS and + BUS ST make a bus out of the strips you picked, standing just after the last of them.
- V1 to V4 put the picked strips under a VCA. Studio
Sorting the desk changes nothing in the engine, so it is safe while the mix is playing. Where you put the drums is saved.
AUTO TRIM
Two targets, and it takes the smaller move: the gated level to −12 dBFS, or the peaks to −6 dBFS. It moves either way, so a track that arrived too hot comes down.
It reaches the picked strips, or the whole desk with nothing picked, and says which. Apply it, and there is nothing left to ask for. The TRIM column says which of the two rules decided each strip. Nearly always it is the peak, which is crest factor and not a fault.
REMOVE is not delete
The file goes to Audio/Originals/, and the mix is deliberately not tidied up: put the file back and the strip comes back exactly as it was. Everything the program does to your material can be undone in the Finder.