Glossary | Tracker Pro reference

The terms below describe what a control changes in your music. Follow the linked chapter when you want to try it.

R5.1Grid and time

Term	Meaning
Project	The complete editable work: tracks, instruments, patterns, song and loaded audio.
Track	A musical lane with an instrument, notes, effects and mixer settings.
Pattern	A fixed length of tracker rows shared by the tracks.
Row	A time position in the grid. Rows run downward; tracks sit alongside one another.
Step	One track's instructions at a row. It can hold notes and commands.
Cursor	The selected editing position. WRITE enters notes here.
Playhead	The playback position. Live recording places notes here.
Rows per beat	The grid's division of a beat. Four rows per beat gives sixteenth-note rows.
Tick	A small time unit. There are 480 ticks per beat.
Velocity	The strength of a note, from 1 to 127. Its audible effect depends on the instrument.
Gate / length	Time before a note's scheduled release, measured in ticks. A release tail may remain audible.
HOLD	No scheduled gate release. A new note in the same note column can release it; a sample or envelope may finish sooner.
Release	The part of a sound after note-off. It can be audible after the held note ends.
OFF / FAD / CUT	Track commands that release, fade or stop notes already sounding.
Pencil	Enables direct cell editors in FULL and COMPACT. It is independent of performance-input WRITE.
WRITE	Sends played notes to the cursor and enables ZOOM note editing. The automation section has a separate WRITE action for one point.
REPEAT / RET	REPEAT copies a note or chord once at the cursor. RET retriggers a step's notes when the pattern plays.
Swing	Alternating timing displacement that changes the spacing between subdivisions.
Groove	A repeating timing pattern applied to rows.

Read the grid for note endings and writing for entry modes.

Guide Starter at 120 BPM with all 16 rows visible. Kick notes are on rows 000 and 008, snare notes on 004 and 012, and a tone starts on 000. — Guide Starter: kick on 000 and 008, snare on 004 and 012. The third track starts the tone used in the note-length exercise.

R5.2Samples and sound

Term	Meaning
Sample	Recorded audio played by an instrument.
Root note	The note that plays a sample at its original pitch before additional tuning or stretch settings.
Sample bank	Several selectable samples inside one sampler. It does not automatically layer them.
Sampler target	The sample and optional slice a written note should play.
Slice	A playable region of a sample with its own boundaries and settings.
Choke group	A group where starting one slice cuts another in that group.
Loop	A region of the sample that repeats while the voice plays. Pattern looping repeats the musical instructions instead.
Bit depth	The amplitude resolution of audio. Sampler BITS sets it for an internal playback copy.
Sample rate	How many audio values represent one second. Sampler RATE converts the playback copy before transposition.
Interpolation	How playback reconstructs values between stored samples.
Varispeed	Changing playback speed, which changes pitch and duration together.
Stretch	Changing duration; the selected method determines how pitch and texture respond.
Resample	The sampler action that prints character and stretch into replacement project audio. REC IN also uses resampling language for internal recording.
Bounce	Rendering a track or range into audio for another instrument.
Envelope	A changing value that shapes a note over time, such as attack and release.
Voice	One active instance of a sound. Polyphonic instruments use several voices for overlapping notes.

Read the sampler and sample editing for listening exercises.

R5.3Mixing, movement and files

Term	Meaning
FX command	A grid instruction at a row, such as RET or OFF.
Rack effect	A processor in the audio path, such as Delay or EQ.
Send / return	A route from a track to a shared effect chain and back into the mix.
Master	The combined output and its final processing chain.
Macro	One control mapped to one or more parameters, with a range for each target.
Automation	Saved parameter movement over a pattern.
Modulation	A source such as an LFO or envelope moving a sound parameter.
Table	A small command sequence that runs with notes.
Song row	An arrangement entry that selects a pattern and its repeats.
Section	A named range of song rows.
Cue	A requested playback change waiting for a pattern boundary.
Stem	A rendered track or return file, aligned with the other exported parts.
Tail	Audio remaining after the last musical event: releases, echoes or reverb.
AUv3 / Audio Unit	An installed instrument or effect hosted inside Tracker Pro.
MIDI	Note, controller and timing messages. It carries instructions rather than audio.

Read mixing, movement and projects and files to see these terms in use.