Arrange a song | Tracker Pro guide

Song rows refer to patterns and set their repeat counts. Reusing a pattern does not copy its notes: an edit to that pattern changes every song row that uses it.

9.1Make a variation

Start with a saved beat. To use the ready-made exercise, open Guide Starter; it already contains First Pattern and Variation.

In TRACKER, use the pattern-name menu to select the original. For Guide Starter, choose First Pattern. Open the menu again and choose DUPLICATE CURRENT.
Open the pattern menu again and choose RENAME / SETTINGS. Enter Fill under NAME, then tap APPLY.
Change a note near the end of the copy. For example, add a kick on row 014 of a 16-row pattern.
Switch between the original and Fill using the pattern-name menu. The original should keep its earlier notes.

A duplicate gives you independent pattern data. It still uses the project's instruments and mixer, so changing a track's sound affects both patterns.

9.2Build eight bars

This exercise starts with Guide Starter's two existing song rows: First Pattern and Variation, each repeated four times. Both patterns have 16 rows at four rows per beat, so each pass lasts one four-beat bar.

Open SONG and select Arrange. In the first row's Repeats controls, tap − until it reads 3x. Set the second row to 1x.
Tap Add row, choose First Pattern, then set the added row to 3x.
Tap Add row again and choose Variation. Leave its repeat count at 1x.
Tap the first row's row-number area to select it, then tap Play row 1. The pattern plays three times before Variation plays once; that four-bar sequence then plays once more.
Stop and use the project-name menu's SAVE. Your song should contain four rows with repeat counts 3x, 1x, 3x, 1x.

If you already added extra rows, remove the unwanted ones with their trash buttons before checking the eight-bar total. With your own patterns, substitute their names and check their lengths first.

Pattern mode leaves Song playback and returns to the pattern open in the tracker. Press Play to hear that pattern loop. Opening a pattern for editing while Song playback runs does not replace the song's order.

Guide Starter in Song Arrange: First Pattern on row 000 and Variation on row 001, each with 16 pattern rows, four repeats and inherited tempo. — First Pattern plays four times, then Variation plays four times. Both song rows inherit the project tempo.

9.3Name a section

Tap the sliders button at the right of a song row to open Song Row.
Tap START SECTION. Enter a section name, then tap RENAME.
Use PATTERN, REPEAT or TEMPO in this editor to change that row. INHERIT keeps the tempo already in force. MOVE UP and MOVE DOWN change the row's position.
Close the editor. Tap the section name above the arrangement to select its starting row. This selects the row without starting playback.

A section ends before the next section starts, or at the song's end. It can be selected as an export range. REMOVE START removes the marker while keeping the song rows.

In Matrix, tap a track block to switch between Play and Muted for that song row. Hold the block for Cue this block or transpose choices. These are song settings; they do not rewrite the underlying pattern.

9.4Cue a row and control held notes

Start Song playback with Play row.
Tap Cue on another row. The change waits for the playing pattern's end.
Tap Cancel cue before that boundary to cancel it. After a cue lands, Revert cue requests a return to the position remembered before the first live cue.
If a cue keeps waiting, turn off the transport's loop control. In Song mode, loop holds the current pattern and postpones queued changes.

Ordinary song progression can carry held notes into the next pattern. Empty rows do not end them. Add a finite length or an OFF, FAD or CUT instruction where the phrase should end. Live cue changes cut the affected voices at their boundary; check the transition by listening before using it in a performance.