5 Arrangement View
5 Arrangement View
The Arrangement View displays the Arrangement, which contains music laid out
along a song timeline, like a multitrack tape.
The Arrangement View is a powerful editing tool that easily lets you combine and
arrange MIDI, loops, sound effects, video and complete pieces of music.
5.1 Navigation
Live offers several fast methods for zooming and scrolling the Arrangement display:
1. To smoothly change the zoom level, click and drag vertically in the beat-
time ruler at the top of the Arrangement View (you can also drag
horizontally to scroll the display). The Arrangement View can also be
zoomed using a pinch gesture on a supported trackpad or touch screen.
2. To zoom in and out around the current selection progressively, you can use
the computer keyboard’s [+] and [-] keys, or scroll with the mousewheel or
trackpad while holding the [CTRL](Win) / [CMD](Mac) modifier. To “pan“
the display, click and drag while holding the [CTRL][ALT](Win) /
[CMD][ALT](Mac) modifier. Double-clicking in the beat-time ruler also
zooms to the current selection. If nothing is selected, double-clicking the
beat-time ruler zooms out to show the entire Arrangement.
3. To zoom in the current selection completely, press [Z] or use the View
menu’s Zoom to Arrangement Time Selection command. (Note that if you
select time on a single Arrangement clip, the Clip View display (see ‘Clip
Gain and Pitch’) will zoom in on that selected time.) You can revert back to
the previous zoom state by pressing the [X] key. Note that when zooming
in multiple times using the [Z] key, the [X] key can be pressed multiple times
to go back one step each time the key is pressed.
4. To vertically zoom a selected track, scroll inside the Track Display Area with
the mousewheel or trackpad while holding the [ALT] modifier. Note that if
the Arrangement contains a time selection, all tracks with selected content
will zoom vertically.
5. To optimize the height of all tracks to fit the Arrangement View, click the
Optimize Arrangement Height button or press the [H] shortcut key. To
adjust the Arrangement View’s horizontal zoom so that the whole song fits
to the view, click the Optimize Arrangement Width button or press the [W]
shortcut key.
6. The Arrangement Overview is like a “bird’s-eye view“ of your music. It
always shows the complete piece, from start to end. The black rectangular
outline represents the part of the Arrangement that is currently displayed in
the Arrangement display below. To scroll the display, click within the outline
and drag left or right; to zoom out and in, drag up and down. You can also
resize the Arrangement Overview vertically by dragging up and down.
7. To change the displayed part of the Arrangement, drag the outline’s left
and right edges.
8. To see a specific part of the Arrangement in more detail, click on it in the
Overview and drag downwards to zoom in around that part. Note that you
can also drag horizontally to scroll the display. Using this method, you can
zoom and scroll to focus around any part of the Arrangement with just one
mouse motion.
9. To have the Arrangement display follow the song position and scroll
automatically, turn on the Follow switch, or use the Follow command from
the Options menu. Follow will pause if you make an edit or scroll the view
horizontally in the Arrangement, or if you click on the beat-time ruler. Follow
will start again once you stop or restart playback, or click in the
Arrangement or clip scrub area. If you zoom the Arrangement while Follow
is enabled, Live will zoom to the playhead.
5.2 Transport
There are a number of ways to control Live’s transport with the computer keyboard
and mouse:
1. You can start Arrangement playback by clicking the Control Bar’s Play
button, and stop playback by clicking the Stop button. Arrangement
playback can also be toggled on and off by pressing the keyboard’s space
bar.
2. You can set the Arrangement playback position by clicking anywhere along
the Arrangement to place the flashing insert marker. You can return the
Arrangement play position to 1.1.1 by double-clicking the Stop button or
by pressing the Home key (Win) / Function + left arrow key (Mac).
3. To continue playback from the position where it last stopped, rather than
from the insert marker, hold down the [Shift] modifier while pressing the
space bar.
4. When Permanent Scrub Areas is enabled in Live’s Display & Input
Preferences, clicking in the scrub area above the tracks will make playback
jump to that point. The size of these jumps is quantized according to the
Control Bar’s Quantization menu setting. While the mouse is held down
over the scrub area, a portion of the Arrangement the size of the chosen
quantization setting will be repeatedly played. With small quantization
settings, or a setting of “None,“ this allows you to scrub through the music.
Activating the Options menu’s Chase MIDI Notes command allows MIDI
notes to play back even if playback begins after the MIDI note’s start time.
5. When the Permanent Scrub Areas preference is off, you can still scrub by
[Shift]-clicking anywhere in the scrub area or in the beat time ruler.
6. The song position can be adjusted numerically using the Control Bar’s
Arrangement Position fields.
Note that any computer keyboard key or MIDI message can be mapped to the
transport controls, as described in the respective chapter (see ‘MIDI and Key Remote
Control’).
5.3 Launching the Arrangement with Locators
Locators can be set at any point in the Arrangement. This can be done in real time
during playback or recording with the Set Locator button, and will be quantized
according to the global quantization value set in the Control Bar. Clicking the Set
Locator button when the Arrangement is not playing will create a locator at the insert
marker or selection start. You can also create a locator using the context menu in the
scrub area above the tracks or via the Create menu. Note that the position of a new
locator is quantized according to the Control Bar’s Quantization menu setting.
You can recall (jump to) locators by clicking on them, or with the Previous and Next
Locator buttons below the Set button. Locators can also be recalled using MIDI/key
mapping (see ‘MIDI and Key Remote Control’). Note that locator recall is subject to
quantization. Double-clicking a locator will select it and start Arrangement playback
from that point.
After jumping to the first or last locator in the Arrangement, the Previous and Next
Locator buttons will jump to the Arrangement start or end, respectively.
Locators can be moved by clicking and dragging, or with the arrow keys on your
computer keyboard.
To name a locator, select it by clicking its triangular marker, and choose the Rename
Edit menu command (or use the [CTRL][R](Win) / [CMD][R](Mac) shortcut). You can
also enter your own info text (see ‘Using the Info View’) for a locator via the Edit Info
Text command in the Edit menu or in the locator’s [right-click](Win) / [CTRL-click](Mac)
context menu. Locators can be removed with your computer’s [Backspace] or [Delete]
key , the Create menu, or the Delete Locator button.
Note that the locator [right-click](Win) / [CTRL-click](Mac) context menu offers a quick
way of looping playback (see ‘The Arrangement Loop’) between two locators with its
Loop To Next Locator command.
The locator [right-click](Win) / [CTRL-click](Mac) context menu’s Set Song Start Time
Here command can be used to overrule the default “play starts at selection“ rule:
when this command is checked, play starts at the locator.
Live’s time signature can be changed at any point in the Arrangement by using time
signature markers. These can be added at the insert marker position via the Create
menu, or anywhere below the beat-time ruler using the [right-click](Win) / [CTRL-
click](Mac) context menu. Time signature markers appear just below the beat time
ruler, but this marker area is hidden if a Set contains no meter changes, freeing up
additional space at the top of the Arrangement.
In many ways, time signature markers look and function like locators; they can be
moved with the mouse or with your computer keyboard’s arrow keys, and their value
can be changed using the Edit menu’s Edit Value command (or with the [CTRL][R](Win)
/ [CMD][R](Mac) shortcut). They can be also be deleted using the [Backspace] or
[Delete] key, or via delete commands in the Edit and Create menus.
The Time Signature Editor Can Change Time Signature Marker Values, and Shows an Automation
LED.
Time signature markers are not quantized; they may be placed anywhere in the
timeline, and their positioning is only constrained by the editing grid (see ‘Using the
Editing Grid’). This means that it is possible to place meter changes in “impossible“
places — such as before the end of the previous measure. This creates a fragmentary
bar, which is represented in the scrub area by a crosshatched region. Live is happy to
leave these incomplete measures as they are, but if you’d like your Set to conform to
the rules of music theory, you can use the two [right-click](Win) / [CTRL-click](Mac)
context menu options to “correct“ incomplete bars.
Delete Fragmentary Bar Time deletes the duration of the fragmentary bar from the
Arrangement, thereby moving any audio or MIDI on either side of the deleted area
closer together in the timeline. The next time signature marker will now fall on a
“legal“ barline.
Complete Fragmentary Bar inserts time at the beginning of the fragmentary bar, so
that it becomes complete. The next time signature marker will now fall on a “legal“
barline.
Please note that these resolution options affect all tracks — deleting and inserting
time changes the length of the entire Arrangement.
If you import a MIDI file (see ‘MIDI Files’) into the Arrangement, you’ll be given an
option to import any time signature information that was saved with the file. If you
choose to do this, Live will automatically create time signature markers in the correct
places. This makes it very easy to work with complex music created in other sequencer
or notation software.
For Live to repeatedly play a section of the Arrangement, activate the Arrangement
loop by clicking on the Control Bar’s Loop switch.
The Loop Start Fields (Left) and the Loop Length Fields (Right).
You can set loop length numerically using the Control Bar fields: The left-hand set of
fields determines the loop start position, while the right-hand set determines loop
length.
The Edit menu’s Loop Selection command accomplishes all of the above at once: It
turns the Arrangement loop on and sets the Arrangement loop brace to whatever
timespan is selected in the Arrangement. You can toggle the Loop Selection
command on and off using the [CTRL][L](Win) / [CMD][L](Mac) shortcut.
The Arrangement’s Loop Brace.
The loop brace can be selected with the mouse and manipulated with commands
from the computer keyboard:
• the right and left arrow keys nudge the loop brace to the left/right by the
current grid setting (see ‘Using the Editing Grid’).
• the up and down arrow keys shift the loop brace left/right in steps the size of
its length.
• The [CTRL](Win) / [CMD](Mac) modifier used with the arrow left and right keys
shortens or lengthens the loop by the current grid setting.
• The [CTRL](Win) / [CMD](Mac) modifier with the arrow up and down keys
doubles or halves the loop length.
You can also drag the Arrangement’s loop brace: Dragging the left and right ends
sets the loop start and end points; dragging between the ends moves the loop
without changing its length.
The loop’s [right-click](Win) / [CTRL-click](Mac) context menu’s Set Song Start Time
Here command can be used to overrule the default “play starts at selection“ rule:
when this command is checked, play starts at the loop start.
Clips snap to the editing grid, as well as various objects in the Arrangement including
the edges of other clips, locators and time signature changes.
To slide the contents of a clip within the clip’s boundaries, hold [CTRL][Shift](Win) /
[ALT][Shift](Mac) while dragging the clip’s waveform or MIDI display. To bypass grid
snapping, hold down [CTRL][ALT][Shift](Win) / [CMD][ALT][Shift](Mac) while dragging
the clip’s contents.
Fade controls are always available for audio clips, provided that the tracks containing
those clips are at least three units tall. (Note: if a clip’s track is too small, you can
simply adjust the height of the track until the fade controls appear.)
To access the fade controls in an audio clip, simply hover over that clip with the
mouse. If Automation Mode (see ‘Drawing and Editing Automation’) is enabled, you
can momentarily toggle the fade controls by holding the [F] key while hovering over
an automation lane.
1. Click and drag the fade in and fade out handles to change the length of the
fade. The Fade In Start and Fade Out End handles allow you to change the
duration of a fade in or fade out without affecting the fade peaks. However,
fade edges cannot move beyond fade peaks.
2. Click and drag the fade curve handle to change the shape of the fade’s
curve.
Fades in the Arrangement View.
You can also set the length of a fade by selecting a range of time within the clip
(see ‘Selecting Clips and Time’) that includes the clip’s beginning or end and
executing the Create Fade In/Out command in the Create menu.
Adjacent audio clips can be crossfaded. Creating and editing crossfades is similar to
creating and editing start and end fades:
• click and drag a fade handle over the opposite clip’s edge to create a crossfade
• click and drag the slope handle to adjust the shape of the crossfade’s curve
• select a range of time that includes the boundary between the adjacent clips
and execute the Create Crossfade command from the Create menu.
Crossfaded Clips.
Selecting a fade handle and pressing the [Delete] key deletes the fade, unless the
Create Fades on Clip Edges option is enabled in the Record, Warp & Launch
Preferences. In this case, pressing [Delete] returns the fade handle to a default length
of 4 ms. With this option enabled, new clips in the Arrangement View will have these
short “declicking“ fades by default.
Automatically Create Short Fades At Clip Edges.
Another result of enabling the Create Fades on Clip Edges option is that adjacent
audio clips will get automatic 4 ms crossfades. These can then be edited just like
manually-created crossfades.
When a fade handle is selected, a dotted black line will appear on the relevant clip
to indicate the limit for that fade handle. This is especially helpful when editing
crossfades, because one clip’s loop boundary may be “hidden“ under the other clip.
Note that fades are a property of clips rather than the tracks that contain them, and
are independent of automation envelopes (see ‘Automation and Editing Envelopes’).
• Clicking and dragging in the lower half of the clip’s waveform or MIDI display
allows you to select time within the clip. You can adjust the height of the
unfolded track by dragging the split line below the Unfold Track button, or by
using the [ALT][+] and [ALT][-] shortcut keys. You can also resize the height of
a track by pressing [ALT] while using a pinch gesture on a supported trackpad
or touchscreen. To resize all tracks in the Arrangement View at once, hold [ALT]
while resizing a single track. You can also unfold all of your tracks at once by
holding down the [ALT] modifier when clicking the button, or by using the
[ALT][U] shortcut.
• Clicking on the loop brace is a shortcut for executing the Edit menu’s Select
Loop command, which selects all material included within the loop.
Clicking the Loop Brace to Select the Loop for Editing.
• Holding [Shift] while clicking extends an existing selection in the same track or
across tracks. You can also hold [Shift] and use the arrow keys to manipulate
the selection.
• Pressing the [0] key deactivates a selection of material, even if it contains
multiple clips. Note that pressing the [0] key while a track header is selected
will deactivate that track.
• It is possible to reverse (see ‘Reversing Samples’) a selection of audio material,
even if it contains multiple audio clips. To do this, select the range of time you
want to reverse, and choose the Reverse Clip(s) command from the clip’s [right-
click](Win) / [CTRL-click](Mac) context menu or press the [R] shortcut key. (Note
that it isn’t possible to reverse a selection that contains MIDI clips.)
• You can use the left and right arrow keys to nudge a selection of material in
either direction.
You can set the width of both zoom-adaptive and fixed grid lines using the [right-
click](Win) / [CTRL-click](Mac) context menu available in either the Arrangement View
track area or the Clip View display.
The following shortcuts to Options menu commands allow quickly working with the
grid:
• Use [CTRL][1](Win) / [CMD][1](Mac) to narrow the grid, doubling the density of
the grid lines (e.g., from eighth notes to sixteenth notes).
• Use [CTRL][2](Win) / [CMD][2](Mac) to widen the grid, halving the density of
the grid lines (e.g., from eighth notes to quarter notes).
• Use [CTRL][3](Win) / [CMD][3](Mac) to toggle triplets mode; this would, for
instance, change the grid from eighth notes to eighth note triplets.
• Use [CTRL][4](Win) / [CMD][4](Mac) to turn grid snapping on or off. When the
grid is off, the cursor does not snap to meter subdivisions.
• Use [CTRL][5](Win) / [CMD][5](Mac) to toggle fixed and adaptive grid modes.
The current spacing between adjacent grid lines is displayed in the lower right corner
of the Arrangement View or Clip View.
You can hold down the [ALT](Win) / [CMD](Mac) modifier while performing an action
to bypass grid snapping. If the grid is already disabled, this modifier will temporarily
enable it.
• Cut Time cuts a selection of time from the Arrangement, thereby moving any
audio or MIDI on either side of the cut area closer together in the timeline.
This command reduces the length of your Arrangement by whatever amount
of time you have cut. Note that the Cut Time command affects all tracks, not
only the selected ones.
A Gap Between Clips Has Been Cut by First Selecting It (Left), Then Executing the Cut Time
Command (Right).
• Paste Time places copied time into the Arrangement, thereby increasing its
overall duration by the length of time you have copied.
• Duplicate Time places a copy of the selected timespan into the Arrangement,
thereby increasing its overall duration by the length of the selection.
• Delete Time deletes a selection of time from the Arrangement, thereby
moving any audio or MIDI on either side of the deleted area closer together in
the timeline. This command reduces the length of your Arrangement by the
amount of time you have deleted. Note that the Delete Time command affects
all tracks, not only the selected ones.
• Insert Silence inserts as much empty time as is currently selected into the
Arrangement, before the selection.
Suppose you have, by editing or improvising, come up with a layout of clips that
sound good in Arrangement Loop mode. Selecting that part of the Arrangement, for
instance by using the Edit menu’s Select Loop command, and then executing the
Consolidate command creates a new clip that can be treated as a loop. You can now,
for instance, drag the clip edges to create more repetitions. You might also want to
drag the new loop via the Session View selector into a Session View slot for real-time
arrangement purposes.
When operating on audio clips, Consolidate actually creates a new sample for every
track in the selection. The new samples are essentially recordings of the time-warping
engine’s audio output, prior to processing in the track’s effects chain and mixer.
Hence, the new sample incorporates the effects of in-clip attenuation, time-warping
and pitch shifting, and of the respective clip envelopes (see ‘Clip Envelopes’);
however, it does not incorporate the effects. To create a new sample from the post-
effects signal, please use the Export Audio/Video command (see ‘Exporting Audio
and Video’).
The new samples can be found in the current Set’s Project folder, under
Samples/Processed/Consolidate. Until the Set is saved, they remain at the location
specified by the Temporary Folder (see ‘Where are the Recorded Samples?’).
(Note: linked-track editing is not available in the Intro and Lite Editions.)
To link tracks in a Group Track (see ‘Group Tracks’), open the Group Track header’s
[right-click](Win) / [CTRL-click](Mac) context menu and use the Link Tracks command.
Note that you can create multiple instances of linked tracks in a Set, however each
track can only belong to one of these instances.
Hovering a track’s linked-track indicator highlights tracks that are linked together. This
can be especially useful for identifying multiple instances of linked tracks. Clicking on
a track’s linked-track indicator selects all tracks that are linked together.
To unlink all tracks in an instance of linked tracks, select all tracks in that instance by
opening a linked-track indicator’s [right-click](Win) / [CTRL-click](Mac) context menu,
and then choose the Unlink Track(s) command.
The Unlink Track(s) Command.
To unlink tracks in a Group Track, open the Group Track header’s [right-click](Win) /
[CTRL-click](Mac) context menu and use the Unlink Track(s) command.
To link an additional track to an existing instance of linked tracks, first click on the
linked-track indicator button to select all tracks in that instance. Then, add more tracks
to the selection while holding the [CTRL](Win) / [CMD](Mac) key, and choose the Link
Tracks command in the [right-click](Win) / [CTRL-click](Mac) context menu.
To remove one or more tracks from an instance of linked tracks, select the
corresponding track header(s) and choose Unlink Track(s) from the [right-click](Win) /
[CTRL-click](Mac) context menu.
Note that any subset of linked tracks, or a mix of linked and unlinked tracks, can be
linked together by selecting their track headers and clicking the Link Tracks command
in the [right-click](Win) / [CTRL-click](Mac) context menu.