5. Clips and structure

The Arranger

The Arranger shows the song’s shape: each track as one compact row of clips, the notes reduced to marks, the sections, time signatures and tempo along the top. It’s the place to move a chorus, repeat a riff, or see at a glance what plays where, while an Editor pane beside it shows the notes.

The Arranger pane

Available on every platform.

Open an Arranger

Make any pane an Arranger from the view picker on its bar (Panes). The Arrange workspace puts one over an Editor pane (Workspaces).

What it shows

• A row per track, its header at the left with the track’s name; right-click it for the track’s menu, as in the Editor.
• Clips filled with the track’s colour, with a darker header and the notes marked in an ink that reads on it: time across, pitch (or the kit’s rows) up. A clip’s repeats and linked copies keep a light body and an outline, so they read as the clip played again.
• Song rows under the ruler: a new Arranger starts with Markers, Signature and Tempo. Choose others with Song Rows (Song rows).

The pane bar’s chip picks which tracks it shows, and zooming changes how much of the song fits (Panes).

Voices as lanes

A track with two voices or more shows the voice it’s working in. The ▸ on its header opens a lane per voice, labelled “Voice 2”, “Voice 3”…, each with its own clips; ▾ folds them back. Drag a clip from one lane to another to move it to that voice (Voices).

Select clips

• Click a clip, anywhere on it, to select it; a selected clip has a halo. Panes linked to the Arranger by colour bring its track into view (The pane bar).

• Drag a rectangle across empty space: every clip it touches is selected.
• Select All (⌘A)Select All (Ctrl+A)Select All (Ctrl+A (⌘A on a Mac)) selects every clip the Arranger shows.

Then move, copy, resize, repeat or delete them together, as in Several clips at once.

Editing in the Arranger

The Arranger edits clips, not notes: typing a fret and the arrow keys do nothing here, so you can’t change a note by accident. Everything clips do works: drag a header to move, its left end to trim, the right edge to resize, ↻ to repeat (Clips), and the clip’s menu.

• Delete (⌫)Delete (Backspace, Delete)Delete (Backspace, Delete (⌫, ⌦ on a Mac)) deletes the selected clips, or the marker or chord picked in its song rows.
• Paste puts copied clips at the start of the caret’s bar.
• Right-click an empty place on a track for New Clip Here, Add Smart Clip Here (Smart Clips), Add Chord Here… and Paste Here.