Replace with File

Replace with File is on the Mac and Android for now. A song whose video was replaced there keeps the video’s link: on the web, the video plays in the file’s place, lined up with the same pins.

Replacing a video with a file

1. Right-click the YouTube video’s lane and choose Replace with File…. The Video pane also says “Have this performance as a file? Its lane’s Replace with File… plays it instead.”
2. Choose an audio or video file of that same performance. MP4, MOV, M4A, MP3, WAV, AIFF and FLAC work; a video saved from the web is often WebM, which has to be converted first.

The file takes the video’s place on its lane, in one undo step, and plays as any recording does: its waveform, smooth loops, practice speed and another key with the pitch kept, Tab Leads, Find the Beats, Separate into Stems and Write Tab from Audio.

Lining it up

A file rarely starts at the same moment as the video. Stab finds the file’s beats and the shift that puts them on your pins, then moves the pins onto the file, so the song keeps the same bars. For about twelve seconds the lane says what it found:

• “Lined up with your 24 pins by its beats: the file is 1.37 s later than the video.” (or “the same timing as the video”): listen to check it.
• “Couldn’t line it up by its beats (8 of 24 pins on a beat): check your pins against it.”: the file and the video differ more than Stab could match, such as a different intro and length. Move the pins by hand, or undo.
• “Playing from the file, as the video was placed. Pin a few beats and Stab lines it up with them.”: the video had no pins to go by. Pin a few beats, or run Find the Beats on the file.

It works best with at least a few pins on beats. To go back to the video, undo.

Where the file isn’t

The song keeps the video’s link beside the file. Where the file isn’t (on the web, or for someone you play together with), the video plays in its place where YouTube can, shifted to line up with the same pins. A device without the file doesn’t ask where it is.