B.4. Track Menu

This menu, as you could have guessed, is all about manipulating tracks, those beloved horizontal parallel parking places for musical information.

B.4.1. Show Track Mixer/Hide Track Mixer

The track mixer is a little panel that slides out from the track headers. It contains controls for setting the track volume level and pan position (where the instrument seems to come from in the left-to-right stereo field). It also contains blinking level meters that help you avoid setting the volume level so high that distortion results.

Much more detail on the Track Mixer appears on Section 8.1.1.

Keyboard shortcut : -Y.

B.4.2. Show Track Info/Hide Track Info

This command summons or dismisses the Track Info dialog box for the selected track, where you can change the instrument sound, icon, format (stereo/mono), or effects for the track.

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Tip: Most of the time, it's easier to open this dialog box just by double-clicking the track header (where the track name appears).

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Keyboard shortcut : -I. The same keystroke both opens and closes the dialog box.

B.4.3. New Track

Opens the New Track dialog box, so that you can specify which kind of track you want to create (Real Instrument or Software Instrument), which channels it should "listen to" when you record, whether or not you want the Monitor function on (which passes audio of your playing through the Mac speaker), and what icon you want to appear next to its name.

Keyboard shortcut : Option- -N.

B.4.4. Delete Track

Removes the entire track from your project, complete with any music that it contains.

Keyboard shortcut : -Delete.

B.4.5. Duplicate Track

This command is slightly misleading. It creates a second track just beneath the selected one, containing the same instrument and effects settingsbut without any of the musical material. (If you want to truly duplicate what was in the first track, you must Option-drag them downward into the new track, or use Copy and Paste.)

Keyboard shortcut : -D.

B.4.6. New Basic Track

Creates a new Real Instrument track, instantly and without the intrusion of any dialog box, with no effects applied. It's a great command when inspiration strikes, you're ready to record, and you really don't feel like making any choices in some dialog box.