Demix Pro v1.0 User Manual

Revision 1.1February 5, 2019

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Contents

1 Installation and Registration 3

2 Quick Start 3

3 Application Overview 7

4 Vocals 12

5 Vocal Separation - Tips and Tricks 15

6 Pan 17

7 Drums 18

8 Main Panel 19

9 Waveform Panel 21

10 Separation/View Panel 22

11 Tools Panel 22

12 Transport Panel 23

13 Display Panel 24

14 Zoom Panel 25

15 Mixer Panel 26

16 Manual Edit History Panel 29

17 File menu 30

18 Edit Menu 32

19 Selection Menu 35

20 Track Menu 36

21 Tools Menu 37

22 View Menu 37

23 Spectral View 38

24 Melody view 45

25 Mixer View 47

26 Keyboard shortcuts 48

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1 Installation and Registration

Device Activation

On the first opening of the software you will be asked to activate the de-vice. Input the email address you used when purchasing the software,and the license code that was sent in the purchase receipt email. Thenpress activate. The software will then connect to the AudiosourceREserver and activate the software for the device. Note that the softwarecan be installed on multiple devices, but can only be active on onedevice at a time.

2 Quick Start

Demix Pro allows you to quickly separate vocals, drums and other instru-ments from audio recordings. As the extractions are done in the cloud,an internet connection is necessary to use Demix Pro. Without this, thesoftware will not open.

Pro application on opening

Drag and drop an audiofile into the main panel of the application.Pro supports loading of wav, aiff, mp3 and flac audio formats. Once theaudio has been loaded, the audio waveform is displayed in the mainpanel of the application. Playback of the audio can be started andstopped by pressing the spacebar, or via the standard transport con-trols. The volume of the audio output by the application can be con-trolled by the master volume slider, situated at the bottom left of theapplication.

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Audiofile Loaded

In Demix Pro, there are three options for automatically extracting in-struments, Vocals, Pan and Drums. Vocals will extract the lead vocalfrom a mix. Pan separates instruments based on their position in thestereo field, while Drums will extract the drums and other percussion in-struments from a mix. Buttons for launching these can be found at thetop centre of the application.

Separation Buttons

Here we take the use-case of a vocal separation as an example.Pressing the Vocals button will bring up a dialogue box offering the choiceof Automatic or Guided separation. These difference between theseoptions will be explained in detail in Section 4 Vocals of the manual.Select automatic and press next.

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Vocal Separation Automatic or Guided Window

The pop-up window will then display various options to control thevocal separation. Again,these options will be explained in detail Sec-tion 4 Vocals. Press accept to use the default settings. This starts thevocal separation process.

Vocal Separation Settings Window

The audio will then be uploaded to the cloud to extract the lead vo-cal. A pop-up window in the application indicates the progress of theupload of the audio. This disappears once the audio has been success-fully uploaded.

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Uploading Separation Request

Once the audio has been uploaded, analysis of the audio in order toextract the vocals commences. The progress of this analysis is indicatedby the green progress bar visible in the mixer side-panel on the righthand side of the application. Once this is complete, download of theseparated audio starts.

Separation Progress Indicator

Once the separated audio has been downloaded, the main panelshows a mixer view containing the master volume fader, as well as 2new mixer channel strips, one for the separated Vocal and another forthe separated backing Track. Each channel strips contains a volumefader, level meter, and pan knobs, as well as mute and solo buttons.

Similarly, the mixer panel, on the right-hand side, also shows two newaudio tracks, denoted Vocals, which contains the extracted vocals, andTrack, which contains the backing track without the lead vocal. Theindividual tracks in the mixer panel each contain a volume control knoband level display, as well as mute and solo buttons. The active trackis highlighted in a lighter colour than the other tracks, as well as by adouble circle. The active track always displayed in the bottom of themain panel, and after a vocal separation, the Vocals track is alwaysactive by default.

Vocal Separation Completed

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To hear the separated vocals, press solo on the Vocals track and startplayback. Similarly, the extracted backing track can be heard by press-ing solo on the Track track. It is important to note that the separationprocess is non-destructive, with Vocals and Track adding back togetherto give exactly the original mix.

Apart from the solo buttons you can mute individual tracks using themute button, or adjust the balance of the separated tracks using theindividual track volume controls.

Having separated the original mix into separated vocals and back-ing track, it is possible to run further separations on these new tracks.For example, pressing the Drums button will launch a pop-up windowcontaining a list of the tracks available in the application. Any of thesetracks can be used as the input to the drum separation module. It is alsopossible to separate only a section of a track. This will be explained laterin the manual.

3 Application Overview

Main Panel

The main panel displays different things, depending on the currently se-lected view. If Mixer is the default view, it shows a mixer containing all thetracks in the application. When Spectral is the chosen view it displays aspectrogram of the current track, while when Melody is chosen it dis-plays the Melody Editor. The main panel is discussed in detail in Section8 Main Panel.

Main Panel in Mixer View

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Main Panel in Spectral View

Main Panel in Melody View

Waveform Panel

The waveform panel displays an audio thumbnail of the original file thatwas loaded into the application, as well as showing the region of au-dio that will be displayed in the main panel when using the spectral ormelody views. It can also be used to control the playhead position, aswell as selecting a region of audio for looping and/or separation. Thewaveform panel is discussed in detail in Section 9 Waveform Panel.

Waveform Panel

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Separation/View Panel

The separation/view panel is used to launch separations or to changethe view displayed in the main panel. There are 3 buttons to performseparations, Vocals to perform lead vocal or instrument separations, Panto separate instruments based on their spatial position, and Drums toperform drum separations. These are discussed in detail in Section 4Vocals, Section 6 Pan and Section 7 Drums respectively. A fourth button,View gives the option to change what is viewed in the main panel. SeeSection 23 Spectral View, Section 24 Melody View and Section 25 fordetails on these views.

Separation/View Panel

The left-hand side of the Separation/View Panel also displays variouscontext-dependent parameters for the tools in the Spectral View andMelody View, while the right-hand side of the panel displays context-dependant controls for audio previewing in Spectral View and MelodyView. See Section 23 Spectral View, and Section 24 Melody View fordetails.

Transport Panel

The transport panel contains the master volume slider for the applicationas well as standard playback controls. These are discussed in detail inSection 12.

Display Panel

This panel contains controls that modify how the spectrogram editor andthe melody editor are displayed in the main panel.

Display Panel

Zoom Panel

The zoom panel contains tools which allow zooming in and out on wave-forms, spectrograms and melody editor displays, depending on whichview is currently open in the main panel.

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Zoom Panel

Mixer Panel

The Mixer Panel displays the original track, as well as any separatedtracks generated by the application. It also contains volume controls,as well as mute and solo buttons for these tracks. Additional function-ality included in the mixer panel includes the ability to merge tracks aswell as export tracks from the application. Further details can be foundin Section 15 Mixer Panel.

Mixer Panel

Manual Edit History Panel

The Manual Edit History panel shows a list of previous manual edits madeto a given track. These can be spectrogram edits or melody track edits.

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Clicking on a given event in the edit history removes all edits made afterthat point in the edit history. Further details can be found in Section 16

Manual Edit History Panel

Menu Bar

The Menu Bar contains options related to importing and exporting au-dio, saving projects, editing settings, performing separations, as well asdisplaying the mixer window. Further details on these menus can befound in Sections 17 , 18,19,20, 21 and 22.

Mixer Window

The mixer window contains volume and pan controls as well as muteand solo buttons for each separated track in the application. Furtherdetails can be found in Section 25.

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Mixer Window

4 Vocals

Running the Vocals module will separate out the lead vocal or lead in-strument from a song or mix. Pressing the Vocals button brings up apop-up window which displays a list of all the tracks currently open inthe application. Select the track you wish to extract the vocal or leadinstrument from, and press next. Note: if there is only one track currentlyopen in the application then this step is automatically skipped.

Select track for vocal separation

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Once the track has been chosen, the pop-up window then askswhether the separation should be automatic or guided. If automaticis chosen, the vocal separation algorithm will automatically attempt toidentify the vocal melody and separate it from the backing track. Ifguided is chosen, then the melody editor for the track will be opened,and the user can mark-up the desired melody to be separated. SeeSection 24 for details on how to mark-up the melody. Once the melodymark-up is complete, press the Vocals button to continue the separa-tion process. Note that the melody mark-up tool can be used to extractother parts, such as a vocal harmony which is not the main melody,thereby offering considerable flexibility in what can be extracted.

If automatic has been chosen, or when the Vocal button has beenpressed after a melody has been marked up, the pop-up window thendisplays a number of parameters which can be used to optimise the vo-cal separation The default settings are suitable for the majority of cases,however, depending on how the song has been mixed, different pa-rameters can result in improved vocal extractions. These parametersare explained below:

Vocal Separation Settings Window

Source Position

In most audio mixes, the lead vocal or instrument is positioned in thecenter of the stereo mix. However, in some cases, the vocal or lead canbe positioned on the left or right. In this case, the source position shouldbe changed to reflect where the vocal or lead instrument is positioned.

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Vocal Width

Double-tracking is a commonly used technique when recording vocals.In some mixes, the individual lead vocal tracks are panned to differentpositions in the stereo field, or alternatively an effect can be used toachieve the same effect. In this case, the vocal can be consideredWide, and the wide setting should be used, as opposed to the defaultnarrow setting.

Vocal Reverb Extraction

The vocal separation algorithm automatically attempts to identify andextract the reverb associated with the lead vocal or instrument. This re-verb can be mixed with the extracted vocal or lead instrument (WithVocal) to give a more natural sounding result, or it can be extracted asa Separate Track to give extra control over the estimated reverb. How-ever, if desired, this reverb extraction can be switched to None. This willresult in a drier extracted vocal, and the vocal reverb will be consideredas part of the backing track.

Vocal Detection Sensitivity

The default setting for the vocal extraction is No Vocal Detection. Thismeans the vocal separation will assume that there is always a lead vocalpresent in the track. However, it is possible to set the vocal separation toautomatically identify when a lead vocal is present. There are 3 levelsof sensitivity for the vocal detection, low, medium and high, which offerdifferent levels of detection, depending on the nature of the originalsong.

Snare Reduction

This parameter can be turned on to reduce the presence of snares inthe separated vocal tracks. It should be noted that in some cases, thiscan also remove some consonant sounds from the separated voice. Itis off by default.

Advanced Filtering

When advanced filtering is on, it greatly reduces the amount of inter-ference from other instruments in the separated vocal. However, theremay be instances where turning advanced filtering off helps to removevery wide vocals from stereo mixes. Advanced filtering is on by default.

Note: If any of the settings are changed, the changes are retained forthe next time a vocal separation is run.

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5 Vocal Separation - Tips and Tricks

When running a vocal separation, the best settings to use will vary de-pending on what you are trying to achieve. The settings required to getthe cleanest isolated vocal are often not the same as those that shouldbe used if you are trying to achieve the most consistent-sounding back-ing track. This section outlines the typical settings that are should beused for both of these cases, though there may be cases where differ-ent settings give better results depending on the nature of the track.

Cleanest Automatic Vocal Separation

To achieve the cleanest possible vocals, the following settings are rec-ommended.

Source Position

Source Position should always be set to match the position of the leadvocal.

Vocal Width

Vocal Width should always be set to suit the characteristics of how thelead vocal was recorded.

Vocal Reverb Extraction

To achieve the best sounding separated vocal, Vocal Reverb Extractionshould be be set to With Vocal. However, Separate Track can be usedif extra control over reverb levels are required. The use of None is notrecommended when attempting to get clean, natural sounding vocals.

Vocal Detection Sensitivity

For most cases, setting Vocal Detection Sensitivity to low works well toget clean vocals. Nonetheless, it is best to adjust this settting on a trackby track basis for best results.

Snare Reduction

In most cases, turning Snare Reduction to on will result in a cleaner vo-cal separation. However, it is important to note that this comes with apotential trade-off in that some plosives, consonants and sibilance maybe extracted when attempting to reduce the presence of snare in thevocal track.

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Advanced Filtering

In the vast majority of cases, Advanced Filtering should be switched onto achieve clean sounding vocals.

Best Automatic Backing Tracks

To achieve the best, most consistent sounding backing tracks the follow-ing settings are recommended:

Source Position

Source Position should always be set to match the position of the leadvocal.

Vocal Width

Vocal Width should always be set to suit the characteristics of how thelead vocal was recorded.

Vocal Reverb Extraction

To achieve the best quality backing track, the setting None should beavoided. Either of the remaining settings are acceptable when trying toachieve high quality backing tracks.

Vocal Detection Sensitivity

To achieve a consistent sounding high quality backing track, it is usuallybetter to set this parameter to No Vocal Detection.

Snare Reduction

In many cases, it is not necessary to have Snare Reduction set to onto achieve high quality backing tracks. However, in some cases theremay be too much snare left with the vocals. In this case, setting SnareReduction to on will help, though at the potential expense of more vocalconsonants and sibilance in the backing track.

Advanced Filtering

In most cases, advanced filtering should be set to on to achieve the bestsounding backing track.

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6 Pan

Running the Pan module will separate out sources from a song or mixbased on the positioning of the sources in the stereo field. Pressing thePan button brings up a pop-up window which displays a list of all thetracks currently open in the application. Select the track you wish toperform a pan separation on, and press next. Note: if there is only onetrack currently open in the application then this step is automaticallyskipped.

Pan Separation Settings Window

Once the track has been chosen, the pop-up window then displaysa number of parameters which can be used to optimise the pan sepa-ration. The results obtained can vary widely depending on the settingschosen. These parameters are explained below:

Number of Sources

Unlike the other separation modules which return only 2 tracks, the num-ber of tracks that can be returned by the Pan module can be changed,from a minimum of 3 to a maximum of 7.

Equal Spacing

This setting determines how the sources are separated. For example,if equal spacing is on, and the number of sources is 3, then the Panmodule will look for, and separate sources positioned at hard left, center,and hard right. Similarly, with number of sources set to 5, Pan will recoversources at hard left, mid-left, center, mid-right and hard right. However,

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there will often be cases where the sources in the mix are not positionedat the points in the stereo field as determined by the equal spacingparameter. In such cases, Equal Spacing can be turned off, and Pan willattempt to find the most likely position of the sources in the stereo field.Note that this will make the processing time for Pan considerably longerthan with Equal Spacing set to on.

Smear

Pan is designed to work with sources that were mixed using pan-pots,and assumes there is no time-delay between the channels for eachof the sources it tries to separate. However, in some cases, there maybe small time-delays between the sources if multiple microphones wereused to capture the sources. The smear parameter attempts to com-pensate for these time-delays by "smearing" the inputs to the Pan sepa-ration, and can result in improved separation in certain cases.

Note: If any of the settings are changed, the changes are retained forthe next time a pan separation is run.

7 Drums

Running the Drums module will separate out the drums/percussion froma song or mix. Pressing the Drums button brings up a pop-up windowwhich displays a list of all the tracks currently open in the application.Select the track you wish to extract the vocal or lead instrument from,and press next. Note: if there is only one track currently open in theapplication then this step is automatically skipped.

Once the track has been chosen, the pop-up window then displaysparameters which can be used to optimise the Drum separation. Thedefault setting is suitable for the majority of cases, however, dependingon how the song has been mixed, using a different setting can result inimproved drum extractions. This parameter is explained below:

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Drum Separation Settings Window

Spatial Smoothing

By default the spatial smoothing parameter is on. The spatial smoothingtries to ensure a consistent drum sound across the stereo mixture andhelps reduce the presence of other instruments in the separated drums.However, in some cases, this can result in a loss of energy, particularlyat low frequencies. If the separated kick drum is lacking in presence, insome cases it can help to turn spatial smoothing off.

Note: If any of the settings are changed, the changes are retained forthe next time a drum separation is run.

8 Main Panel

On opening the application, the Main Panel is empty, apart from aninvitation to drag and drop a file to open in the application. Once afile has been loaded, the main panel displays the default view of theapplication. This is initially the mixer view, and when a file is loaded forthe first time, the only channel displayed in the mixer is a master volumefader. As additional tracks are created either via separations or throughspectral editing, additional channels will appear in the mixer.

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Main Panel Mixer View

When Spectral view is selected, the main panel displays a spectro-gram of the currently selected track. It is in the main panel that all spec-tral selections and edits are made.

Main Panel Spectral View

When Melody view is selected, the main panel displays a view suitedto marking up melodies for use in a guided vocal separation. All melodymark-ups are made in the main panel.

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Main Panel Melody View

Note that the default view of the main panel can be changed byselecting settings from the Edit Menu. Clicking on the View tab in thesettings pop-up window gives the option to change the default view toany of the Mixer, Spectral or Melody views.

9 Waveform Panel

On opening the application, the Waveform Panel is empty and displaysthe text "No file loaded". Once a file has been loaded, the waveformof the input file is displayed, along with a time-line at the top of themain panel. Clicking at any point in the waveform moves the playheadto that position in the waveform. The playhead is displayed as a greyarrowhead in the time-line, with a black line across the waveforms beingdisplayed.

Waveform Panel

Regardless of what track is currently on display in the main panel, thewaveform panel displays the original waveform loaded into the applica-tion for reference purposes. Once either spectral view or melody viewhave been selected for display in the main panel, the region of audioon display in the main panel will be highlighted by a black box. This is toallow the user easily identify what point in the timeline of the audio theyare working on.

Audio Selections

Audio selections can be made by left-clicking and dragging the mouse.The loop is highlighted in a darker shade of grey than the rest of thewaveform. Once a selection has been made, looping is activated by

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default. This can be toggled by pressing the loop button in the transportpanel, or by pressing L on the keyboard.

Audio selections can also be used to separate the chosen selection,rather than processing a full track. This is done by making an audio selec-tion and then pressing either the Vocals button (See Section 4 Vocals),the Pan button (see Section 6 Pan) or the Drums button (see Section 7Drums).

10 Separation/View Panel

The separation/view panel is used to launch separations or to changethe view displayed in the main panel. There are 3 buttons to performseparations, Vocals to perform lead vocal or instrument separations, Panto separate instruments based on their spatial position, and Drums toperform drum separations. These are discussed in detail in Section 4Vocals, Section 6 Pan and Section 7 Drums respectively. A fourth button,View gives the option to change what is viewed in the main panel. SeeSection 23 Spectral View, Section 24 Melody View and Section 25 fordetails on these views.

Separation/View Panel

The left-hand side of the Separation/View Panel also displays variouscontext-dependent parameters for the tools in the Spectral View andMelody View, while the right-hand side of the panel displays context-dependant controls for audio previewing in Spectral View and MelodyView. See Section 23 Spectral View, and Section 24 Melody View fordetails.

11 Tools Panel

The tools panel is situated at the left-hand side of the application. Whenthe spectral view is chosen it displays tools for editing spectrograms.When the melody view is chosen it showns tools for marking up melodytracks. Many of the tools have parameters which can be adjusted torefine their use for editing/mark-up. These parameters are displayed onthe left-hand side of the Separation/View Panel. The tools for spectro-gram editing are described in detail in Section 23 Spectrogram Viewand the tools for melody mark-up are described in Section 24 MelodyView.

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Tools Panel

12 Transport Panel

The transport panel is situated at the bottom of the application. It con-tains a number of controls related to playback of audio. These are asfollows:

Master Volume - this slider controls the volume of audioplayback from the application. Above it is a displaywhich shows the current gain of the audio relative to itsoriginal level in dB.

Return to Start - this button moves the playhead back tothe start of the audio. This can also be done by pressingctrl+← on Windows or cmd+← on Mac.

Rewind - clicking on this button moves the playhead backby one second. This can also be done by pressing ←on the keyboard. Pressing alt+← will move the playheadback by 10 seconds.

Fast Forward - clicking on this button moves the playheadforward by one second. This can also be done by press-ing→ on the keyboard. Pressing alt+→will move the play-head forward by 10 seconds.

Move to End - this button moves the playhead to the endof the audio. This can also be done by pressing ctrl+→ onWindows or cmd+→ on Mac.

Loop - if an time-selection has been made in the mainpanel, this button toggles whether looping occurs on thatsection or not. This can also be done by pressing L on thekeyboard.

Stop - pressing this button stops playback

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Play - pressing this button starts playback

Pause - pressing this button pauses playback

The behaviour of stop and pause depends on the chosen playbackmode in the transport settings menu. If auto return is selected, thenthe playhead will return to it’s original position, while if persistent is cho-sen, then the playhead will stay at its current position when playback isstopped or paused.

Transport Location Display: This text box displays the current locationin time of the playhead, as well as the total duration of the file currentlyloaded in the application.

13 Display Panel

The display panel can be used to adjust the display settings for both thespectrogram editor and the melody editor.

Display Panel

ColourMap Slider

This slider can be used to set the range of colours displayed in the spec-trogram editor. It is only displayed when the spectrogram editor is thechosen view.

ColourMap Slider

Brightness Slider

This slider can be used to adjust the brightness of the display of both thespectrogram editor and the melody editor.

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Brightness Slider

Contrast Slider

This slider can be used to adjust the contrast of the display of both thespectrogram editor and the melody editor.

Contrast Slider

Spectrogram dynamic range slider

This slider can be used to adjust the dynamic range of the spectrogramdisplay. It is only displayed when the spectrogram editor is the chosenview. Selecting a low dB value for this slider means that the spectro-gram editor view will only display points in the spectrogram which havehigh energy, while increasing the value shows more low energy points.Selecting a low value can be useful when editing high energy regions,such as when trying to edit a lead vocal or instrument from a mix, as itremoves unnecessary details from the display.

Spectrogram Dynamic Range Slider

It is important to note that this only affects the display of the spectro-gram, it does not change the contents of the spectrogram itself.

14 Zoom Panel

The zoom panel contains tools for zooming in and out of both the spec-trogram editor and the melody editor. These are described below:

Zoom in - frequency axis This tool zooms in the currentdisplay along the frequency axis.

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Zoom out - frequency axis This tool zooms out the currentdisplay along the frequency axis.

Zoom in - time axis This tool zooms in the current displayalong the time axis.

Zoom out - time axis This tool zooms out the current displayalong the time axis.

Zoom out full This tool resets the zoom to the maximumpossible in the application, displaying the full frequencyaxis, and a maximum of 30 seconds of audio in either thespectrogram or melody editors.

15 Mixer Panel

Mixer Panel

The mixer panel is situated on the right-hand side of the application.The mixer panel is empty until audio has been loaded into the applica-

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tion, after which it displays the original file that has been loaded. Oncea separation has been completed, the mixer panel then displays newtracks corresponding to the separated files. These new tracks containmute and solo buttons for the tracks, as well as volume knobs for theindividual tracks. The tracks also contain a freeze button, see SpectralEdits below for details. It is important to note that the tracks returnedby any separation process, both automatic or manual, sum together togive exactly the original track that was sent to be separated, so that theseparation process is non-destructive.

Track Strip from Mixer Panel

Selecting Original file in the mixer panel will bypass the mixer andplay the original audio file for reference purposes. Clicking on one ofthe separated tracks returns control of playback to the mixer.

The separated tracks are automatically named, depending on thetype of separation that has been performed. In the case of a vocalseparation, they are named vocals and track. In the case of a drumseparation they are named Drums and Pitched. They can be renamedby double-clicking on the track name, and typing in the desired name.

Single-clicking on a track will cause that track to become active, andif spectral view or melody view has been chosen for this track, they willbe displayed in the main panel.

Spectral Edits

When a spectral edit has been made on a track, 2 sub-tracks then ap-pear below the track. The first, marked track, contains the contents ofthe track minus any edits that have been made, while the second, editscontains anything which has been edited out of the track. The freezeicon on the original track becomes active as well. Pressing on the freezeicon freezes the current edits, and converts the subtracks into full tracks,which then appear in the mixer. These new tracks can then be used inthe same way as all other tracks in the application.

Sub-tracks after spectral edits

Merging Tracks

It is also possible to merge tracks as needed. This can be done by hold-ing down ctrl (Windows) or cmd (Mac) and clicking on multiple tracks.Alternatively shift and clicking will work as well. Once multiple tracks

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have been selected, the Merge selected button becomes active. Click-ing on Merge selected will then merge the selected tracks into a singletrack.

Merge Selected Button

Right-Click MenuRight-clicking on any track brings up a track menu. This gives a numberof options, explained below.

Right-clicking on a track

Apply SeparationThis gives the option to apply either a Vocals separation, a Pan separa-tion or a Drums separation directly on the chosen track.Set ViewThis gives the option to change what is displayed in the main panel. Thiscan be the mixer, the spectrogram of the track, or the melody editor ofthe track.Freeze Manual EditsSelecting Freeze Manual Edits makes permanent any spectrogram editsmade to the current track, and splits it into 2 tracks, one containing thecurrent track incorporating any edits made, and a second track whichcontains all the edits which have been removed from the current track.This is to ensure that the editing process is non-destructive.Set ColourClicking on Set Colour launches a pop-up Track Colour Picker window.Picking a colour in this window will then change the colour associatedwith the track to that chosen. Note that the default colour for tracksreturned from a vocal separation is light blue, matching the Vocals but-ton and that the default colour for drum separation tracks is light green,matching that of Drums button. The default colour for merged tracks iswhite.

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Track Colour Picker

RenameClicking on Rename gives the option to rename the track by typing inthe desired track name.

16 Manual Edit History Panel

Manual Edit History Panel

This panel contains the edit history for any changes made in eitherthe spectrogram editor or the melody editor of the current track. Click-ing on any event in this list will undo all edits made after the edit selected.Clicking on initial state will reset the editor back to its original uneditedstate. Note that the maximum number of events that can be undone

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depends on the memory required to store these events. Nonetheless,the number of events stored should be suitable for most practical pur-poses.

The panel also contains options for bouncing audio out of the appli-cation. These are explained below:

Bounce Mixer Output

Selecting Bounce Mixer Output bounces the audio out-put from the mixer directly to a file. This includes allchanges in volume, panning, as well as any mutes or so-los. It brings up a dialogue box allowing the user to namethe output file. The associated keyboard shortcut for thisaction is: Windows - ctrl+B, Mac - cmd+B.

Export All Tracks

This exports the audio from all the tracks currently avail-able in the mixer. On selecting this option it brings upa pop-up box asking you to select a directory to savethe files to. Note that the export filenames will match thenames of the track in the mixer panel. The Export All Tracksoption ignores all panning, volume, solo or mute settingsin the mixer. This can also be done using a keyboard short-cut: Windows - ctrl+shift+E, Mac - cmd+shift+E.

Exported audio tracks retain all the original metadata of the origi-nal audiofile, including time-stamps, for ease of importing/exporting toDAWs.

17 File menu

Selecting the file menu brings up a range of options. These are de-scribed below:

Open Audio File

Selecting Open Audio File opens a pop-up window allowing the userto select an audiofile to use in the application. This can also be doneusing a keyboard shortcut: Windows - ctrl+shift+N, Mac - cmd+shift+N. Ifthere is already an audiofile open in the application, or another projectis already open, a dialogue window will ask if the user wishes to save theexisting project before opening the audio file.

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Opening an audiofile can also be achieved by dragging and drop-ping the audiofile from the file manager. Essentials supports loading ofwav, aiff, mp3 and flac audio formats.

Save

Selecting Save saves the current project. This can also be done using akeyboard shortcut: Windows ctrl+S, Mac - cmd+S. If it is the first time theproject is being saved, this opens a pop-up window allowing the user tosave the current project open in the application. Type the project nameinto the file name text box and hit save. This will save the project settingsand all associated audio into a project folder.

If the project has been previously saved, selecting Save will save thecurrent version of the project into the previously created folder.

Save As

Selecting Save as saves the current project under a new project name.It opens a pop-up window allowing the user to save the current projectopen in the application. Type the project name into the file name textbox and hit save. This will save the project settings and all associatedaudio into a new project folder. This can also be done using a keyboardshortcut: Windows - ctrl+shift+S, Mac - cmd+shift+S.

Bounce Mixer Output

Selecting Bounce Mixer Output bounces the audio output from the mixerdirectly to a file. This includes all changes in volume, panning, as well asany mutes or solos. It brings up a dialogue box allowing the user toname the output file. The associated keyboard shortcut for this action is:Windows - ctrl+B, Mac - cmd+B.

Export Current Track

This exports the audio from the currently selected track, ignoring anypanning, volume, solo or mute settings. This can also be done using:Windows - ctrl+E, Mac - cmd+E.

Export All Tracks

This exports the audio from all the tracks currently available from themixer. On selecting this option it brings up a pop-up box asking you toselect a directory to save the files to. Note that the export filenames willmatch the names of the track in the mixer panel. The Export All Tracksoption ignores all panning, volume, solo or mute settings in the mixer.This can also be done using a keyboard shortcut: Windows - ctrl+shift+E,Mac - cmd+shift+E.

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Open project

Selecting Open project displays a pop-up window which allows the userto open an already existing project. In Essentials, a project file has a fileextension of .sre, and it will be found in the project folder created whenthe project was originally saved. This can also be done using a keyboardshortcut: Windows - ctrl+O, Mac - cmd+O.

18 Edit Menu

Selecting the file menu brings up a range of options. These are de-scribed below:

Undo

This undoes the previous edit. Note that the undo entry displays a de-scription of the previous action when appropriate. Undoing edits canalso be done using a keyboard shortcut: Windows - ctrl+Z, Mac - cmd+Z.

Redo

This re-does any previously undone edit. Note that the redo entry dis-plays a description of the previous action when appropriate. Undoingedits can also be done using a keyboard shortcut: Windows - ctrl+shift+Z,Mac - cmd+shift+Z.

Settings

Selecting Settings launches a pop-up window containing a number oftabs which allow the user to make changes to the default settings forthe application:

Audio

This tab contains settings related to audio playback in the application.These are:

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Audio Settings Window

Audio Device TypeThis option is Windows only. It typically offers the choice between Win-dows Audio and Direct Sound for playback of audio.OutputThis allows the user to select which of the available outputs to use forplayback of audio.Sample RateThis allows the user to change the default sample rate for playback ofaudio. This is typically 44.1kHz by default.Audio Buffer SizeThis controls the audio buffer size of the application. If playback is skip-ping or stuttering, then increasing the buffer size can help eliminatethese problems.

Transport Settings

Transport Settings Window

The transport settings tab allows the user to change how the appli-cation behaves during playback.

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Playback ModeWhen Auto Return is selected, pressing stop or pausing playback will re-turn the playhead to its previous position before playback started. WhenPersistent is selected, then the playhead will remain at the current posi-tion when pausing or stopping occurs.Automatic Scrolling during playbackWhen checked, the display area of the spectrogram editor and of themelody editor scrolls with the playhead position.

Editor

Editor Settings Window

Default EditorThis controls what the main panel displays when clicking on a track.If none, the main panel will continue to display the mixer. SelectingMelody Editor will result in the melody editor being displayed by defaultwhen clicking on a track. Similarly, selecting Spectrogram Editor will re-sult in the the spectrogram editor being displayed by default when atrack is clicked on.

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Separations

Separation Settings

This tab contains the current settings for the Vocals Pan and Drumsmodules. These settings are described in detail in Section 4 Vocals, Sec-tion 6 Pan and Section 7 Drums respectively.

19 Selection Menu

This menu contains a range of options for manipulating selections madein the spectrogram editor.

Erase

Selecting erase removes the current selection from the spectrogram,and moves it into a temporary edits spectrogram.

Move To New Track

Selecting this removes the current selection from the current track andcreates a new track containing the information that has been removedfrom the current track.

Expand

This is used to enlarge the area of current selection to capture more ofthe energy around the selection.

Shrink

This is used to reduce the area of the current selection to focus more onthe central regions of what has been selected.

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Strengthen

This increases the amount of energy captured by the current selection.

Dim

This reduces the amount of energy captured by the current selection.

Deselect

This deselects all current selections.

20 Track Menu

This menu contains a number of options that can be applied to the cur-rent track.

Drum Separation

This will apply a drum separation to the current track. See Section 7Drums for details.

Vocal Separation

This will apply a vocal separation to the current track. See Section 4Vocals for details.

Pan Separation

This will apply a pan separation to the current track. See Section 6 Panfor details.

Freeze Manual Edits

Selecting Freeze Manual Edits makes permanent any spectrogram editsmade to the current track, and splits it into 2 tracks, one containing thecurrent track incorporating any edits made, and a second track whichcontains all the edits which have been removed from the current track.This is to ensure that the editing process is non-destructive.

Show Melody Editor

Selecting Show Melody Editor displays the melody editor view for thecurrent track in the main panel. See Section 24 Melody Editor for details.

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Show Spectrogram Editor

Selecting Show Spectrogram Editor displays the spectrogram editor viewfor the current track in the main panel. See Section 23 for details.

Flip Mask

Selecting Flip Mask toggles the display between the spectrogram dis-play of the current track, and a spectrogram display of what has beenremoved from the current track. This can also be done using the key-board shortcut alt+F.

Reset Spectral Edits

Selecting this undoes all spectral edits that have been made to the cur-rent track.

Export Current Track

This exports the audio from the currently selected track, ignoring anypanning, volume, solo or mute settings. This can also be done using:Windows - ctrl+E, Mac - cmd+E.

21 Tools Menu

A number of the spectrogram editing tools have alternates which mod-ify their behaviour. Selecting Next Alternate or using the keyboard short-cut A toggles between the alternates of the currently selected spectro-gram editing tool.

22 View Menu

This contains a number of options related to what is displayed in theapplication.

Show Spectrogram Window

Selecting this will make the main window visible. This can also be doneusing a keyboard shortcut: Windows - ctrl+1, Mac - cmd+1.

Show Mixer Window

Selecting this will make the mixer window visible. This can also be doneusing a keyboard shortcut: Windows - ctrl+1, Mac - cmd+1.

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Scroll during Playback

When selected, the spectrogram editor and the melody editor will up-date their display to follow the playhead during playback.

23 Spectral View

While the automatic separation modules in this software give high qual-ity results, there will often be artefacts and some interference due toother instruments in the separated sources. These can be reduced andeliminated through the use of the spectral editing tools available in theSpectral view mode.

The spectral view mode displays a spectrogram of the chosen trackin the main panel. It plots the intensity of the signal at different pointsin frequency and time, and gives a pictorial representation of how thefrequency content of the track evolves over time. Here, frequency in-creases from bottom to top in the vertical axis, while time increases fromleft to right along the horizontal axis. Reading spectrograms can bedaunting at first, but by keeping in mind some basic rules of thumb, theyquickly become understandable. The first of these is that drums andpercussion instruments, which can be considered as broadband noiseand transient-like in nature, can typically be identified as vertical ridgesin the spectrogram. Secondly, pitched instruments such as piano, tendto have lots of harmonics which form horizontal lines in the spectrogram.Finally, vocals tend to modulate in frequency a lot, and can typically beidentified as "wobbly" lines in the spectrogram. This can be seen in thefigure below.

Application in Spectral View Mode

Spectrogram editing can also be viewed as creating a set of preci-sion filters for various points in frequency and time. Spectral Editing inthis application is completely non-destructive, any audio filtered out of

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a spectrogram is retained by the application and so it is always possibleto perfectly reconstruct any edited audio track. The following sectionsdescribe the various spectral editing tools and their applications.

Move Tool

Clicking on the Move icon makes the tool active. Alterna-tively, when a Spectral View is active, using the keyboardshortcut 1 will make the tool active. Once the tool is ac-tive, left-clicking anywhere in the main panel and drag-ging the mouse will move the spectral view in the direc-tion of the mouse movement. This allow easy navigationthrough the spectral view. Zooming in on a given region inthe spectrogram can also be done by right-clicking anddragging a window.

Selection Tools

There are a number of smart tools for making selections in the spectralview. Once selections have been made, they can be manipulated ina number of different ways. including erasing, moving to a new track,expanding, shrinking, strengthening and dimming. These options for ma-nipulating selections are described in Section 19.

Rectangle Select Tool

Clicking on the Rectangle Select icon makes the tool ac-tive. Alternatively, when a Spectral View is active, usingthe keyboard shortcut 2 will make the tool active. Left-clicking and dragging the mouse will then create a rect-angle selection on the spectral view. To make multipleselections, press shift while left-clicking and dragging.

The Rectangle Select tool has 2 options Frequency Snap and Time Snap,which can be accessed at the left-hand side of the separation/viewpanel. Clicking on Frequency Snap will make any selection snap tocover the entire frequency range of the spectral view. Clicking on TimeSnap will make any selection snap to cover the entire time range of thespectral view. Note that if both are activated, then making any rectan-gle selection will select everything in the spectral view.

Wand Select Tool

Clicking on the Wand Select icon makes the tool active.Alternatively, when a Spectral View is active, using thekeyboard shortcut 3 will make the tool active. Movingthe wand select tool over a region in the spectral viewwill highlight the loudest elements in that region.

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It is possible to audition what has been highlighted by using a keyboardshortcut: Windows ctrl , Mac cmd. Left-clicking on the mouse then se-lects the highlighted region. To make multiple selections, press shift whileleft-clicking.

The Wand Select tool has 2 options which change what is highlightedby the wand select tool. Again, these can be accessed at the left-handside of the separation/view panel. These are:

ThresholdReducing the threshold (displayed in dB) means that the Wand Selecttool will select more low energy regions of the spectral view, in effect itincreases the area that is selected by the wand. The threshold can beadjusted by moving the rotary knob, or alternatively by clicking in thethreshold value display and entering the required threshold in dB.

Position HelpThe wand tool searches for the loudest region in the area surroundingthe current mouse position. Increasing the value of Position Help in-creases the area in which the tool searches to find the loudest region,while decreasing it reduces the search area.

Harmonic Wand Select Tool

The Harmonic Wand Select tool is an alternate versionof the wand select tool. It can be accessed by click-ing on the black arrowhead in the bottom right cornerof the wand select icon. This launches a pop-up display-ing both the Wand Select icon and the Harmonic WandSelect icon. Click on the Harmonic Wand Select icon toactivate it.

Alternatively, it can be accessed by using the keyboard shortcut 3 tomake the Wand Select tool active and then pressing A to switch to theHarmonic Wand Select Tool.

Moving the harmonic wand select tool over a region in the spectralview will highlight the loudest elements in that region, as well as elementsat harmonically related frequencies. This makes the tool useful for select-ing individual notes present in the spectral view. It is possible to auditionwhat has been highlighted by using a keyboard shortcut: Windows ctrl, Mac cmd. Left-clicking on the mouse then selects the highlighted re-gion. To make multiple selections, press shift while left-clicking.

The Wand Select tool has 3 options which change what is highlightedby the wand select tool. Again, these can be accessed at the left-handside of the separation/view panel. These are:

Select HarmonicIt can often be the case that the first harmonic of a note may not be themost visible harmonic of a note in the spectral display. This can make itmore difficult to highlight notes using the harmonic wand select tool. TheSelect Harmonic parameter overcomes this giving the option to high-

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light different harmonics of the note. For example, if Select Harmonic isset to 2, then the tool will look for a single harmonic below the mouseposition, and all other harmonics below the mouse position. Changingthe harmonic can also be done by pressing alt and using mouse scroll.

ThresholdReducing the threshold (displayed in dB) means that the Wand Selecttool will select more low energy regions of the spectral view, in effect itincreases the area that is selected by the wand. The threshold can beadjusted by moving the rotary knob, or alternatively by clicking in thethreshold value display and entering the required threshold in dB.

Position HelpThe wand tool searches for the loudest region in the area surroundingthe current mouse position. Increasing the value of Position Help in-creases the area in which the tool searches to find the loudest region,while decreasing it reduces the search area.

Transient Select Tool

Clicking on the Transient Select icon makes the tool ac-tive. Alternatively, when a Spectral View is active, usingthe keyboard shortcut 4 will make the tool active. Movingthe Transient select mouse tool over a region in the spec-tral view will highlight any broadband transients, such asa drum hit, in that region.

Clicking on the Transient Select icon makes the tool active. Alterna-tively, when a Spectral View is active, using the keyboard shortcut 4 willmake the tool active. Moving the Transient select mouse tool over a re-gion in the spectral view will highlight any broadband transients, such asa drum hit, in that region.

It is possible to audition what has been highlighted by using a key-board shortcut: Windows ctrl , Mac cmd. Left-clicking on the mousethen selects the highlighted region. To make multiple selections, pressshift while left-clicking.

The Transient Select tool has 2 options which change what is high-lighted by the tool. Again, these can be accessed at the left-hand sideof the separation/view panel. These are:

SensitivityThis determines how strong the transient is before it will be detected bythe tool. Increasing the sensitivity will detect lower intensity transients,while reducing the sensitivity means the tool will only detect high inten-sity transients.

Low CutBy default, the Transient Select tool highlights the entire frequency rangewhen a transient is detected. However, there are cases, such as tran-sients related to sibilance, where the transient is not present at low fre-

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quencies. In such cases, the low cut frequency can be adjusted toensure the transient is only highlighted for frequencies above the lowcut frequency. Changing the low cut frequency can also be done bypressing alt and using mouse scroll.

Threshold Select Tool

Clicking on the Threshold Select icon makes the tool ac-tive. Alternatively, when a Spectral View is active, us-ing the keyboard shortcut 5 will make the tool active.Left-clicking and dragging the mouse will then create athreshold selection on the spectral view. To make multipleselections, press shift while left-clicking.

The Threshold Select tool works by selecting all points within the rect-angle which have energy above a set threshold in dB. As a visual aid,the colour associated with the threshold is displayed in the borders ofthe selection window during clicking and dragging.

The alternate version of the Threshold Select tool works byselecting all points within the rectangle which have en-ergy below a set threshold. It can be accessed by clickingon the black arrowhead in the bottom right corner of thethreshold select icon. This launches a pop-up displayingboth the Threshold Select icon and the Threshold BelowSelect icon.

Click on the Threshold Below Select icon to activate it. Alternatively, itcan be accessed by using the keyboard shortcut 5 to make the Thresh-old Select tool active and then pressing A to switch to the ThresholdBelow Select Tool.

Both versions of the tool have 3 options which change what is se-lected by the tool. Again, these can be accessed at the left-hand sideof the separation/view panel. These are described below:

ThresholdThe threshold rotary knob is used to control the threshold used by thetool. Increasing the threshold will result in only high energy regions abovethe threshold being selected, while reducing the threshold will increasethe amount of low energy regions selected. The opposite holds true ifthe Threshold Below Select Tool is being used. Changing the thresholdcan also be done by pressing alt and using mouse scroll.

Frequency SnapClicking on Frequency Snap will make any selection snap to cover theentire frequency range of the spectral view.

Time SnapClicking on Time Snap will make any selection snap to cover the entiretime range of the spectral view.

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Note that if both are activated, then making any threshold selectionwill result in the threshold selection being applied to everything in thespectral view.

Brush Tool

Clicking on the Brush icon makes the tool active. Alter-natively, when a Spectral View is active, using the key-board shortcut 6 will make the tool active. Left-clickingand dragging the mouse will then erase areas under thebrush tool from the spectral view.

The Brush tool has 2 options which change what is highlighted by thewand select tool. These can be accessed at the left-hand side of theseparation/view panel. These are:

Brush SizeIncreasing the Brush Size enlarges the size of the area the brush tooldeletes, while decreasing it reduces the size of the area, allowing preci-sion erasing within the spectral view. Changing the brush size can alsobe done by pressing alt and using mouse scroll.

Min MaskBy default the brush tool erases completely everything. However, thereare situations where it may be beneficial to only partially erase or re-duce the volume of a region. This can be done using the Min Maskrotary knob, which controls the percentage of energy which remainsafter erasing. For example setting Min Mask to 50% will remove half ofthe energy from the relevant points in the spectrogram instead of eras-ing everything.

Zoom Tools

Clicking on the Area Zoom icon makes the tool active. Al-ternatively, when a Spectral View is active, using the key-board shortcut 6 will make the tool active. Left-clicking onthe spectral view will then zoom in the spectral view to aregion centred around the mouse position. Alternatively,left-clicking and dragging the mouse will then zoom in thespectral view to the region that has been selected.The alternate version of the Area Zoom tool zooms out thespectral view to a region centred around the mouse po-sition. It can be accessed by clicking on the black arrow-head in the bottom right corner of the Area Zoom icon.This launches a pop-up displaying both the Area Zoomicon and the Zoom out icon. Click on the Zoom out iconto activate it.

Alternatively, it can be accessed by using the keyboard shortcut 6 to

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make the Area Zoom tool active and then pressing A to switch to theZoom out tool.

Selection Playback

The Selection Playback slider can be used to alter the playback volumeof the selection relative to the unselected audio. The default settingfor this slider is only selection, where only the selection is audible duringplayback. The ability to change the selection volume can be usefulin certain contexts. For example, if the user wished to identify if theyhave fully removed a given note that has been selected, then settingthe slider to no selection will allow the user to hear if any residual of thenote remains. If a residual remains, then the use of options from theselection menu, such as expand or strengthen can be used to eliminatethe residual.

Selection Volume Slider

It can also be used where the user wishes to emphasise or duck theselection relative to the the other portions of audio. For example, settingthe slider to around 75% of its range will result in a mix of the track wherethe level of the selection has been boosted in the context of the rest ofthe track. Similarly setting the slider to 25% results in a mix of the trackwhere the selection has been ducked.

Freeze

The Freeze button takes any edits made to the track, including any se-lection volume changes, and creates 2 new tracks, the first containingthe edited track. The default name of this track after freeze is track. Thesecond track (default name edits) contains everything that has beenremoved from the track.

Note: It is important to note that what the user hears during playbackof the edited track is what will appear in the new track after editing. Thisincludes any Selection Volume changes.

Freeze and Reset Buttons

Reset

The reset button undoes any edits that have been made to a track andreturns it to its initial state before editing.

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24 Melody view

The Melody View is designed to be used in conjunction with the Vocalsseparation algorithm to perform guided vocal separations.The melodyview is a piano-roll like view, which displays estimates of the notes orpitches present in the audio against time. To aid navigation and pitchselection, a piano keyboard is displayed at the side of the melody view,as well as the associated octave number.

The user selects the melody line they wish to separate using the smarttools available, and once the desired melody line has been selected,a Vocal separation can then be ran to extract the selected melodyfrom the track. While the automatic vocal separation detects the mainvocal or lead melody with a high degree of accuracy, there may beoccasions where it fails to track the vocal melody properly, or the usermay wish to extract a different melodic part such as a vocal harmony orguitar lick. In these cases, performing a guided separation by markingup the melody using the melody view and its tools will give better results.The usage of these tools as well as how to preview the melody lines isdescribed below.

Application in Melody View Mode

Move Tool

Clicking on the Move icon makes the tool active. Alterna-tively, when a Melody View is active, using the keyboardshortcut 1 will make the tool active. Once the tool is ac-tive, left-clicking anywhere in the main panel and drag-ging the mouse will move the melody view in the direc-tion of the mouse movement. This allow easy navigationthrough the melody view. Zooming in on a given region inthe spectrogram can also be done by right-clicking anddragging a window.

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Free Draw Pitch Tool

Clicking on the Free Draw Pitch icon makes the tool ac-tive. Alternatively, when a Melody View is active, usingthe keyboard shortcut 2 will make the tool active. Oncethe tool is active , left-clicking and moving the mouse willdraw a melody line over the Melody view. To check if thedesired melody line has been created, the Pitch Previewbutton in the Separation/View panel should be selected.Pressing play will then result in a low-quality audio previewof the chosen melody line.

Pitch Tracker Tool

Clicking on the Pitch Tracker icon makes the tool active.Alternatively, when a Melody View is active, using the key-board shortcut 3 will make the tool active. To use the pitchtracker tool, left-click and drag the mouse over an areain the Melody View.

The Pitch Tracker tool will then identify the predomininant melody withinthe area, and create a melody line that follows it. A low-quality au-dio preview of the melody line can then be heard in the same way asmelody lines created using the Free Draw Pitch tool.

Silencer Tool

Clicking on the Silencer icon makes the tool active. Al-ternatively, when a Melody View is active, using the key-board shortcut 4 will make the tool active. Left-clickingand dragging the mouse over a region in the MelodyView will erase any melody lines within that region.

Area Zoom Tool

Clicking on the Area Zoom icon makes the tool active. Al-ternatively, when a Melody View is active, using the key-board shortcut 5 will make the tool active. Left-clicking onthe Melody View will then zoom in the Melody View to aregion centred around the mouse position. Alternatively,left-clicking and dragging the mouse will then zoom in theMelody View to the region that has been selected.

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The alternate version of the Area Zoom tool zooms out theMelody View to a region centred around the mouse po-sition. It can be accessed by clicking on the black arrow-head in the bottom right corner of the Area Zoom icon.This launches a pop-up displaying both the Area Zoomicon and the Zoom out icon. Click on the Zoom out iconto activate it.

Alternatively, it can be accessed by using the keyboard shortcut 6 tomake the Area Zoom tool active and then pressing A to switch to theZoom out tool.

Pitch Preview

Clicking on the pitch preview button in the Separation/View Panel tog-gles playback of the pitch preview. When active, a low-quality audiopreview of the selected melody line will be heard during playback. If itis not active, the audio of the track will be heard during playback.

25 Mixer View

Selecting Mixer view in the application displays the mixer in the mainpanel of the application.

Mixer View

Once an audio file has been loaded in the application, the mixerpanel then displays a master volume fader. As separations are per-formed, or additional tracks are created via spectral editing, additionalchannels will become available in the mixer.

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Mixer Channel Strip

Each track in the application has its own channel strip with a volumefader, level indicator, and pan knobs, as well as mute and solo buttons.Tracks can also be renamed by clicking on the track name and typingin the desired name. Double clicking on a volume fader will reset it to itsinitial position, as will double clicking on a pan knob.

Note that the mixer can also be displayed in an independent mixerwindow. This can be accessed by selecting the View menu and clickingon Show Mixer Window, or alternatively via a keyboard shortcut: Win-dows - ctrl+1, Mac - cmd+1.

26 Keyboard shortcuts

Transport Controls Windows MacPlay/Pause spacebar spacebarForward 1 second → →Forward 10 seconds alt+→ alt+→Forward to End ctrl+→ cmd+→Backwards 1 second ← ←Backwards 10 seconds alt+← alt+←Return to start ctrl+← cmd+←Toggle looping L L

EditUndo ctrl+Z cmd+ZRedo ctrl+shift+textbfZ cmd+shift+Z

SelectionErase delete backspaceMove to new track ctrl+shift+L cmd+shift+LDeselect ctrl+shift+A cmd+shift+A

TrackFlip Mask alt+F alt+F

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ViewShow Main Window ctrl+1 cmd+1Show Mixer Window ctrl+2 cmd+2

File ManagementOpen Project ctrl+O cmd+OOpen Audio File ctrl+shift+O cmd+shift+OSave ctrl+S cmd+SSave as ctrl+shift+S cmd+shift+SBounce Mixer Output ctrl+B cmd+BExport Current Track ctrl+E cmd+EExport All Tracks ctrl+shift+E cmd+shift+E

Spectral ViewMove tool 1 1Rectangle Select tool 2 2Wand Select tool 3 3Transient Select tool 3 3Preview Wand/Transient ctrl cmdThreshold Select tool 4 4Brush tool 5 5Area Zoom tool 6 6Next Alternate A A

Melody ViewMove tool 1 1Free Draw Pitch tool 2 2Pitch Tracker tool 3 3Area Zoom tool 4 4Next Alternate A A

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