Workspace layouts

The multitrack workspace has five places: Sequencer, Piano roll, Instrument, Effects and Mixer. They sit in the places bar as icons with labels when space allows and answer to the number keys 1 to 5. How those places are shown is the layout, chosen in the View menu: a single scrolling page or a sequencer above one changeable panel. Both remember themselves in this browser.

When to use it

Rack suits a tablet or a long scroll with a finger, and keeps the song, the selected track and its controls in one stable relationship. Split suits a laptop where you want the timeline always in view and one tool below it. Switching costs nothing, so try both on a real session.

Controls

Rack

The default. One page in signal order: sequencer, piano roll, instrument, effects, then the full mixer with Master last. A place tab scrolls to its section and the bar highlights the section at the top of the view as you scroll. Selecting a mixer strip chooses whose instrument and effects the page shows, without moving the mixer under your pointer.

Split

The sequencer keeps the top; the lower panel shows the chosen place. The panel takes the height its content needs, up to a cap you set with the divider, and the sequencer keeps the rest. Double-click the divider for the largest panel and back; Up and Down nudge it, Home restores the default. Choosing Sequencer hides the panel. In Split, the Effects place gives the rack the full width; choose Mixer to see the track strips. The transport is the page footer and the page never scrolls.

Customize rack

View → Customize rack… reorders the Rack sections by dragging, with the up and down buttons, or with the arrow keys on a focused handle. The same dialog sets where the transport lives: Float at bottom, Float at top or In the rack, where it becomes one more section you can place. The places bar and the number keys follow the order you choose. Apply keeps the draft, Cancel discards it, Reset restores the original order with the transport floating at the bottom. Open editors and panels stay mounted while you reorder, so a playing song continues.

Unavailable places

Instrument needs an instrument track. Piano roll opens the selected MIDI clip, or, with an instrument track selected and no clip, that track’s Keyboard view. Their tabs keep their position and light up when a suitable track or clip is selected. Opening a MIDI clip shows the piano roll in Split and scrolls to it in Rack.

Tips

• Below 1280 px wide the places keep their icons and hide their labels. Hover or focus a place to see its name and number-key shortcut; below 1100 px the master fader leaves the transport group so the places still fit a tablet.
• The piano roll’s expand button gives you the same full editor in either layout; restoring returns to the inline editor in Rack or the sized panel in Split.
• Split keeps its own fixed navigation order; Customize rack changes the next Rack view only.