Tracks vs. Structure

With Synfire 3.0 we can now work on the 'Tracks' page, like in a DAW, placing clips on tracks that each hold a phrase. Whatever you do on the 'Tracks' page is immediately showing also in the 'Structure' view (you can open one from the window toolbar), and vice versa.

Adding Clips

You can add clips in many ways

1. Drawing: Draw a new empty clip with the pencil tool, ESC to switch to the pointer tool, double-click the clip to open the clip editor, and edit whatever parameters you want to be in the clip.
2. Dropping: Drop a phrase from a library. Either onto an existing clip or anywhere else to create a new clip.
3. Recording: Select the desired track and position on the time ruler and record a new clip. Or select an existing clip and replace its contents with whatever you are recording (if you want more control, record in the clip editor below).
4. Moving: Move/copy a single phrase from anywhere to create or replace a clip.

Global Parameter Clips

You may not even notice them but they exist. The Global Parameters track also shows clips, although they are smaller because that track is collapsed by default. When you add a global parameter to any clip (e.g. Harmony, Signature, Tempo), a clip with these parameters will appear here automatically. You can select and edit these clips. You can even resize them, e,g, when you want some Harmony to govern the arrangement for a little longer.

So far so easy. There are a few considerations you should keep in mind though.

Tracks First

When you build an arrangement based on tracks and clips, it won't have a meaningful structure. All clips will appear in the Structure as a flat collection of containers, each with a single phrase. The convenience of working with tracks comes at the cost of losing an easily editable narrative structure (although you can group clips into a structure after the fact, more on that later).

Structure First

When you build an arrangement on the 'Structure' page, you are thinking in terms of an unfolding listener experience from the start, by grouping multiple phrases for instruments that do something together that drives forward your musical narrative. What appears on the 'Tracks' page is proper clips on tracks, so there's no downside here.

Best of Both Worlds

Using the 'Structure' view to build a narrative and then working in the 'Tracks' view to edit the clips, combines the best of both perspectives. If you work the other way around, you may want to group the pile of clips into a structure after the fact, so you can move them around as a whole.

Structuring a Pile of Clips

Select multiple clips and do Clip >> Collect Into Container. You would preferably do that with clips that share the same global time span. Synfire creates as few containers as possible. If all clips share the same time span, only a single container is created with all of them moved inside.

In the 'Structure' view you can select one or more containers and do Container >> Consolidate. Synfire will dissolve containers that are mere wrappers around a phrase and are therefore not necessary. In short, all stuff that can be moved in to a single container is moved. Any empty containers are then purged.

Feedback Wanted

We are so used to the Structure way of thinking that we were almost unable to anticipate the potential traps one might possibly fall into when working primarily on the Tracks page and then moving to Structure back and forth (which new users coming from a DAW probably do). Therefore any feedback is much appreciated. We are confident there is room for improvements without compromising the workflow.

I am mostly going the "Best of Both Worlds" path outlined above. Start with a container structure, then edit clips in Tracks view. I can't do without moving containers around to see what happens. Almost all the results I still like best resulted from that approach - see what happens when .... It's hard to do that on the 'Tracks' page.

We will eventually make a video on this topic. It won't cover more terrain than this post but as always, seeing is believing.