Apple MainStage 3 - Manual (Page 134)

Appendix A The Playback plug-in 134
Use the Playback Action menu and File field
The Action menu is found to the top right of the waveform display and contains the following
items:
•
Open File: Opens a dialog from which you can preview and choose a file to load into the
Playback plug-in.
•
Remove File: Removes the file currently loaded in the Playback plug-in.
•
Flex Mode: For audio files containing tempo information, you can choose one of the following
time-stretching modes:
•
Slicing is a good choice for general use, particularly for rhythmic material such as drum parts.
It works by dividing the audio material at transient markers. Each slice is played back at its
original speed.
•
Rhythmic is best suited for playing polyphonic rhythmic audio material such as rhythm
guitar or keyboard parts.
•
Speed is recommended when the concert tempo is the same as (or close to) the recorded
tempo of the audio file. It produces an effect like slowing down or speeding up a tape
recorder, without the artifacts of time stretching.
•
Polyphonic is designed for complex polyphonic audio material and is a good choice for
guitar, piano, and choir parts, or for complete mixes.
•
Start on Patch Change: Starts playback when you select the patch (or set) containing the
Playback instance.
•
Start with Play Action: Starts playback of the Playback plug-in when the MainStage clock starts.
Start with Play Action follows the current Play From setting—that is, it waits until the next
event specified in the Play From setting.
The File field, which is located to the left of the Action menu, shows the name of the currently
loaded audio file. You can load an audio file in several ways.
Load an audio file
Do one of the following:
m Click the File field to show an Open dialog, from which you can choose the file you want to load.
m Choose Open File from the Action menu to show an Open dialog, from which you can choose
the file you want to load.
m Drag an audio file to the File field.
m Drag an audio file into the waveform display.
m Drag an audio file to the Instrument slot containing the Playback plug-in.
m Drag an audio file between two channel strips. This creates a new channel strip with the Playback
plug-in inserted. The (dragged) audio file is automatically loaded into this new Playback instance.
You can drag multiple files between channel strips to create a new channel strip for each file.
Note: Using either of the first two methods, you can preview files in the dialog before adding
one to the Playback instance. To preview the selected audio file in the dialog, click the Play
button. Click the Stop button in the dialog to stop playback.