Creating New Tracks in Your Session

One of the ways to create new tracks is by either:

• Clicking the plus button
• Using the shortcuts: Option + Command + A and Option + Command + S

You previously saw me drag a loop onto an audio track. Now, I'm going to show you how to utilize dragging and dropping within your sessions effectively.

Dragging and Dropping Loops

If I come in here and pick up some chords, I can simply grab that. As you can see at the bottom, it says:

"Drag Apple Loops here to create tracks."

So I can do that very easily by just grabbing and dragging. This action will create a new track for me with the track icon and all of that kind of stuff.

Creating Instrument Tracks

In the track header area, there's another prompt:

"Drag Apple Loops here to create instrument tracks."

What I can do is:

1. Remove what I had before.
2. Grab this loop, and you'll notice the behavior is slightly different.
3. This allows me to create different types of tracks, such as:
   • Sampler tracks
   • Drum Machine Designer tracks
   • Alchemy tracks

Example: QuickSampler Original

For instance, if I go to QuickSampler Original, you can see that this will create a track for me and bring up the sampler, which we will dive into a little later on.

Importing External Audio

I can also create a new audio track by dragging in external audio from my hard drive. Here's how:

1. Open up the file browser by pressing F.
2. Quickly audition files in the same way as I would with Apple Loops.

For example, if I find an audio file I like, I can grab it and drag it straight in. This creates an audio track for me automatically as well. It's important to note that it's not just Apple Loops you can do this with; you can also use external audio tracks that you've downloaded, such as sound packs or sample packs.

Staying Organized in Your Production Session

Once we have our tracks in place, I emphasize the importance of staying organized during production. Here's how:

1. Reordering Tracks:

   • To see my bass underneath my drums and place my percussion in between, I can quickly:
     • Click, drag, hold, and slide up.
     • Click, drag, hold, and slide up again.

   Now, my new order is: Drums > Percussion > Bass > Guitar.

2. Coloring Tracks:

   • I like to see my drums in red.
   • To do this:
     • Select all the regions by clicking and dragging.
     • Bring up the color palette by pressing Option + C.
     • Change my drums to red.
     • Set my percussion to a different shade of red.
     • Change my bass to a brownish color.
     • Set my guitars to an electric blue.

That's how I effectively work with reordering and coloring tracks in my sessions!