Quickstart Guide

To get started, open a new project and open or create a new Edit. Right-click in the Levels area (near the right-hand side) of a track | Add New Plugin | VST3 --> Band-in-a-Box DAW VST3 Plugin. (Note: The Band-in-a-Box plugin DAW VST3 plugin should be recognized automatically, but if necessary, go to the Settings tab | Plugins | Scanning and Sorting | Check for new or updated VST3 Plugins.)

In the bottom area of the screen there should now be a Band-in-a-Box DAW VST3 Plugin label - click Load underneath that. Select a style and type in some chords or open an existing Band-in-a-Box song, and then click Generate. When complete, drag the tracks onto the Tracktion tracks window by clicking and dragging the blue (all tracks) or green (single track) boxes into the Tracks area. You may be asked if you want to copy audio files into the Project folder. You should normally answer "Make Copy", since otherwise the source audio files will remain only in the Band-in-a-Box folder.

Note: drag the tracks onto a different track than you have the Band-in-a-Box DAW plugin loaded on. E.G. if you have the DAW Plugin on track 1, drag to track 2. To bring the plugin back to the front of the screen, click the red-highlighted area on the right-hand side of the track that you added it to.

Contents

• Installation
• Tips & Tricks
  • Applying Effects to Clips
  • Editing Clips in Tracktion
  • Vertical and Horizontal Auto-Zoom
• Support
  • How Do I Create Or Open a Project?
  • Where Is the Mixer in Tracktion?
  • I Can't Find My RealTracks, RealDrums, or RealStyles
• External Resources

Installation

1. Run the Band-in-a-Box^® Plugin installer
2. The plugin should be automatically detected when you start Tracktion
3. If it's not, make sure the plugin is located in the directory listed above and restart the program
4. If it still doesn't show up, go to Settings tab > Plugins > Scanning and Sorting > Scan for new or updated VST3 Plugins
5. Right click on the VU meter of a track and click on Add new plugin > VST3 > Band-in-a-Box^® DAW VST3 Plugin

Tips & Tricks

Applying Effects to Clips

When you hover over a clip in Tracktion, you will see a bar appear at the top with several icons. These allow you to do things like adjust the start and end points of the clip, loop the clip, etc. One of these icons is the FX icon, which allows you to add various effects to a clip. Click on the effects button and go to Add Effect and you will see several options, such as normalise, Fade in/Fade Out, Step Volume, and Reverse. Remember that enabling any of these will apply the effect to the clip, not the entire track. Once it's added, you will see the effect displayed in the bottom right of the clip when you hover over it. For example, I would see the text 1. Normalise after applying that effect. If you hover over that text, you will see more icons. The plus button allows you to add an additional effect, and the minus button allows you to remove the effect. The cog allows you to modify the effect.

Editing Clips in Tracktion

If you click on a clip in Tracktion, you will see several options appear in the Properties Panel (bottom center of the screen). You can adjust things like the start, length, end, offset, gain, pan, fade in, fade out, speed, and pitch of the clip.

Vertical and Horizontal Auto-Zoom

This is a great feature if you want to quickly zoom to a level that fills the whole screen with your tracks and project length. Simply click on the 'Z' in the bottom right of the tracks window on the vertical or horizontal axis. The 'Z' on the horizontal axis will zoom your project to include the full project length, while the Z on the veritcal access will fill the screen with the tracks that you are using.

Support

How Do I Create Or Open a Project?

There are two levels of files in Tracktion, projects and edits. Within one project you can have several edits, which are each separate sessions. You can think of the project as an album and the edits as songs. Or you could think of the project as a film score and the edits are different movements in that score. So when you create a new project via the New Project button in the bottom left of the Projects tab, you must either double-click on Edit 1 under edits or on the Create a New Edit button. When you go to Open Project, the same logic applies.

Where Is the Mixer in Tracktion?

Tracktion doesn't have a traditional mixer. Instead, you can view VU levels on the right side of the main screen. The way this works is actually very intuitive, because you can control the signal path for all of the items in the mixer. When you add a new plugin, you can drag it to any location in the chain. For example, you could load an FX plugin before the VU meter. Now hold the CTRL key and drag from the VU meter to before the FX plugin to create a second VU meter. This way you could monitor your levels before and after the FX plugin.

I Can't Find My RealTracks, RealDrums, or RealStyles

From the Band-in-a-Box^® plugin, go to File > Preferences and select the correct directories for your Band-in-a-Box^® installation, your RealTracks folder, and your RealDrums folder. The default locations are listed for your convenience. You can either type them in or browse to them with the Select buttons.

External Resources

Tracktion Zendesk

The Tracktion Zendesk is a great place to look if you have a specific question about the program. Just enter it in the search box!

List of Free Tracktion Resources (KVR Audio Forum Post)

This forum post includes a bunch of YouTube tutorial videos as well as links to free tracks, free VSTs, etc.

Official Tracktion Tutorial Videos

Check out these official Tracktion tutorial videos for more help with Tracktion. There are also some free demo songs available here.