Get started arranging regions in the Tracks area
The Tracks area is where you arrange the recordings, Apple Loops, and other musical material in your project, organizing them into sections such as intro, verse, and chorus to build an arrangement. The Tracks area shows a visual representation of time moving from left to right. You build a project by arranging regions in rows called tracks, that run horizontally across the Tracks area.
Regions are the building blocks of a project, representing your recordings, Apple Loops, and other media files you add to the project. Regions appear as rounded rectangles in the Tracks area. There are several different types of regions, depending on the track type. The two primary region types are audio regions, which show the audio waveform, and MIDI regions, which show note events as thin rectangles.
You can arrange regions in a variety of ways in the Tracks area, by moving, looping, resizing, splitting, joining, and deleting them. Try following the tasks below, using regions in the project.
Move a region
Do any of the following:
Drag a region left or right to move it to a new time position.
Drag an audio region up or down to another audio track.
Drag a MIDI region up or down to another software instrument track.
Resize a region
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Move the pointer over the lower-right edge of the region.
The pointer becomes a Resize pointer.
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Drag the edge of the region horizontally to shorten or lengthen it.
Loop a region
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Place the pointer over the upper-right edge of the region.
The pointer becomes a Loop pointer.
Drag the right edge of the region several bars to the right.
When you drag the edge of the region out by its full length, rounded corners indicate the beginning and end of each complete repetition of the region.
Split a region using the playhead
Select the region you want to split.
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Move the playhead over the point in the region where you want to split it, then choose Edit > Split.
Only the selected region is split, even if an unselected region on another track is under the playhead as well. If multiple regions are selected and are under the playhead, they are all split.
Split a region using the Scissors tool
Select the region you want to split.
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Select the Scissors tool, then click-hold the region.
The help tag shows the current split position.
Release the mouse button.
When selecting a cut point with the Scissors tool, you can move backward and forward in steps of one division. The grid is based on the Snap pop-up menu setting. For information about using Snap, see Snap items to the grid.
Delete a region
Select the region, then choose Edit > Delete (or press the Delete key).
For more information about arranging a project, see Arranging overview. For information about working in the tracks area, see Tracks area overview.