Recording Takes & Comping

When you loop-record over a section, MAGDA keeps every pass as a separate take instead of overwriting the previous one. You can then comp the takes together, swiping in the best part of each to build a single composite performance. This works for both audio and MIDI clips.

Recording takes

1. Set the loop region over the part you want to record (see Transport).
2. Enable Loop in the transport bar.
3. Arm the track and record.

Each pass around the loop is captured as its own take. Nothing is lost between passes, so you can keep playing until you have a take you like.

A live Recording... preview is drawn over the timeline as you record, showing the incoming waveform (audio) or notes (MIDI) growing under the playhead so you can see what was captured before recording stops.

Capturing what you just heard

MAGDA can keep the last few minutes of what you play, so an idea you played without recording is not lost. Click the MEM meter in the transport bar to turn it on; it stays on until you click it again. While it is on, it keeps the master output and the notes you play on MIDI devices, whether or not the transport is running.

The MEM meter in the transport bar shows it: the level of what is held, with what you just played drawn bright, how long that is, and how full the buffer is.

Click the capture button beside it (Cmd+Shift+C, or Transport > Recent Capture) to open the capture panel under the transport. It shows the audio and the notes over the whole buffer, oldest at the left, with what you just played already selected:

• With the transport stopped, that is your last phrase, back to a pause of a few seconds, with a second of tail for the release.
• Along with the transport, it is the last bars of that pass. A stop or a loop wrap ends a pass.

Drag across the lanes to select something else (double-click goes back), then press Import Audio to put the master audio on a new Capture Audio track, or Import MIDI to put the notes on a new Capture MIDI track. Notes from several MIDI devices go on a track each, named after the device. A stretch the transport played lands at the bars where you heard it; anything else lands at the playhead. The click is never included.

The MEM dot is lit while it is capturing. Preferences > Engine has the same switch, and Capture Buffer sets how much is kept: 5 minutes by default, up to 30, with what each length costs in memory. Capture Length caps what is selected for you, 8 bars by default.

Selecting a take

Select the recorded clip and open the Inspector. The Takes section lists the captured passes:

• The take selector reads Take N / M — choose which take plays back.
• Expand take lanes / Collapse take lanes toggles the stacked take view in the editor.
• Clear Comp removes the comp and returns to a single selected take (shown only while a comp is active).

When a comp is assembled, the selector reads Comp instead of a take number.

Comping audio

Expand the take lanes on an audio clip to open the Waveform Editor take view. Each take is drawn as a stacked lane labelled Take 1, Take 2, and so on, with the active take marked by an accent bar down its side.

To build a comp, swipe horizontally across a take lane over the range you want from that take. The swiped region is added to the comp and shaded in the clip colour; swipe a different range on another lane to pull that section from a different take. MAGDA renders the selected regions into a single composite clip as you go.

Comping MIDI

MIDI clips comp the same way. In the Piano Roll, click Show take lanes in the editor header to reveal the folded take strip below the grid. Each take gets its own mini-roll, and all lanes share a single folded pitch axis (the union of every take's pitches) so notes line up across takes on the same beats.

• Click a lane to bring that take to the front as the active take.
• Swipe across a lane over a beat range to assign that range of the comp to that take.
• Right-click a lane to clear the comp.

As with audio, the result is a single MIDI clip assembled from the chosen regions.