Arrangement

Arrangement assets are used to create musical arrangements that are able to change and segue into different parts in a musical way.

The arrangement view is a two-dimensional grid of containers constructed by tracks on the horizontal axis and states on the vertical axis. Each container can contain one or more audio assets. One arrangement uses a basic setup of tempo, loop length in the number of bars, and the time signature meter to know the musical structure of the composition.

The music to add to the arrangement is pre-composed and exported as audio assets in any DAW of choice, and is then imported (ingested) as audio assets into the Elias project.

Arrangement Settings

An arrangement has three basic settings to know the rules of the composition. With an arrangement asset open, the arrangement tempo settings are found in the bottom right corner of the application. These settings can be changed and should follow the tempo of the composition so segues will execute in sync.

• BPM: Tempo that the arrangement should follow. Default settings do not allow mixed tempo within the arrangement.
• BARS: The length of your arrangement before looping set in the number of bars. Even if an audio file is longer the loop will occur after that last bar. This means that audio tails can be left in the render to make a clean loop each time without any baked tails. The length of the composition needs to stay the same within the arrangement.
• METER: The time signature of your arrangement. The default settings do not allow mixed time signatures within the arrangement.

NOTE: There can be issues if changing these values after adding audio assets to any slots in the arrangement, so make sure to make these settings first.

Tracks

• By default, a newly created arrangement asset will have one track ready to use. More tracks can be added by clicking the “+” button to the right of the track bar at the top.
• An arrangement has no limit to the number of tracks, but the more audio files are simultaneously playing the more impact it will have on performance. The limit will depend on what platform and environment the arrangement will run. During segues, the number of simultaneously playing audio assets could double during the crossfade.
• Right-click on the track menu to edit it:
  • Rename Track
  • Add track (before)
  • Add Track (after)
  • Delete Track
  • Change color

States

• By default, a newly created arrangement asset will have one state ready to use. More states can be added by clicking the “+” button below the last state.
• Expand/Collapse Conductor: Click on the right-pointing arrow icon at the top of the state expanders to expand the conductor. Clicking it again will collapse it. The expanded conductor displays the fields to name each state.
• An arrangement has no limit to the number of states.
• Right-click on the track menu to edit it:
  • Rename State
  • Add State (before)
  • Add State (after)
  • Delete State

Variation Slots

Variation slots are the slots in the grid constructed by tracks and states. They can contain one or more audio assets or a silent trigger.

Clicking on a Variation Slot in the top view of the Arrangement View enables the option to add more variation slots in the view below. Deciding what audio asset should play when segueing to that state is decided by the Variation Selection Strategy.

Add Audio Assets

Each slot can hold one or more audio assets. Drag and drop an audio asset from the Studio Browser to add it. Multi-select several audio assets and drop them on a slot to add more than one variation to that slot.

Audio assets can be added as variation one at a time by adding more variation slots in the variation view(??) and dragging each to an available slot.

Remove all variation from a slot by right-clicking on the slot and selecting “Delete Variation”, or right-clicking on a specific variation and selecting “Delete Variation” in the variation view to remove it.

Make silent

To make a track go silent at a specific state, right-click on the slot that should stop playing the track and select “Make Silent”. To remove the silent trigger, right-click on the slot and select “Remove Variation”.

Note that there is a state 0 (zero), even though it is not visualized in the arrangement view, it has a silent trigger on for each track. It is used if you want all tracks to go to silence and can be used in the previewer or patches by segue to state 0.

Segue

A segue is a moment when there is movement between states in one or more tracks, or within a state, but moving to another variation. In other words, it’s when one or more audio assets are fading in or out, or crossfading after getting the instruction to do so. The behavior and rules of how the segue will sound and when they are allowed to happen can be set at multiple levels and inherited downwards and overridden when needed. The parent-to-child relationship looks like this:

arrangement > segue template > track:conductor | track: audio | track:midi > slot: empty | slot:variation(s) > segment(s)

• Note that in the current version, there is only one segue template, but in a future update, the users will be able to have several templates and pick which one to choose depending on the situation.
• Note that MIDI tracks will be available in a future update, but the underlying logic and functionality are ready and in place.

An arrangement is fully functional using only the settings on the arrangement level, and it is then up to the user to decide when a specific track, slot, variation, and/or segment needs to override the parent setting and behavior. Note that not all settings are needed on all levels, so the available options will vary depending on what level the settings are made.

Segue settings

When an instruction to switch to another state has been executed, the segue settings are what decide when the segue is allowed to be performed, if it should even do a segue, and how the audio should fade.

When something is selected in the Arrangement view, its settings will be displayed in the inspector on the right side of the “track area” (eller vad vi kaller det). To override the settings on a selected object, unlock the desired field by clicking on the padlock icon for that section and then change the values in the now available field.

Agility

Decides how often a segue can occur.

• Agility - 4 different options:
  • Bar - Add agility points following bars
  • Beat - Add agility points following beats
  • Anytime - Use no agility points and will do a transition fast, but not considering the musical beat.
  • Custom - Add specific bars and beats where segues are allowed to happen.
    • Select a Bar and a Beat and click the “Add” button to add that agility point to the custom list.
• Every - Used for Agilities Bar and Beat, and decides at what bars/beats are allowed. E.g., If you selected Bar and then set Every to 2 segue is allowed to happen for every second bar.
• Note that if you use an uneven bar agility, e.g., Bar = 3, and the arrangement's length in bars is even, this creates logic that mathematically does not match, and the segues cannot be performed.
• Transition - 2 options:
  • Exact - Will react to the tempo clock and stay in complete sync with that.
  • Smart - The audio assets used for an arrangement can be analyzed by the engine to fine-tune the transitions and deviate from the tempo clock and make segues where the audio is silent. This option is often used for recordings that are not exactly locked to the grid, so a segue might start a little bit earlier or later than the tempo clock, depending on the recorded performance. E.g. that something is a bit early right before the beat and the segue happens at just that beat, an attack of a note could be heard that then just suddenly fades out.

Fade

• Fade in: Sets the length in milliseconds of the fade-in when audio files start playing, going from silence. E.g., This is used the first time the arrangement starts to play, or if a track is silent and segues to a non-empty slot.
• Fade Out: Sets the length in milliseconds of the fade out when audio files stop playing and go to silence. E.g., This is used when a track is playing something and then segues to silence. Note that this is not used when stopping an arrangement since that destroys the instance and instantly stops the sounds playing. To make a smoother stop, it is suggested to do some kind of segue to silence, let it finish, and then stop the arrangement.
• Crossfade:  Sets the length in milliseconds of a fade during a segue when a track moves from playing one audio file to another.
• Shift (for each fade type): The fade settings can each have a shift setting that decides if the Fade should start at the agility point, be done at the agility point, or somewhere in between.
  • E.g., Set Shift to -1 to let the fade be done at the agility point, 0 if the fade should be exactly midway through the fade at the agility point, or 1 if the fade should start at the agility point.

Selection Strategy: State:

During a segue when moving to a state where a track has an empty slot, the behavior of what this track will play is decided from this setting. If segueing to an empty slot, the options are:

• Closest Above (Numerically) - This will play what is closest available to play above the selected state.
• Closest Below (Numerically) - This will play what is closest available to play below the selected state.
• Closest to Target - If there are several empty slots between two states, the closest non-empty slot will be selected.
• Least Possible Change - If the track is already playing something, it will keep playing what it is already playing. If the track is not playing anything, it will not start playing anything.
• Exact - This will only play something if a slot is populated by an audio file. If the slot is empty, that track will play nothing. If a track was playing before going to the state with the empty slot, it will use the fade-out settings and become silent.

Selection Strategy: Variation

If segueing to a slot that has two or more variations, these are the settings that control that behavior and decide what to play.

• Variation order (Selection Strategy: Variation dropdown menu):
  • Random - Will randomly pick one of the available variations.
  • Sequential - Will play the variations in order and always start with the first in the list. Next time the state is played, the second variation will be picked, and so on. After all variations have been cycled through, it will start with the first one again and go through the list again.
  • Shuffle - Will also randomly pick one of the available variations, but will not repeat any of the variations until they all have been picked. After cycling through all variations, the list will be scrambled again, and the variations will be picked in a new order. Note that if the arrangement instance has been destroyed and then created again, the shuffle tracker has been cleared, and they are not aware of what files had played in the previous life cycle, so a variation could be repeated again.
• On Loop - If playing a slot that has more than one variation, this option is used to decide what will happen when the arrangement loops:
  • Repeat - When reaching the loop point, this option will repeat the same variation again during the next loop.
  • Reactivate - When reaching the loop point, this option will pick another variation based on the Variation order settings and segue to another variation when starting the next loop cycle.

Default settings for an Arrangement

• Agility
  • Agility: Bar
  • Every: 1
  • Transition: Exact
• Fade
  • Fade in: 1000ms
    • Shift: 0
  • Fade Out: 2000ms
    • Shift: 0
  • Crossfade: 100ms
    • Shift: 0
• Selection Strategy: State: Least Possible Change
• Selection Strategy: Variation: On Loop

Timeline

• The timeline is located in the bottom right section of the arrangement view and shows the length of the loop in the number of bars it has. Each variation is displayed along the timeline and will either fill the whole loop or only some parts of the loop.
• Agility points where the currently selected variation can perform a segue are visually represented in the timeline.

Zoom (Currently disabled feature)

• Zoom horizontally in the timeline by using the zoom slider in the bottom left corner in the timeline view, or hover the timeline and use the mouse wheel(??).
• This is useful when an arrangement has many bars or when creating segments, and the user needs a clear view of the bars and beats.

Bar highlight colors (Currently disabled feature)

• Depending on the arrangement's composition and structure, it can be useful to visually group one or more bars in certain increments.
• Select the number of bars each grey-toned section should contain in the bottom right corner of the timeline.

Segments

• A variation loop is constructed by one or more segments.
• A segment can be as short as one beat and as long as the loop.
• A segment does not represent the length of the audio file; rather, it represents a space of the timeline where the audio file should start playing from and up until the point where the next segment can be added. The Audio file will always play until it has stopped or if a segue is performed and the variation fades out.
• If there is a reverb tail at the end of the audio file, do not include it in the segment.
  • E.g.: You have a 2-bar long drum loop with reverb, and you want it to repeat every second bar; render out the drum loop with the whole reverb tail. When adding the drum loop as a segment, set it to 2 bars and repeat it, and the audio files will overlap, and you won’t need to worry about audio being cut, but always start at the beat points.
• Drag and drop an audio asset to the timeline. Note that if the length of the audio asset is shorter than the loop, it will be as long as the audio file. If the length of the audio asset is longer than the loop, it will fill the whole loop, but will not stop playing the audio file when reaching the loop point, but instead will play it until it is finished.
  • In the case where a segment fills the whole loop from the first beat in the first bar and if the audio asset is longer than the loop, when reaching the loop point the file will play until it is finished but at the same time start playing it again at the first beat in the first bar, and they will overlap. This is what makes it possible to keep the reverb tail at the end and let it mix with the new start of the loop.
• Right-click on the segment to:
  • Delete Segment.
  • Edit Segment, to set the segment start point and length:
    • Start: Bar - What the segment should play from.
    • Start: Beat - Decides at what beat in the bar the segment should start.
    • Length - The total length of the segment, set in beats.