Clips

Clips are ACE Studio's fundamental units for organizing and editing audio and MIDI content and applying specialized tools.

Overview

Clips are the basic units on a track that carry audio or MIDI content. Each clip has a title bar with a name on it, and has its body that shows the thumbnail of main content.

General Editing

In the canvas, you can edit clips or part of clips within the range of a selection. Click on the title bar of a clip to create a selection that covers the whole range of this clip; Drag out a selection to cover a part of clips that you want to edit. Then you can perform various operations on the clip, such as copying, cloning, and deleting.

Editing content

Double click on the body of a clip to open the editor, where you can edit its content.

Moving clips

After creating the selection, drag on the title bar to move the clip. If the selection only covers a part of the clip, this part will be split out while being moved.

Deleting clips

After creating a selection, you can use Delete to remove the part covered by the selection. If the selection covers an entire clip, the clip will be completely deleted; if the selection only covers part of a clip, the portion of the clip covered by the selection will be trimmed.

Adjusting length

Clips can have their length adjusted by dragging the left/right edges. You can also create a selection to delete a part of a clip.

Fades & cross-fades

When hovering the cursor on a clip, there will be 2 little squares at the top left/right corner of the clip. Drag the square horizontally to create fade in/out for the clip. Drag on the handles on the fade curve to adjust the slope.

When 2 clips are connected, dragging the square across clips will create a cross-fade.

Splitting clips

There are 2 ways to split clips:

• Split a clip at a specific position: Place the marker-line at where you would like to split, and use the split function from right-click menu.

• Split out a piece from a clip: Create a selection to cover the piece you would like to split, and use the split function from right-click menu.

Shortcut key Ctrl / ⌘Command + E .

Deactivate clips

Deactivated clips are in dark color and will not be synthesized or heard.

To deactivate a clip, you can:

• Click on the title bar of the clip, and deactivate it from right-click menu.

• Place the marker-line within a clip, and deactivate it from right-click menu.

To deactivate a piece of a clip, you can:

• Create a selection to cover the piece you would like to deactivate, and deactivate it from right-click menu.

Shortcut key 0.

Changing Colors

The color of a clip follows the color of its current track. You can assign a color for the clip from the right-click menu.

MIDI Clips

A MIDI clip can be created by double-clicking on a vocal/instrument track. You can also import MIDI, MusicXML, UFDATA files as clips.

Vocal Clips

Vocal clips contain MIDI notes, lyrics, and Vocal Control parameters.

You can create new or import MIDI files on a Vocal Track to obtain Vocal clips.

Instrument Clips

Instrument clips contain MIDI notes, articulations and Expression Controls parameters.

You can create new or import MIDI files on an Instrument Track to obtain Instrument clips.

General MIDI Clips

General MIDI clips contain MIDI notes.

You can create new or import MIDI files on an empty MIDI Track to obtain General MIDI clips.

Type conversion:

Different types of MIDI clips carry some specific types of information, such as vocal clips containing lyrics and instrument clips containing articulations. When a MIDI clip of a certain type is moved to a track of another type, this specific information will be lost.

Audio Clips

Audio Clips are imported or recorded audio files contained in an Audio Track.

Tool Clips

Tool Clip is a very special type of clip in ACE Studio that overlay on canvas.

Tool Clips appear as a yellow box, and you can place them over any content you want to process for the corresponding effect. Currently, ACE Studio includes two Tool Clips: Voice Changerand Stem Splitter.

Use tool clips

To use a Tool Clip, first select the desired tool (e.g., Voice Changer or Stem Splitter) from the main toolbar. Then, you can either:

• Drag and Drop: Click and drag the tool's icon directly onto the timeline. You can place it on an existing audio clip or on a blank track.

• Click to Place: Simply click the tool's icon, and it will be placed at the current playhead position.

Once placed, the Tool Clip is ready to be configured for its specific function.

Moving tool clips

Once a Tool Clip is on the timeline, you can easily reposition it. Click anywhere on the body of the Tool Clip (the yellow box) and drag it horizontally to a new position along the timeline. This allows you to change which section of your project the tool will process.

Deleting tool clips

To remove a Tool Clip from your project, click on the Tool Clip (the yellow box) to select it, press the Delete or Backspace key on your keyboard.

Adjusting the coverage range

Click on the Tool Clip (the yellow box) to select it, click and drag the edge to shorten or lengthen the clip's coverage area. You can also drag the square in the corner of the Tool Clip to make it cover multiple tracks.