Create an arrangement

Maybe you want to use Playtime for live improvisation only, in which case the basic usage guide would end here. But chances are, you want to go further than that and turn your Playtime matrix into a proper REAPER arrangement at some point.

This is also important if you control Playtime with items or use meta clips and your goal is to include the output of Playtime in the final rendering. Unlike traditional instrument plug-ins, Playtime doesn’t participate in rendering! ^[1] Which is why you first need to turn the output into a conventional REAPER arrangement.

There are two ways of building an arrangement.

Export matrix content

You can export parts of the matrix to the arrangement directly:

1. Make a time selection (optional)

You can influence the start and length of the export on the timeline by creating a time selection on the REAPER timeline. If you don’t do that, the length will correspond to the longest exported clip.

2. Export the desired content

If you want to export all clips in the matrix, right-click the Matrix cell and choose Export matrix to arrangement.
If you want to export all clips in a particular column, right-click the corresponding Column cell and choose Export column to arrangement.
If you want to export all clips in a particular row, right-click the corresponding Row cell and choose Export row to arrangement.
If you want to export the primary clip of a slot, right-click the corresponding Slot cell and choose Export primary clip to arrangement.

Quickly export different parts of your song

Maybe you have named the matrix rows so that they represent different parts of your song, such as Verse, Chorus, Bridge and Solo. Now you want to export those parts like this:

2x Verse
1x Chorus
1x Bridge
1x Verse
1x Solo
2x Chorus

Making such an export can be done very quickly just by using keyboard keys:

Select the Verse row cell
Press key A 2 times (the shortcut for exporting the selected cell to the arrangement)
Select the Chorus row cell
Press key A 1 time
…

This works nicely because after exporting a row, Playtime automatically moves the play cursor or the complete time selection to the right.

Record and write a sequence

Another way to export an arrangement is to record a Playtime performance and write the result to the arrangement. This is done using Playtime’s built-in Matrix sequencer :

1. Start recording a new matrix sequence

Press the Record matrix sequence button in the Matrix sequencer of the Toolbar.

This will always create a new sequence and never overwrite an existing one, so you can press this anytime.

2. Perform your song within Playtime

Playtime will record all play and stop interactions with your matrix.

3. Stop recording the sequence

Press the Record matrix sequence button again to stop recording.

4. Play sequence (optional)

If you want, you can play the sequence directly within Playtime by pressing the Play/stop matrix sequence play stop matrix sequence .

5. Write the sequence to the arrangement

If you are satisfied, you can write the sequence to the REAPER tracks by pressing Write to arrangement .

The translation from clips to items

What happens in both cases is that Playtime translates its clips into REAPER items.

Ideally, the items - when played back by REAPER - should sound exactly as the clips in Playtime. If you detect deviations, please open a bug report in the Helgobox issue tracker.

The resulting items are played back by REAPER alone. Those are conventional REAPER items, there is no connection to Playtime anymore!

That also means that if you share the REAPER project file with other people, they won’t need a Playtime installation to play back the arrangement.

Deep-dive: Translation from clips to items

When translating clips to items, Playtime may set track, item or take properties.

Here are some noteworthy translations:

Free item positioning: Playtime enables free item positioning for a track as soon as it detects that some items written to the same track would overlap in time. This usually happens when two clips play at the same time on the same track. Not enabling it would lead to a hard-to-see overlap.
Time base: If the clip is configured to synchronize to the project tempo, it chooses item time base Beats (auto-stretch at tempo changes), because this reflects how Playtime itself would behave when changing the tempo. With this mode, REAPER may automatically create stretch markers.

If the clip is configured to not synchronize to the project tempo, it chooses item timebase Time (if start timing is Immediately ) or Beats (position only) (the the start timing is quantized), because those settings resemble Playtime’s clip playing behavior best.
Play rate: For audio clips, the play rate is always set to the ratio between the clip’s Tempo and the project tempo.

1. It’s possible that this will be added in the future by introducing a new mode of operation.