Create clips

Playtime is all about clips, small snippets of audio or MIDI that you can freely play together with other clips to compose a larger musical piece.

Before we can play a clip, we need to create one. Let’s do this!

1. Create a column

At first, we need to make some space for the clip within the Matrix. Press the Add column add column button on the right of Matrix settings settings to add a new Column.

You should then see a new column named "Column 1" with empty slots that can take our new clip.

Column track

This didn’t just create a new column, it also created a new REAPER track with the same name, the so-called Column track. Playtime will play clips within this column through that track.
Exactly as in REAPER, Playtime columns don’t have a type. They can always play both, audio and MIDI clips. The Track input type indicator input type indicator looks a bit as if the column would have a special type, but it really just reflects the input currently selected for recording clips.
Alternatives
Use matrix templates

Instead of creating the column manually, you could also have started with a template by pressing Mixed mixed template button in the Template panel, for example.

Import existing tracks

Maybe you have existing tracks already that you want to use as column tracks. In that case, select them, right-click Matrix settings settings and choose Insert column for each selected track.

2. Create a clip

There are many ways to create a new clip. Let’s explore the most common ones.

Import an existing audio or MIDI file

Maybe you have an existing audio or MIDI file somewhere on your computer. Simply drag it from your favorite file manager or from REAPER’s media explorer onto one of the empty slots! See Slot drag-and-drop support for details.

Alternatives
Use file picker

You can pick the file using Playtime’s own file picker by right-clicking an empty slot and pressing Import file(s)…​.

Import an existing REAPER item

Maybe you have an existing item on a REAPER track that you want to turn into a Playtime clip.

  1. Select the item

  2. Right-click an empty slot and choose Import selected item into slot

This does more than just importing the audio file or MIDI data from the item: It also translates many of the item’s properties, such as the item cut and pitch, to Playtime clip properties.

Create an empty MIDI clip

If you want to start entering MIDI notes from scratch, simply double-click the slot. This will create an empty MIDI clip with the length of 1 bar.

Record a clip

Playtime offers plenty of ways to record clips directly. The most common one is to record a Loop of rhythmic material while Playtime is playing.

In this example, we are going to record an audio loop to a click:

1. Start playback

Start playback in Playtime by pressing the Start/stop playback start stop playback button in the transport section of the toolbar or simply by pressing the Space key. The Visual metronome visual metronome in the middle of the Playtime text logo should start running.

2. Turn on metronome

Turn on the metronome by pressing the Metronome metronome button in the tempo section of the toolbar. You should now hear the metronome clicking.

3. Choose track input

Press Track input input in the track panel below the column in order to choose the audio input channel(s) from which you want to record.

If you don’t see the input section, increase the height of the track panel a bit by grabbing the resize handle above the track panels and dragging it up.

4. Arm track

Press the round Arm track arm button. It should turn red and record buttons should appear in all empty slots of that column.

If you record from a microphone and don’t wear a headphone, you probably should turn off input monitoring by pressing Input monitoring off input monitoring off. Otherwise, you might hear loud feedback.

5. Get ready

At this point, you can try making some noise. Do you see something in the meter? Good! Now, get ready for recording!

6. Start recording

Shortly after the start of a bar, press the Record clip record button in an empty slot. You should see a count-down which will reach zero exactly when the next bar starts. The record button will turn red and Playtime will record whatever you play.

7. Stop recording

Press the red Record clip record button again to indicate that you want to stop recording. The button will start to blink and turn into a play button as soon as the next bar starts. Playtime will play back your recording repeatedly.

8. Be happy

Congratulations, you have recorded your first Loop. If you didn’t get the timing right, don’t worry. After some attempts, you will get the hang of it. Plus, Playtime offers quite a few ways to make recording clips less stressful.

Variations

There are many variations of above recording procedure. Let’s look at a few aspects that you can do differently:

Record MIDI instead of audio

If you want to record MIDI, choose a MIDI device in step 3. Choose track input. You probably also want to put an instrument on the FX chain of the Column track by pressing the FX chain fx chain button, or route the track to an external MIDI synthesizer by pressing the Track routing routing button.

Record a one-shot instead of a loop

If you want to record material that should play just once without being repeated, open the Matrix recording settings and uncheck the Looped checkbox. If you do that, the recorded material will not immediately be played back after recording.

Stop recording automatically

Find it too stressful having to press the stop button while you are playing? Often we know in advance how many beats or bars we want to record. You can tell Playtime by opening the Matrix recording settings, enabling Limit recording length and choosing the desired Length. After that, Playtime will stop clip recordings automatically.

Wait longer until the recording starts

Find it too stressful having to grab your instrument within the short time period after pressing the record button? One way to get more time is to adjust the Clip start timing. For example, you could set Start timing to 4 bars instead of just 1 bar. Or you do it just for one specific column.

However, this approach has downsides. It will also have an effect on playing clips. Plus, you might have to wait quite long to get your turn. The next variation might suit you better.

Record in stopped state with count-in

There’s another way to give you more time to prepare. So far we have always recorded while Playtime was already playing, but we can also start recording while it’s still stopped. That gives us the possibility of an arbitrarily long count-in phase. See Count-in recording.

Record via foot switch

One more way to give you more time is to start recording with your foot instead of your hand. For this, Playtime offers the possibility to start recording clips via MIDI. In addition, it offers the convenient Smart record smart record toolbar button, which makes it possible to use just one button - or foot switch - to record into the next non-occupied slot.

  1. Press the Show/hide MIDI triggers show hide midi triggers button in the toolbar. This should reveal a small MIDI trigger area on the right sight of the Smart record smart record button.

  2. Press that MIDI trigger area. It should turn red.

  3. Press the MIDI foot switch connected to your MIDI keyboard. Playtime should pick it up. If not, see Troubleshooting.

  4. Press the MIDI foot switch to start recording.

  5. Press it again to stop recording.

    You can hide the MIDI trigger areas at any time by pressing the Show/hide MIDI triggers show hide midi triggers button again. They will remain active!
Record with tempo detection and without click

All the approaches that we have talked about so far require a metronome or another clip to provide a rhythmical reference. However, imagine you want to do a looper-style live improvisation, without metronome. In that case, you can do a Tempo detection recording.

Record non-rhythmic material

Playtime suites itself very much for rhythmic material. But what if you want to record something that’s tempo-independent? In that case, you probably want two things:

  • Recording should start immediately, no need to wait until the next bar.

  • Playtime shouldn’t time-stretch your clip later on when changing the project playback tempo.

You can simply achieve that by setting the Start timing in the Matrix playback settings to Immediately immediately. If you want to use this behavior just for a specific column, you can override this setting on column level instead!

MIDI overdub

Maybe you already have a MIDI clip and want to slowly add some notes by playing them on your keyboard:

  1. Select the desired (looped) MIDI clip by clicking the Slot content content area.

  2. In the Clip inspector on the right side, press the Overdub overdub button. The clip should start playing repeatedly.

  3. Play some MIDI notes on your music keyboard. They will be recorded into the playing clip. You will hear them on the next repetition.

  4. When you are done, press the same button again.

Many of the above aspects can be combined, which gives you a maximum of flexibility.