16 Glossary
Dawesome's words, and what other DAWs call the same thing. The comparisons are approximate: other DAWs' features don't always work the same way.
16-1 Arranging
| Dawesome | Meaning | Elsewhere |
|---|---|---|
| Playlist | The tab where you lay clips out on tracks against time to build the song. | Arrangement view (Ableton Live), Playlist (FL Studio), Tracks area (Logic Pro), Edit window (Pro Tools) |
| Track | A horizontal lane in the playlist. Each track has its own mixer strip. | Track |
| Clip | One block on the playlist. A sample clip plays an audio file; a pattern clip plays a pattern. A clip can play part of its sample or pattern (trimmed), and has its own Gain, Pan, Pitch, Attack and Decay. | Clip (Ableton, FL Studio), region (Logic Pro), clip/region (Pro Tools), event (Cubase) |
| Sample | An audio file. | Sample, audio file |
| Take | One recording, saved as a WAV file in the project's recordings/ folder. | Take |
| Select tool (S) | The playlist's normal mouse tool: select, move and trim clips. | Pointer tool |
| Cut tool (C) | Click a clip to split it in two at that point. Not the same as Cut (⌘X), which cuts to the clipboard. | Scissors tool (Logic Pro), Slice tool (FL Studio), Split (Ableton Live) |
| Split at playhead | Splits the clip at the playhead, from the clip menu. | Split at playhead (Logic Pro), Split (Ableton Live) |
| Repeat (⌘R) | Places a copy of the selected clips straight after them, keeping their gaps. | Duplicate (Ableton Live), Repeat (Logic Pro), Duplicate (Pro Tools) |
| Join (Shift+J) | Makes one clip of several on a track. Pieces of one sample that are still where a cut left them are put back together; other sample clips are written into one new file. Pattern clips become one new pattern. | Consolidate (Ableton Live, Pro Tools), Join Regions (Logic Pro) |
| Deep copy | Writes a clip out as a new audio file, with its trim, gain, pan, pitch, attack and decay applied, and switches the clip to it. The track's mixer strip and effects are not applied. | ≈ Make unique as sample (FL Studio), Bounce in Place (Logic Pro), Consolidate (Ableton Live) |
| Explode into tracks (Shift+E) | Splits a pattern clip into one clip per row it plays, sample or synth, each on a track of its own, so each row gets its own mixer strip. | ≈ Split by channel (FL Studio) |
| Snap | Makes moved, trimmed and cut clips land on the grid. The grid size is set beside the snap button (1 bar to 1/4 beat). Hold Option (Alt) while dragging an edge to ignore it. | Snap to grid, grid quantize |
| Lasso | A box drawn with Shift-drag to select clips or notes. | Marquee, rubber band |
16-2 Patterns and notes
| Dawesome | Meaning | Elsewhere |
|---|---|---|
| Pattern | A loop of notes for every row, 1 to 128 bars long, made in the Pattern Sequencer or Piano Roll, placed in the playlist as pattern clips. A clip longer than its pattern loops it. | Pattern (FL Studio), MIDI clip (Ableton Live), MIDI region (Logic Pro) |
| Pattern Sequencer | The tab with every row, and its 16th-note steps (or a picture of its notes) in the selected pattern. | Channel rack / step sequencer (FL Studio), Step Sequencer (Logic Pro) |
| Row | One instrument in the Pattern Sequencer: a sample row or a synth row. Rows are shared by every pattern; each pattern holds its own notes for each row. | Channel (FL Studio's Channel rack), row (Logic Pro's Step Sequencer) |
| Sample row | A row that plays an audio file, repitched for each note against its sample pitch. | Sampler channel (FL Studio), Simpler (Ableton Live) |
| Synth row | A row that plays a VST3 instrument plugin. | Generator channel (FL Studio), software instrument track |
| Step | A 16th note in the Pattern Sequencer's grid. A lit step is a one-step note at the row's step pitch. | Step |
| Step pitch | The note a row's clicked steps play. C4 for a new row. | ≈ Root note (FL Studio) |
| Sample pitch | The note that plays a sample row's sample as recorded. Higher notes play it faster and higher, lower ones slower and lower. C4 for a new row. | Root note (FL Studio), root key (Logic Pro Sampler) |
| One-shot | A sample row that plays the whole sample for every note, however short the note. The default. | One shot (Ableton Live Simpler) |
| Gated | A sample row that stops the sample at each note's end. | Gate (Ableton Live Simpler) |
| Note preview | A picture of a row's notes, shown in the Pattern Sequencer instead of steps when the notes aren't plain steps. Click it to open the Piano Roll. | The Channel rack's piano roll preview (FL Studio) |
| Floor | The length a pattern's Bars counter set, or the length it was made at (+, the Draw tool, Join). Auto-trim never makes the pattern shorter than its floor. | — |
| Auto-trim | A pattern shortening on its own when a clear empties its last bars, down to its floor. | — |
| Piano Roll | One row's notes in a pattern on a grid, against a piano keyboard, with the other rows' notes faintly behind. | Piano roll, MIDI editor |
16-3 Recording
| Dawesome | Meaning | Elsewhere |
|---|---|---|
| Arm | The R button on a track's mixer strip. Armed tracks record when you press Record. | Record enable, record arm |
| Count in | Plays one bar before recording starts. | Count-in, pre-roll |
| Recording offset | How much earlier takes are placed than the devices' reported latency says, set on the Audio tab. | Recording delay (Logic Pro), latency compensation |
| Transport | The tab with a cassette deck and its play, pause, stop and wind keys. The top bar has the main transport buttons too. | Transport |
16-4 Mixing
| Dawesome | Meaning | Elsewhere |
|---|---|---|
| Mixer | The tab with every track's strip and the master. | Mixer, console |
| Channel / strip | One track's column in the mixer: fader, pan, mute, solo, meter, arm. | Channel strip, mixer track, insert (FL Studio) |
| Master | The strip every track feeds. | Master bus, stereo out |
| Effects Rack | One channel's effects, listed in the order the sound passes through them. | Device chain (Ableton Live), insert slots (Logic Pro, Pro Tools), mixer effect slots (FL Studio). Not the same as an Ableton "Rack". |
| FX jack | The jack at the foot of a mixer strip. Shows how many effects the channel has, and opens its Effects Rack. | Insert section |
| Instrument | A plugin that plays notes: a synth row's. | Software instrument, VSTi |
| Effect | A plugin that changes sound passing through it. | Insert effect, plugin |
| Bypass | Switching an effect off without removing it. | Bypass |
| Mixdown | File ▸ Mixdown…: the whole song, as heard, to a WAV or MP3 file. | Export (Ableton Live, FL Studio), Bounce (Logic Pro, Pro Tools), Export Audio Mixdown (Cubase) |
16-5 The window
| Dawesome | Meaning | Elsewhere |
|---|---|---|
| Tab / pane | Each view (Playlist, Mixer, Pattern Sequencer…) opens as a tab. Tabs sit in panes, which can be split side by side or stacked. | Windows, views |
| Sidebar | The browsers on the left: Samples, Patterns, Recordings, Clips, Effects and Instruments. | Browser |
| Sample tab | Shows one clip and how it plays: Gain, Pan, Pitch, Attack, Decay. Double-click a clip to open it. | Clip view (Ableton Live), region inspector (Logic Pro) |
| Project folder | The folder a project is saved in, holding the .dawesome file, recordings/ and clips/. | Project folder |