Arrangement View¶

The Arrangement View is a traditional DAW timeline for composing, recording, and editing. Switch to it by clicking Arrange in the footer bar.

Arrangement View

Layout¶

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Timeline ruler (bars / beats / time)        │
├──────────┬──────────────────────────────────┤
│ Track    │                                  │
│ Headers  │   Track Content (clips on        │
│          │   the timeline)                  │
│  Name    │                                  │
│  Color   │         ▼ Playhead               │
│  M S R   │                                  │
├──────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ Aux      │   Aux track content              │
├──────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ Master   │   Master waveform                │
└──────────┴──────────────────────────────────┘

Track headers (left) — Track name, color, mute/solo controls. Resizable width.
Track content (center) — Clips displayed on the timeline. Scrollable horizontally and vertically.
Timeline ruler (top) — Shows bars, beats, and time markers.
Playhead — Vertical line showing the current playback position, always on top.
Aux tracks — Auxiliary/bus tracks in a fixed section above the master.
Master track (bottom) — Master output with its own resizable row.

The corner toolbar provides quick access to:

Zoom to fit / Zoom to selection / Zoom to loop
Track size presets (small, medium, large)
Add track
I/O visibility toggle

Working with Clips¶

Move — Click and drag a clip along the timeline or between tracks
Resize — Drag the edges of a clip to trim it
Select — Click a clip to select it; Ctrl+A (Cmd+A) to select all
Delete — Select a clip and press Del or Backspace
Duplicate — Ctrl+D (Cmd+D) to duplicate selected clips

Drag audio files from the Media Explorer directly onto a track to import them as clips.

Multi-Sample Drag and Drop¶

You can drag several samples out of the Media Explorer at once — Shift-click to extend the selection, Cmd-click (Ctrl-click on Windows/Linux) to toggle individual files, then drag any item in the selection.

Drop on empty area — one new track is created per sample. While dragging, ghost track-header previews appear in the correct palette colours each new track will take.
Drop on an existing track — the samples are appended as sequential clips on that track, in selection order.

Ghost clips shown under the cursor during the drag reflect each sample's actual audio duration, so you can align the drop with the grid before releasing.

Scrolling¶

Horizontal scroll — Move along the timeline (mouse wheel or scroll gesture)
Vertical scroll — Navigate between tracks

Zooming¶

Horizontal zoom — Ctrl++ / Ctrl+- (Cmd++ / Cmd+- on macOS) or use the zoom scrollbar
Vertical zoom — Change track height using the toolbar presets (small, medium, large)

Zoom to fit — Fit all content in the visible area
Zoom to selection — Zoom into the current time selection
Zoom to loop — Zoom to the loop region

Selection¶

Time selection — Click and drag on the timeline ruler to select a time range
Loop region — Displayed as an overlay on the timeline; set from selection with Ctrl+Shift+L (Cmd+Shift+L)

Playhead¶

The playhead shows the current playback position. Click on the timeline ruler to reposition it. Press Home to return to the start.

Edit Cursor

The edit cursor is a white blinking line separate from the playhead. Place it with Alt+click on the timeline ruler or inside a clip. It marks the position for operations like Split (Cmd+E). Press Esc to hide it. The MIDI editor has its own independent edit cursor — placing one in the piano roll or drum grid does not affect the arrangement cursor.

Editing Modes¶

MAGDA supports two editing modes depending on context:

Clip-Based Editing¶

When no time selection is active, editing operations apply to selected clips:

Split (Cmd+E) — Splits selected clips at the edit cursor position
Render (Cmd+B) — Renders selected clips to audio in place
Cut / Copy / Paste / Duplicate / Delete — Operate on the selected clips

Time Selection Editing¶

When a time selection is active (drag on the timeline ruler), operations apply to the time range:

Split / Trim (Cmd+E) — Splits clips at the selection boundaries and isolates the selected region. If clips extend beyond the selection, they are trimmed.
Render Time Selection (Cmd+Shift+B) — Consolidates everything within the time selection to a single audio clip per track
Cut / Copy / Paste — Operate on the content within the time range

Note

When a time selection exists, Split/Trim affects all clips that overlap the selection — not just selected clips. Clear the time selection to return to clip-based editing.

Editing¶

Cut, Copy, Paste¶

Action	Shortcut
Cut	`Ctrl`+`X` / `Cmd`+`X`
Copy	`Ctrl`+`C` / `Cmd`+`C`
Paste	`Ctrl`+`V` / `Cmd`+`V`

Split and Join¶

Split — Position the edit cursor and press Ctrl+E (Cmd+E) to split the clip at that point. If a time selection is active, clips are trimmed to the selection.
Join — Select adjacent clips and press Ctrl+J (Cmd+J) to merge them.

Duplicate¶

Duplicate clips — Ctrl+D (Cmd+D) duplicates selected clips
Duplicate track — Ctrl+D with a track selected duplicates the track and its content
Duplicate track (empty) — Ctrl+Shift+D (Cmd+Shift+D) duplicates the track structure without content
Duplicate track (content only) — Ctrl+Alt+D (Cmd+Alt+D) duplicates the track's clips onto a new track with an empty FX chain

Render¶

Render clip to audio — Select a clip and press Ctrl+B (Cmd+B) to bounce it to an audio file
Render time selection — Press Ctrl+Shift+B (Cmd+Shift+B) to render the selected time range

Undo / Redo¶

Action	Shortcut
Undo	`Ctrl`+`Z` / `Cmd`+`Z`
Redo	`Ctrl`+`Shift`+`Z` / `Cmd`+`Shift`+`Z`