Lesson 24
Audio tracks
Turn a track into an audio track, record your voice or a clap straight into a clip, and bounce a pattern into audio.
- A Move that is switched on and running Move software 2.1 or later
- A Set you don't mind changing, ideally the one from Lesson 11 with a bass clip in it
The idea
Until now, every clip you made was a list of notes: which pad, when, and how hard. The track’s instrument turns those notes into sound as the clip plays. Swap the instrument and the same notes come out as a piano, a bass or a drum kit. Musicians call this kind of clip a MIDI clip.
An audio track works differently. Its clips hold real recorded sound, like a recording on your phone: your voice, a clap, a guitar, a loop. There is no instrument on an audio track, and there are no notes to edit. What you recorded is what you hear. Each track in a Set can be either kind, so you can mix them: drums and bass as notes, a vocal as audio.
Recorded sound has a speed of its own, but your Set has a tempo. Move keeps them together by warping: it stretches or squeezes each audio clip so it lines up with the Set’s beat. Change the tempo and the audio follows, usually without sounding higher or lower.
Finally, bouncing turns a note clip into an audio clip. Move plays the clip in the background and records the result. You get the same music, now frozen as sound on an audio track.
Press the bottom track button. In this lesson it becomes your audio track. Its sound will be replaced, and the note clips on it may not survive the change, so choose a track you can spare.
Didn’t work?
Any of the four tracks can become an audio track. We use the bottom one because the other lessons put drums and bass on the top two. Want to keep your song exactly as it is? Copy the Set first, as in Lesson 5, and work in the copy.You should see: The bottom track is selected, and the display shows its sound as a row of icons.
Turn the wheel until all the icons are highlighted together, then press the wheel to open the browser, as in Lesson 8.
Didn’t work?
If only one icon is highlighted, you have picked a single part of the sound, such as an effect. Turn the wheel until they all light up, then press it.You should see: The browser opens in the category of the current sound, and all the pads pulse.
Press Back to leave the current category, as in Lesson 8. If you are still inside a folder, press it again until you see the list of all categories.
Didn’t work?
If you pressed once too often and landed back on the icons, the browser has closed. Press the wheel to open it again. Don’t turn the wheel while you are inside a category: every preset you pass loads into the track.You should see: The main list of categories.
Turn the wheel up towards the top of the list until Audio Track is highlighted. Then press the wheel.
Didn’t work?
Changed your mind? Press Undo to get the old sound back.You should see: The track has become an audio track, ready for recordings instead of notes.
Press Sampling. On an audio track, this gets the track ready to record.
Didn’t work?
Touch the wheel to see which input the track listens to. With nothing plugged into Move, you want Mic: Move’s built-in microphone. If it shows something else, such as Resampling or USB-C, press the wheel until Mic comes back.You should see: The track is armed: it is now ready to record.
Press Record, then clap a rhythm, hum or sing near Move for a bar or two.
Didn’t work?
If you hear a bar of clicks first, that is the count-in from Lesson 11: start once it ends. A few claps are perfect for a first try. The microphone hears everything around it, including any music coming out of Move’s speaker, so make your part a little louder than that. A recording stops by itself when it reaches the Max Length limit from Lesson 11, 16 bars unless you lowered it.You should hear: Move starts playing and records what the microphone hears.
Press Record again to stop recording.
Didn’t work?
If it sounds too quiet or too noisy, press Undo and record again, a little closer to or further from Move.You should hear: Your recording plays back as a loop, in time with the rest of the Set.
Press Note/Session to switch to Session Mode. The bottom row now belongs to your audio track.
You should see: Session Mode: each row of pads is one track, and lit pads are clips.
Hold Copy and press a lit pad on an instrument track, such as the bass clip from Lesson 11. Then let go of both.
Didn’t work?
Any clip on a track with an instrument works. If the second row has no lit pad, pick a lit pad in another row that is not your audio track.You should see: The display confirms the copy and asks where to paste it.
Press an unlit pad in the bottom row, such as the last one. Move bounces the clip into audio there.
Didn’t work?
Pasting onto a lit pad replaces the clip that was there, so aim for an unlit one. To cancel a bounce while its progress bar is on the display, press the wheel.You should see: The pad flashes red while Move renders the clip. When it stops, it holds an audio clip.
Lesson complete! Try the challenge below, or keep going.
Next lesson →Try it yourself
- Launch your bounced clip and the original note clip together. Solo one track, then the other, as in Lesson 19. The two should sound the same.
- Change the tempo, as in Lesson 10. Listen to your recorded claps: they speed up or slow down with the Set, and should stay at the same pitch.
- Record a few different sounds into other empty pads in the bottom row, and launch them one after another.
Good to know
- Want a ready-made loop instead of your own recording? Pick a clip slot on your audio track, touch the wheel so the sample icon is highlighted, press the wheel and browse. Move works out the loop’s tempo for you.
- On an audio clip, the first knob changes the pitch without changing the speed. That’s handy for fitting a loop to your song’s key.
- Since 2.1, the built-in microphone records in mono (one channel). For a guitar or another single-channel source plugged into Audio in, choose the Line in - Mono input.
- To bounce an audio clip into another audio clip slot, hold Shift while you press the pad to paste. The release notes add that a copied clip can also be bounced onto a drum pad, so you can play it as a sample.