The Arranger Track¶
📝 Note: The Arranger Track is available in Waveform Pro 11 and later. It is not included in Waveform Free or OEM editions.
The Arranger Track gives you a bird's-eye view of your song's structure. You divide the project into named, coloured sections — Intro, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Outro, and so on — and then rearrange the whole song by dragging those sections instead of carefully moving clips on every individual track.
When you move or copy a section, Waveform moves the underlying audio and MIDI clips plus any tempo, time-signature, and pitch events in that range, all in lock-step across every track. The Arranger Track itself makes no sound and cannot host plugins; it is purely a structural tool.
The Arranger Track showing Intro, Verse, Chorus, and Bridge sections
Showing and Hiding the Arranger Track¶
Click the Arranger button in the global-tracks strip at the top of the Edit tab to show or hide the track. The button tooltip reads "Show/Hide arranger track". You can also use the keyboard command "Show or hide Arranger track" or the View > Show Arranger track menu item. Arranger Track visibility is saved with the edit and as part of View Presets.
💡 Tip: If you use View Presets to switch between different working layouts, you can include or exclude the Arranger Track in each preset — useful for keeping the screen tidy when you are focused on mixing rather than arrangement.
Creating Sections¶
To draw a new section, hold a modifier key and drag across the Arranger Track. The cursor changes to a pencil while you drag, and the section snaps to the current snap grid.
💡 Tip: A plain drag on the Arranger Track does not draw a section. You must hold a modifier key first.
Once a section exists, click it to select it. You can rename and recolour it from the Actions panel (see Section Properties below).
Rearranging Sections¶
Drag a section and drop it to rearrange your song. A popup menu appears when you release the mouse:
| Drop target | Popup options |
|---|---|
| Empty space on the track | Copy section / Move section |
| Another section | Replace / Swap |
| Left or right edge of another section | Inserts just before or just after that section |
Move section shifts the source content to the destination position. Copy section duplicates it. Swap exchanges the two sections' content; Replace overwrites the target with the source.
📝 Note: Swap and Replace silently abort if the two sections overlap. No error message is shown. Make sure the sections do not overlap before using these operations.
When you have tracks selected, a Copy or Move operation affects only those tracks. With no tracks selected, it affects all tracks (the Arranger Track itself is always included). This lets you make partial rearrangements — for example, moving a vocal part independently of the rest of the arrangement.
Inserting Space¶
To add blank time at a specific point, right-click a section and choose Insert time at selected clips, or use the Insert Space dialog. The dialog has fields for Bars/Beats and Time and an Insert button. The keyboard command "Insert time at cursor" does the same thing from the current cursor position.
Section Properties¶
Select a section and its actions appear in the Actions panel. The following controls are available:
| Control | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Name | Label the section ("Verse 1", "Chorus") |
| Start / Length / End | Position and duration in timecode (Length is shown locked) |
| Colour | Set the section's display colour using the hue picker |
| Select related | Select other clips linked to this section |
| Auto tempo | Derive the edit's BPM from this section's length |
| Split | Split the section at the current playhead position |
| Move clip | Options for moving the section relative to its neighbours |
| Delete | Remove the selected section(s) |
The Arranger Track header itself shows only the standard Shrink / Grow track-height buttons — there are no arranger-specific track options.
Section Right-Click Menu¶
Right-clicking a section gives you:
- Colour
- Cut / Copy / Duplicate
- Delete
- Split at cursor
- Delete time of selected clips — removes that time range from the entire edit
- Insert time at selected clips — inserts blank time at the section's position
- Delete time gap before / after / both
Related Features¶
- Using Markers — the Marker track, Tempo track, and Chord track are sibling global tracks that work alongside the Arranger Track.
- View Presets — Arranger Track visibility can be saved and recalled as part of any View Preset.