S.L.I.P.

n13L5
Studio One's "Arranger Track" function allows you to create song sections that cut through all project tracks, allowing you to easily copy or move a bridge or refrain to another section of the song with all tracks attached and aligned.
 

I've done this using the Matrix. I create clips, of the different sections of a song, and put them in cells, and arrange away.

Yeah, Matrix view is a lot more flexible and easier to operate than an Arranger track seems to be. And if you need to compare several versions of the same track just save them as versions or give 'em different names. It's better to have a cleaner representation of the material then cluttering your workspace with several cuts of the same song.

Arranger Tracks are the same concept as Cubase's Play Order tracks and a feature I would very much like in Sonar. I don't see the similarity with the Matrix view.  

The Studio One Arranger track as far as I know is different to the Cubase play order tracks.  In Cubase the music never changes in terms of how it looks on the main arrange window.  You do create sections above that denote the various parts of the song.  In Cubase all you are doing is altering the play order.  Looking at a play order list means little.
 
In Studio One V3 you also create the song sections above the music as per Cubase. They can be colored and named. The difference is however you can click and drag the arranger sections around.  So all the tracks below are cut neatly and moved.  Sections can be repeated and ordered in any way.  As you move sections around all the tracks below move as well.  It is one thing to hear different arrangements but to see them is better still.
 
It is much better than the Cubase approach because you end up seeing all the music in the new arranged way as well as hearing it of course.  It is fast and very effective.  Once you have worked this way it is hard to go back to any other approach.
 
The scratch pads are also cool because you can create multiple arrangements and jump to them quickly and hear them too.  Whole arrangements can be copied from one scratchpad to the other.  Sections of songs can also be dragged from one scratchpad to another too.  It is clever.  No limit to the number of scratchpads. They can be named and selected fast.  And the whole thing still saved as only one Song file too.  Mixes can be completely different in the scratchpads as well.  Similar to mix recall.
 

That sounds as if it is destructive in Studio 1 3. I liked the Cubase approach.  

The audio files are not touched in any way. It is completely non destructive. You can put the arrangement back to what it was originally anytime you want. (As long as you have backed that up somehere!) Or create the main arrangement as normal. Then create a scratchpad and copy the whole thing over to that and get stuck into the new arrangement there instead.  You will always have the original intact you did first then you can go back to.
 
I think it is better than the Cubase approach. I guess it does a very similar thing in terms of how you hear it but I like seeing it as well.

Jeff Evans
In Studio One V3 you also create the song sections above the music as per Cubase. They can be colored and named. The difference is however you can click and drag the arranger sections around.  So all the tracks below are cut neatly and moved.  Sections can be repeated and ordered in any way.  As you move sections around all the tracks below move as well.  It is one thing to hear different arrangements but to see them is better still.

 
That's how I use Clip Groups...except that the top track is a "dummy" track with clips colored and named to provide identification. Because all the clips are grouped, moving the dummy clip moves all the clips below it.
 
Studio One may do it somewhat more efficiently, e.g., do the splits automatically, but moving around blocks of stuff is not a particularly common operation for me so changing it would be very low on my priorities list.
 
As to scratchpads, there's plenty of space on a timeline to put various clip groups and jump to them as needed. But as I've said before, the clip group concept is how Vegas does things. It's simple, fast, and has worked for me for years, so I like not having to change the workflow in SONAR. The only difference is that it's an operation I do all the time in Vegas, but rarely in SONAR; most of the time I know where a song is going, and I'm loathe to duplicate sections within a song, even if the parts are the same. I prefer to play new versions because in live performance, you don't copy and paste, you play. I like music that feels more "live."

John
Arranger Tracks are the same concept as Cubase's Play Order tracks and a feature I would very much like in Sonar. I don't see the similarity with the Matrix view. 

Yes, it's two different approaches.
If I'm unsure of the form of the track, I would bounce the entire track to a single file, slice it to parts and load these parts to the Matrix editor. Then it will be a lot easier to toggle between different cells and decide which form (order of the parts) feels best.
If I want to try different sounds, levels, plugins, etc., then Mix Recall feature is what the doctor ordered.
For different cuts I would use different projects.
Anyway, I see no reason to toss portions of arrangement around in a separate section, as it not only clutters the workspace and waists time, but puts quite a load on system resources.
As for the Cubase style arrangement track it looks like a good and very welcome feature.

Soundwise
Anyway, I see no reason to toss portions of arrangement around in a separate section, as it not only clutters the workspace and waists time, but puts quite a load on system resources.
As for the Cubase style arrangement track it looks like a good and very welcome feature.

Not quite right. No clutter. The scratchpads in Studio One can be slid out of the way so they do not clutter. No time wasted either. It is still a fast way to re-order an arrangement. System resources are not taxed either.
 
It is easy to make assumtpions without really using it. Basically you dont know until you have used it. It really does work. But the way Craig has described the Sonar approach also seems like a good method too. Very close in concept.

Soundwise

John
Arranger Tracks are the same concept as Cubase's Play Order tracks and a feature I would very much like in Sonar. I don't see the similarity with the Matrix view. 

Yes, it's two different approaches.
If I'm unsure of the form of the track, I would bounce the entire track to a single file, slice it to parts and load these parts to the Matrix editor. Then it will be a lot easier to toggle between different cells and decide which form (order of the parts) feels best.
If I want to try different sounds, levels, plugins, etc., then Mix Recall feature is what the doctor ordered.
For different cuts I would use different projects.
Anyway, I see no reason to toss portions of arrangement around in a separate section, as it not only clutters the workspace and waists time, but puts quite a load on system resources.
As for the Cubase style arrangement track it looks like a good and very welcome feature.

I'm not sure why people are not seeing the similarity. I have used play order tracks in Cubase and I do have Studio 1 3 though I have not used this feature yet. What they have in common is no slicing or dicing is done. You draw a section on the time line then once you have enough sections you place them into order of execution. The audio is untouched. You can turn it off too.  What the now time does is jump around under the control of the play list. You do not cut and paste anything. It will repeat a section too. I have not tried Studio 1's method but I don't see a lot of difference.   

Anderton

• In Preferences, under snap to grid, DON'T select snap to zero crossings because...
• You want clean splits at precise boundaries (e.g., measures)

I'd love to learn more 'bout when it's better to use zero crossings and when to avoid it.