Documentation

Timeline & Editing

Master professional arrangement and audio region editing

Timeline Basics

Understanding the Timeline

The timeline is the heart of Stori - where you arrange your music. It displays audio and MIDI regions across multiple tracks over time.

  • ✓ Horizontal = Time - Left to right represents time progression
  • ✓ Vertical = Tracks - Each row is a separate track
  • ✓ Regions - Colored blocks containing audio or MIDI
  • ✓ Playhead - Red vertical line showing current position
  • ✓ Timeline Ruler - Time markers at top (0:00, 0:01, etc.)
  • ✓ Grid Lines - Vertical lines marking beats and bars
📏

Multi-track timeline with regions and playhead

🎵 Audio Regions

Audio regions are blocks of audio content on the timeline. They display waveforms and can be moved, copied, and edited.

📊 Region Display

  • Waveform - Visual audio representation
  • Region Name - Filename or description
  • Duration - Length in time
  • Start Time - Position on timeline
  • Color - Matches track color
  • Selection - Blue border when selected

✏️ Region Editing

  • Move - Drag to reposition
  • Duplicate (⌘D) - Copy region
  • Delete (Delete) - Remove region
  • Trim - Drag edges to trim
  • Split (⌘T) - Cut at playhead
  • Fade In/Out - Drag top corners

🎚️ Region Properties

  • Gain - Volume adjustment
  • Pitch Shift - Transpose audio
  • Tempo Rate - Speed adjustment
  • Detected Key - AI analysis
  • Detected Tempo - BPM detection
  • Loop Mode - Repeat audio

🏷️ Region Badges

  • Tempo Badge - Shows detected BPM
  • Key Badge - Shows detected key
  • Pitch Badge - Shows pitch shift
  • Rate Badge - Shows tempo rate
  • Anchor Badge - Auto-match anchor
  • Opacity = Confidence - Brighter = more confident
✂️

Region editing operations

Region Operations

Working with Regions

Comprehensive guide to region manipulation:

  • ✓ Select: Click region to select it
  • ✓ Multi-Select: ⌘+Click to add to selection
  • ✓ Range Select: Shift+Click for range
  • ✓ Move: Drag to new position (respects snap)
  • ✓ Nudge: ← → keys for fine positioning
  • ✓ Copy-Drag: Option+Drag to duplicate while moving
  • ✓ Snap Override: ⌘+Drag to disable snap temporarily
Audio Analysis

Tempo & Key Detection

Stori uses FFT-based analysis to detect tempo and musical key automatically:

  • ✓ One-Click Analysis: Right-click region → "Analyze Audio (Tempo & Key)"
  • ✓ FFT-Based: Chroma analysis for accurate key detection
  • ✓ Confidence Scores: 0-100% confidence for each result
  • ✓ Cached Results: Analysis saved with project
  • ✓ Visual Badges: Results displayed on regions
  • ✓ Inspector Display: Full analysis details in Region tab
  • ✓ Progress HUD: macOS-style floating progress indicator
🔍

Audio analysis with tempo and key detection

🎯

Tempo matching between regions

Tempo Matching

Automatic Tempo Alignment

Match the tempo of multiple regions automatically:

  • ✓ Select Anchor: Right-click first region → "Set as Tempo Anchor"
  • ✓ Select Others: ⌘+Click other regions to match
  • ✓ Auto-Match: Right-click → "Match Tempo to Anchor"
  • ✓ Time-Stretch: Regions stretch to match anchor tempo
  • ✓ Quality Preserved: High-quality time-stretching algorithm
  • ✓ Anchor Badge: Shows "AUTO-MATCH ANCHOR" on anchor region
  • ✓ Rate Display: Shows tempo rate (e.g., 1.2x) on matched regions
Pitch Matching

Musical Key Alignment

Transpose regions to match musical keys automatically:

  • ✓ Analyze Keys: Run analysis on all regions first
  • ✓ Select Target: Choose the key you want to match
  • ✓ Auto-Transpose: Regions pitch-shift to target key
  • ✓ Semitone Display: Shows pitch shift (e.g., +3 semitones)
  • ✓ Quality Preserved: Professional pitch-shifting algorithm
  • ✓ Inspector Control: Manual adjustment in Region tab
🎼

Pitch shifting for key matching

📐 Snap & Grid

🧲

Snap to Grid

Snap helps align regions to musical timing. Toggle with ⌘G or the snap button in toolbar.

  • Bars (1, 2, 4 bars)
  • Beats (1/4, 1/8, 1/16 notes)
  • Triplets (1/8T, 1/16T)
  • Off - Free positioning

Tip: Hold ⌘ while dragging to temporarily override snap.

📊

Grid Display

The grid shows beat divisions as vertical lines. Grid density adjusts automatically when you zoom.

  • Bar lines (strongest)
  • Beat lines (medium)
  • Sub-division lines (subtle)
  • Adapts to zoom level

Tip: Zoom in (⌘+) to see finer grid divisions.

🔁

Yellow cycle region for looping

Cycle/Loop Region

Loop Playback

The cycle region (yellow area) defines a section that loops during playback:

  • ✓ Create: Drag on timeline ruler to create cycle region
  • ✓ Adjust: Drag edges to change loop points
  • ✓ Move: Drag center to move entire region
  • ✓ Enable/Disable: Toggle loop button in transport
  • ✓ Perfect Loops: Snap to ensure clean loop boundaries
  • ✓ Practice Tool: Loop difficult sections for practice
  • ✓ Composition: Loop sections while layering parts

🔍 Zoom & Navigation

🔎 Zoom Controls

  • ⌘+ - Zoom In
  • ⌘- - Zoom Out
  • ⌘0 - Zoom to Fit Project
  • Scroll Gesture - Pinch to zoom
  • Zoom Slider - In toolbar
  • Maintains Center - Zooms around playhead

🧭 Navigation

  • Home - Jump to Start
  • End - Jump to End
  • ⌘↑ - Go to Beginning
  • ⌘↓ - Go to End
  • Click Ruler - Jump playhead
  • Scroll - Pan timeline

👁️ View Options

  • Waveform Zoom - Vertical zoom
  • Track Height - Adjust per track
  • Compact Mode - Show more tracks
  • Follow Playhead - Auto-scroll
  • Grid Visibility - Show/hide grid
  • Region Names - Toggle labels
Multi-Region Editing

Batch Operations

Work with multiple regions simultaneously:

  • ✓ ⌘+Click: Add regions to selection
  • ✓ Shift+Click: Select range of regions
  • ✓ ⌘A: Select all regions on current track
  • ✓ Move Together: Drag any selected region to move all
  • ✓ Duplicate All: ⌘D duplicates entire selection
  • ✓ Delete All: Delete key removes all selected
  • ✓ Batch Analysis: Analyze tempo/key for all selected
  • ✓ Tempo Matching: Match multiple regions to anchor
📦

Multiple regions selected for batch editing

🖱️ Region Context Menu

Right-click (or Control+Click) any region to access these options:

  • • Duplicate - Create copy of region
  • • Delete - Remove region from timeline
  • • Split at Playhead - Cut region into two
  • • Analyze Audio (Tempo & Key) - Run FFT analysis
  • • Set as Tempo Anchor - Mark as reference for tempo matching
  • • Match Tempo to Anchor - Time-stretch to match anchor
  • • Match Key to... - Transpose to target key
  • • Bounce to Audio - Render MIDI to audio (MIDI regions only)
  • • Show in Inspector - Focus region in Inspector panel
  • • Export Region - Export just this region