The timeline
The timeline shows the project in front. Choose ? on the toolbar, or press ?, for How Prest works: its keys and mouse, how it works, and files. Shortcuts use ⌘ on macOS and Ctrl on Windows and Linux.
Lanes at the top
Section titled “Lanes at the top”| Lane | Shows | Edit |
|---|---|---|
| Bars | The tempo map’s bars, and below them beat markers | Double-click to add a beat marker; drag to move it |
| Tempo | The tempo map’s BPM along the song, with its range written at the left | Double-click between two markers to ramp the tempo to the next one, or hold it again |
| Time | Minutes and seconds, in place of Bars and Tempo until the song has a tempo map | |
| Sections | The song’s sections, which make its form | Double-click to add a section four bars long, or a name to rename it; drag to move, edges to resize |
| Chords | The Chordtrack | Double-click to add a chord, or a chord’s name to type another; drag to move, edges to resize |
| Lyrics | The words of each lyrics track (Lyrics, Lyrics 2, and so on) | Double-click to add a word, or a word to retype it; drag to retime; Delete removes the picked one |
Sections also come from the chord chart of PresTools’ Chords tool, chords from Chords, and timed words from Lyrics. See PresTools in Prest.
Zoomed out, sections, chords, or words too narrow to label join a band that says how many there are and what they are. Double-click the band to zoom in on it.
Bars, beats, and the tempo map
Section titled “Bars, beats, and the tempo map”A song counts bars at 120 BPM in 4/4 until it has a tempo map; the readout shows them dimmed, and the ruler shows minutes and seconds. Detect beats with PresTools’ Tempo tool to map the song. The bars then follow the music, and snapping and the metronome become available.
The readout shows bar.beat.sixteenth, the section and chord, minutes and seconds, and the tempo and time signature there. In 6/8 a beat is an eighth note.
Between two tempo markers, the tempo holds or ramps to the next one. Double-click the Tempo lane between them to switch.
Snapping (G, or the grid button) snaps beat markers, sections, chords, and automation points to the beats. It needs a tempo map.
The metronome (C) clicks on the tempo map’s beats. The clicks the Tempo tool plays are different: they are its detected beats on a Tempo preview track, to hear before they become the map. Applying them removes that track. See Metronome and count-in.
Tracks
Section titled “Tracks”Audio tracks are lanes of clips, in folders as REAPER keeps them. Each track’s head has its name, M and S, its outputs, volume, and pan: see The mixer and automation.
- Click a track’s name to pick its clips for PresTools’ tools. Its hint shows the file it plays.
- A track’s menu has Routing…, Show volume automation, Show pan automation, Show mute automation, Rename, Move up, Move down (within its folder), and Remove track. A MIDI track’s menu has Output… and Events… in place of routing and automation: see MIDI.
- Drag a track’s bottom edge, beside its name, to make every track taller or shorter.
Add stems on the toolbar puts more files into the project in front: audio files, MIDI files, and MusicXML scores. Each audio file gets a track of its own: under the picked clip, at its start, or else after the last track, at the playhead. A file already in the project is not added again.
- Drag a clip to move it, or its edges to trim it. Past its file’s end, a clip loops, unless its Loop the file is off.
- Drag a clip’s top corners to fade it in or out.
- Click a clip to pick it for PresTools’ tools; ⇧-click adds more. Delete removes the picked clip.
- The waveform has a lane for each channel, left above right, as the clip’s channels are heard.
- A clip whose file has gone says The file isn’t there any more, with the path where it was.
Double-click a clip for its properties:
| Property | Does |
|---|---|
| Take | Which take plays, when the clip has more than one |
| Volume, Take volume, Take pan | The clip’s volume, and its take’s volume and pan |
| Muted, Backwards | Silences the clip; plays it backwards |
| Loop the file | Starts the file over when the clip is longer than it |
| Rate | 0.1 to 10 file seconds a second; the clip keeps its length |
| Pitch (semitones) | −48 to +48 |
| Keep the pitch at another rate | Off, a faster rate sounds higher, as a tape does |
| Channels | As they are, Swapped, Both as one (mono), Left alone, or Right alone |
| Part of the file | Plays from From for Length seconds of the file, as if it were the whole |
| Fades | The fade-in and fade-out shapes (seven, as REAPER’s) and their curvature |
| Stretch markers | Shown when a project from REAPER, Live, or DAWproject set them; Remove them takes them off |
| Automation of the take | The take’s volume, pan, mute, and pitch automation, drawn on the clip |
The clip’s label shows what is changed, such as “reversed”, “×1.5”, or “−2 st”.
Range and loop
Section titled “Range and loop”Drag across the timeline to pick a range. PresTools’ tools read it as the time selection, and L loops it. A click moves the playhead. Escape drops the range, then the picked section, chord, word, or clip.
⌘Z undoes and ⇧⌘Z redoes. The undo button’s hint names the step it undoes. Each open project keeps its last 200 steps; the steps are not saved with it.
Keys and mouse
Section titled “Keys and mouse”| Keys or mouse | Does |
|---|---|
| Space | Play, pause |
| Home or Enter / End | To the start / the end |
| ← / → | To the bar before / after |
| Drag across the timeline | Pick a range: the loop and the tools use it |
| L | Loop the range |
| Escape | Drop the range, then the picked region |
| C | Metronome |
| Click a section in the form | Play it next, when the jump switch says; again: let it go; ⇧-click: at once |
| ↓ / ↑, or Page Down / Page Up | Queue the section after / before (a page-turner pedal sends these) |
| V | Vamp: hold the section playing round, or let it go |
| E | Stop at the end of the section playing |
| Escape, while playing | Let go of the section queued |
| G | Snap to beats |
| X | Show or hide the mixer |
| + / − / 0 | Zoom in / out / fit the song |
| ⌘ and scroll, or pinch | Zoom around the pointer |
| Double-click a lane | Add a section, chord, word, or beat marker there |
| Double-click a region | Rename it |
| Drag a clip, or its edges | Move it, or trim it (past its file’s end, it loops) |
| Drag a clip’s top corners | Fade it in or out |
| Click a clip, ⇧-click more | Pick what the tools run on |
| Drag a track’s bottom edge | Every track taller or shorter |
| Drag the line above the score | More room for the score, or less |
| Delete | Remove the picked region or clip |
| ⌘Z / ⇧⌘Z | Undo / redo |
| ⌘N | New project |
| ⌘O | Open a project, a song, or a REAPER or Live project |
| ⌘S / ⇧⌘S | Save / Save As |
| ⌘W | Close the project |
| ⌃Tab / ⌃⇧Tab, or ⇧⌘] / ⇧⌘[ | The next / previous project |
| ⌘B | Show or hide Activity: what PresTools’ tools run |
| ? | How Prest works |
Settings
Section titled “Settings”The gear at the right of the toolbar opens Settings. They are this computer’s, kept in Prest’s own folder, not in your projects.
- General: the look. Faceplate (brushed metal, engraved labels, amber lamps; the default), Console (flat), or Desktop (rounded cards, colored stems, the system’s font), each Automatic (light or dark as the system is), Light, or Dark. PresTools’ windows look the same.
- Audio: the Device Prest plays on (The system’s default unless you choose one), the Metronome outputs, and the Metronome volume (double-click it for 0 dB). Below the device, Prest says which device it is playing on and its outputs, or that the device opens at the first play. A device you chose that is unplugged is listed as (not connected); Prest says it is not playing, and plays on it again once it is back.
- PresTools: its components, whether its models use the GPU, and its model library. See PresTools in Prest.
- Folders: where PresTools and Prest Server keep their things. See Where Prest keeps things.
- About: Prest’s notice, and the acknowledgements of the open-source software it is built on.
Next: The mixer and automation.