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The main window

The main window: header bar, channel strips, arrangement and the right panel

The window has three areas: the header bar across the top, the middle area with channel strips and the arrangement timeline, and the right panel with regions and playlists. A separate floating File Browser window is available from the View menu.

Header bar

The header carries everything global:

  • Link — enables Ableton Link, syncing tempo and transport with other Link-enabled software on your network.
  • Tempo — the project tempo in BPM. All bar/beat positions derive from it.
  • Position — the transport position in bars, beats and ticks; editable.
  • Play / Stop / Record / Loop — the transport. Space toggles play/stop. Record arms the transport for recording (see Recording).
  • Master meter and volume — a stereo level meter and the master output gain.
  • A button to show or hide the right panel.

Channel strips

Each track shows its channels as strips on the left of the arrangement. Per channel:

  • M — mute, S — solo
  • Record — arms the channel for recording
  • Monitor — routes the channel's input to the output while armed
  • a level meter, gain and pan controls

Channel height is adjustable (micro / small / medium / large / huge) to fit many channels on screen — set it per channel with the height combo on the strip, or for the whole track by right-clicking the track header and choosing a size from the Waveform Size submenu. The same track-header menu also holds the Show Analysis toggles (see Analysis and Auto Edit).

Right-clicking a channel offers Copy selected channel(s) to new track.

Arrangement

The timeline. Tracks run horizontally; clips are drawn with their waveforms and can be dragged, trimmed and split. A bar/beat grid underlies everything (snapping can be toggled), and analysis results — segment boundaries, beats — can be displayed over the material.

Navigation: Cmd++ / Cmd+- zoom, ← / → page left and right, View → Follow Transport (Ctrl+F) keeps the view on the playhead.

Right panel

Two stacked lists, divided by a draggable resizer:

  • Regions — every named region in the project. This is the pool of material you can place on the timeline.
  • Playlists — the sequence of clips per track.

File Browser

View → Open File Browser opens a floating file tree (starting in your Music folder). Select one or more audio files and drag them into the arrangement to import them.