Need help to understand tracks and sections

[flatlandsmedia]

I am considering purchasing Metro 6. I'm looking at the comparison chart for Metro 6/Metro LX/Metro SE. I see that Metro SE is allwed 8 "sections" and that "sections" are then defined as "songs or parts of songs such as verse or chorus". Does that mean that if I purchased Metro SE, I could only have a total of 8 different song sessions on my computer at one time? Or is a "section" simply a part of a Metro session, where the session is the entire document or "song" as a whole?

Next thing I see is that Metro SE can have up to 32 tracks per section and also up to 4 audio tracks. Does this mean that each Metro SE session can have a total of 32 tracks, with only 4 of them being audio and then the rest have to be MIDI?

I'm very confused. Can anyone help?

Thanks,
-Shawn

[flatlandsmedia]

Well, I poked around the "audio" board of this forum and found an answer to one of my questions. I now understand that Metro SE has only 4 audio tracks.

-Shawn

[Jerm]

Does that mean that if I purchased Metro SE, I could only have a total of 8 different song sessions on my computer at one time?

Metro documents consists of sections. Each document in SE can have 8 sections. The only limit on the number of documents you can have is your computer's hard drive (or other storage) space. In most cases a section would be the entire song. Only if you deal with non-linear editing would this be an issue.

Does this mean that each Metro SE session can have a total of 32 tracks, with only 4 of them being audio and then the rest have to be MIDI?

No. This means that you can have a maximum of 4 audio tracks (10 with LX) active at any time in SE. When you add a 5th audio track and press play, one of the audio tracks will become automatically archived. In the archived state you can still edit, copy and paste but you cannot play it back. You can archive and unarchive tracks that you want to play back and you can also mix tracks together to reduce your track count while keeping the originals archived.

[Scoot]

one of the audio tracks will become automatically archived.

Does Metro SE just pick the first one to archive, or is it random if you had 5 tracks?

Is clicking mute on one of the 5 tracks the same thing as archiving?


scoot

[Jerm]

Does Metro SE just pick the first one to archive, or is it random if you had 5 tracks?

It is not random but it is difficult to describe. The best thing is manually archive if you have more than 4 audio tracks.

Is clicking mute on one of the 5 tracks the same thing as archiving?

No. Archive is selected from the Archive Tracks menu within the edit menu. Archiving is different than muting because a muted track can be unmuted during playback and uses up system resources whereas an archived track does not. The muted track must be processed to the same extent as an unmuted track because it could be unmuted at any time and must be ready to play.

If you have muted auto tracks that are not being used you will get better performance by archiving them.