ClipView

About five minutes. For the sign-off, the music bed and the sting you use in every show.

If you make the same kinds of programs again and again, you keep reaching for the same few sounds: a sign-off, a bed, a sting. ClipView (it was called Clip Keeper in earlier versions) is a drawer of cards, one for each sound you want close at hand. The cards are kept across every project, so a sound you save on Monday is waiting on Tuesday, in a different show.

ClipView in the drawer: a search box and cards for Applause, Whoosh, News sting, Warm bed and Right back, each with a small waveform, its length, a round play button and a row of tags — ClipView with a few typical keepers: each card has a name, a waveform, the length, a play button and tags below.

Open and Close It

Tap I, or choose Clip ▸ Show ClipView (the item reads Hide ClipView while it is open). ClipView opens in the drawer at the right edge of the window, in Multitrack Mode and in the Single Track Mode window alike. Tap I again, click the small x at its right, or press Esc to put it away. (If the search box has text in it, the first Esc clears the search and the next one closes ClipView.)

📝

The Clip menu appears in both modes. In Multitrack Mode it still holds the two split commands; in the Single Track Mode window it holds just the two ClipView items.

Keep a Sound

Mark a selection (or select clips), then choose Clip ▸ Add Selection to ClipView, or right-click the timeline and choose Add to ClipView. A few things to know:

A marked selection is kept with both channels. One channel on its own is refused.
Selected clips are kept when they are all on one track. Clips on two tracks are refused. A selection marked across every track keeps the mix.
You get the sound as it is heard on the track, before the master level. A muted track still works.
A kept clip comes out exactly as it went in: a mono recording stays one channel.
Shorter than 0.05 seconds, longer than ten minutes, or silent: FastTracker says so in a plain sentence and keeps nothing.
Your project is not changed.

Already have the sound as a file? Drop an audio file from the Finder onto ClipView and it becomes a card.

Each card shows a small waveform, the name, the length (like 0:07) and a round play button, with the tags in a row below.

Name and Tag It

A new card lands at the top of ClipView with its title reading Name this card, highlighted. Just type to replace it. Return keeps the name and moves on to the card’s tag box; Esc or clicking away leaves it as “Untitled clip,” which you can fix any time.

Rename later: click the name, wait a moment, and type.
Tags: click the dashed + tag box (it shows while there is room), or click the empty part of the tag row, or right-click the card and choose Add a Tag, then type. Return or a comma makes a pill and opens the next box. Tags you already use are offered as you type. Hover a pill and click its x to remove it, or press Delete in an empty box to remove the last one. Tags are lowercase, up to twelve per card. If more tags exist than fit, the row shows as many as fit and a faint “+2” after them.
Search: type in the search box and the cards shrink to those whose name or tags contain every word you typed (capitals and accents don’t matter). Esc clears it.

ClipView with sfx typed in the search box, showing only the Applause and Whoosh cards — Type “sfx” and only the cards tagged *sfx* are left.

Listen First

Click a card once and it plays right there. Click it again, or click another card, to stop. The round play button on the card does the same.

Put It In

Double-click a card. In Multitrack Mode the clip goes in at the playhead on the selected track. If a clip is under the playhead it is split there, and everything after it on that track moves over to make room. One ⌘Z takes it back, and the new clip is left selected. In the window it goes in at the playhead, everything after it moves over, and the new stretch is left marked (Delete or ⌘X takes it away again).
Drag a card onto a track. It lands at the start of an empty track, or after the last clip on a track that has some (nothing moves). In the window, a drop goes in at the drop point.

The clip is copied into your project, so the project stays self-contained.

Keep It Tidy

Drag a card up or down to put it where you like (not while the search box has text in it). Right-click a card for Put In at the Playhead, Play, Rename, Add a Tag and Remove from ClipView. Removing happens at once, with no question, and it deletes the kept clip only: projects that already use it are unchanged.

From the keyboard. The card you last clicked wears an orange outline. With it selected: ↑ and ↓ move to the next card, Space plays it, Return puts it in, and Delete removes it from ClipView (no question asked). A card that is playing shows a thin orange edge and an orange waveform.

ClipView remembers its own width; drag the drawer’s bar to make it wider or narrower. It follows the interface size (⌘+ and ⌘-) like the other windows.

The kept clips live in FastTracker’s own folder (Application Support/FastTracker/ClipKeeper), not inside any project.

On the Favorites Bar

In the Single Track Mode window, Option-click Show ClipView and Add Selection to ClipView in the Clip menu to put them on the favorites bar. Show ClipView is the open tray; Add Selection is the tray with an arrow.