A project is a single .fast file. In Finder it looks like one file, and inside it holds the project description and its audio. Use File ▸ Save Project (⌘S), Save As… (⇧⌘S), Open… (⌘O) and Open Recent. Save As… in Multitrack Mode opens a window that also exports audio files, with a choice at the top: Audio file or FastTracker project (it starts on the project). See Save As and Export.
File ▸ Open… (⌘O) opens a project or an audio file, in either mode, so there is only one thing to remember. Choose a .fast project and it opens in Multitrack Mode; choose a sound file and it opens in a Single Track Mode window. (The separate “Open Audio File…” menu item is gone while the window is open.)
File ▸ Open Recent lists both your projects and your audio files. Each has a small badge, the same picture you see on the tabs and the Mode Button: stacked lines mean a project (Multitrack Mode), a small wave means an audio file (Single Track Mode), so you can tell at a glance what you’re about to open.
Closing the last tab no longer quits FastTracker. It brings back the Welcome Window, ready for whatever comes next. (To quit, choose FastTracker ▸ Quit, or press ⌘Q.)
Everything FastTracker can do is in the menu bar, and the menus are sorted by what they do. Items that belong to one mode only are hidden in the other, so each menu shows just what works at the moment.
| Menu | What’s in it |
|---|---|
| File | New Project, Open…, Open Recent, Add Audio…, Save Project, Save As…, Export…, Locate Missing Audio…, Close. In the Single Track Mode window it also has Return to Multitrack Mode and Return and Add the Track Anyway. |
| Edit | Undo, Redo, Cut, Copy, Paste, Paste Over… (ShiftO, Single Track Mode), Find in Script (⌘F), Delete, Select All, Add Track Below Selected Track, Group Clips. |
| Clip | Show ClipView (I) and Add Selection to ClipView, in both modes; see ClipView. In Multitrack Mode it also holds Split Selected Clips at Playhead and Split All Clips at Playhead. |
| Audio | Show the Cookbook (C), Effects Deck (X), Insert Silence…, Trim Silence, Trim Unselected Audio, Normalize…, Fine Tune…, Simple Limiter…, Convert Selected to Mono, and, in the Single Track Mode window only, Pop Fixer… (P), Fade In, Fade Out, Mute the Selection, Reverse the Selection and Copy One Channel onto the Other. Multitrack Mode adds Duck Under the Track Above. |
| Play/Record | Play / Return to Start (Space), Pause Where It Is (⇧Space), Go to the Start, Record (R), Record Over What Follows (⇧R, Multitrack Mode), Punch and Roll (V), Throw Away This Recording (Esc), Loop Playback (⇧L). |
| Markers | Add Marker (M), Add Marker and Name It (⌘M), Add a Note (ShiftN), Go to Marker…, Clear All Markers… (⇧⌘M). |
| Script | Show the Script (ShiftV; it reads Hide the Script while open), New Script, Open Script…, Save Script As…, Sync Recording to Script, Clear All Proofreading Flags… (⇧⌘F). |
| View | Interface size (⌘+, ⌘−, ⌘0), Show Whole Project / Last Zoom (Z), Maximize Window (OptionM), Show Scale (Single Track Mode), Show Grid Lines, Show Pan Envelope (ShiftP, Multitrack Mode), Switch Between Dark and Light (OptionD), Show Next / Previous Tab (⌃⇥, ⇧⌃⇥). |
| Help | FastTracker Help, Keyboard Guide (K). |
There used to be a separate Audio menu that only appeared in the Single Track Mode window. It is gone: its commands now live in the menus above, and on the favorites bar.
Open FastTracker ▸ Settings… (⌘,).
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Appearance | Dark (the default), Light, or Match System. The Welcome Window follows it too. OptionD (View ▸ Switch Between Dark and Light) flips between Dark and Light without opening Settings. |
| Recording tab | The input to record from, mono or stereo, and how a take’s level is set when it ends. See below. |
| Ducking tab | How far the music dips under a voice when you tap D. See below. |
| Trimming tab | How quiet counts as silence when you tap T to trim a clip’s ends. See below. |
| Output device | Where FastTracker plays. If AutoCast is running on the same Mac, the device AutoCast broadcasts through is blocked, so editing can never reach your air. |
| Copy audio into the project | Keeps each project self-contained so it can be moved or handed off. Turn it off to use the original files where they are. |
| Mix the ringing of reverb into the audio that follows the affected selection | On the General page, just below Copy audio into the project. Checked (the starting choice): when you Apply a reverb or echo to a selection in Single Track Mode, its ring is mixed over the audio after the selection, and nothing moves. Unchecked: the ring is inserted after the selection, so the audio after it, and any markers, notes, flags and take circles, move later by the length of the ring. Rest the pointer on it for a note in the status bar. |
| Open the last project at startup | FastTracker comes back with the project you were working on. |
| AutoCast Protection | While AutoCast is running on this Mac, importing and waveform analysis slow down so they never compete with the broadcast. |
| Script and flags beside exported audio | When you save or export audio that has a script or proofreading flags, FastTracker can write a small .ftdata file beside it. Choose Ask each time, Always save them or Never save them. (The “Don’t ask again” box in the question sets Always or Never.) See Save As and Export. |
| Send questions anonymously | On by default. Sends the questions you type in the How do I box to TuneTracker Systems, with no name, license or computer information, only to help improve the answers. Turn it off and nothing is sent, and the thumbs up and down buttons in the answer window go away. |
One setting: Duck depth, from −24 dB (deeper) to −6 dB (gentler), with −11 dB as the default. Changing it redoes every ducked clip in the open project. What ducking is, and how it works, is in Ducking: Music Under a Voice.
Select a clip and tap T, and FastTracker trims the silence off both ends. One setting decides what counts as silence: Trim threshold, from −60 dB (picks up almost anything) to −20 dB (only fairly loud sound), defaulting to −40 dB. At −40 dB a room’s background hiss counts as silence, but a breath before a word doesn’t. FastTracker keeps 30 milliseconds before the first sound and 100 milliseconds after the last so no attack or tail is clipped. Only the clip’s edges move, never the audio itself, so you can always drag an edge back out. Trimming several clips at once is one undo step.
If T trims into a quiet start or ending you wanted, slide the threshold toward −60. If it leaves hiss behind, slide it toward −20.
Need a track you don’t already have? You can record one right in FastTracker: choose a track, tap R, talk, tap R. The Recording tab decides how. (The full walk-through is in Recording a Voice.)
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Input device | The microphone or interface to record from. The device AutoCast broadcasts through is never available. |
| Input | For an interface with more than two inputs: which input your microphone is on. |
| Record as | Mono (the default, right for a voice) or Stereo. |
| When a take ends | Raw (exactly as recorded), Peak −3 dB (the default: the loudest peak is lifted to −3 dB), or Loudness (a target for how loud it sounds on average). The raw recording is always kept; this only sets the new clip’s gain, which you can undo. |
| Loudness target | For the Loudness choice: a slider centered on −16 LUFS, from −24 (gentler, broadcast radio) to −8 (louder). The lift never takes the loudest peak past −3 dB. |
| Punch and Roll lead-in | How long before the punch point V starts playing, so you hear the lead-in. 3 seconds is the usual. |
| Follow-Along | A checkbox at the bottom of the tab. While you record against a script, FastTracker flags the words you said differently. Needs macOS 26 or later. See Follow-Along. |