Audio Clip Editor

The Audio Clip Editor lets you drop pre-recorded audio (WAV, AIFF, FLAC, OGG) directly onto a track and place it on the section's timeline. Useful for adding vocals, recorded loops, samples, field recordings, or any sound that isn't going to be played by an instrument.

Each audio clip plays back at its native pitch and tempo — clips are not time-stretched to follow the project BPM, so a recorded loop at 100 BPM will sound out of time over a 120 BPM project unless you re-record or pre-stretch it externally.

When to use it

• Dropping a recorded vocal take into a section
• Adding sound effects or transition risers
• Layering a pre-rendered audio loop under MIDI parts
• Including ambient field recordings (rain, room tone, crowd noise)

Layout

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ + Add Audio Clip                            │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Bar 1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   …       │  ← ruler with bar numbers
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│   ┌──── vocal-take.wav ────┐                │  ← clip lane 1
│                  ┌──── shaker-loop.wav ────┐│  ← clip lane 2 (overlapping)
│                                              │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────┘

• Ruler at the top with bar numbers and beat ticks
• Clip lanes below the ruler — overlapping clips automatically stack into separate lanes
• Section end marker — a vertical red line where the section ends; clips can extend past, but only the in-section portion plays
• Playhead — orange line during playback

Adding a clip

Two ways to add a clip:

1. Click + Add Audio Clip in the top-left of the editor — opens a file picker, then drops the clip at tick 0.
2. Click an empty spot on the timeline — opens the file picker, then drops the clip at the click position (snapped to the nearest 1/16 note).

Supported formats: .wav, .aiff, .flac, .ogg.

When you add a clip, Kiwisonic reads the file's actual duration (from the WAV header for WAV files; falls back to 4 bars for other formats) and sizes the clip accordingly. You can resize from there.

Editing clips

The selected clip is drawn with a brighter, thicker border so you can tell which one the processing panel is editing.

All movements snap to the nearest 1/16 note.

The minimum clip duration is one 1/16 note. Resizing past the end of the file just trims the playback to the file's actual duration — you can't "stretch" a clip to make it longer than the source.

Per-clip processing

Each clip carries its own set of processing, edited in the panel that opens on the right when you select a clip. Drop a dry vocal, a loud loop, and a one-shot on the same track and give each exactly what it needs. Every change is auditioned live — the clip re-triggers as you drag a slider, so you hear the result immediately.

The panel is a curated, fixed set (not an open effect chain):

• Level — per-clip gain.
• Fades — fade in and fade out (in ms) plus a curve: Linear, Equal power (steady loudness through a crossfade), or Exponential (slow start). A clip with no processing still gets a tiny anti-click fade on stop.
• Filter — a high-pass and a low-pass cut (set either to 0 Hz to switch it off), with optional resonance.
• EQ — three parametric bands (low / mid / high), each with its own frequency and gain.
• Dynamics — a gate (silences signal below its threshold) and a compressor (threshold, ratio, attack, release).
• Transform — varispeed Pitch (in semitones — changes pitch and length, like speeding up a tape), Reverse, and Invert polarity (a 180° phase flip, handy when layering two takes that partly cancel).

A clip you never touch carries none of this, so it costs nothing extra. Processing is saved with the project and travels with the clip when it's copied.

Overlapping clips and crossfades

Multiple clips can play simultaneously — drop a vocal lead and a backing harmony on the same track and they'll automatically stack in separate lanes. The engine plays them in parallel.

To crossfade two clips, overlap them and give the first a fade-out and the second a fade-in: one clip's fade-out meeting the next clip's fade-in is the crossfade. Use the Equal power curve to keep the loudness steady across the overlap.

Lanes are assigned greedy: the editor walks clips in start-tick order and puts each one into the lowest lane where no existing clip overlaps. You don't manage lanes manually — they're a visual aid for telling overlapping clips apart.

What the audio clip track *doesn't* do

Audio clip tracks play back and shape recorded audio, but a couple of things are out of scope:

• Time-stretch (pitch-preserving) — the Pitch control is varispeed, so changing pitch also changes length. There's no stretch that holds pitch while changing tempo (or vice-versa). To match a loop to the project BPM, pre-stretch it externally.
• Record audio — Kiwisonic doesn't record. Capture audio externally (DAW, voice recorder, etc.) and drop the file in.

Effects and the mixer

Audio clip tracks behave like any other track in the mixer — they have the same fifteen-slot effect chain and the same volume / pan / mute / solo controls. Run a vocal take through Compressor → Reverb the same way you would a synth lead.

Keyboard shortcuts

The other editor shortcuts (Ctrl+Z, etc.) are not active here — clip placement is direct manipulation only.