Snippets Page

Video Tutorial

The Snippets View is home to Snippet Groups, each of which provides multiple slots for Snippets. You can populate these slots simply by dropping Phrases.

Learn more about Snippets.

Toolbar

Navigate back to the set of snippets you had playing before.
Schedules all currently playing snippets to be stopped next time you press the launch button. Use this when you want to schedule an entirely new set of snippets from scratch.
Schedule a random selection of snippets to play next. Hold down ⇧Shift to keep the current Harmony unchanged.
Launches all armed snippets. If you want to start or stop multiple snippets in synch, arm them with a right-click on their play icon first and then click this button to execute the changes at the same time.
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H
Memories holding the current state of playback. Right-click to save, left-click to recall. Hold down ⇧Shift to exclude Harmony from the recall.
Right-click while holding ⌘ Control to clear a memory slot.
Drag a memory button to a container on the Structure page to insert it into your arrangement.
Drag a memory button to a library to save its phrases and current playback state.
Drop a memory button from a library to restore its previous playback state. This is only useful for short term backups though, as snippets that have been deleted will not be restored automatically. You restore snippets manually by dropping the individual phrases on the snippet grid.
Rearrange memory buttons with the mouse. Their values are swapped.
Harmony (Outlet)
Drop a Harmony parameter here to use as the default chord progression when no currently playing snippet provides one.
Grid Size
Shrink or enlarge the grid.
Change orientation of the grid.
Options Menu:

  • Single-Phrase Snippets Only: Enable this mode if you want all groups to play a single instrument only. Groups won't accept containers anymore and Synfire will less frequently ask you questions what to do when you dropped something on a slot.

  • Make Snippets From Arrangement: Collect phrases from all containers and create a snippet for each.
  • Make Arrangement From Last Session: Assemble a new arrangement from the playback you just stopped.

  • Mark/Unmark Used Snippets: Earmarks all snippets that are currently used by any memory slot. Helps you make room for new content without accidentally deleting important snippets.

  • Profiles: All current probabilities can be saved in a profile or appended to an existing profile. Probabilities are associated according to the respective category of an instrument.

  • Clear Snippets: Delete all snippets.

Transport

The transport buttons on this page operate live snippets playback exclusively. If you want to start or stop the current arrangement, you need to switch to the Structure page.

The play button starts or continues live snippet playback. You won't hear anything until at least one snippet is scheduled for playback.
The stop button pauses current live playback. Clicking the stop button again clears all currently scheduled snippets so you can start over from scratch.
Save audio output of your next session to a file. The file is placed next to the arrangement document (File > Show File in Finder).

Console

The console on the Snippets page controls the live mix to some extent, provided your plug-ins respond to the respective MIDI controllers.

Export Snippets As Audio Loops

You can export individual snippets, snippet groups or the entire grid as audio loops to disk ("Clips") to import them into your DAW. You find this option on the right-click menus of snippets and groups, and the options menu of the grid.

Select a Snippet with Harmony first. Its progression will be used to render all snippets in order to make them compatible with each other (unless a snippet contains its own Harmony). The audio files are placed next to the arrangement document (File > Show File in Finder).

You can cancel a running export at any time with Stop. You should avoid manual interventions while an export is being processed, as all audio output is recorded as it goes into the clips. The audio files are trimmed only after the last snippet has been captured. Do not use any files before this process has completed.

Note: Exported snippets are trimmed to a multiple of the length of Harmony. They may loop more than once if they are shorter than this. This ensures all clips are harmonically compatible with each other when you play them in your DAW's grid live.
Note: This feature is available with the Express and Pro editions.