Hidden gem - mixed tracks
There are a few tools in Go PlayAlong that are less known, but after discovering them you might become a fan of it. The mixed tracks tool is one of such features.
A quick introduction into mixed tracks
When transcribing studio recordings, it is a common practice to create multiple tracks for the same band member. Lead guitar parts, for example, are often broken apart into solo part and fills.
With this kind of separation the authors can assign different effect settings to each track, so that the sound would get closer to the original with MIDI playback. The downside of this method is that you’ll have to jump between tracks to see the entire guitar part as a whole.
In other situations you would like to play rhythm and lead parts combined, and perform as a one-man-band.
If you find yourself switching between different tracks frequently, then Go PlayAlong’s Mixed Tracks tool will be one of your favourite ones. As the name suggests, it enables you to combine existing instrument parts into a single view with a few mouse clicks.
Creating mixed tracks
Load a song and select Track / Create mixed track from the system menu. A new mixed track appears and the score will look quite the same as before. Except one little change: on the top of the very first bar you’ll see two crossing arrows followed by a text note, called a jump.
Jumps are the core elements of mixed tracks and they can be added to any bar in the score. They instruct the score renderer to switch to a new track at that bar position.
Adding jumps
Make sure that a mixed track is active in your instrument list. Then select a location in the score where you’d like to change track. Select Track / Jump To Track… from the system menu to create your first jump.
There’s an even quicker way to define jumps. Instead of using the system menu, you can simply ALT + click any instrument icon in the left-side track list.
And that’s all!
The concept of mixed tracks is super simple doesn’t take more than a few minutes to get familiar with.