Track Manager

The Track Manager is the heart of artnorama studio: this is where ideas become a track. You plan the phasesPhraseA musical section, usually 8 or 16 bars. DJs mix in phrases — which is why sections start on multiples of 8.More in the handbook →, their length, their energyEnergy curveHow intense a track is over time. Good tracks breathe: build, release, pull back.More in the handbook → and tension, and how they flow into each other. Every phase is also a task — one click opens the right device, preset with key, tempo and length.

Story templates

Every template is a proven tension arc with story texts per phase (“what should the listener feel here?”). It adapts to genre and tempo — and is only a beginning: everything can be changed. More in the lesson Telling stories.

The coach

• Phase off the 8-bar grid → DJ mixing gets hard.
• Drop without a build-up → tension is missing.
• Hardly any contrast before the peak → the drop feels small.
• Energy constant for a long time → attention drops.
• Intro too short for an extended mix, track unusually long for the genre.

←→

Select a phase

⇧←→

Move a phase

+−

Length ±4 bars (±8 with ⇧)

↑↓

Energy ±5 % (tension with ⇧)

D

Duplicate phase

E

Split phase

N

New phase after

Entf

Delete phase

Space

Play/stop the sketch

⌘Z

Undo (⇧⌘Z redo, up to 100 steps)

Filter lane

Below the element matrix sits the filter lane: filter moves from the Filter Lab on the plan’s bar axis. “✦ Place automatically” puts fitting moves at every phase (intro fade-in, build-up high-pass, breakdown low-pass, outro fade-out), “＋ Preset” suggests moves for the selected phase. Dragging moves, the right edge stretches, a double-click opens the move in the Filter Lab — and “Back to the track” returns it to its place. On MIDI export the lane comes along as automation (CC74 cutoff, CC71 resonance).

To the device page AN-14 →