Layers

The Layers view is a second way to show the Inputs panel. Instead of a grid of tiles you get layers: rows of clip slots stacked over the Base layer, with columns that fire across every layer at once. Use it when several pictures sit on top of each other, such as a camera with a lower third and a logo, or for a VJ set that runs in time with the music.

Switch between Tiles and Layers

Your inputs are the same in both views; only the layout changes. The view is saved with the show, so each show opens the way you left it, and switching it is a step you can undo.

Layers, clips and the Base layer

Each layer is a row of clip slots. A clip is one of your inputs placed in a slot. One clip plays per layer at a time: firing another clip on the same layer replaces the one that was playing.

The top row is drawn on top. The bottom row is the Base layer, and it is Preview and Program: a clip fired there becomes the main picture. The layers above the Base sit over the main picture on the overlay channels. A new show starts with four layers over the Base and eight columns. Add Layer adds a layer on top, up to eight ("Eight layers is the most"). How many layers you can use depends on your plan, see Plans and limits.

Fill a slot

• Drag an input tile, a Library item or a file from Finder or Explorer onto a slot.
• Or right-click a slot: Add Input on an empty slot, Replace with Input on a full one.
• Copy a clip, then Paste it into another slot. Duplicate to Next Slot copies it into the slot to its right.
• Clear Slot empties it. The input stays in your show.

Click a cell to fire it.

Columns and the fire bar

The slots line up in columns across all layers. The fire bar above the layers has one button per column. Click a column button to fire that column: every layer with a clip in that column fires together. A layer with an empty slot in that column is left alone, so whatever it plays keeps playing. A show with no columns shows Add Column in the fire bar ("Add the first column").

Right-click a column button for the column menu:

Broadcast and VJ modes

Two keys pick the mode. The mode is saved with each show.

Broadcast (the default): "a fire stages on Preview, Take puts it on air".

• Firing a clip on a layer stages it, with a green outline.
• Firing a clip on the Base layer sets Preview.
• Firing a column stages every layer with a clip in that column.
• The take puts Preview on Program together with every staged layer.

VJ: "a fire plays at once".

• Firing a clip on a layer puts it on air straight away, with that layer's transition.
• The Base layer still goes to Preview and then to Program, with the Quick Play transition.
• Firing a column puts every layer with a clip in that column on air together.

The Master line

The Master line acts on every layer above the Base:

Layer controls

Each layer header has an opacity fader (Layer opacity), M ("Mute this layer"), a stop key ("Stop this layer") and a menu with:

Stop Layer, Clear Layer, Layer Colour, Rename..., Mute Layer or Unmute Layer, Blend (Normal, Add, Screen, Multiply, Subtract, Darken, Lighten, Overlay, Difference), Reset Opacity, Layer Settings..., Duplicate Layer, Move Up, Move Down, Join Group, Remove from Group, New Group, Group with Selected and Remove Layer.

• Stop clears a staged clip if there is one, otherwise it takes the layer off air.
• A muted layer is not drawn, but it keeps what it plays, so unmuting brings it back as it was.
• Layer Settings... holds the layer's name, opacity, blend, mute, transition, auto close and transform.

Groups

A group gathers layers so you can fade, mute or stop them together. Select layers by clicking their headers, then press Group ("Group the selected layers") or choose Group with Selected in a layer menu. A layer is in one group at most, and groups do not nest.

A group header has Collapse Group / Expand Group, the name, a Group opacity fader (a layer's final opacity is its own opacity times the group's), Mute Group, Stop Group, Rename Group and Ungroup (the layers stay).

Tempo and the beat

The studio has one tempo and one beat grid. Quantised launching, beat LFOs and the beat pulse of a generator all use it. The tempo strip sits above the layer grid, on both platforms, with a dot that lights on each beat.

• A new show runs at 120 BPM with 4 beats per bar. Tap averages your last eight taps; a pause of more than two seconds starts a new count.
• Each nudge key moves the beat 10 ms earlier or later. Use it to line the beat up by ear when the BPM is right but the dot flashes early or late. Resync on the downbeat makes that beat the first of the bar.
• MIDI clock follows the clock of a drum machine or a DAW (24 ticks a beat) arriving on any MIDI input.
• With Quantize at Beat, a layer fire or a column fire waits for the next beat; at Bar, for the first beat of the next bar.
• Changing the BPM, the tempo source, Beats per Bar or Quantize is one undo step. Tap, nudge, Resync and Force Beat are live actions, never undone.

Tempo with Ableton Link peers

With Link as the tempo source and other Link apps on the network, any peer can change the tempo and every peer follows.

The Link settings are in Ableton Link. The name other Link apps see is Peer Name; left empty it is "Cliqer". When Link is on but your plan does not include it, Studio shows "Ableton Link Not in Your Plan": "Ableton Link needs Studio. Link stays off."

Control the tempo over OSC

The tempo answers External Control like every other action:

/cliqer/studio/tap_tempo
/cliqer/studio/set_bpm 128
/cliqer/studio/resync_tempo
/cliqer/studio/force_beat

The other tempo actions are nudge_tempo, set_tempo_source, set_beats_per_bar and set_launch_quantize, under the same /cliqer/studio/ prefix.

Plans

The tempo needs Timeline in your plan. Quantize other than Off, and modulation, need Studio VJ tempo and modulation. See Plans and limits.

Modulate a setting

A setting that can be modulated has a Modulate menu (on a layer: Modulate Opacity). It moves the setting in time with the music:

• Audio Band: an input or a bus, then Low, Mid, High or Level.
• Beat LFO: Sine, Saw, Square or Random, at 1/4 Beat, 1/2 Beat, 1 Beat, 2 Beats, 1 Bar, 2 Bars, 4 Bars or 8 Bars.
• Clear Modulation gives the setting back to you.

An Audio Band follows any mixer channel or bus. A new modulation follows its source at full depth, with no smoothing.

You can modulate a layer's opacity and the settings of an effect, such as the saturation of a colour correction. A generator reacts to the music by itself with Audio React and Beat Pulse.

Slot size, select and undo

• Slot size sets how wide the slots are. It is a view setting, not an undo step.
• Shift-click or Command-click (Ctrl-click on Windows) cells to select several. Delete clears the selected cells.
• Drag a cell onto another cell to move its clip there.
• Removing an input from the show empties every slot it was in.
• Every edit is a step you can undo: clips, columns, layers, groups, the mode and the view. Firing and stopping are live actions, not undo steps.

Windows and macOS

Both apps have the same layers, columns, Master line, modes, groups, tempo and modulation, with the same words (Windows writes them in sentence case). What differs:

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