Use track alternatives

You can create and edit track alternatives and switch between them. Each alternative can contain different regions or arrangements, while sharing the same channel strip and plug-ins. Track alternatives are like “playlists” for individual tracks that can be used to try out different ideas or archive tracks at different stages of development.

One track alternative is always active and plays when you play the project. You can switch between different alternatives to choose and edit the one you want to use.

By default, new track alternatives are named alphabetically (A, B, C, and so on) when you create them. You can rename track alternatives to follow a different organization, for example, or to use descriptive names.

You can use track alternatives to easily create comps (composite takes) by copying regions or selections from different track alternatives into a new, empty track alternative. You can also unpack takes to new track alternatives. For information about takes, see Record multiple audio takes and Record additional software instrument takes.

Figure. Tracks area showing multiple track alternatives, with track alternatives menu visible in track headers.

When Show Advanced Tools is selected in the Advanced preferences pane, you can show and use track alternatives.

Show track alternatives

Do one of the following:

Add a track alternative

Duplicate the active track alternative

Choose a different track alternative

Rename track alternatives

Do one of the following:

Rename track alternatives using region names

  1. In the Tracks area, select a region.

  2. In the track header, click the Track Alternatives button , then choose Rename by Region.

Show all existing track alternatives

Hear an inactive track alternative

Make a track alternative active

Move or copy regions to the active alternative using key commands

  1. Select the regions you want to move or copy (on any inactive alternative).

  2. Do one of the following:

    • To move regions to the active alternative: Use the Move Selected Regions to Selected Track key command.

    • To copy regions to the active alternative: Use the Copy Selected Regions to Selected Track key command.

Delete all inactive track alternatives

Logic Pro can also create track alternatives automatically for overlapping recordings. For information, see Recording preferences.