The Exchange Tracks process offers a flexible mechanism for exchanging and merging entire tracks.  It is started from the workspace with the Song-Exchange Tracks command.

When tracks are exchanged, their events and track setup are transferred to the destination track.  In some cases tracks can be converted from one type to another, as described below.

Depending on the configuration you select, the process may have two or three steps.  It always starts with the Select Destinations page and concludes with the Preview Song page.

You can transfer several tracks in the same process (in fact, sometimes this may be necessary to avoid losing or unintentionally merging them).

Melody to Melody

This is a straightforward transfer.  The Melody, Riff and Bass tracks are all the same type and their events can be directly exchanged with each other.

Melody to Ch+Rh

This is more complex.  Songtrix analyzes melody events and converts them to a chord sequence and rhythm events in the Chords and Rhythm tracks respectively.

This works best for melody tracks which contain chord-based accompaniment.  An example of use would be to extract the chords from a musical passage that you have just recorded from a piano keyboard.

If this type of exchange is selected, the Extract Chords page appears as an extra step in the middle of the process, with several options to influence the extraction operation.  This is the same page that appears during the Import Midi process to convert notes into chord rhythms.

Depending on the source events, this step may be lossy.  The Ch+Rh combination is more harmonically restricted than the free melodic tracks and a non-chordal melody may not transfer well.

Ch+Rh to Melody

This is the opposite process, where the combination of chords and rhythm events, in the Chords and Rhythm tracks respectively, are converted to melody events.

This useful is where you want two tracks to play chord rhythm parts.  The first part can be developed with the Chords and Rhythm tracks, and then moved over to a melody track so the next chord rhythm can be created.

Merging Tracks

If two source tracks are transferred to the same destination track, their events will be merged.  This can be a good way of creating event-rich parts or freeing up tracks for further development.  However, you should be aware of a couple of limitations.

Because the destination is a single track, the source parts will be sharing the same track setup (including voice, etc).  Also a track which is busy with events will be complex and difficult to read in staff sheets.

If your aim is to get more simultaneous tracks for music production, there is an alternative technique.

You can develop your work across two or more song files, each with identical bar structures.  These can then be exported to Midi files and imported into audio production software for mastering.  The export process contains specific features to support this.