Arranging & Editing

tip

blueberry's interface is optimized for touch, so if you have a touchscreen laptop or tablet, try using blueberry on it! Alternatively, the interface works equally well with a traditional mouse and keyboard.

blueberry Arrangement View

Working with Clips

Clips in blueberry function similarly to how you might expect if you've previously used a DAW or audio editor. By default, a song is imported as a single clip. Once imported, however, you're free to split, move, and otherwise edit clips as you like, opening up a world of opportunities for live remixing and mashups.

Cropping Clips

Crop a Clip

Touch the left or right edge of a clip and drag left or right to crop the clip.

Moving Clips

Move a Clip

Touch anywhere inside a clip and drag to move the clip.

The Edit Bar

Edit Bar

info

It's not depicted in any screenshots here, but the caret is the red insertion marker that appears when you touch somewhere in the arrangement.

blueberry's edit bar provides several common clip editing operations in one location:

  • Sharp and flat icons: adjust clip pitch (key)
  • BPM icons: double or halve clip tempo
  • Scissors icon (or Ctrl/Cmd + E): split clip at caret
  • Copy icon (or Ctrl/Cmd + D): duplicate clip
  • Trash can icon (or Del/Backspace): delete clip

Additionally, the following information is displayed between the pitch adjustment icons:

  • Clip's current key and relative key
  • Difference between clip's current key and original key
  • Clip's original key and original tempo

Transport Bar

Transport Bar

The transport bar is your overall control for the DJ set. From left to right, here are its features:

  • Global tempo: defines the current tempo to which all songs are synchronized. Drag right or up to increase, or down or left to decrease. Tap the + or - buttons to adjust the tempo by one BPM.
  • Play: Begins the master playhead from the location of the caret.
  • Stop: Stops the master playhead.
  • Record: Prompts you for a location and filename, then records the master output to the specified file.
  • Cue: The cue button has three different behaviors depending on its current state.
    • If the cue playhead is not playing, begins the cue playhead from the location of the caret.
    • If the cue playhead is playing and the caret has moved since the cue playhead began, moves the cue playhead to the current location of the caret.
    • If the cue playhead is playing and the caret has not moved since the cue playhead began, stops the cue playhead.

Understanding the Playheads

  • Master playhead (green): what the audience hears
  • Cue playhead (yellow): what you hear in your headphones

These playheads are entirely independent of each other. At any time, you can start, stop, or move one playhead without affecting the other. They would normally be routed to separate audio outputs - usually speakers and headphones as mentioned above (see the audio configuration guide for details on how to set this up).

Basic Example

  • Load a song into the first deck and start the master playhead at the beginning.
  • Find another song, and place it at a natural transition point relative to the first song, but on the second deck.
  • Open the mixer.
  • Turn the master volume of the second deck to zero.
  • Start the cue playhead from the transition you created, moving or adjusting clips if you aren't happy with your original idea.
  • Once the master playhead reaches your new transition, smoothly blend the songs by adjusting each deck's volume and EQ.

Congratulations! You've just performed your first basic transition with blueberry.