Reference

Glossary

The words fMusic uses, in alphabetical order. Bold text is the exact wording you see in the app; every entry links to the page where the concept is documented in full.

A

Accessibility (AX)

The macOS permission fMusic uses to drive Pro Tools’ own interface: menus, the Bounce and Strip Silence dialogs, the I/O Setup window, track colors. It is required: the app stays on the Allow Accessibility screen ("fMusic drives Pro Tools’ interface for you. macOS asks for your permission once.") until you turn fMusic on under Privacy & Security ▸ Accessibility, then continues on its own. See Minimum requirements and Troubleshooting.

Add to Queue

The wizard action that parks a job in the queue without running it and returns you to Home with the toast Added "{session}" to the queue. Its neighbor, Import, Organize or Print, enqueues the same job and starts it at once. See The queue and processing.

Audio normalization

fMusic’s gain staging, a Suite capability: during import each file is brought to the Target level you set, measured as True Peak or RMS, on a temporary copy, never on your source file. The switch is Normalize audio in Settings ▸ Import & Organize, off by default. See Gain staging.

B

Bounced Files

The folder next to the session ({session}/Bounced Files) where Pro Tools always writes each bounce first. fMusic waits for the file to finish writing, then moves it to the Save In destination from Print settings; with no destination chosen, the files simply stay there. See How to bounce your stems.

C

Capability

A feature that is on or off depending on your tier. All managed capabilities require Suite: Audio normalization, Track preset mode, Match template mode, Organize, Per-print mix source, Markers per print, Per-print audio formats, Categories from session elements (the Folder export mode), Print preview, Mixed queue and Offline use. A capability outside your tier is never hidden: its control stays visible, disabled, with a Suite badge. Compare Limit. See Plans, limits and the Suite badge.

Category (Export)

A row of the table in Settings ▸ Export: a name, a color and a reference in the session, one bus in the Routing export mode (Source) or one or more routing folders in the Folder mode (Folders, Suite). Adding a category to a print brings in its tracks and, in Routing mode, the bus the print captures from. See Favorite and custom prints.

Category (Import)

A row of the Categories table in Settings ▸ Import & Organize: a name, a color, the Elements it claims, a default Destination (a route, or a template track in Track preset mode) and its Strip Silence switch and parameters. It decides the name, color, bus and silence handling of every recognized track; matching runs from the top of the table down. See Customize labels and categories.

Current Session

The session Pro Tools has open right now. On Home it is the first row of the Organize Session and Export Deliverables sections (the other row is Open a Session…), and on Session Settings it is a Destination option for Import. See Changing sessions.

Custom print

A print that belongs to the current Export visit rather than to your library: created with Create Custom Print, by a global print shortcut, or by importing a prints file, and listed under Custom Prints (N). Custom prints are cleared when you enter Export again, except those created by a shortcut. Intro allows one. See Favorite and custom prints.

D

Destination

Two things carry this name. In the Import wizard, the Destination card chooses the session the import goes into: Current Session, New Session, Existing Session or Template. In the Categories table, the Destination column is the category’s default route (see Route). See Import customization.

E

Editor (Visualizer)

The first page of the Import and Organize wizard (Step 1 of 2), where every track is a lane on a timeline you can audition, trim, split, rename, recategorize and reorder before deciding how it lands in Pro Tools. In Settings the editor is called Visualizer. Intro loads 8 tracks in it (the Editor tracks limit). See The editor.

Elements

The vocabulary of canonical words the recognizer reads from file names, about 107 words organized in twelve families. Each word is claimed by exactly one Import category: the Elements cell of the Categories table opens an editor with a Claimed tab and a Library tab, and claiming a word another category holds moves it. A category that claims nothing receives no track and prints nothing. See Customize labels and categories.

Export mode

The single global choice in Settings ▸ Export that defines what an Export category names: Routing (one bus per category, captured without soloing anything) or Folder (one or more routing folders per category, soloed together and captured from the main output; Suite). See Favorite and custom prints.

F

Family

One of the ten instrument classes the recognition model can output (Bass, Brass, Drums, Guitar, Keys, SFX, Strings, Synth, Vocals, Woodwinds), each with a fixed color, or one of the twelve families the Elements library is organized in, which add Percussion and Backing Vocals. A track’s family is the starting point for finding its Import category. See Organize tracks by category.

Favorite print

A print that persists across sessions: starred in the print editor (Add to Favorites / Remove from Favorites), kept in your library and re-attached to tracks by name in every session, listed under Favorite Prints (N). With the factory template loaded, four favorites are generated automatically (Accappella, Instrumental, TV Mix, Full Mix). Intro allows one favorite. See Favorite and custom prints.

Forte rename

The naming engine that names every track in one batch before anything reaches Pro Tools: a canonical instrument name when the file name identifies instruments (18_AcGtr1Mic1.wav becomes ACOUSTIC GUITAR 1 MIC 1), otherwise the file name cleaned of extension, BPM and separators. No two tracks ever share a name, and the casing then follows Naming style (default Title Casing). See Batch rename.

fPreset

An fMusic-only file (.fbus) holding your whole Import configuration: categories with their colors and element vocabularies, routes and naming. The fPreset row in Settings ▸ Import & Organize has Import… and Export…; loading is instant, never touches Pro Tools, and does not adopt the other machine’s template. .forte files saved by earlier versions of fMusic are translated on import. See How to manage presets.

G

Global print shortcuts

Three system-wide hot keys that create a custom print from the tracks selected in Pro Tools while Pro Tools is in front: Print selection (solo) (default ⌘⌥C), Print selection (mute) (⌃⌥C) and Print selection as individual tracks (⌘⌥V). They are set under Export Global Shortcuts in Settings ▸ Shortcuts and do not need Accessibility access. See Bounce with shortcuts.

H

Home (Start Flow)

The dashboard, titled Start Flow, with three equal sections, Import Audio (the drop zone), Organize Session and Export Deliverables, the Recent Sessions shelf below them and the Queue control in the toolbar. See Changing sessions.

I

Import At

The picker in the Placement card of Session Settings that decides where the imported clips land in time: Session Start, Selection (the live timeline selection in Pro Tools, read at import time), Marker (a memory location of the session) or Spot (a Position typed in Min:Secs or, when the editor is on a musical grid, Bars|Beats). Its companion is Place Tracks. See Import customization.

Inherit

A print parameter that follows the project value set on the Print settings page instead of carrying its own. The list shows (Inherit) for mix source and audio formats; the print editor spells out what is inherited, Inherit (project default) or the derived bus by name. The opposite is an Override. See Inherit vs override.

J

Job

One unit of work in the queue: an export, an import or an organize (badges EXPORT, IMPORT, ORGANIZE), with a title, a subtitle such as the print or track count, the date it was added and a self-contained payload, so a waiting job can run even after you quit and relaunch fMusic. Its card shows a status badge (Queued, Rendering…, Completed, Completed with issues, Partially applied, Failed, Cancelled) and a checklist per phase. See The queue and processing.

L

Limit

A numeric cap set by tier, as opposed to an on/off Capability. There are three, and they apply to Intro only: Editor tracks (8 lanes in the editor), Favorite prints (1) and Custom prints (1). Studio removes them, which is why their capsules read Upgrade to Studio. See Plans, limits and the Suite badge.

M

Marker

A Pro Tools memory location as fMusic reads it: the target of Import At ▸ Marker, and the From and To boundaries of a Markers range on a print (Suite), listed as number and name, for example 3 · Chorus 2. fMusic only reads memory locations; it never creates them in Pro Tools, and the markers you drop on the editor’s own timeline stay in the editor. See Print parameters.

Match template

A placement mode (Suite) in which the template’s track structure comes into the session first, through Import Session Data, and each track is then created against the template row its category names, with the routing folder matched automatically. In the wizard the routing column becomes Match Tracks. See Assign routings.

Mix source

The bus or output a print is captured from. A print’s own Mix source (Suite) always wins; otherwise the print inherits it from its Export category or the template, then from the project Mix source in Print settings, and when nothing in the chain names one, it bounces the session’s main mix. The route list is read from Pro Tools and can be re-read with Refresh I/O from Pro Tools. See Print parameters.

Mode (Solo / Mute)

How a print isolates its tracks while bouncing: S solos the print’s tracks, M mutes every other track. A Mute print always renders one summed file, so the Individual files formats are disabled on it. Click the badge in the print list to switch. See Print parameters.

Move into routing folders

The switch shown in Routing mode in Settings ▸ Import & Organize, on by default. In the app’s words: "When a category’s bus is a routing folder’s input, its tracks are created inside that folder." Off, tracks are still routed to the bus but stay outside the folder. See Routing folders.

O

Organize

The module that edits a session Pro Tools already has open: rename, recolor, reorder, re-route, delete and merge tracks, through the same two-page wizard as Import. It is entered from the Organize Session section of Home, needs the session saved to disk, and requires Suite. See What is Organize and Applying changes.

Override

A value a print carries for itself instead of inheriting the project value: a route picked in its Mix source menu, or its own format list under Custom audio formats (both Suite). Once overridden, that parameter stops following Print settings; everything else on the print keeps inheriting. See Inherit vs override.

P

Place Tracks

The Session Settings picker that decides where new tracks appear in the track list: Top of Session, Bottom of Session, In Routing Folder (the only option in Routing mode while Move into routing folders is on, and otherwise offered in the template modes) or Below a Track, which needs an open session and shows its Tracks picker. See Import customization.

Placement mode

The Placement mode row in Settings ▸ Import & Organize, which decides how tracks are placed and routed by Import and Organize alike: Routing (every tier, the default), Match template and Track preset (Suite). It is a setting, not a per-import question. See Assign routings.

Preflight

The check of every routing destination against the session, run by the job before any track is created or changed. A destination that provably does not exist blocks the job and the report names it; destinations that cannot be verified are skipped, leaving their tracks unrouted with a warning rather than an accusation. See Assign routings.

Presets and prints

The Export toolbar menu for moving configuration between machines: Import Preset… and Export Preset… carry the whole export configuration (naming, method, mix source, formats, delivery, destination and the custom prints), while Import Prints… and Export Selected Print(s)… carry prints only. Favorites never travel in a preset. See Export presets and print files.

Print

The definition of a bounce, reusable across runs: a set of tracks, a Mode, an Audio Format (1 file (Interleaved), 1 file (Mono), Individual files (Interleaved), Individual files (Mono)), a Range, and optionally its own mix source and audio formats. The name is optional; an unnamed print renders as Print N. A print is either a favorite or a custom print. See Favorite and custom prints.

Print preview

Auditioning a print before the batch runs (Suite): the Play button on a print row (Preview this print) opens a waveform bar under the row that you can play and seek; Space stops it. See Print preview.

Print settings

The second page of the Export wizard, holding the project-wide values every print inherits: Naming (base filename, suffix, casing), Bounce (mix source and method), Audio formats, Delivery (Add prints to session) and Destination (Save In). See Print parameters.

PTSL

The Pro Tools Scripting Layer, Avid’s local scripting interface. fMusic uses it to read the session (tracks, clips, memory locations, timeline bounds, I/O) and to run imports and headless bounces; what PTSL cannot do is driven through Accessibility. It requires Pro Tools 2024.3 or later with PTSL enabled. See Minimum requirements and Troubleshooting.

Q

Queue (Processing)

The single list every job runs through, opened from the Queue control in the toolbar (Show Queue). The screen is titled Queue at rest and Processing while it runs; Start and Stop drive the whole run, Clear finished removes completed jobs. On Intro and Studio the queue accepts one module at a time; on Suite import, organize and export jobs line up together (Mixed queue). See The queue and processing.

R

Range

The stretch of the timeline a print renders. In the print editor, Kind offers Time (two timecodes), Bars|Beats and Markers (Suite: From Session Start or a memory location, To a memory location or Session End). With nothing set, the list shows Whole session. See Print parameters.

Recent Sessions

The shelf below the three Home sections ("Sessions you open appear here.") with up to 10 cards, each naming the session, when it was loaded, how many tracks it had and the mode it was opened in; one click reopens it in that mode (Reopen in {mode}). Reopening a session moves it to the front. See Changing sessions.

Route

The destination a track is assigned to: an output, a bus or a routing folder. Every track is prefilled with its category’s default route, and the Route Tracks table lets you change it per row through a searchable picker (Select output, grouped as Outputs, Buses, Routing Folders and Other) or for a whole selection with Assign Bus. A route that names a routing folder is translated to the folder’s input bus. See Assign routings.

Routing (mode)

The default placement mode, available on every tier: tracks are routed to their category’s output, new ones are created there and organized ones are re-routed in place. Nothing is read from a template’s track structure. See Assign routings.

Routing folder

A Pro Tools folder track with an input bus. fMusic reads a template’s routing folders as Import categories (one folder, one category), creates tracks inside the folder whose input bus their route names when Move into routing folders is on, and in the Folder export mode lets an Export category name one or more folders. See Routing folders.

S

Session Settings

The second page of the Import and Organize wizard (Step 2 of 2): Import Session Data on the left (Placement, Destination in Import only, Sample Rate when there is something to say) and Route Tracks or Match Tracks on the right. Confirming it opens the Import into Pro Tools? or Organize a Pro Tools session? dialog and hands the job to the queue. See Import customization.

Stereo verdict

What fMusic decides about a stereo file by measuring its channels: fake stereo (identical content in both channels, folded to Convert (Mono Sum) by default), hard-panned left or right (one channel silent, kept as Mono Left or Mono Right) or true stereo, which is never converted. Separate .L/.R files are merged into one stereo track first. Each case has its own rule under Stereo-to-mono in Settings ▸ Import & Organize. See Stereo to mono.

Strip silence

Removing silence from the imported clips. Pro Tools does the cutting, through Edit ▸ Strip Silence, after the import, using the parameters of each Import category: Silence threshold (default −50 dBFS), Minimum length (default 100 ms), Kept before the clip and Kept after the clip (default 0 ms). fMusic only sets Pro Tools’ sliders, so there is no preview of the cut in the editor. See Strip silence.

Suite badge

The uppercase tier pill (SUITE) shown next to a control your plan does not include, for example the normalization rows in Settings or the Play button of a print. The control stays in place and disabled, with a tooltip ending Available in fMusic Suite. A badge states your plan; the Upgrade capsule is the action. See Plans, limits and the Suite badge.

T

Template

A Pro Tools session file (.ptxt or .ptx) loaded through the Pro Tools session template row in Settings ▸ Import & Organize. Reading it closes and reopens your open session, and from it fMusic derives Import categories, default routes and template tracks. The factory template Forte_Template_26 is connected out of the box: its 31 routing folders are the 31 factory categories. See Using your mix templates.

Template track

The row of the template a track is created against in the Match template and Track preset modes. Each category takes the first track of its routing folder by default, and the Template Track column of the wizard (Select track) lets you pick another one per row. See Assign routings.

Tier

Your plan level, which decides capabilities and limits: Intro (the download without an active plan, with the three limits), Studio and Suite, in that order. Intro and Studio need an internet connection; Suite also works offline. See Plans, limits and the Suite badge.

Track preset

A Pro Tools Track Preset file (.ptxp) recalled on a track to give it routing, plug-ins, inserts, sends and color, and the name of the placement mode (Suite) in which every imported or organized track receives one, read from the Track presets folder (default ~/Documents/Pro Tools/Track Presets/Avid). See Assign routings.

U

Unclassified

The verdict for a track that neither the recognition model nor the file name can place with confidence: named Unclassified, gray, outside every category, with no bus, no strip silence and no template track. Change its category by hand in the editor or in the routing table. See Organize tracks by category.

Upgrade capsule

The sparkle button that appears where a limit or capability is outside your plan, reading Upgrade to Studio for the Intro limits or Upgrade to Suite for a Suite capability, for example over the Organize Session section on Home. It opens the fMusic pricing page; nothing is purchased inside the app. See Plans, limits and the Suite badge.

V

Visualizer

The name Settings gives the editor. Its pane holds Timeline detail, the Grid defaults a session starts with, the Tempo switches and the Preview output device used by all in-app playback. See Settings.