Sets, banks, layers and clips

Sets, banks, layers, groups, columns and clips define the show. Groups add a shared processing stage; they are different from library Collections.

Set (a .uvj file)
 └── Bank  (what UI calls a "bank"; internally a deck)
      ├── Columns        (the x axis of the matrix)
      ├── Clips          (one per layer × column cell)
      └── colour tag     (optional)
 └── Layers           (shared by every bank)
 └── Groups           (optional shared and nested layer processing)
 └── Master           (composition-wide last stage)

Set

A set is the whole document you save as .uvj. Besides the composition itself, it carries:

• layer, clip and master effects;
• every transform;
• MIDI and keyboard mappings;
• effect presets references, file-tempo estimates, recent-trigger timestamps;
• tempo, meter, active bank, crossfader position and curve, autopilot settings, quantization;
• output geometry;
• a copy of your application preferences.

A new set contains one bank named Bank 1, four layers, ten columns, forty clip slots (of which twenty-four are populated with generators), a 1280 × 720 canvas at 120 BPM.

Opening or creating a set keeps your current application preferences rather than adopting the file's copy.

Bank

A bank owns its own columns and its own clips. Only the active bank is visible in the matrix — switching banks swaps the whole grid.

Internally banks are called decks, and you will occasionally see that word in menus. In the UI they are always banks.

Facts worth knowing:

• Maximum 32 banks, minimum 1. At 32 the import menu item disables.
• Each new bank gets a name of the form Bank <n>, copies the first bank's column layout, and contains no clips.
• Duplicate appends a copy named <original> copy, carrying its columns, every clip, each clip's appearance, its collection membership and its colour tag.
• Reordering changes only the visible list. Nothing about playback, coordinates or media owners moves.
• Switching banks does not restart other banks' playback: identical clips keep their runtimes, so nothing you were running elsewhere is disturbed.
• Export bank as set writes a normal, independently openable .uvj containing just that bank, with its own mappings re-pointed at the new document. Media paths are untouched.
• Delete stops that bank's playing clips, releases pending or held control input, compacts the remaining bank indices and unbinds mappings scoped to it. It is one undo step and cannot run while recording. The last bank cannot be deleted.
• Import requires the incoming clips' layer indices to already exist in the destination set, is limited to 16 MiB, and refuses banks with grouped routing ("Banks with grouped routing must be opened as a full set."). Imported banks arrive stopped, with fresh IDs and no recent-trigger stamps.

Layer

Layers are shared across all banks. A layer is one horizontal row of the matrix and has a stable index — the visible top-to-bottom order is the thing you change with Move up / Move down.

Each layer carries: name, opacity, blend mode, transition style and duration, crossfader bus, autopilot settings, mute and solo.

• Maximum 16 layers, minimum 1.
• Factory layers start at 1000 ms transitions. Layers you add later start at 0 ms — this asymmetry is real and worth knowing before you wonder why crossfades behave differently.
• New layers are named in reverse: index 0 displays as Layer 4 in a new set, because the topmost row is the highest number.
• Solo anywhere silences every non-soloed layer.
• Blend mode (Blend) offers 14 modes for layers — a smaller set than the 22 available to effect instances: Alpha, Add, 50 Add, Subtract, Multiply, Screen, Darken, Lighten, Difference, Exclusion, Overlay, Hard Light, Burn, Dodge.
• Crossfader bus is None, A or B. Unassigned layers are unaffected by the crossfader; bus A fades out as the crossfader moves toward B and vice versa.
• Removing a layer deletes its appearance, every clip look keyed to that layer index, and those clips' collection memberships.

Transitions

Every layer carries a Transition style and a Duration (s), which decide how the outgoing clip becomes the incoming one on that layer.

Default is Dissolve. Duration ranges 0 … 10 seconds and is stored as milliseconds.

Two things worth knowing:

• "Cut" is simply duration 0. There is no separate cut style — at zero duration the outgoing clip is disconnected immediately and the incoming one is at full weight.
• Factory layers start at 1000 ms; layers you add later start at 0 ms. This asymmetry is real, and it is why a newly added layer can look like it hard-cuts where the original four crossfade.

This is separate from the Crossfader curve's own Cut option, which belongs to the A/B crossfader and has nothing to do with layer transitions.

See Transforms and opacity for layer visual properties.

Groups

Use Groups above the layer controls to assign layers, nest groups and edit group FX/opacity. See Layer groups for routing, Solo/Bypass, removal and collapse behavior.

Column

A column is one vertical slice. It has an index and a name (Column <index+1> by default).

• Composition → Edit layers, columns and banks… → Add column explicitly adds a column. Import and duplication can also append columns as needed. Ordinary batch paste must fit the grid.
• Import/replacement can append a trailing empty column. Explicit Remove can remove the last empty column, so a bank is not guaranteed always to end with an empty slot.
• In the Composition structure editor you can Rename, Trigger and Remove a column; removal is disabled at one remaining column. Removing drops the column's clips from every layer in that bank.
• Matrix column headers trigger the whole column across its populated layers. Default digit/menu clip-trigger commands address the selected layer instead. See Clips and transport.

Clip

A clip is one cell: layer × column, inside a bank. A cell with no source is an empty slot — it cannot be triggered, and releasing a click on it opens the Source Browser.

A clip owns: source (media, generator, shader, editable text or nothing), trigger style, playback mode, timebase, speed and reverse, in/out points and retrigger policy, cue points, its own effect stack, its own transform, opacity, favourite flag, audio settings, file-tempo estimate and recent-trigger stamp.

Effects can belong to a clip, layer, group or master target. See The effect stack.