Adding and Changing Song Sections

Rename, split, merge, delete and loop sections directly in Pliris — right-click any section on the arrangement timeline. Resizing is a Pro-mode boundary drag, not a right-click action. Reordering still happens in Ableton. Every edit is undoable and lands in History.

Sections are the coloured blocks on the arrangement timeline — Intro, Verse, Chorus, and the rest. They come from one of two places: an Analyze pass you turn on after dropping stems (Analyze defaults off), or the locators in your Ableton Live Set.

Almost all of it you can now do inside Pliris, by right-clicking a section on the arrangement timeline. Only reordering still needs Ableton.

This changed recently. Section structure used to be read-only in Pliris — you moved locators in your Live Set and re-imported. Splitting, merging, deleting and resizing now happen on the arrangement page.

What happens where

Change Where you do it
Rename a section Pliris — right-click, or double-click the section
Set a section's cue Pliris — right-click the section
Split a section in two Pliris — right-click → Split here (splits at the playhead)
Merge two sections Pliris — right-click → Merge with previous / Merge with next
Delete a section Pliris — right-click → Delete section
Resize / move a boundary Pliris — drag the boundary between two sections in Pro mode
Loop a section Pliris — right-click → Loop section (persisted / exported). L alone is only a temporary transport loop while listening — it does not mark the section
Reorder sections Ableton — rearrange the arrangement
Add a section at a new point Pliris — Split here, then rename the new half

What you can change in Pliris

Most of it lives on a right-click of the coloured section block on the timeline. Resize is the exception — that is a Pro-mode boundary drag, not a menu item.

  1. Open the song's arrangement page (see How to Use the Song Arrangement Page).
  2. Right-click the coloured section block on the timeline.
  3. Choose the action you want — Rename, Split here, Edit cue, Loop section, Merge with previous, Merge with next or Delete section.

To resize a section (move a boundary), switch to Pro mode and drag the boundary between two sections — there is no resize item on the right-click menu. Full walkthrough: How to Change the Length of a Song Section. Pro mode and the Song lane are covered in Editing the Grid.

Edits save as you make them; there's no separate Save step and no Edit mode to turn on first. ⌘Z undoes the last one, and every edit is written to Snapshot History.

None of this changes your audio. Splitting, merging, resizing or deleting a section moves the labels over your song — which span is called Chorus, where the boundary sits. Your stems are never trimmed, re-rendered or time-stretched, nothing is re-analyzed, and no credits are spent.

Split here splits at the playhead, so position the playhead first — it's greyed out if the playhead isn't inside the section you right-clicked.

To change tempo or time signature, switch to Pro mode: see Editing the Grid.

Rename section changes the label you see on the timeline and the label that goes out in Ableton exports — see How to Rename Song Sections. Edit cue maps that section to an Ableton template cue (an "All-in" on the Chorus, say), or to No cue for this section — see How to Change Cues in Pliris.

Changes land in Snapshot History, so a bad rename is always recoverable.

Prefer Ableton? The locator round-trip still works

You do not need Ableton for split / merge / delete / loop / resize anymore. Split, merge, delete and loop are on the right-click menu above; resize is the Pro-mode boundary drag (not a menu item). If your Live Set is where you already work, you can still change structure there and push it back.

Pliris reads section structure from the locators (cue markers along the top of the Ableton arrangement timeline). One locator starts one section, and that section runs until the next locator — there's no separate "end" marker:

  • Add a section — drop a new locator where you want it to start. The section before it shortens to meet it.
  • Delete or merge sections — delete the locator that starts the second one. The section before it absorbs the space, which is exactly what a merge is.
  • Split a section — add a locator part-way through it.
  • Move a boundary — drag the locator. See How to Change the Length of a Song Section for which locator to move for which edge.
  • Reorder sections — rearrange the arrangement in Ableton (still the only place reorder lives).

Then push it back:

  1. If you don't already have a Live Set for this song — common when sections came from stem analysis rather than an Ableton import — open the arrangement and click Download → Ableton Set. That needs manage access on the band (band admin, or permission to manage arrangements or create setlists); see Band Access Levels. Open the downloaded .als in Ableton Live.
  2. Make the locator changes in Ableton Live and save the set.
  3. Open the song's arrangement page in Pliris.
  4. Drag the updated .als anywhere onto the page — a Drop .als overlay appears.
  5. Review the Update arrangement? summary. It lists the section count before and after, plus Added sections and Removed sections by name, so you can check the change landed before committing to it.
  6. Click Update arrangement.

Your stems aren't touched — Pliris re-reads the structure around your audio, not the audio itself, and nothing is re-uploaded or re-analyzed. Full detail in Updating an Arrangement from Ableton and What Gets Imported When You Update from Ableton. To push edits across a whole show at once, see Updating Your Set's Arrangements from Ableton.

Every drop is captured in Snapshot History before it applies, so you can restore the previous version if the change isn't right.

If your song has no sections at all

An arrangement with an empty timeline usually means analysis hasn't run on it yet, not that it ran and found nothing. Sections are written by Analyze, which is a separate step from uploading your stems.

Open the arrangement and look for the Analyze card on the Lyrics or Chords tab. If it's there, analysis hasn't run yet — start it, and sections, tempo, key, lyrics and chords all come back together. See Uploading and Analyzing Your Stems.

Two things worth knowing:

  • Analyze needs a full mix to listen to. Pliris builds one from your stems automatically, so this normally just works — but a song uploaded as a handful of separated stems with no click or guide track may also show a tempo of 0 until analysis has run.
  • A song imported from Ableton doesn't need it. If the song came in as a Live Set, its sections come from your locators. You can edit them in Pliris (right-click / Pro mode) or drop an updated .als if you changed locators in Live.

If you'd rather not wait on analysis, the Ableton route above will populate sections on its own.

MIDI cues are a different thing — and those you can add in the app

Don't let the word "cue" run the two together. Section cues are the export labels described above. MIDI cues are the timed messages that fire your external gear mid-song — a patch change on the Helix, a scene change on a mixer — and those are fully editable inside Pliris.

They live on the MIDI cues tab under the player on the arrangement page. You don't need a special Edit mode for them.

  • Add — set the type (Preset, Program Change, Control Change, or Note) and value, then click Add. Or just press C while the song is playing.
  • Edit — hover the cue row, click the ⋮ menu, choose Edit cue.
  • Delete — same ⋮ menu, Delete cue.
  • Re-time — the ◀ ▶ nudge arrows on the cue row.
  • Record live — click Record, pick your input and output, then change patches on your gear while the song plays and each change lands as a cue.

You'll need at least one output first (name it after the device, e.g. "Helix"). Full walkthrough: How to Change Cues in Pliris and Programming MIDI Cues for External Gear.

Frequently asked questions

Can I add a section in the Bands app?

Yes — put the playhead where the new section should start, right-click the section that contains it, and choose Split here, then rename the new half. There is no separate Add section item; split-then-rename is how you create one. You can still add a locator in Ableton and drop the .als if that is where you work.

How do I merge two sections?

Right-click either section and choose Merge with previous or Merge with next. That joins the labels — it does not delete any audio. The Ableton alternative is still available: delete the locator that starts the second section, save, and drop the updated .als.

Can I delete a section I don't want?

Yes — right-click → Delete section. That removes the label for that stretch; your stems stay put. Or delete its locator in Ableton and re-drop the .als.

Why can't I right-click and add sections like the app suggested?

You can. The right-click menu now includes Rename, Split here, Edit cue, Loop section, Merge with previous, Merge with next, and Delete section. There is still no standalone Add section item — use Split here at the playhead, then rename. Reorder is the one structural change that still needs Ableton.

My song analyzed with no sections — is that a bug?

Usually it means analysis hasn't been run on that song yet, since uploading stems and analyzing are separate steps. Check the arrangement for the Analyze card on the Lyrics or Chords tab. If analysis has genuinely run and still returned nothing, that's worth reporting.

Where to go next

Stuck at any point, click the support bubble in the bottom-right corner of any page, or email support@fromstudiotostage.com.