How to review transcription with playback and the stem mixer

Playback is the evidence pass between automatic detection and a finished chart. Backbeat Forge follows the written playhead while the source audio plays, letting you compare the score with the exact recording that produced it.

Start, pause, and seek

Use the transport play button to start or pause. Drag the position control to revisit a fill or uncertain onset. Auto-scroll keeps the active measure visible during longer scores. MIDI projects use deterministic local drum audition; audio projects use their connected source and available separated stems.

Open the mixer

Select Mixer while an audio project is open. The floating panel keeps the score visible and provides master gain plus per-stem volume, mute, and solo controls. A drum-stem source normally exposes the drum evidence directly. A separated full mix exposes the produced drums bus and the available non-drum material used for comparison.

Review with contrast

• Solo drums to hear whether a quiet onset survived separation.
• Lower or mute drums to compare the surrounding musical context.
• Bring the other material back when a bass or guitar transient may have caused a false positive.
• Keep master gain conservative so loudness does not bias the judgment of velocity or articulation.

Mixer controls change playback, not the written score. If you hear a wrong kit piece or misplaced onset, correct the event in the score editor. If the source itself is weak, record the limitation in your review rather than forcing a visually tidy but unsupported answer.

Project persistence

Mixer state is part of the .bforge project. Save after setting useful solo, mute, volume, and master values so the next review resumes with the same listening context. If the source cannot be reattached, the score still opens but playback controls may remain limited until the evidence is restored.

Read Edit and review the drum score for correction controls and Projects and source recovery for missing-audio behavior. The current desktop packages are on the download page.