This is a really good question. I don't recall anyone ever asking about it before.

Now, there is a concept of shifting by ticks in Play, Slide Tracks. There is also Melody, Edit Melody Track, Timeshift Melody. Is there somewhere else? Maybe. Which one are you referring to?

I never gave much thought to the default value in Play, Slide Tracks because once you change it, I believe that is global and sticks. [I will have to check that shortly. EDIT: yes.]

As a jazz player, I often use tick offset on the Melody, Soloist and Bass tracks to get the playing in the pocket. For swing tunes, the melody and soloist (harmony) will often be more laid back (positive number in tick offset). For Latin, they will often be anticipated (negative number). The bass especially in Latin jazz is often what is called "on top of the beat" or in other words, early (negative). This becomes more important when you use a hybrid of styles like I often do, i.e. use a non-Latin bass part on a Latin tune.

I think it's terrific that we have the ability to make these adjustments, and tick offset has been with us a very long time, more than a decade at least.

One caveat, and that is when exporting MIDI tracks into a notation program. Having a tick offset too large (in either direction) can make exported notation very strange. A series of quarter notes, for example, can come out as a series of sixteenth rests followed by double dotted eighth notes etc.

I even used the Edit Melody in reverse once. I had a melody that was badly time shifted from another program. I brought it into BIAB, shifted the melody, and exported back, fixing the problem.

Is this helpful?

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