> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.gridshift.studio/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Convert Tracks

> Turns a sample track into an instrument track that plays the same sample in the built-in Sampler, and back. Select the track and run Convert to Instrument Track from the Command Palette.

## Play a sample track's sample from the keys

Select a sample track, press `⌘K` and run **Convert to Instrument Track**. The track now plays its sample through the built-in [Sampler](/samples/sampler.md), pitched across the keyboard. You can also right-click the waveform in the Inspector's **Sample** section and choose **Convert to Instrument Track**.

## Turn a Sampler track back into a sample track

Select an instrument track that runs the built-in Sampler and run **Convert to Sample Track**, or right-click the Sampler card in the Inspector. The track becomes a sample track with the same sample.

## Good to know

* **Both directions remove every clip on the track.** An audio clip can't live on an instrument track and a MIDI clip can't live on a sample track. When clips would go, Gridshift asks first and names what is lost; **Convert** goes ahead.
* **The track stays the same track.** Its name, color, effects, sends, group, ducking and mixer automation stay where they were.
* **Only Sampler tracks convert back.** An instrument track running an Audio Unit has no sample to keep, so **Convert to Sample Track** is unavailable there (**No Sample to Keep**). An instrument track with nothing loaded converts to an empty sample track.
* **Going back to a sample track drops what a sample track can't hold**: the [MIDI effects](/sounds/midi-effects.md), the Sampler's root note, envelope, loop and voicing settings once you changed them, and the instrument as a target of its automation lanes. The warning lists each.
* **A conversion is one undo step.**

> **Details**
>
> * **The sample keeps everything Gridshift knows about it**: waveform, transients, warp settings and detected key.
> * **The Sampler's root note is set from the sample's detected pitch**, so the sample plays at its own pitch on that key.
> * **An empty sample track converts to an empty instrument track.**
> * **Both commands act on one selected track.** With several selected, or none, the Command Palette shows them as unavailable.
> * **MIDI bindings learned onto the instrument are cleared** when it goes, so they do not jump to the next instrument you load.
> * **A sample track that serves as the [groove](/timing/groove.md) template stops being one** when it becomes an instrument track.
> * **Converting during playback takes effect at once.** The removed clips stop sounding right away.


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