Reverse an audio alternative

Use develop-selected-audio-clip to preserve a Session source, create a uniquely named copy in an empty slot, reverse it and audition the alternative. reverse_audio_clip also accepts an exact Arrangement clip for an explicitly scoped in-place edit. This Session workflow does not automatically copy and rename Arrangement clips.

The native action reverses the whole referenced sample, rather than only its visible loop. Live adjusts loop/region and warp placement while clip envelopes stay at their clip times. See Live's reversal behavior. Inspect observed timing before auditioning.

The tool requires macOS English Live, one expected Live instance, a saved Set, a globally unique nonempty clip name, stopped playback/recording, an unarmed/unfrozen target and no pending launches. Unknown safety flags refuse. It supports regular nonsymlink PCM/FLAC sources up to 60 seconds and 64 MiB, with 1–8 channels at 8–192 kHz; decoded data is also limited to 64 MiB. ffmpeg and ffprobe are required. Native lookup is bounded to 256 tracks and 8192 inventoried clip positions.

Plan with exact trackId, clipId and fresh expectedStateVersion, then confirm once. Native source identity/content, original file identity/hash and document ownership are bound into the plan. Execution selects Clip View, rechecks native selection and source bytes, and presses the identified Reverse button once. Focus changes and remains on the target. Existing native dialogs refuse.

Inspect reverseRequested, reverseVerified, clipIdentityPreserved, clipTargetVerified, clipControlsPreserved, verification, observed and verificationError separately. Live can replace the native clip object during reversal. The original object remains bound until the press; afterward verification requires the same native owner and Session slot, or the same Arrangement interval and surrounding clip objects, plus unchanged exposed gain/pitch/warp-mode controls and matching reversed audio. clipIdentityPreserved reports object continuity independently and can be false for a verified reversal. Verification compares complete decoded float frames in reverse time order while preserving channel order, sample rate and frame count, with maximum absolute sample error of 0.000002. It checks original source-file bytes independently. timingTransformationVerified and audibleOutcomeVerified remain false: complete envelope contents, Live's timing transformation, rendered sound and musical quality are outside this comparison.

A timeout or failed verification can leave a reversed clip and processed media. Read the exact current clip before continuing; never retry the toggle automatically, undo globally, delete partial files or replace the source to hide an unresolved result. Reversing again is a new explicit action, not guaranteed restoration of every clip setting. Keep the original alternative for comparison. Saving and collecting processed media require their existing workflows; a temporary reversed source alone is not a durable project handoff.