How to undo mistakes in a music program
Ctrl+Z undoes and Ctrl+Y redoes in Loop by Zaweba, for every edit and up to 100 steps, so you can try ideas without fear of losing work.
Mistakes in Loop by Zaweba are undone with Ctrl+Z and redone with Ctrl+Y. Undo covers every edit you make, from moving a clip to drawing a note or changing a mixer setting, and it keeps up to 100 steps, so you can go a long way back. If you undo one step too many, Ctrl+Y brings it back.
That makes experimenting safe, which is the real point of undo in a music program. Here's how to use it well, and the other habits that keep your work secure.
Undo and redo in practice
Press Ctrl+Z once and the last thing you did is reversed. Press it again and the one before that goes too. Each press steps back one edit, up to 100.
Ctrl+Y steps forward again. As long as you haven't made a new edit since undoing, you can move back and forth between versions to compare them. Listen to the song after an undo, redo, listen again, then decide.
If you undo several steps and then make a new change, the steps you undid are gone. That's how undo works in almost every program, so it's worth pausing to listen before you start editing again.
What counts as an edit
Every edit is covered: dragging loops onto the grid, moving, copying, stretching and deleting clips, notes in the piano roll, changes in the drum machine and riff editor, mixer and effect changes and automation points. Duplicating a clip with Ctrl+D or removing it with Delete can be reversed too.
Playback isn't an edit, so pressing Space, moving the playhead or toggling the metronome doesn't use up undo steps.
Using undo to try things
Undo turns every idea into a free experiment. Wonder whether the chorus would be better without drums? Delete them, listen, and Ctrl+Z if it's worse. Curious whether a different bass loop fits? Swap it in, compare, and undo if not.
The same goes for mixing. Try a bigger reverb send, a sharper EQ, a faster delay. If it doesn't help, step back.
When to save a copy instead
100 steps is a lot, but for bigger changes, such as rearranging a whole song, save a copy first with File > Save as (Ctrl+Shift+S). Then you have both versions as separate .zloop files and can go back days later, not just within one session.
Save often with Ctrl+S too. Saves are atomic, which means Loop writes the new file fully before replacing the old one, so a crash during a save won't leave you with a broken song.
Recording mistakes
When you record, a bad take doesn't need undo. Every pass over the same place is kept as a take, so the good one from earlier is still there. Pick it from the clip's right-click menu or the Instrument tab. If a recording lands slightly late every time, the issue is latency, and the latency compensation setting and the buffer in Tools > Preferences are the fix.
Other quick fixes
Mute instead of delete. The clip right-click menu has mute, so you can silence a part without losing it.
Bypass instead of remove. In an effects chain you can bypass an effect to hear the track without it, then switch it back.
Turn key lock off for a single clip from its right-click menu if a loop has moved into a key you didn't want, rather than deleting it.
Between undo, takes, mute and bypass, there's very little you can do in Loop that can't be taken back, so go ahead and try the odd idea.
