From quick search I found some confusing references how this feature might behave:
=== Arm track determines whether the track is armed or not. Only the armed tracks are affected by editing operations. Make sure you have enough armed destination tracks when you paste or splice material or some tracks in the material will get left out. In addition to restricting editing operations, the armed tracks in combination with the active region determine where material is inserted when loading files. If the files are loaded with one of the insertion strategies which doesn't delete the existing project, the armed tracks will be used as destination tracks. Press Tab while the cursor is anywhere over a track to toggle the track arming status. Press Shift-Tab while the cursor is over a track to toggle the arming status of every other track. === from http://heroinewarrior.com/cinelerra/cinelerra.html how you can wonder if _attach effect_ is editing operation or not... https://www.cinelerra-gg.org/bugtracker/view.php?id=433 from what I read so far main worry was about _moving_ pieces of media on tracks around, not effect insert per se. I also suspect such strange/uncommon system of working with audio partially comes from broadcast2000 times (you can find image of it with two 5.1 tracks from dvd!). mono/stereo is easy and most commonly used. But 5.1 and higher exist, and obviously more complex to work with. === Make sure all the tracks are “armed” – that is, each of the “Arm track” icons next to the track are highlighted. Until a track is armed, you are mostly unable to edit that track. === from https://www.calcmaster.net/cinelerra/forgotten-guide/04-media-to-tracks/ {probably copy/paste from cv and earlier manuals..} *mostly* unable to edit this track is interesting statement.... https://cinelerra.skolelinux.narkive.com/YlRvb3Hu/cincvs-cinelerra-on-ubuntu "edit actions manipulate /all/ clips on all armed tracks" - from 2006... so it seems it was _not quite_ lock track behavior... and finally article from 2010.. I think CinGG fixed most/all of most problematic points.. === Stuff it does that I'm indifferent to So there's also some stuff that's different, that I don't love and don't hate: - "Arming" tracks. By default, all tracks are "armed". This means that the little red button next to them is highlighted and you can affect those tracks with editing decisions. If you're inserting stuff then the highest level track that's armed is where the clip ends up. If you're deleting, trimming, highlighting, adding effects, etc., then your decisions apply to ALL ARMED TRACKS. Which gets real confusing real fast when you realise you've accidentally cut three seconds out of your audio track or put an effect on a track you didn't mean too, or trimmed the wrong clip. It's VERY IMPORTANT to only arm the tracks you're using at that time. Usually just one at a time unless you're moving a clip from one track to another. There are times when this is very useful, like if I do have two adjacent clips on different tracks and want to nudge them both back or forward without losing their adjacency. Or if you want to make sure more than one track fades out at exactly the same time, or has the exact same effect (including keyframes) applied. But also it is often confusing. I often have more tracks than I can comfortably see in the size of the timeline window that I'm comfortable using. If I forget what I'm doing, I might accidentally screw up another track and then I have to go find where how and what the hell I've done after I've rendered it all screwed up. I don't hate this method. Because when I do remember what I'm doing (which is most of the time), it really does help make sure that tracks you aren't currently using are "safe" from getting screwed up. You can lock things down tight. But equally I'm not in love with it. === from https://beccatoria.dreamwidth.org/111857.html?thread=1540337&style=site Have fun!