Manual : Editing Notes

Editing Notes

The Pianoroll, Score and Drum editors can not only select parts of a track (like an audio editor), they can also select or add notes. You can use this to correct mistakes or to build tracks from scratch.

The Pianoroll, Score and Drum editors share many common properties:

Editor Modes

The editor can work in one of three modes:

Select Part: Works just like an audio editor, i.e., the mouse doesn't "see" the notes at all.
Select Notes: Clicking a note selects it. Pressing the mouse in "empty space" and moving it lassoes notes. Selected notes can be moved.
Add Notes: Clicking in "empty space" adds a note. Clicking a note selects it. Moving the selected note(s) is possible as well.

The buttons in the bottom left corner can be used to switch modes. The Alt key (Windows) / Option key (Mac) can be used to temporarily switch between Select Notes and Add Notes mode: in Select Notes mode you can add a note using this key, and in Add Notes mode you can lasso notes using this key.

Adding Notes

In Add Notes mode, notes can be added by clicking the mouse.

Selecting Notes

In Select Notes or Add Notes mode, a note can be selected by clicking it. Multiple notes can be selected by holding the Ctrl key (Windows) / Command key (Mac) while clicking notes. In Select Notes mode, you can also lasso a rectangular region. Selected notes appear in red.

Moving Notes

Notes can be moved using the mouse. The editor will scroll automatically if the mouse approaches any of the four sides of the editor. Notes that are being added, dragged or selected are audible.

Changing Note Velocity

The Note Editor (see below) can be used to change a note's velocity. It can be done faster using the "V" mouse modifier key (see Mouse Modifiers): press the left mouse button while holding the "V" key. A vertical slider pops up which can be controlled by moving the mouse. The slider disappears upon releasing the mouse button.

Note Editor

If a single note is selected, the EDIT button will pop up the Note Editor. Alternatively, you can double-click the note.
If the Time Scale is set to bars, the Position of the note is expressed in bars and beats, and the Duration of the note is expressed in musical notes (i.e., 0.25 is a quarter note). Values like "1/4" can be typed in the Duration box as well. The down arrow next to the Duration box can be used to select a value from a predefined list.

The EDIT button pops up a slightly different window if multiple notes are selected.

Right click menus

Right clicking (Windows) / Ctrl-clicking (Mac) a note pops up a menu offering various edit options. Doing the same in "empty space" pops up a menu to add notes or tuplets, among other things.

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