The Piano Roll View displays all events (notes, etc.)
of one track at a time in a grid format that looks much like a player
piano roll (p. 169ff). To access this view, either right-click
in the Track or Clips pane to see the menu, or, from the menu bar
select View, New, Piano Roll.
Notes are displayed as horizontal bars, and percussion notes a
diamonds. Pitch runs from bottom to top, with the left vertical
margin indicating the pitches as piano keys--i.e., each note entry is
lined up with the actual piano key representing that pitch. Time
is displayed running left to right with vertical measure and beat
boundaries.
Piano Roll view has two main panes: Notes (upper half of
window) and Controllers (lower half of window). When you first
open a Piano Roll window, the Note pane is full size and the Controllers
pane is hidden at the bottom. Double-click the border to maximize
the Controllers pane, or drag the border as high as you want.
Tips
- Any Edit commands you use in a Piano Roll view operate only on the
single track shown. This helps you avoid editing other
selected tracks by mistake.
- You can open more than one Piano Roll at a time.
- Besides the Piano Roll view, there are three other views that let
you edit events in tracks: the Staff, Audio, and Event List
views. (Audio view applies to externally recorded audio files,
such as events recorded via microphone or imported audio
files. We will likely have limited exposure to audio files in
this class.) Event List view is extremely helpful in
editing. More about that on another handout.
Editing in Real Time
Piano Roll view lets you edit notes and their controllers (volume,
e.g,) during playback or recording. This is particularly helpful
when you are looping a small region, such as a couple of measures.
You can hear any changes you make on the next loop. This view also
shows notes on-screen as you record them. When a Piano Roll view
is the active window, Edit menu commands operate only on those notes
that you have selected in that Piano Roll view.
Tools
The tools in the top left corner of the view apply to both the Notes
pane and the Controllers pane. For example, if you choose the
Scrub tool (lets you hear the notes as you "scrub" over
them--looks like a gold speaker), it scrubs notes in the Note pane, and
changes to a pencil (allows edits) in the Controllers pane. This
lets you scrub notes above, and modify event Controllers below, all
without changing tools. The erase tool is the one exception; it
only erases notes.
Picking a Track
This button [89] is located at
the bottom right corner of the screen. If you open the Piano Roll
view on the wrong track, or you want to work on a different track, click
this button, or press T. Doing so brings up a dialog box where you
may make your selection. To return to the previous track, click
Cancel in the Pick Track dialog box.
Zooming
(Magnifying glass keys at bottom right). Click on the larger
magnifying glass to zoom in, and the smaller to zoom out. There
are six levels of vertical zoom affecting only the Note pane.
Working in the Note Pane (upper half of screen)
There are four modes: Select, Draw, Erase and Scrub.
Select Mode
[a] Shortcut key:
S. Click the Select button to enter Select mode. In this
mode, you can select one or more notes (click drag, shift+click
drag). Notes may be dragged and dropped (copied).
Draw Mode
- [g] Shortcut key: D.
Click the Draw button to enter Draw mode. The Draw mode lets
you insert new notes and change existing notes. When you draw
notes, they are inserted into the current clip.
- Changing an Existing Note: The part of the note that you
click--left, middle, right--determines what aspect of a note that
you can change.
- L: Pointing to the left third of the note affects the note's
start time.
- M: Pointing to the middle third of the note allows the note
to be dragged up or down to a new pitch without changing the
starting time.
- R: Pointing to the right third of the note allows change in
the note's duration.
INSERTING OR COPYING A NEW NOTE:
- Inserting or Copying a New Note: New notes can be inserted
in two ways:
- Simply click on an empty space. You can release the mouse
button at that point or drag to another location and release.
- Control+Click an existing note and drag the copy to the desired
location.
Erase Mode
[t] Shortcut key:
E. When you select the Erase tool, you can click on notes to
delete them. You can also left-click and hold the mouse button
while you press the Delete key.
Scrub Mode
This is the button that looks like a small speaker. Shortcut
key: B. Click the Scrub tool to activate it. Move the
pointer to the place where you would like scrubbing to begin.
Click and hold down the left mouse button to display a vertical
line. As you drag this line over the notes--in either direction,
at whatever speed--the notes sound. This feature can be helpful if
you are trying to locate a wrong note, or need to test notes after
adjusting their velocities, etc.
CHANGING HIDDEN PARAMETERS
Using the right mouse button, click a single note. The Note
Properties dialog box lets you edit all note parameters, including some
that Piano Roll view does not display: Time, Pitch, Velocity,
Duration, Channel.
SNAP TO GRID
[g] Shortcut key: N. The Snap
to Grid button (matrix button) lets you pick a round-off number for
changing note start times and durations. When you move or copy a
selection using drag-and-drop, the start time of the entire selection is
rounded to the nearest Snap-To duration. Clicking the Snap button
(or pressing N) displays the Snap to Grid dialog box where you can
choose various resolutions.
Working in the Controllers Pane (lower half of screen)
The lower pane shows Controller and Velocity events. These
events look like a graph. The horizontal axis represents time, and
the vertical axis represents the event values. Each event appears
as a single vertical line, and the height of the line shows the event's
value. Only one type of Controller event is viewed at a
time.
Selecting a Controller Event type:
To change the type of event to view and edit, use the Control
drop-down list menu, located at the bottom left corner of the
screen. The list contains choices for Velocity, Pitch Wheel,
Channel Aftertouch, 120 Controller types, RPNs (Registered Parameter
Number), and NRPNs (Non-Registered...).
Velocity
Using the editing tools, you can decrease or increase the velocity of
a note by adjusting the height of its velocity mark.
Pitch Wheel
This selection shows pitch-bend messages created by using the Pitch
Wheel.
Channel Aftertouch
This selection shows Aftertouch messages created by applying extra
pressure to a synth keyboard note. Aftertouch primarily involves
vibrato, but may also include other modulating sounds.
Control
Choosing Control activates a second drop-down list which contains the
names off all the controllers available for this instrument. This
includes events such as use of the sustain foot pedal, etc.
Editing Controllers and Velocities
The Controllers pane has four editing modes, which are activated by
clicking the appropriate button in the upper-left corner of the window.
Select Mode
[a] Shortcut key:
S. The Select mode lets you select Controller events using the
mouse. As in other views, you can select events by clicking them
individually, or you can lasso entire ranges of events by holding down
the Shift key while clicking or drawing. (p. 180)
Draw Mode
[g] Shortcut key: D. Use the
Draw mode to draw Controller changes with your mouse. This mode
allows you to add new Controller events or modify existing ones.
Select the Controller type and MIDI channel you want to change.
Drag to draw the event shape you want. When you release the
button, the view updates to show the new Controller events. (p. 181) Use
^+Z to undo.
Line Draw mode
[ \ ] Shortcut key: L. To
draw a straight line between two points, select this tool and hold at
the beginning point, and drag to the second point. When the mouse
button is released, the two points are connected by a straight line. (p.
182)
Erase mode
[t] Shortcut key:
E. Use the Erase mode to delete Controller events. Drag over
the desired region. Those events are deleted when you release the
mouse button. (p. 183)
