8 Piano roll

The Piano Roll tab shows one row's notes in the selected pattern, on a grid of 16th-note steps against a piano keyboard. The other rows' notes are drawn faintly behind them. Any row can be edited here, a sample row or a synth row (see 7-3 Rows).

8-1 Opening the Piano Roll

Do one of the following:

• Choose Window ▸ Piano Roll.
• In the Pattern Sequencer, right-click a row's controls and choose Edit in Piano Roll. The Piano Roll opens on that row, whether it shows steps or a note preview.
• In the Pattern Sequencer, click a row's note preview (see 7-4-2). The Piano Roll opens on that row.
• Drop an instrument on a track's strip in the Mixer (see 9-3-1). The Piano Roll opens on the new synth row.

The Piano Roll shows the same pattern as the Pattern Sequencer. If the project has no pattern, it says "No pattern yet" and offers New pattern. If it has no rows yet, it says "No rows yet. Drag a sample or an instrument into the Pattern Sequencer to draw its notes", with a key that opens the Pattern Sequencer.

1. Pattern — Which pattern is shown.
2. Row — Which row's notes you edit. Its instrument plays the keys and the notes you draw. Lists every row, sample and synth.
3. Play — Loops the pattern on its own, every row's notes, from the playhead. Click again to stop. Its light is lit while it plays.
4. Bars — The pattern's length, on the same counter as the Pattern Sequencer's (see 7-2-3 Pattern length).
5. Tools and snap — Select, Draw and Cut, Snap to grid and the snap amount (8-2).
6. Ruler — A number at each bar, a tick at each beat. Click or drag here to move the playhead (8-9). A marker shows where the pattern ends.
7. Keyboard — Each C is named (middle C is C4).
8. Grid — One row per semitone, one column per step. Beats and bars are drawn stronger. The grid goes on past the pattern's end, which is shaded: 4 bars past the end, or past the furthest you have scrolled, up to 128 bars.
9. Notes — The row's notes. Selected notes are drawn in the accent color. The other rows' notes are drawn faintly behind them; they can't be selected or edited here.

8-2 Tools and snap

The Piano Roll has the playlist's three mouse tools. Only one is active at a time; its light is lit.

Key	Tool	What it does
S	Select	Selects, moves and trims notes. A drag on empty grid scrolls it; a click there clears the selection.
D	Draw	A click on empty grid draws a note. On a note, it works as Select.
C	Cut	A click on a note cuts it in two.

The keys work while the Piano Roll is the focused pane's tab. With every tool, Shift-click and Shift-drag select (8-4).

Snap to grid turns snap on or off; its light is lit when on. The menu beside it sets the grid: 1 bar, 1/2 bar, 1 beat, 1/2 beat or 1/4 beat. The Piano Roll's snap is its own, apart from the playlist's.

With snap off, or while you hold Option (Alt), nothing snaps: notes start, end, move and cut right where the mouse is, and can be as short as 1/32 of a step. With snap on, notes are at least a step long.

NOTE

A row whose notes are off the step grid shows them as a note preview in the Pattern Sequencer, not as steps (see 7-4-2).

8-3 Drawing notes

With the Draw tool:

• Click an empty place on the grid to draw a note there. It starts on the snap line at or before where you clicked, and is as long as the last note you drew or trimmed (a quarter note at first).
• Without letting go, drag up or down to move it to another key, and drag right to set its length.

You hear each note as you draw it.

You can draw past the pattern's end. Moving or trimming a note past it works the same way. The pattern grows to the end of the bar the note ends in, up to 128 bars (see 7-2-3 Pattern length).

8-4 Selecting notes

To	Do this
Select a note	Click it (with Select or Draw)
Add or remove a note from the selection	Shift-click it
Select notes with a box	Shift-drag on an empty place; touched notes replace the selection
Select every note	⌘A (Ctrl+A), or Edit ▸ Select All
Clear the selection	Escape, or click empty grid with Select

Keys work while the Piano Roll is the focused pane's tab.

8-5 Moving, trimming and cutting notes

• Move: drag a note's body. If the note is selected, every selected note moves with it. The notes follow the mouse, with an outline where they will land: the nearest snap line and key. You hear the note at each new pitch.
• Trim: drag a note's left or right edge (the pointer changes to a left-right arrow, and a bar marks the edge). The same edge of every selected note moves by the same amount. A note is at least one step long.
• Cut: with the Cut tool, click a note. A line shows where it will be cut: the snap line nearest the mouse. If the note is selected, every selected note under that line is cut too. Neither half can be shorter than a step.

Press Escape while dragging to put the notes back.

8-6 Copy, paste and repeat

Command	Keys	What it does
Copy	⌘C (Ctrl+C)	Copies the selected notes.
Cut	⌘X (Ctrl+X)	Copies the selected notes and deletes them.
Paste	⌘V (Ctrl+V)	Pastes the notes, the earliest on the snap line at or before the mouse (or the first snap line in view, when the mouse isn't over the grid).
Repeat	⌘R (Ctrl+R)	Places a copy of the selected notes straight after them. Press again to lay more copies end to end.

These are on the Edit menu too. The Piano Roll has its own clipboard: copying notes doesn't change the system clipboard or the playlist's. Copied notes stay on it when you show another pattern or row. Pasted and repeated notes are selected.

8-7 Deleting notes

• Select notes and press Delete (or Backspace).
• Right-click a note to delete it.
• Cut (⌘X) deletes the selected notes after copying them.

Deleting the notes in the pattern's last bars can make it shorter (see 7-2-4 Auto-trim).

Each drag, and each delete, is one step to undo with ⌘Z (Ctrl+Z).

8-8 Velocity and auditioning

Notes you draw have a velocity of 80%. Steps lit in the Pattern Sequencer have full velocity. Velocity can't be edited yet.

• Click a key on the keyboard to hear it while you hold the mouse button. Drag along the keys to play each in turn.
• Drawing a note, or moving one to a new pitch, plays it briefly.

Notes sound on the row's instrument, straight to the master. On a sample row, the sample plays at that pitch (see 7-3-1). A muted sample row's keys still sound; a muted synth row's keys are silent.

8-9 Playing the pattern

Click Play, or press Space while the Piano Roll is the focused pane's tab. The pattern plays from the playhead, then loops from its start. A line shows where it is.

• Stopped: click or drag in the ruler to move the playhead. It lands on the snap line nearest the mouse, inside the pattern. Play starts from there.
• Playing: click or drag in the ruler, and playback jumps there when you let go.

Playback stops when you leave the Piano Roll and the Pattern Sequencer (see 7-5 Playing a pattern).

8-10 Scrolling and zooming

• Scroll: mouse wheel or two-finger swipe. Up and down scrolls through the pitches; left and right (or Shift with the wheel) scrolls along time. With Select, you can also drag empty grid.
• Zoom: ⌘ (Ctrl) with the wheel, or pinch on a trackpad, zooms along time about the mouse.

These work over the grid, the ruler and the keyboard. A pattern opens with its notes in the middle of the view, or C3 to C5 when it has none.