Note Tracks

Peter 01May17: If MIDI_OUT remains in for 2.2.0 this page will neeed updating. For a start the MIDI file plays and the colored buttons in the TCP work to swich in/off various notes.

Gale 16Aug14: ToDo

No documentation of cursors that appear near vertical center of note track inside selection

• cursors look like crosshairs inside a box
• Stretch from left: squeeze or stretch selection from left edge
• Stretch from right: squeeze or stretch selection from right edge
• Stretch from middle: preserve selection boundaries but squeeze/stretch beats before/after cursor as the cursor is dragged
• Stretch does not affect audio or Time Track

Note Tracks display data from MIDI files - these can be imported with the File > Import > MIDI... command. Note Tracks cannot currently be played, but can be cut-and-paste edited, then exported using the File > Save Other > Export MIDI... command.

Despite the currently limited functionality, Note Tracks can be useful to visually compare a given MIDI file with a sampled audio file (such as WAV) of the same music.

When exporting so as to overwrite an existing GRO, MID or MIDI file, the original file is renamed with ".bak" suffix, for example "keyboards.mid.bak".

Track Control Panel

The Track Control Panel at the left of the note track has controls for this track. Left-clicking other than on a control performs track selection and move as follows. Clicking selects all this track's audio, deselecting all other tracks. Holding Shift while clicking selects all this track's audio, keeping already selected tracks selected. (keyboard: use Up or Down to give the track focus, then Enter to select it; hold Shift then use Up or Down to extend selection into another track. Read keyboard selection for more). Click-and-drag moves this track up or down when there are other tracks (keyboard: choose one of the "Move Track" commands in Note Track Dropdown Menu, opened by Shift + M on the currently focused track ).

Controls

• Close Button:

Clicking this button will close the track, removing it from the project.

• Note Track Dropdown Menu:

Clicking the track name or using Shift + M on the currently focused track opens the Note Track Dropdown Menu giving options that affect this track only. Newly created tracks are named "Note Track".

• Mute Button:

Click to silence this track when playing. By default, the track will only be silenced if no Solo buttons are depressed. Click again to unsilence. Tracks on which the Mute button is pressed are never exported.

• Solo Button:

Click to play just this track. Click again to release the button. Whenever playing audio, Solo takes precedence over Mute by default - the Mute buttons have no effect whilst any Solo button is down. There are two other options for Solo button behavior in the Tracks Preferences. One of these is to remove the Solo button, leaving only a Mute button.

• Gain Slider:

Set the velocity offset for this track. Hold down the shift key while dragging to adjust the slider in finer increments. Double-click the slider to bring up a window where you can make precise adjustments or enter a velocity value.

Velocity is in units of MIDI velocity, ranging from 1 (lowest) to 127 (highest). The offset from this slider (ranging from -50 to +50) is combined with each note's individual velocity to produce the resultant velocity.

Poke 27Jun17: Since the gain slider and velocity slider both look identical, is it fine that they're using the same image?

• Track Collapse Button:

Click on this to make the track 'fold up' into a smaller size. Click again, or drag the lower edge of the track to restore the size.

Status Indicators

• Channel toggles

Shows enabled channels, color coded to match the actual notes in the channels. Individual channels may be toggled by left-clicking, or all other channels can be disabled/enabled by right-clicking. Channel numbers start at 1; channel 10 is the channel that is reserved for percussion by most MIDI devices.

Poke 27Jun17: I'm not sure whether this is more of a status indicator or a control; it's sort of both. I'm putting it under status indicators for now.

• Sync-Lock Indicator:
  

When present (at bottom-right of the Track Control Panel, adjacent to the Track Collapse button), indicates that this track is part of a Sync-Locked Track Group.

Poke 27Jun17: Does sync-lock actually do anything for note tracks? The icon does appear, but I don't know enough about sync locking to say if it does anything

Vertical Scale

Poke 27Jun17: ToDo This is completely un-edited from the version for audio tracks. The behavior here is currently inaccurate (PRL requested scrolling, which currently hasn't been implemented yet). This'll need to be revised.

The vertical scale displays amplitude when showing the waveform, or frequency when showing the spectrum or pitch. The amplitude scale shown to left is the default linear scale, with 1.0 being the maximum value of positive signals and -1.0 the maximum of negative signals. If the display is changed to Waveform dB in the Audio Track Dropdown Menu, the scale shows dB values for positive signals only, ranging from maximum 0 dB to the minimum dB level set in Interface Preferences, or as varied using the mouse wheel (see below). When the mouse pointer is over the scale it changes to a magnify icon . Left-click in the Vertical Scale for any Waveform or Spectrogram view to zoom in. The range displayed on the scale will be centered at the value you clicked at. Left-click and drag a region up or down then release to zoom into that region. You can press Esc to cancel the zoom operation if you commence a drag by mistake. Hold Shift and left-click (or use unmodified right-click) to zoom out progressively. When the Shift key is held down the plus sign on the magnify icon changes to a minus icon. Using either of these methods you can zoom out in the final step from a range of 1.0 to -1.0 to 2.0 to -2.0 on the linear waveform scale (or to +6 dB when in Waveform (dB) view). This allows you when in 32-bit float sample format to see any samples that are above the 0 dB clipping level. Hold Shift and right-click to zoom out in one step to 1.0 to -1.0 linear (maximum 0 dB) or when in Spectrogram view, to a range of 0 Hz to the maximum for the sample rate (so 0 Hz to 22050 Hz for 44100 Hz rate). Hold Shift and rotate the mouse wheel to scroll up and down at the same zoom level, using the same visible range of amplitude or frequency. Hold Ctrl and rotate the mouse wheel to zoom in or out at the mouse pointer's position. In Waveform (dB) view view only: Hold Ctrl and Shift and rotate the mouse wheel to vary the lower dB limit of the scale at the same zoom level, irrespective of the limit set at "Meter dB range" in Tracks Preferences. This only takes effect if the horizontal midline between positive and negative samples is visible, so has no effect if you are zoomed in on a portion of the vertical range that does not include the midline. All the above zooms are in the vertical direction, as opposed to a horizontal zoom on the Timeline. See Zooming for more details of vertical and horizontal zooming.

Note Track Dropdown Menu

Clicking the note track's name by the downward-pointing triangle (or using shortcut Shift + M or the keyboard Menu key when the note track has focus) opens the Note Track Dropdown Menu:

• Name

Displays the "Track Name" dialog where you can give the track a new name. Useful in multi-track projects to provide a visual indication of the content of each track.

• Up Octave and Down Octave

Moves the vertical scale up or down one octave.

Moving Tracks

Tracks can be moved up and down using the menu items.

• Move Track Up: Moves track up.
• Move Track Down: Moves track down.
• Move Track to Top: Moves track to become the topmost track in the project.
• Move Track to Bottom: Moves track to become the bottom track in the project.

Note tracks can also be moved up or down by clicking between the controls in the track's Track Control Panel then dragging upwards or downwards.

Poke 27Jun17: ToDo describe the behavior of the track itself, not just the controls outside of it