Piano Roll Tricks

Inputting Notes

• When inputting/creating notes via mouse or touchpad, click an existing note of the desired size first to set the size of the input note.
• Quickly switch between Tools using T`

  • Note the letters next to the options in the resulting menu - use them as the second key to swap tools:

    Tool	Shortcut
    Pointer	T
    Pencil Tool	P
    Eraser	E
    Finger	F
    Scissors	I
    Join	J
    Mute	M
    Quantize	Q
    Velocity	V
    Zoom	Y
    Automation Select	U
    Automation Curve	W
    Brush	B

Quantizing

Quantizing is a great way to clean up a recorded MIDI to make sure that all notes are aligned perfectly with the grid.

Select the note(s) to quantize (CMD + A for all) and press Q.

Moving Notes

• Up or down one semitone: Option + Up or Option + Down
• +/- one octave: Option + Shift

Zoom

• Horizontally: CMD + Left or CMD + Right
• Vertically: CMD + UP or CMD + Down

Selecting Notes

There are many handy ways to select notes without having to select each one individually.

Operating on notes in a specific position

1. Select one note in each desired position.
2. Right click the note and choose Select Same Subpositions, or use the keyboard shortcut SHIFT + P.

Invert note selection

1. Select the note(s) you wish not to select, right click one of them, and choose Invert Selection, or use the keyboard shortcut SHIFT + I.

Check for overlapping notes

If any overlapping notes exist, the context menu (Right click/two-finger click) in the piano roll will display the option to Select Overlapped Notes. If this is greyed out, there are none.