Editing notes with the global tools

You can edit notes in the Piano Roll view and the Inline Piano Roll view with the same methods. The Smart tool, Freehand tool and Select tool are useful for quick note editing. You can do the same edits with commands in the Process menu (Length, Slide, Transpose). If you want to edit multiple notes at the same time, first select them with the Select tool.

MIDI notes display their velocity value as a wide or narrow column. You can drag the column up or down to edit the note’s velocity. Holding the Smart tool over the middle of the note in the upper third of the note displays a small velocity column on the Smart tool to show that the tool is in the target zone.

A. Smart tool in velocity-edit mode B. Tooltip showing cursor position C. Velocity column

Tooltips give you a constant readout of the cursor position, how much you’ve edited the selection, and how many notes you’re editing.

In the following figure, the tooltip lists the current location of the cursor, how far the selection has moved from its original location (1252 ticks to the right), the current pitch level and MIDI note number of the cursor (E8 100), how far from the note’s original pitch the cursor has moved (1 half-step higher), and how many notes are in the selection.

To adjust a MIDI note’s velocity

1.	Set the track’s Edit Filter control to Notes.

2.	Do one of the following:

With the Smart tool , position the pointer near the top center of the note, then drag up/down.

With the Edit tool , position the pointer near the top center of the note, then drag up/down.

In the Piano Roll’s Controllers pane, drag the top of a velocity line up/down.

Note: You can specify the width of velocity lines in the Piano Roll view. To do so, go to Edit > Preferences > Customization - Editing and adjust the Velocity Solid Width setting. For details, see Customization - Editing (Advanced).

Tip: If you want to audition a MIDI note’s velocity while adjusting the velocity, go to Edit > Preferences > Customization - Editing and enable Velocity Audition.

To scale all selected MIDI note velocities

1.	Set the track’s Edit Filter control to Notes.

2.	Select all the Note velocities you want to scale.

3.	Do one of the following:

With the Smart tool , position the pointer near the top center of any selected note, then hold down the SHIFT key and drag up/down.

With the Edit tool , position the pointer near the top center of the note, then hold down the SHIFT key and drag up/down.

All other selected velocities scale accordingly.

To anchor stretch all selected MIDI note velocities

1.	Set the track’s Edit Filter control to Notes.

2.	Select all the Note velocities you want to scale.

3.	Do one of the following:

With the Smart tool , position the pointer near the top center of any selected note, then hold down the CTRL key and drag up/down.

With the Edit tool , position the pointer near the top center of the note, then hold down the CTRL key and drag up/down.

The first and last selected velocities remain stationary, while all other selected velocities ramp toward the dragged velocity line. The result typically resembles the letter “V”, or an inverted “V”, depending on which direction the velocities are dragged.

A. First and last selected velocity lines remain stationary B. Hold down the CTRL key and drag any selected velocity; all other selected velocities ramp toward the dragged velocity line

To adjust a MIDI note’s start/end

1.	Set the track’s Edit Filter control to Notes.

2.	Do one of the following:

With the Smart tool , position the pointer over the note’s start or end point, then drag left/right to adjust the start/end position.

With the Edit tool , position the pointer over the note’s start or end point, then drag left/right to adjust the start/end position.

To select MIDI notes

1.	Set the track’s Edit Filter control to Notes.

2.	Do one of the following:

With the Smart tool , position the pointer outside any notes, then click with the right mouse button and drag over the notes you want to select.

With the Smart tool , position the pointer over the bottom half center of the note, then click to select the note.

With the Select tool , click the note.

With the Select tool , position the pointer outside any notes, then drag over the notes you want to select.

To scrub MIDI notes

1.	Set the track’s Edit Filter control to Notes.

2.	Hold down the J key and drag across the notes.

To mute/unmute a MIDI note

1.	Set the track’s Edit Filter control to Notes.

2.	Do one of the following:

With the Smart tool , hold down the ALT key and right-click the note.

With the Mute tool , click the note to mute/unmute a single note, or drag over notes to mute/unmute multiple notes.

A. Event-Muted (hollow; the note outline uses the Clip Mute color) B. Unmuted events (track color) C. Muted using the Mute tool on the clip (Clip Mute color)

To move a MIDI note

1.	Set the track’s Edit Filter control to Notes.

2.	Do one of the following:

With the Smart tool , position the pointer over the bottom half center of the note, then drag the note to the desired location.

With the Move tool , drag the note or selection to the desired location.

Tip: When moving a note, hold down the SHIFT key to constrain vertical or horizontal movement, depending on the direction you first move.

To draw a MIDI note

1.	Set the track’s Edit Filter control to Notes.

2.	Do one of the following:

With the Smart tool , drag where you want to insert a new note.

With the Freehand tool , click where you want to insert a new note.

Note: Use the Value control in the Tools module to specify the duration for new note events. You can also click an existing Note event to inherit its duration and apply it to new Note events. For details, see Use note duration value from last touched note.

To drag-quantize MIDI notes

1.	Set the track’s Edit Filter control to Notes.

2.	Select the notes you want to quantize.

3.	With the Timing tool , position the pointer over a selected note and drag up/down to quantize all selected notes.

To glue MIDI notes together

1.	Set the track’s Edit Filter control to Notes.

2.	Do one of the following:

With the Smart tool , hold down ALT+CTRL and drag across two or more notes of the same pitch (click on the first note, drag to the second note and release the mouse button).

With the Freehand tool , drag across two or more notes of the same pitch (click on the first note, drag to the second note and release the mouse button).

All touched note events of the same pitch are merged into a single note event.

To paint MIDI notes

1.	Set the track’s Edit Filter control to Notes.

2.	Do one of the following:

With the Smart tool , hold down ALT+CTRL and drag to insert multiple notes. Use the Value control to specify the duration of each note, and use the Snap resolution to specify the interval between each note.

With the Line tool , drag to insert multiple notes. Use the Value control to specify the duration of each note, and use the Snap resolution to specify the interval between each note.

With the Pattern tool , locate and select the pattern you want to paint. The selection can be a clip, a portion of a clip, MIDI events in the Piano Roll view, or a MIDI loop in the Media Browser. To select MIDI notes in the Piano Roll, drag with the right mouse button over the notes you want to select. Drag from left to right in the Piano Roll view or Track view to “paint” the selected data. When painting with the Pattern tool, the mouse pointer looks like a paint roller: . For details, see Pattern tool.

To erase a MIDI note

1.	Set the track’s Edit Filter control to Notes.

2.	Do one of the following:

With the Smart tool , right-click a note to erase a single note, or keep the right mouse button pressed and drag over notes to erase multiple notes.

With the Erase tool , click a note to erase a single note, or drag over notes to erase multiple notes.

To split a MIDI note

1.	Set the track’s Edit Filter control to Notes.

2.	Do one of the following:

With the Smart tool , position the pointer where you want to split the note, then hold down ALT and click (or lasso to split a region).

With the Split tool , position the pointer where you want to split the note, then click (or lasso to split a region).

To open the Note Properties dialog

1.	Set the track’s Edit Filter control to Notes.

2.	With the Smart tool , double-click the note.

Note event colors based on velocity

By default, note events in the Piano Roll are colorized based on velocity. Darker shades of the basic track color indicate higher velocities. Lighter shades of the basic track color indicate lower velocities.

This behavior can be bypassed by adding the following INI variable to the WinCake section of Cakewalk.ini (see Cakewalk.ini):

PRVColorizeVelocity=0

Piano Roll lasso behavior

By default, lasso selecting the top of velocity lines in the Piano Roll's Note pane does not automatically select the corresponding note events. If you want velocity lines to affect note selection, you can change the behavior by adding a switch to the Windows registry.

Warning: Always back up the Windows registry before making any changes. Only edit the registry if you are comfortable doing so.

1.	Click the Start button and select Run.

2.	Type regedit and click OK to open the Registry Editor.

3.	Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Cakewalk Music Software\SONAR\Platinum (if you are using SONAR Artist or SONAR Professional, substitute “Platinum” with “Artist” or “Professional”).

4.	Add a new DWORD value called AllowLassoVelInNotesPane (click Edit > New > DWORD Value).

5.	Double-click the new AllowLassoVelInNotesPane DWORD event to open the Edit DWORD Value dialog box, then change the value to 1 (0=OFF; 1=ON).

6.	Click OK to close the Edit DWORD Value dialog box, then restart SONAR.

Note: If you are showing velocity lines in the Piano Roll Controller pane, you can still lasso select velocity lines to select the corresponding note events. The above registry setting only affects the Note pane in the Piano Roll and Inline Piano Roll.

 

See:

Piano Roll view snap resolution