Changing the way notes are displayed

Unlike musical notation programs, Sonar uses the MIDI events themselves as the permanent representation of the music; thus, the Staff view is only an interpretation of a MIDI performance.

MIDI notes do not always correspond exactly to notes on a staff. Whereas a staff defines precise grid-like starting times and durations for notes, a MIDI note can start at any arbitrary time during the project, and last for any length of time. If you record a performance from a MIDI keyboard, for example, you’ll find that some notes may start slightly before the beat, and some a little after, and that the notes end a little late or a little early. Although these slight imperfections are what gives a performance its “human” quality, you don’t necessarily want to see all these imperfections notated with excruciating precision.

The Staff view has two options you can select to affect the way MIDI notes are displayed on the staff:

Option	Purpose
Fill Durations	Visually rounds up note durations to the next beat or the next note, whichever comes first.
Trim Durations	Visually rounds down note durations if they extend a little way past the start of the next note.

Here’s what the Staff view looks like with and without these options:

Figure 523. Fill and Trim off.

Figure 524. Fill and Trim on.

On the other hand, if you are entering notes into the Staff view with the mouse, Fill Durations and Trim Durations may produce confusing results. For example, with Fill Durations, an inserted eighth note in 4/4 time would look like a quarter note until you insert another eighth note immediately following it. It is recommended that you turn off the Fill Durations and Trim Durations options when entering notes; these options are more appropriate for looking at notes you recorded via a performance.