Adding pedal marks

Pedal marks traditionally indicate where the sustain pedal of a piano is to be pressed and for how long. With SONAR, you can achieve the same effect by inserting a pair of symbols indicating when the sustain pedal controller is to be turned on (down) and when it is to be turned off (up). Unlike chord symbols, expression marks, and hairpin symbols, each pedal symbol corresponds to a MIDI event. The other symbols are purely ornamental, intended to provide a composer with a way to communicate suggestions or requirements to performers.

Pedal event parameters are as follows:

Parameters	Meaning
Time	The time of the event, in measures, beats, and ticks (MBT).
Channel	The MIDI channel on which the event will be sent.
Value	The event value. A value of 127 depresses the pedal, a value of 0 raises it. (Some advanced synthesizers support values between 0 and 127 for “partial pedaling.”)

If the track is split into treble/bass staves, pedal marks are allowed only below the bass staff.

You can suppress the display of all pedal marks by deselecting the Show Pedal Events option in the Staff view's Layout dialog box.

To add a pedal mark

1.	Select the Draw Freehand tool in the Control Bar.

2.	Click the Pedal button in the Staff view.

3.	Position the pointer below the staff (the pointer changes to a pencil when you are in a legal position).

4.	Click to place a pedal mark.

SONAR inserts a pair of pedal symbols (a pedal down and a pedal up). You can click and drag either symbol to a new time.

To edit a pedal event

1.	Right-click the pedal symbol (pedal down or pedal up) to open the Pedal Event Parameters dialog box.

Figure 516. The Pedal Properties dialog box.

2.	Edit the pedal event parameters, as described in the table above.

3.

Click OK.

SONAR changes the pedal event parameters, including moving the symbol to a new time if necessary.