1. Getting started

Search commands

You don’t need to know where a command lives to use it. Search Commands finds it by name and runs it where the menus would: in the pane you’re working in, on what you’ve selected.

Search commands

Available on every platform.

Type a few letters of what you want. Stab finds:

• Commands, by their names and by the words people often use for them: typing “click” finds the Metronome, “pm” finds Palm Mute.
• Settings: a switch turns on or off right in the list, and the rest open Settings at that row.
• Views: the pane of that kind comes forward, or opens below the one you’re in.
• Workspaces, yours and the built-in ones, and songs by name.

The letters you typed are lit in each name, and each row says where the command lives and its keyboard shortcut. A command that can’t run right now stays in the list, dimmed, with one line saying why (“Select notes, bars or a clip first”). Choosing one only takes you somewhere when that helps, such as the kind of pane it needs.

↑ and ↓ choose a row and Return runs it. In an empty field, ↑ brings back what you searched for before. Commands you ran lately are listed before you type.

Apply by name

Start with > to set a value by typing it, at the caret:

• >Cm7 writes a chord on the song’s Chords track, at the caret’s beat.
• >mf sets the selected notes’ velocity (ppp to fff).
• >key Eb changes the key from the caret’s bar (“key Cm”, “key 3b” work too).
• >120 changes the tempo from the caret’s bar (“80 dotted” for a dotted beat).
• >marker Chorus adds a section at the caret’s bar, or renames the one there.
• >6/8 changes the time signature from the caret’s bar.

A line under the field says exactly what will happen before you press Return, or what to type instead. Each change is one step you can undo.

Go to, every command, settings only

• @ goes to a place: @12 a bar, @Chorus a section, @Bass a track, @Score a pane.
• ? lists every command by area; type after it to narrow the list.
• , searches Settings only.

Keep open

Keep open, at the bottom of the search, keeps it up after each command, so you can type a chord chart or a list of sections in one go: after >Dm7, Return writes the chord and moves the caret to the next bar, ready for the next one. To keep it open for one command only, press ⌘ReturnCtrl+Enter. Undo works while it’s open, one step per command.