The note inspector

Select notes, one or many, and a small card appears over the music with what they have in common: velocity, length, detune, fret or pitch, articulations and pick direction. It’s the quickest way to change a passage’s dynamics, set a run of notes to eighths, or palm-mute a riff, without opening a menu.

The note inspector

Available on every platform.

Where it shows

The card sits at the lower left of an Editor pane, just right of the track headers, or at the lower left of a Score pane. It shows whenever notes are selected, and goes when the selection does. When a bend, modifier, grace or chord editor, the brush palette or the follow pill is under it, the card rises above them; in a pane too small for it, it isn’t shown. In an Editor pane where the lower left would cover the selected notes (a short pane), the card moves to the lower right, or to the top, wherever it leaves them clear.

On a touchscreen without the tools tray (a touchscreen computer), the card grows its buttons, lengths and chips to a finger’s size after a tap, and is its usual size again as soon as the mouse or the trackpad moves. It grows only when the Editor has room for the larger card; otherwise it keeps its usual size, so a taller or maximized Editor gives you the finger’s card.

Worked by touch (on a phone, or a tablet), the card is the Note tool of the tools tray instead, beside the Keypad, with the same boxes, lengths, dynamics and keys as on a phone (above). With a trackpad or a mouse the card floats over the pane as above.

In a Score view, the Note tool has the Score’s rows too (on a phone when it’s at its full height, on a tablet always): Respell (a black key as the other of its sharp and flat, as J does), Stem Up, Down or Auto, Beam Break, Join or Auto, then Tuplet… (the beat’s rhythm: triplets, fives, sixes…), Lyrics… (typed under the staff from the note, as ⌥L does) and, on a piano part’s grand staff, Staff ▾ (the staff above, below, or its own). Each is one undo step.

What you can change

Velocity: a bar from 1 to 127, its number beside it.
Length: 1, ½, ¼, ⅛, 16 and 32, with Dot and 3 for dotted and triplet. A length keeps the dot or triplet shown; Dot and 3 apply to each note’s own length.
Detune: a bar from its middle, −100 to +100 cents.
Fret (fretted notes), with the string; Pitch (keys), a semitone a step; or on drums, the element’s techniques (Hit).
Articulations: chips for the ones that suit every kind of note selected, such as PM (palm mute), LR (let ring), H and P, slides, Vib, Acc, Ghost and Stac. See Articulations.
Pick: None, ⊓ Down or V Up, on fretted notes.

Change several notes at once

With several notes selected, a value they don’t share shows “—”, and a bar is solid to the lowest value and faint up to the highest.

Click a bar to set every note to the value there.
Drag along a bar to move each note’s own value by the same amount, so a phrase keeps its shape while it gets louder or softer.
− and + step each note’s fret or pitch from where it is.
A chip turns on for all the notes, unless they all have it; then off.

Each gesture is one step in undo, a whole drag included.

Hide it, and bring it back

The card’s × turns it off for that pane. Show Note Inspector (⌥⌘I)Show Note Inspector (Ctrl+Alt+I)Show Note Inspector (Ctrl+Alt+I (⌥⌘I on a Mac)) turns it on again; the pane’s ⚙ has Show Note Inspector too. Each pane keeps its own choice, saved with the song, and a workspace carries it. With no notes selected the card has nothing to show, so switching it on or off puts a short note in the pane’s corner saying which it is now.

While an Inspector pane is open on the song, it shows the notes instead and the card stays away; Show Note Inspector then scrolls the Inspector to its Notes section.

Command	Keys	Where
Show Note Inspector	`⌥⌘I`	the View menu; the pane’s ⚙ menu

Command	Keys	Where
Show Note Inspector	`Ctrl+Alt+I`	the View menu; the pane’s ⚙ menu

Command	Keys	Where
Show Note Inspector	`Ctrl+Alt+I (⌥⌘I on a Mac)`	the View menu; the pane’s ⚙ menu