Modifiers: whammy, swells, hi-hat
A modifier is a curve a note carries while it sounds: a whammy bar dive on its pitch, a volume swell on its level, how open a hi-hat is. Like a bend, it belongs to the note: it moves, copies and deletes with it, and its points sit at fractions of the note, so they follow it when the note gets longer or shorter. A note can carry up to three modifiers, one for each thing it changes.
Note modifiers
Available on every platform.
Add one from the note’s menu
Select the notes, then right-click one of them:
- Whammy Bar, on string and keys tracks:
- Dip: down a semitone and back.
- Dive: down a whole tone, and held there.
- Dive and Release: down two tones, held, and back up.
- Pre-Dive: the bar already down a whole tone when the note is picked, then back up.
- Volume Swell, on string and keys tracks:
- Fade In: from silence up to the note’s level.
- Fade Out: from its level down to silence.
- Swell: from soft up to its level over the first part of the note, then held.
- Hi-Hat Openness, on drum tracks: Closed, ¼ Open, ½ Open, ¾ Open or Open for that hit, or As Played.
A preset replaces the modifier of the same kind the note had, and None (or As Played) takes it off. A preset is ticked when every selected note has it. Each choice is one undo step, on every selected note at once.
A whammy bar curve plays on top of the note’s bend: a bent note can also dive. Guitar Pro’s whammy bar comes in as these modifiers when you import a file.
In the tab and the Score
Each modifier has a short word over its note: w/bar for the whammy bar, cresc., dim. or swell for a level curve, HH ½ and so on for a hi-hat. Show Articulations (⌥⌘A)Show Articulations (Ctrl+Alt+A)Show Articulations (Ctrl+Alt+A (⌥⌘A on a Mac)) hides them with the other marks.
A Score pane writes the whammy bar with its depth (“w/bar −½”), a hi-hat’s openness (“HH ½”), and a level curve as a hairpin.
The modifier editor
Select a single note with a modifier and the modifier editor opens over the pane’s lower right corner, above the bend editor if both show. Its title says what the curve changes: Whammy, Level, Hi-Hat (CC 4). When the note has more than one modifier, chips beside the title switch between them.
The graph runs along the note from left to right. Up and down is the modifier’s own unit:
- Whammy and other pitch curves: semitones, up or down from the note.
- Level: a percentage of the note’s level, where 100% is as played.
- A controller (the hi-hat’s and others): 0 to 127.
To shape the curve:
- Move a point: drag it. It snaps to a fortieth of the note and, up and down, to a quarter of a semitone (25 cents), 5% or 1. Hold ⌃Ctrl while dragging to place it freely.
- Add a point: double-click an empty place. A modifier holds up to six points.
- Remove a point: double-click it. Removing the last one removes the modifier.
- Presets: the buttons along the bottom replace the curve: Dip, Dive, Dive+R and Pre for a whammy bar, In, Out and Swell for a level. Remove takes the modifier off.
- In the tools tray: the presets are tiles, four to a row, that draw their curve and say their name in full (Dive & Return, Pre-dive, Fade In, Fade Out). A note with a whammy and no swell has Add Volume, one with a swell and no whammy Add Whammy, and Remove comes last, in red. With two modifiers or more, a switch above the curve picks the one you shape, as the chips do on the card.
Each change is one undo step, a whole drag included. The × in the corner puts the editor away until you select another note. The modifier editor doesn’t open in the Arranger.
For changes that run across many notes, a whole passage’s volume or a filter sweep, use automation lanes instead, and for a clip’s gain and fades, its clip modifiers.