2. The workspace

The pane bar

Every pane has a bar that says what the pane shows and holds its own settings. Two panes of the same kind can look different: each keeps its own display, and a link colour decides which panes move together.

The pane bar: kind, context chip and ⚙

Available on every platform.

From left to right, the bar has:

• The pane’s kind: Editor, Score, Mixer and so on. Select it for the view picker, to show something else in the pane. See Panes.
• The context chip: what the pane is about. Select it to change that. See below.
• The link dot: the pane’s link colour, or an empty ring when it isn’t linked. See Link colours.
• ✎ Note Input, on a Score pane: turns the Score’s note input on and off, as N does, and stays lit while it’s on. With it on, a click or a tap on a staff writes a note there.
• Presets and + Add Device, on a Sound pane: its presets, and a device for its chain. When the bar is a little short of room for their names, they show their symbols alone (point at one for its name); in a narrow pane, ⋯ holds both. See The Sound pane. Presets and + Add Device, on a Sound pane (⋯ when it’s narrow): its presets, and a device for its chain. See The Sound pane.
• ?: the help for the pane’s kind (Help on Editor, Help on Score and so on), opened in your browser.
• ⚙: the pane’s own settings. On larger panes, buttons beside it split, maximize and close the pane. Each is a 24-point target, and Close sits a little apart from Maximize so a near miss doesn’t close the pane.

The context chip

Pane Context depends on the pane’s kind:

• Editor, Arranger and Mixer: the tracks the pane shows. It reads All Tracks (All in a pane too narrow for it; its tooltip says the whole), or the tracks’ names. Pick tracks in its menu to show only those; the others take no room in this pane, and stay as they are in the others.
• Score: the score shown, Working Score (the whole song, which you can also narrow to some tracks) or one of the song’s presentations, such as a part. See Presentations.
• Score Setup: the style being set, the song’s own or a presentation’s.
• Sound: the channel whose sound the pane shows: a track, a bus or Master.
• Playlist: the playlist shown, with New Playlist, Rename Playlist… and Delete Playlist.

Panes that have nothing to choose, such as the Transport or the Inspector, show no chip.

When an Editor pane colours its notes by something other than their track (velocity, timing and so on), a second chip says so; selecting it goes back to colouring by track. See Lenses.

⚙: the pane’s settings

The ⚙ holds what this pane shows and how: for an Editor, its grid, following, song rows, bends, note inspector, drum steps and the like; for an Arranger, its song rows, grid and following; for a Score, its page view, note inspector, TAB staff, music font, theme and Score Setup…; for the Stage, its preset, part, layout and size; for the Instrument, its face, overlay and labels; for a Mixer, its sends, buses, kits and strip width; for a Sound pane, Rack or Patch, All Channels, its orientation and Fit to Pane. An Editor, a Score and a Chart also have Tools Tray: that pane’s keypad, palette and editors in a tray along its bottom, whatever you work with, instead of floating. Panes with nothing of the kind to set, such as Image, have no display settings there. Each pane keeps its own, so changing one pane’s grid leaves the others alone.

Link colours

Available on every platform.

Panes of the same link colour stay in step. Choose a colour from the link dot on each pane’s bar: Blue, Green, Orange or Purple, or Not Linked.

Panes of one colour share:

• The time shown. Scroll or zoom one Editor, Arranger, Score or Chart pane and the others of its colour follow. While the song plays, the pane of each colour you focused last follows the playhead, and the others keep up with it.
• The caret. Move it in one and it moves in the others.
• The tracks shown. Editor, Arranger and Mixer panes, and a Score showing the working score, show the same tracks.
• What you pick. A clip picked in an Arranger brings its track into view in the Editor panes of its colour. A Sound pane follows the track the caret is on, and picking a channel in it moves the caret there.

Panes with no time or tracks of their own, such as the Transport, Playlist, Score Setup, Inspector and Audio & MIDI panes, have no link dot.

To keep two views of the song apart (one Editor on the verse while another plays the chorus), give them different colours, or leave one unlinked.

Links are saved with the song’s panes, and with a workspace. They work across a song’s windows too.