3. Writing tab

Step length and the grid

Two settings decide the timing of what you write. The step length is the length of a note you type and how far the arrows move the caret. The grid is where the caret lands when you click, and where notes land when you drag them.

Step length

Available on every platform.

The step length is the song’s: every pane of the song uses the same one, and the Score’s note input does too. A new song starts with eighth notes.

Choose a step

• From the menu: Step Length, in the View menuthe View menu or the tools tray › Keypad (the phone page). The choices are Whole, Half, Quarter, Eighth, 16th, 32nd and 64th.
• From the keyboard: ⌘1–⌘7Ctrl+1–Ctrl+7Ctrl+1–Ctrl+7 (⌘1–⌘7 on a Mac). The higher the number, the longer the step: 1 is a 64th, 5 a quarter, 7 a whole.
  - From the pane’s corner: an Editor pane’s top-left corner, over the start of the ruler, shows the step as a chip, ♪ 1/8 (“1/8.” dotted, “1/8T” a triplet). Click it for the lengths, Dotted and Triplet; while the grid follows the step, the same menu has the grid’s choices and Snap to Grid. On a tablet worked by touch, the chip moves into the Keypad’s header in the tools tray (♪ ⅛), and its menu always has the grid’s choices and Snap to Grid; with the tray put away it’s back in the corner.

Dotted and triplet

Dotted step (.) makes the step half as long again (a dotted eighth is three sixteenths). Triplet step (T) makes it two thirds as long, three in the time of two. A step is dotted or a triplet, never both: turning one on turns the other off. Press the key again to turn it off. The Step Length menu has Dotted and Triplet as well.

In the Editor, A rest (,) writes a rest: the step at the caret left silent (a note there goes), the caret moves on. Tie (J) ties: the notes ending at the caret are held a step longer, the caret moves on. By touch, the Keypad has Rest and ‿ Tie.

Writing while the song plays

The step’s chip also chooses where notes go while the song plays: Write at the Caret (as when stopped) or Write at the Playhead While Playing. At the playhead, a fret you type, a note you play on a MIDI instrument or tap on the Instrument goes in where the playhead is, on the grid, a step long; the caret stays put. With a loop on, each pass adds to the last and is one undo step. The chip reads ♪ 1/8 ▸ in brass while it does. Stopped, notes go in at the caret either way. Each pane keeps its own choice; new panes start from Settings › Editing. More in Step input.

To change the length of notes already written, select them and drag the right edge of one of them, or use the note inspector.

The grid and snapping

Available on every platform.

The grid belongs to the pane: two Editor panes can have different grids. Its lines count from each barline, so a bar in 7/8 has its own grid and an odd meter never drifts.

Grid choices

Choose them from Grid, in the View menu or the pane’s ⚙ menu.

• Step Length follows the step length, so the grid and the arrows agree. This is where a new pane starts.
• Adaptive follows the zoom: the finest straight division that is still wide enough to aim at.
• Bar snaps to barlines.
• 1/2 to 1/64, and the triplet grids 1/4T to 1/32T.

Snapping

With Snap to Grid (⌘G)Snap to Grid (Ctrl+G)Snap to Grid (Ctrl+G (⌘G on a Mac)) on, a click in a lane puts the caret on the grid line at or before it, and dragging a note moves it, or its end, by whole grid steps. Turn it off to place and drag notes freely.

For new songs and panes